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Old Computer Challenge

Feb 22, 2023

I decided to install OpenBSD on the iMac so that I could connect to the web, send e-mail, and post on Mastodon easily. Mac OS 9 is old enough that it can't do the same thing out of the box. Plus, I think installing a modern OS on this thing was also pretty appealing to me.

It was surprisingly straightforward and not much different from the experience of installing OpenBSD on other computers. I guess the biggest thing is that the iMac boots from an actual CD instead of a USB stick! Wild. I burned a CD with the installer in it, inserted it into the iMac while holding the option key, then ran the installer. I really hope I still have the option of reverting it back to Mac OS 9 one day!

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble with running graphical programs on this thing. I got X11 running, but the windows for Netsurf and Claws Mail are all empty. Perhaps it's an issue with the GTK toolkit? I couldn't tell. So for this computer challenge it looks like I'm stuck with a text interface. It's a little daunting, but I know there's a lot that you can do in the terminal. Fingers crossed!

I got to set up the app called Toot which is a Mastodon client. I can read posts and follow threads, but I haven't tried posting yet. I also got to set up the Alpine mail client which is working pretty well with my account on Fastmail. I can't get it to save my password though so that's annoying. I'm also using Lynx to browse the web which is really useful when you need to look up copy-pasting from inside Tmux.

Finally, I'm writing the process here by connecting to rawtext.club. Stay tuned!

Feb 23, 2023

Feb 24, 2023

Feb 26, 2023

hi@jagtalon.com