Booting Mac Os 9 on 1 Ghz 17" Powerbook G4 a "preliminary study"

[mrhappy]

So I fired it up with the fancy OS9 Unsupported disc from ext USB! Was able to change screen resolution around and DVD drive is able to transfer files but couldn't get it to play a movie or audio CD.

Was using a bare 640GB 2.5" through a 'universal drive adapter'...
'Drive Set Up' wouldn't recognize it so I wound up partitioning it on a G4 500DP with 'Silver Lining Pro 6.4.9(?) into 5 partitions...

Installed the Unsupported OS to a partition on the 640 while still plugged into the 500DP... It took 3-4 tries before it made it all the way!

After successful OS9 installation I plugged the whole 640/universal drive adapter mess into to the PowerBook and started (holding down option key)... selected the 'new' OS9 drive and it fired right up! YEEHAA!!!!!

Didn't get a chance to do much testing yet but I'll report back after I put the OS9 drive into the PowerBook. 

[devils_advisor]

well done

[mrhappy]

Shortly after I posted I started thinking about swapping drives in the PB... then I realized...Duh!?!... the 640GB drive was SATA!... anyway the only 2.5" IDE drive that I had on the shelf was known to be somewhat 'squirrely'... gave it a shot... popped it into a portable firewire box and installed 'Unsupported OS9' the same way. Seemed to go easier this time, however at clicking 'OK' at the 'Installation successful' message, I got a system bomb! 

Plugged the Firewire drive into the PB and "option" started with the OS9 firewire and it worked again, booting the PB into OS9. Weird thing was that I had no 'top row' menus ... just the 'OS9 Lives' icon, the OS X drive icon and the trash bucket! Changed the screen resolution and restarted, after which I had all the menus back.

Dismantled the PB and installed the OS9 drive but only got the 'blinking ?'... took it back apart and reseated everything but got the same result.

Wound up putting the OS X drive back in the PB just to make sure that it still worked and that fired right up.

Sooo... I'm thinking I need to try again with a fresh drive. I'll put the 'flakey' OS 9 drive back into the firewire box and see if it still boots the PB.

 

[supernova777]

watch out for those squirelly drives 

[mrhappy]

Yeah, they get you every time!! Well at least I got a lot of practice taking the PB apart!!

[MacTron]

The dream machine for OS9 would be: Apple PowerBook G4 1.0 17" (Al) Specs
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.0_17.html

But we need someone to test the unsupported OS 9.2.2 setup, this may be a real possibility sice we have a G4 7455 in this baby, and the NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go may use the 4600 TI driver; Mactron may be able to guess this one out a little better

Yes, being a 7455 the main CPU, simplifies a bit some things.

As we can see into the block diagram everything is placed around the Intrepid IC:



This IC is usually supported by Mac Os 9.

The video chip is a NV17 (NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go). In order to have full video capabilities enabled, we have to find out if this chip is supported in Mac Os 9.

This video chip is also used in this video cards:
GeForce4 410 Go 16M [NV17],
GeForce4 420 Go [NV17]
GeForce4 420 Go 32M [NV17]
GeForce4 440 Go [NV17]
GeForce4 440 Go 64M [NV17]
GeForce4 460 Go [NV17]
GeForce4 MX 420 [NV17]
GeForce4 MX 440SE [NV17]
GeForce4 MX 460 [NV17]

[mrhappy]

MacTron I have that machine and DID have the 'Unsupported' 9.2.2 running on it, booted from external FW drive. I just received a SSD that I'm going to install within the next few days and planned on putting 9.2.2 on it.

[MacTron]

MacTron I have that machine and DID have the 'Unsupported' 9.2.2 running on it, booted from external FW drive. I just received a SSD that I'm going to install within the next few days and planned on putting 9.2.2 on it.

Great!
Did the video works at full capabilities? ie at full resolution and full acceleration (2D and 3D)?
write a report about what is working and not in this this machine under Mac Os 9,
Please.

[mrhappy]

I had some video issues last time but my install got a bit convoluted so that's one of the reasons I wanted to start again with a fresh internal drive. I'll try to put the drive in tonight so we can test it out!

[Fizzgig]

At the risk of thread necromancy: I think the 17" G4 is what I have, and it works great with the unsupported build thus far. The only hiccups I've run into are a "missing software" message if I try to put it to sleep, and a "missing USB driver" message at startup even if I have no USB devices plugged in. (That said, I've used a USB thumb drive, mouse, and floppy disk drive with no problems—didn't even have to install the driver that came with the floppy drive!)

