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IdentityTool Preview Release [OS X]

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iMic:
IdentityTool Pre-Release


After 48 hours in development and 24 hours of intense testing across as many machines as I could find, IdentityTool is ready for a limited release. This Pre-Release version of the software is being made available to members of ThinkClassic and MacOS9Lives.


What Does It Do?

IdentityTool is a simple application that allows you to switch the model and series identifiers of your Mac with those of another machine.

On launching the software, it automatically detects the current model identifier of your Mac and what MacRISC properties are currently set, presenting them in a clean and simple interface. From there you can manipulate them to your will, selecting another Macintosh model from a list and enabling or disabling MacRISC properties to create your ideal configuration. Click Apply, enter a password and the software takes care of the rest.

IdentityTool is derived from the same source code as LeopardAssist 3, with its proven history of stability and reliability when interfacing with Open Firmware.


What Is It For?

Some possible use scenarios for this software include using it on a Panther system to allow the installation of Tiger on machines that are otherwise unsupported, enabling MacRISC2 to allow a newer Mac to format a hard disk with OS 9 disk drivers in Disk Utility, or changing the model identifier to that of an older machine to allow a newer Mac to boot into Mac OS 9.


Download (1.7MB) https://app.box.com/s/ukxg5qb5gc8ks62wrxa0


The application has been tested on Mac OS X Panther and Tiger on several machines, including an iMac G4, Power Macintosh G4 (QuickSilver) and a PowerBook G3 (Pismo). That said, as it is pre-release software, it is recommended that you test it on non-mission critical systems first.

As is expected, making overly drastic changes can result in an inability to boot into Mac OS as the operating system loads drivers based on machine identifiers and platforms. Changing a PowerBook G3 to use the identifiers of a Power Macintosh G5 with MacRISC4 is unlikely to result in a bootable system. If this occurs, normally a PRAM reset is sufficient to restore the machine to working order. In addition, you can force a reset from Open Firmware. Hold Command + Option + O + F on startup and enter the following, making sure to press return after each line:


--- Code: ---reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all
--- End code ---


Icon




Screenshots











Cheers,

iMic.

supernova777:
nice work..
when are u making the os9 version? LOL  ;D

iMic:
IdentityTool, like LeopardAssist, calls into some of the commands provided in OS X's BSD subsystem. It makes it almost impossible to port it over to Mac OS 9. I'm also not aware of a way to interface directly with the NVRAM from within an OS 9 system. It may have been documented somewhere but I wouldn't expect it to be a simple task.

Since most of the use of IdentityTool is to enable the formatting of volumes and the startup of Mac OS 9 on computers that would be consider Mac OS X only, it makes sense to start the process with a utility in Mac OS X since it's the native operating system for those models. If you're installing OS 9 to a completely blank drive with no previous Mac OS X install, then using the modified ROM or entering the OF commands manually is likely a better option.

DieHard:
Can we get any takers to a make a Bootable OSX DVD that contains the Utility ?

That way pure OS 9 users will have access to this neat Utility ?

Custos:
Would this work on a PPC g5 to boot os9? I would love to see what os9 could do on my single core g5. with the architecture being so different it would seem that it would have many issues even if it did boot.

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