Has anyone tried this one yet?

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/eServer/

I've got my system torn apart and am about to do the wiring tonight...

cross your fingers and pray I don't die.


The page is slightly lacking in info. I've wrote the guy via E-mail and Youtube, but have not received a response. I'm assuming that I just twist all the cables that are supposed to be GROUND together and Connect them to the ATX Hard Drive Power Out's Ground(s)?

Lego-block case FTW! :)

That's the goal. Power adored built and tested. CDROM powered up, CPU warmed up.

Next step is to build video adapter and see if this will still boot.

Working, pics soon to come, though I need to find a monitor that supports higher frequencies.

So, are you going for the external monitor or placing an LCD inside the original case?

Lego case. I want to hide the fact that I'm using an Apple product. ;)

I have upload photos here, but have ran into a problem (as hinted above).

http://www.amiga.org/forums/album.php?albumid=146

Here's the deal. I built my power and VGA adapter, but according to the guide it states:

"Most monitors cannot support refresh frequencies that eMac screen uses (like 115Hz) so it is important to get prepared for possible screen lockout."

So I was thinking,"hey this is no problem, MorphOS is already configured to use a lower frequency so I should be good, and when I have to boot off the CD, again no worries because I'll be booting in MorphOS".

Well those thoughts didn't carry me very far. First off, the drive I had been using in my MorphOS machine was dying and kept spitting up errors of not being able to read this section of the drive, this partition, and so on and so forth.
Upon trying to boot from that drive, it began to spit out various drive errors, once of which stated that it could not locate the partition with MorphOS installed to it, as a result it ended up booting off the CD instead.

Well I was perfectly fine with that, and decided that I'd try to reformat the drive just to see if perhaps that would resolve the issues I was having. Sadly, this resulted in a system lock up so I ended up shutting down and put in a fresh new drive instead and set it to Cable Select just like the drive I took out had been.

Upon rebooting, it spun up the MorphOS disc and I could hear it search the drive for some boot information, but upon not finding it...

...it came to the screen that told me that it was "Out of Range 71.8KHz/89Hz".

And at that screen it stays, regardless if I hold down C after the boot chime or if I just let it boot and go on it's own.

So...

Now I'm wondering why in the hell MorphOS does not want to boot from the CD. Everything is as it should be. I even tried to set the Hard drive to Master only and Slave, but to no avail.
Unless I can find a monitor that don't suck, I'm without an eMac, and that is where my story ends...

again without logic because MorphOS SHOULD BOOT and save the day, but it just will not. :(

Anyone think this monitor would be able to display Macs esoteric screen modes?

http://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-VX2268WM-3D-Ready-1680x1050-Resolution/dp/B002L27KQC

It says it is 120 Hz...

Though the price is high because of that 3D crap. :/

Before you decided to mess with the internal monitor setup, did you hook up a monitor to the mini display port? That port will handle external monitors in mirror mode unless you hacked the system to allow it to be a duel monitor unit. You might be able to avoid the problems of customizing that video output on the mother board . . . Just a thought . .

Ya, the Mini VGA port is of no use during Boot time, and it is not supported by MorphOS, so no go there...

If only MorphOS would just boot off the freaking CD like it is supposed to, then all this would be instantly resolved. This makes ZERO sense.

120Hz LCD monitors need DualDVI to display 120Hz modes.

[ Edited by Korni 06.11.2011 - 22:27 ]

I don't understand that statement.

Why would a monitor have two input ports and how would that effect it's frequency?

Or am I misunderstanding something?

Also, would an old external CRT monitor resolve my issues, say one built by Apple themselves?

Or, would I be able to format and install MorphOS on a hard drive on a Power Mac G4, then take that drive, put it in my eMac and boot off it? I'd think this should work, but don't have an extra Mac to test that theory...

...then again my MorphOS CD should just boot. :/

Do you have access to the open firmware console? If so try to boot off a network resource (I think Apple's OF should support that).

As it stands, with out the MorphOS Cd booting, I can only boot to a part that tells my monitor it is not connected. Then some time after the beep, I get the screen that states:

OUT OF RANGE 71.8KHz/89Hz

And it stays there.

This is at about the point that the system SHOULD be booting off the CD, so I imagine the Mac is sitting at a console or the screen where it shows the icon telling me the hard drive does not have a bootable OS on it, but alas, I can't see it.

XDelusion,
Quote:
I think Korni was referring to a dual link DVI cable that is required for high data throuput. But I doubt that solves your issues, since I guess you connect VGA and no digital data. I doubt that TFTs can handle that.
If network installation doesn't work try to get a CRT (attic, dumpster,#?) and connect it by VGA. Many CRTs should be able to handle 120Hz.

That's what I was wondering, is if an old CRT would do the trick. I know Apple used to make them so maybe perhaps one of there old ones could work with their own hardware...

Otherwise, I see there are at least two other MorphOS users in Ohio, maybe one of them has a Mac and would be willing to install the demo onto a Hard Drive for me then mail it back to me.

I believe this option should work as well, but...

...why in the world will MorphOS ONLY boot off CD when a drive with a premade boot sector is installed and not when a fresh new drive is intalled?

Before I had taken the beheaded the eMac before I was able to put in a new drive and install to it...

...why not now? My Monitor's resolution should not be effected by the Screen mode that MorphOS' installer expects.

Also for the note, I am not trying to put OS X back onto this machine, so a network install would be of no use anyhow.

I meant a network install of MorphOS not OS X (who's needing that anyway?). Never did it myself, but AFAIK you can boot MorphOS from a network resource (e.g. the MorphOS CD on another computer of your local network).

Really? I didn't realize this...

Problem is that I assume I'd have to boot it from another Mac which I do not have, and if I did have another Mac, I'd prolly just install it to the drive then transfer the drive to my eMac from there, unless installing over the network could be done from within a virtual machine inside Windows or something...

Should work from any TFTP network resource . But I don't know the details. Iam sure others do (and will share their knowledge here).

I'm thinking that if no one drops in an explains to me why the MorphOS CD only seems to want to boot when a drive is present that already had the boot partition installed....

That I'm either going to hunt down an old compatible external monitor so I can see what's happening. or I'm going to buy a Power Mac G4, install MorphOS onto my drive with it, then transfer the drive to my eMac.

If all this fails, then I'll transfer my MorphOS license to the Power Mac G4. If it does work, well then I kinda wanted a second MorphOS machine around the house anyhow. :)

Sorry, I don't have the answer for you . . . Have you checked the forums at applefritter. . .

That's an idea...

hit up the Mac community. Who would know the hardware better than them? :)

Not working C key in your keyboard, maybe.

Can you access the OF by pressing and holding Command + Option + O + F keys after you hear the chime sound? If so can you access the CD drive from there?

If I recall correctly, doing that brings you to a screen where you have to either type something, or click on the device you want to boot from...


Either way, without a monitor that can handle the Mac's strange video modes, I would not be able to see it.

If they haven't done something really uncommon at Apple the Openfirmware should use some standard vesa gfx modes. Any connected monitor should handle that.