If you don't get much of a response here on VOGONS, check out the IBM (non-PC) section of the Vintage Computer Federation forums here:
https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?forums/ibm-non-pc.1230011/

I see posts related to the RS/6000 right on the first page there.

There may be some here with such hardware, but probably not too many since this is mainly a PC gaming related community.

Check out T2 linux. They have a current build for that model and I think there is also a recent video on goggle about it.

Is yours like this one:?

http://t2linux.com/hardware/desktop/IBM/7043-150/

Feliksas wrote on 2026-02-04, 12:04:

IBM RS/6000 the 43p 7043-140 I could not determine whether it is a PReP or a CHRP machine

GIYF and it's PReP, I am looking for one as I wish to have a faster PowerPC to run NT 4.00 SP2 on, how fast is it?

red-ray wrote on 2026-02-04, 19:07:

GIYF and it's PReP, I am looking for one as I wish to have a faster PowerPC to run NT 4.00 SP2 on, how fast is it?

Well, I've also found a couple posts here and there claiming it's PReP, but that isn't easily verifiable, especially given that this machine came out right during the rise of CHRP era, and IBM didn't make it any easier by putting very different machines under the same series designation, gah. In terms of how fast it is...well, I would need some baseline to compare to. Mine has the 332MHz 604e, I have only run AIX on it so far, and have its RAM slots fully populated up to maximum 768MB - the RAM test on bootup takes ages, boot times from a BlueSCSI are, well...not fast, but pretty okay for the time, I guess. AIX 4.3 feels relatively okay on it, but I heard that 5.1 would be running really slow, not sure how WinNT will do - I haven't had any luck booting it yet - ostensibly, the Matrox 220 GPU might be the culprit.

Feliksas wrote on 2026-02-05, 09:24:

Well, I've also found a couple posts here and there claiming it's PReP, but that isn't easily verifiable
Mine has the 332MHz 604e
the Matrox 220 GPU might be the culprit.

Yes it is, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjXZh-a9WZE and yes, getting the right GPU is the trick to getting NT4 working, a Weitek Power P9100 Viper would be ideal.

As for speed I would love to have 332 MHz 604e, my 133 MHz 604 takes getting on got an hour to compile SIV32P, where did you get it from and are there any others please?

NT4 PPC is also fussy about Ethernet cards, I use a Digital DE500-AA Fast EtherWORKS PCI 10/100 Adapter

If you ever do get NT 4.00 SP2 working I would like yo know how SIV does.

red-ray wrote on 2026-02-05, 10:41:

As for speed I would love to have 332 MHz 604e, my 133 MHz 604 takes getting on got an hour to compile SIV32P, where did you get it from and are there any others please?

Oh, well, the way I got this machine was kinda random - I have a local guy who deals in old hardware, and he periodically sends me some items that could be of interest to me, and when I saw this machine with a PowerPC logo on it (I didn't even know at the time, that it was an IBM workstation) - I knew I had to get it, especially given that the guy was asking meager 70 euros for it. The 332MHz CPU came with it, not sure if it was an upgrade or not - more on that later, but there is a printed sticker on the machine saying "604e 332 MHz", so at least that was an official upgrade. The machine came with 3 SCSI hard drives and absolutely no RAM, which I had to source separately. Also, the mouse port was demolished by what looks like to be excessive force when plugging the mouse in, so I had to solder in a new one, as well.

As to why I couldn't immediately tell that it was an IBM machine - well, first of all, it was my first time hearing about RS/6000 series, and also it doesn't have a single IBM logo on it. It looks like to be a customized (rebranded?) workstation for some kind of professional printing, as I could gather - it has Scitex Brisque branding on the faceplate, and also came with some kind of specialized PCI optical interface card, and some very specific image editing software installed on it.

This is what it looks like, by the way:

That looks like one of the clones, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RS/6000#:~: … ies%20in%202000.

Thinking about a faster CPU then looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_600#PowerPC_604e then I suspect you have a 604ev so think 400 MHz is as fast was would be relatively easily doable if you can find one, 375 MHz is more likely. I feel neither of which are a big enough increase over 332 Mhz to be worth the effort.

There were two similar system boards with a ZIF socket that has the same pinout as used on the contemporary apple models. One had 6 RAM sockets and a COAST (67MHZ?), and the other 4 RAM sockets and soldered cache (75MHz?). I remember reading about people removing the COAST and installing a G3 CPU (with its own cache) in these machines. The CPU module is supposed to tell the VRM what voltage to supply, but I don't remember if this needed tweaks. Aftermarket upgrades were available up to around 1GHz, like this one:

Unknown PowerPC Processor

The linux limitation may be related to how large a kernel can be loaded with that version of open firmware. I think T2 uses a multi-stage boot to get around this.

red-ray wrote on 2026-02-05, 13:13:

That looks like one of the clones, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RS/6000#:~: … ies%20in%202000.

More like a rebrand, since besides the different sticker on the faceplate, it is a genuine 43p 7043-140 - the motherboard is definitely original, and it conforms to one of the stock configurations from IBM (even down to the hard drive part number), besides, obviously, a top-of-the-line CPU for this model (at least, officially), the aforementioned proprietary optical interface card, and Matrox Mystique 22o for the GPU.

nickles rust wrote on 2026-02-05, 14:37:

There were two similar system boards with a ZIF socket that has the same pinout as used on the contemporary apple models. One had 6 RAM sockets and a COAST (67MHZ?), and the other 4 RAM sockets and soldered cache (75MHz?).

Yeah, the one with the 6 RAM sockets and a COAST is model 140, which I have, and the one with 4 RAM slots is model 150. The latter is noticeably different from the former, since it uses different RAM, and is CHRP-based instead of PReP

nickles rust wrote on 2026-02-05, 14:37:

The linux limitation may be related to how large a kernel can be loaded with that version of open firmware. I think T2 uses a multi-stage boot to get around this.

