lets not get offtopic
we need a few good minds on this and we can crack it
where focus needs to be put :
how to save the firmware of an existing os9 bootable version imac g4 to a filethere was talk on this thread about getting 8.6 on a sawtooth about using the utility from a 3rd party cpu
that had the ability to save the original firmware because the 3rd party cpu needed to patch or write a modified firmware to properly support the 3rd party cpu
For example, in a discussion on the apple support forums I found a Sawtooth owner who had a corrupt boot rom who wanted to reflash it with a fresh copy of the firmware. He stated that Sonnet sent him a utility he called the G4 ROM Utility that had the ability to both save a copy of the boot rom and reflash it -- (https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/5527-macos-86-on-sawtooth-g4/page-2)
dont get confused this thread above was about getting a working 8.6 mac os install on a sawtooth.. these guys were trying to hack it because they didnt have the cd,.. and the one guy almeath who did have the cd, he had the wrong type of mac.. he thought it was a sawtooth but it was a 4pci slot gigabit ethernet model.. ccmac was talking about reverting the firmware but it turned out this was not neccessary all tht was neccessary to boot 8.6 on the sawtooth was having the original cd which contained the 2.5.1 rom - but the comments he said about saving out a copy of the firmware are whats relevant to this thread and also his comments about this guy, pareis + his openfirmware abilities.. he wrote a script to flash firmware of a mac directly from mac os x called "fwupdater"
http://pareis.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/running-firmware-updaters-from-mac-os-x/ AHA! here is his blog:
http://4thcode.blogspot.ca/ see ?? FORTH CODE.. hes made it "4th" but macforth is the name of the languae of openfirmware...
hence the nam,e of this guys blog. 4th code.. forth code.
maybe this is the thread?
There is a utility called PM G4 ROM UTILITY (the guys from SONNET sent it to me) what can read out & write a G4 firmware. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/536041?start=0&tstart=0
WE NEED THIS THING TO USE TO SAVE FIRMWARE FROM OS9 BOOTABLE MACS AND WE ARE HOME FREE! but thats just one way, there should be a way to do this RAW in the openfirmware itself if you are skilled with programming + writing openfirmware's own language .
which is the forth language i think another key diffference between the structure of this language and most other languages
as i pointed out on the other downgrade mdd g4 thread was the structure of writing commands in this language is backwards from normal languages
we are used to [command] [values] [switches]
and this language's structure, as illusrtated in the above quote...
is set up like this: [values] [command]
totally backward http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=762.msg4676#msg4676
in order to save a mac os 9 bootable firmware we need someone who has one of these os9 bootable imac g4s..
and who has the intelligence to figure out how to save the firmware to a file
in openfirmware or using a 3rd party utility to do the work instead
so there is two ways to proceed
1) find the pm g4 rom utility from sonnet or another similiar utility from a 3rd party cpu and use it on a os9 bootable imac g4 + save the firmware to a file to copy to the other models
2) figure out how to save the firmware using scripting RAW from openfirmware "by hand"
or 3) we find pareis and ask him for his help to accomplish this task
or 4) we find another skilled forth programmer to assist in saving the firmware to a file