If you guys need things tested on this machine, I'm happy to give it a whirl.

[DieHard]

Dear Fizzgig,
Please report the video resolutions avail, and if video acceleration works in OS 9... Thanks

[MacOS Plus]

  I get the "missing USB driver" message under OS 9 on my MDD FW800 if the internal bluetooth card is present, because it is actually a USB device.  In the case of the 17" 'book it may very well also be the source of this message.  Of course this is only a minor annoyance and doesn't have any other negative effect.  Not that you necessarily want to go digging inside your machine, but you could try removing the internal bluetooth card and see if the message goes away.  It did in my case.  If you only intend to run OS 9, and no one ever hacks bluetooth drivers (highly unlikely), then you can probably do without it.

[mrhappy]

I'll try to put the drive in tonight so we can test it out!

I guess I got a little side tracked!!

Maybe THIS will finally be the week!

[Fizzgig]

I was able to switch into 640x480, 800x500, 800x600, 1024x640, 1024x768, 1152x720, and 1440x900 (which was what the screen defaulted to and what I'm mostly using), at millions of colors.

How would I test for video acceleration, exactly?

[ettore]

what about your installation of 0s9 on your power book g4?you are still running 0s9 good?

[Fizzgig]

Work has been kind of slamming me, so I haven't booted up in a while… but I've yet to have any problems!

[7345565]

Hello, All! I'm excited to hear that OS 9 can be run on the 1.0 GHz PowerBook G4 17". Does anyone happen to know what works and what doesn't?

For instance - sound? Keyboard backlight? Airport?

Thanks so much - this sounds like my next fun project! 

[Protools5LEGuy]

Any member (Ejem. mrhappy  ) can confirm the graphic acceleration on OS9 of this ALU 1GHz 17"?

[Fizzgig]

My model doesn't seem to have an Airport card at all, strangely enough. (It's had at least two previous owners, so I don't know what might have happened. I've not had time or energy to crack the thing open yet.)

On a slightly-unrelated note, I do have sound problems, but I don't think they are OS 9 related because I also had them when I first got the machine. (It had 10.4 on it at the time.) Basically, the external speakers don't seem to work at all. Headphones work well, but occasionally if I've had them plugged in for a while the sound will disappear again. Unplugging and replugging the headphones usually restores the sound. Any ideas what might be causing that/whether it's fixable once I have time on my hands?

I will happily test for graphic acceleration if anyone can explain how I go about doing that. Is there a tester program I can use? Should I go to Macintosh Garden and seek out a really graphic-intensive game? (I do have a report from the Norton Utilities benchmark tests around somewhere, if that helps!) I guess compared to you guys I'm a bit of a noob.

[Protools5LEGuy]

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1798.0

Let1kWindowsBloom: check the cholesterol of your Mac.
Let1kWindowsBloom is one of my favourites test for Mac Os, because it check the real and raw speed of your computer and the overall responsiveness,this is an easy way to see how an excessive amount system extensions and control panels damage our system performance -cholesterol -.
Those are some results:

iMac G4 @700Mhz 1024*468 @24bits
6.86 sec

G4 MDD [email protected] Ti4600 1680*1050 @24bits
1.81 sec

Sawtoth [email protected] Radeon 8500 1920*1080 @24bits
1.51 sec

I were revisiting the specs on this model and it allow 2 Gigs of Ram. Another test bed for the 2 Gigs (more than 1.5)  in Mac OS 9.

Also, from trusted everymac: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.0_17.html

The PowerBook G4/1.0 17" was the first notebook to ship with a 17" display and a fiber optic based "ambient light sensor" that automatically "measures ambient light and works with integrated software to adjust keyboard illumination and screen brightness based on user preferences". It also was the first Mac to include a Firewire "800" port.

1:) The ambient light sensor is probably alien to OS9. I guess it could be deactivated or full on. This thing should have to be hacked/tested as iMic did with lots of trial and error.

2:) The Firewire 800. We need to confirm if it works as a 400 and the 400 doesn't work as in the MDD FW 800. If that is the case, testers would need a FW800 to FW400 converter/cable, as MacBook owners need a Thunderbolt to Firewire converter.