Macintosh Hardware Support

(written by Joe Pranevich; updated by David Kilzer)

Currently, development on the port is going along nicely. The latest 2.0 kernel is 2.0.33pl1, which contains enough drivers for a "production" machine on some systems. The latest 2.1 kernel is 2.1.105, which includes Mac IDE support and some Quadra SCSI support.

Currently "supported" machines are listed on http://www.mac.linux-m68k.org/. Most 68030 and 68040 Macs with an FPU will boot to the login prompt using a RAM disk. FPU-less Macs will hang at some point during the boot process.

The following Macintoshes have the "right" processor built-in: all "Classic" Macs (except as noted below), all "II" Macs (the original Mac II requires a 68851 PMMU), all "LC" Macs (except as noted below), all Performas, all Centris and Quadras, and all Powerbooks/Duos (except as noted below). "Classic" Mac exceptions include the original Macintosh (128k), 512k, 512ke, XL, Plus, SE, SE FDHD, and the original Mac Classic (all of which use 68000 processors). Powerbook exceptions include the Portable and the Powerbook 100 (both use a 16 MHz 68HC000). The only "LC" Mac exception is the original 68020-based Mac LC, which lacks a PMMU slot, though a hardware hack and third-party processor upgrades are available. See the section called Processor for a comprehensive list of supported CPU/MMU/FPU combinations.

As for drivers, we have NCR5380 and NCR53c9[46] SCSI, Mac IDE, NS8390 (Daynaport) Ethernet, NuBus, ADB (Mac-II, IIsi and CUDA styles) for keyboard and mouse (also used by some NeXTs), video (most of Apple's video boards, except RBV--RAM-based video--boards), and probably some other goodies. We also have a working installer and booter (Penguin).

Updates, as always, on http://www.mac.linux-m68k.org/.