| 1 |
On Sunday 26 June 2005 22:08, Colin wrote: |
| 2 |
> I've been thinking about creating a MythTV server. I've got two Power |
| 3 |
> Mac 8500's and a PowerCenter 180 (low-profile) lying around that I'm not |
| 4 |
> using, but the add-in cards are PC-only (an IDE card and a TV tuner). |
| 5 |
> |
| 6 |
> The Mac OS doesn't detect the ATA card, never tried the TV tuner. When |
| 7 |
> Gentoo boots, would it detect the cards when the PCI bus gets coldplugged? |
| 8 |
|
| 9 |
The TV tuner should work as long as it's supported by a Linux driver. The IDE |
| 10 |
card might be another issue. Normally they come with an x86 BIOS that needs |
| 11 |
to be executed on boot so the card is initialized properly before Linux |
| 12 |
drivers takes over. On the Pegasos for instance there is an x86 emulator in |
| 13 |
the firmware that can initialize cards with an x86 BIOS, Apple does not have |
| 14 |
this feature. |
| 15 |
I'm not saying that it's not going to work but afaik it won't work in a Mac |
| 16 |
for the reason given above. You should get a card with an FMOD driver (a |
| 17 |
driver that runs in open firmware) a.k.a. a card made for Mac. One made for |
| 18 |
Sun/SPARC or any other platform which uses Open Firmware should work too. |
| 19 |
It's too bad x86 has to live 30 years in the past and rely on stupid |
| 20 |
architecture-dependant BIOS:es. If they were using Open Firmware like the |
| 21 |
modern computer world all cards would be virtually platform independent. |
| 22 |
|
| 23 |
//David Holm |
Archives