Hmm, that's something to take into account, although there seem to be some success stories floating around, so it's probably the matter of choosing/building the right kernel.

Feliksas wrote on 2026-02-05, 11:20:

This is what it looks like, by the way:

I've got two machines similar or equal to the one you have but know not enough about them to even get any OS installed on them.
One of the machines is working, kinda, it boots and then i'm stuck at a login. If I turn it off and then on again it has a tendency not to boot again until it's been off for a longer time.
I did have to replace a lot of capacitors in the power supply due to them being bloated.
If I'm not mistaken then it's the exact same model nr as you have. 7043_Series_43P_Model_140_-_240_Fact_Sheet.PDF
The other machine I haven't tried yet because it did not have any video card, just two serial cards.

Did you easily find the information to get another OS running on the machine ?

edit: looking at the wiki, I gather I have two 43p-140 systems, given that the 240 system seems to have a 64bit pci slot which mine do not have. and one system is a 166, the other is 233

Feliksas wrote on 2026-02-05, 14:47:

red-ray wrote on 2026-02-05, 13:13:

That looks like one of the clones, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RS/6000#:~: … ies%20in%202000.

More like a rebrand, since besides the different sticker on the faceplate, it is a genuine 43p 7043-140 - the motherboard is definitely original, and it conforms to one of the stock configurations from IBM (even down to the hard drive part number), besides, obviously, a top-of-the-line CPU for this model (at least, officially), the aforementioned proprietary optical interface card, and Matrox Mystique 22o for the GPU.

100%, the 7043 -140 and -150 were relatively commonly rebranded for various uses, often RIPs (like your Scitex).

I run AIX 5.1 on my 7043-150 and it is decently zippy. Fragmentation on the SD card can make a big difference and is the first place to check if you are chugging. I'm not as familiar with the -140, it supports 5.1 and should be zippy enough.

Re: windows, I assume you've seen this:

https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/08/30/windows-n … on-ibm-rs-6000/

Never had IBM RS/6000 machines physically, but built firmware and improved PReP emulation in QEMU to run AIX 4.2-5.1. While doing that experimented with Linux and NetBSD a lot.

What I remember that to boot Linux I needed floppy. At least for 40p there were no bootable CDs. Also the last Debian which supported PReP was Woody, I think. NetBSD supported it longer, but there were some breakages in between, I remember submitting bug reports.

Have you tried booting from a floppy? I remember they were hard to find, but I definitely have ones for Yellow Dog Linux and maybe Debian. Can share them.

atar wrote on 2026-02-06, 10:27:

Never had IBM RS/6000 machines physically, but built firmware and improved PReP emulation in QEMU to run AIX 4.2-5.1. While doing that experimented with Linux and NetBSD a lot.

What I remember that to boot Linux I needed floppy. At least for 40p there were no bootable CDs. Also the last Debian which supported PReP was Woody, I think. NetBSD supported it longer, but there were some breakages in between, I remember submitting bug reports.

Have you tried booting from a floppy? I remember they were hard to find, but I definitely have ones for Yellow Dog Linux and maybe Debian. Can share them.

Yeah, we actually had a brief e-mail conversation about that, I was asking you about the details of OpenFirmware boot process 😀 I think so far I tried booting from CD (Debian 4.0rX), SCSI HDD with PReP partition, also tried WinNT floppies (but I don't have a supported GPU yet), and over the network - but it seems the RIPL boot mechanism requires a specifically crafted ELF with certain headers. Don't think I tried Linux boot floppies yet, would be great if you could share the images.

Your machine is listed here as working:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010422111245/ht … c_machines.html

-Supported by SuSE […]
Show full quote

-Supported by SuSE

RS/6000 43P Model 133
RS/6000 B50
RS/6000 150
RS/6000 170
RS/6000 260
RS/6000 270
RS/6000 B80 / pSeries 640

- Use of SuSE Linux possible
IBM ThinkPad 850 (Kernel 2.2.16 and newer)
RS/6000 F50
RS/6000 43P Model 140 (special Kernel in 7.1-ppc CD1/unsorted/prep)
RS/6000 43P Model 100/120 (with Kernel 2.2.18)

- Status unknown or not supported
RS/6000 200, 220, 230, 250
RS/6000 H70, F80, S70, S80, SP (all with Power3 or RS64II)
RS/6000 F40, H50
all other RS/6000 not mentioned here.
Have a look at the mailinglist archive at http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Note that all IBM machines require kernel version 2.4 and later.
2.2.16 works on B50 and F50.

Found a newer page, it says it's compatible with SuSe 7.3:
https://tr.opensuse.org/SDB:PPC:_Which_PowerP … d_by_SuSE_Linux

Feliksas wrote on 2026-02-06, 11:00:

Yeah, we actually had a brief e-mail conversation about that, I was asking you about the details of OpenFirmware boot process 😀 I think so far I tried booting from CD (Debian 4.0rX), SCSI HDD with PReP partition, also tried WinNT floppies (but I don't have a supported GPU yet), and over the network - but it seems the RIPL boot mechanism requires a specifically crafted ELF with certain headers. Don't think I tried Linux boot floppies yet, would be great if you could share the images.

Oh, the World is small. 😀 The PReP world is even smaller. If the machine is really PReP I'm not surprised you can not boot from a Debian 4 CD. I think this was only possible on CHRP machines. What VGA do you have? Do you have a serial line terminal?

From the SuSe 7.1 manual from my previous post:

Note that I don't have a RS/6000 but I do have an interest in PPC Linux.