AWACS 6500 driver
-----------------

The Power Macintosh 6500, and the related 5500 and Twentieth Anniversary
Macintosh, are all based on the Gazelle logic board which is officially
"Unsupported but Compatible" in BeOS 5.0.3. Early 5500 and 6500 systems seem
to work fine in the BeOS, but later 5500s, 6500s and TAMs with upgraded SRS
audio will not generate output on the internal speaker (headphones work).
This driver fixes that.

You DO NOT NEED this driver if your Gazelle Power Mac plays audio fine
over the internal speaker, or you're fine with just using headphones.

This driver is NOT TESTED on other Power Macs. If you have similar audio
issues, feel free to try it, but don't blame me if you lock up your system
or your file system poops its pants or your dog dies or anything else.

Questions may go to me, Cameron Kaiser, at [email protected], but THERE
IS NO SUPPORT FOR THIS DRIVER. THERE MAY NEVER BE A FIX FOR YOUR ISSUE.
THERE IS NO WARRANTY, NOT EVEN AN IMPLIED WARRANTY, OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU USE THIS DRIVER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Requirements
------------
1. BeOS 5.0 or better, preferably 5.0.3
2. Audio in MacOS. If your audio is already bad in MacOS, then you most
likely have a hardware problem, and this driver WON'T fix that.
3. Audio on your headphones in the BeOS. If you don't get audio even with
headphones plugged in, or Media Player won't play files, this driver WON'T
fix that. (You may still need this driver eventually.)

It is recommended you have an emergency boot BeOS partition in case
something(tm) goes wrong(tm) with your installation so you can reverse it.

How to install
--------------
(new awacs) is the path to the folder you have the 6500 driver in, which
is probably where this text file is stored.

cd /boot/beos/system/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin
mv awacs awacs.OLD
mv awacs.xMAP awacs.xMAP.OLD
cp (new awacs)/awacs (new awacs)/awacs.xMAP .

Make sure Real-Time Audio is OFF in the Media Preferences. If you don't,
audio quality is badly degraded. Don't ask me why.

Next, reboot into MacOS. Go to the Monitors & Sound control panel and turn
SRS 3D audio OFF. If you don't, audio quality is moderately degraded.

Now, reboot into the BeOS and marvel at the BeStartup sound and curse at the
fact you hear beeps now.

How to uninstall
----------------
Put back the *.OLD files in /boot/beos/system/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin and
reboot.

Known issues
------------
BeOS audio on Power Macs can be scratchy. This is sometimes helped by
restarting the Media Server or the BeOS until the audio is smoother.
If the pops are really bad, *make sure* SRS audio is off in the MacOS and
Real-Time Audio is off in the BeOS.

Legal notice
------------
This is a hacked version of a BeOS system driver. It is issued without the
permission of ACCESS Co., Ltd., the current owners of the intellectual
property of the former Be, Inc. and the Be Operating System, who retain any
residual unexpired copyright, trademarks and patents upon it. This driver is
offered in binary format only and its public availability in no way implies
the tacit, implicit or explicit approval of ACCESS Co., Ltd. of its use or
distribution. Your use of this driver accepts all potential legal
eventualities for doing so, however remote or unlikely, and that THERE
IS NO WARRANTY, NOT EVEN AN IMPLIED WARRANTY, OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU USE THIS DRIVER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Cameron Kaiser
[email protected]
December 2022

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