Mac OS 9 booting on: Mac mini G4 (Detailed Posts)

[ELN]

I too was wanting to disable this, you can close it with Command+F2.

Whoa… how did you know about that?!

[Daniel]

I too was wanting to disable this, you can close it with Command+F2.

Whoa… how did you know about that?!

I don't know how the history behind it, but it looks like a simple screen refresh. It cleans the screen, but the NK keeps putting up log entries every once in a while.

[ELN]

Ah, darn.

Here is a fresh copy of the ROM using the new build system. It differs from Mac OS ROM 9.6.1 in only these ways:

• mini-usb-hack applied to USB controller ndrv (a ROM resource)
• mini-pmu-hack applied to NativePowerMgrLib nlib (parcel)
• No System Enabler in tbxi resource fork (so no "Mac OS ROM" line in About This Computer)
• Boot script sets G4 version to 80010201 and machine model to "PowerMac6,3" (MDD G4), and declares itself to be compatible with MacRISC, MacRISC2, MacRISC3 and MacRISC4
• Parcels structure has different pad bytes because Apple's build tool left a buffer uninitialised

[MacOS Plus]

  Command+F2 didn't close it for me, although I have QuicKeys installed and it may be interfering with that key combo somehow.

  Perhaps the change in machine type will allow me to put the Energy Saver control panel back in and also eliminate the false dead battery auto-shutdown.  I may be able to let my screen sleep then at least.  It appears the CPU fan speed is controlled by independent logic, as it apparently does in my TiBook, because it doesn't run at full speed.  Initially it does when first powering the system, but then it immediately settles down to a more 'relaxed' pace.

  I'll try that new ROM today and report back.

Update - New ROM causes bomb-crash error type 102 immediately after the Mac OS splash-screen appears.  I presume it has something to do with the issue/resolution described here:

http://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?pid=305#p305

  Something about your change to the machine type?

[MacOS Plus]

  Upon closer inspection, ResEdit says the new ROM has no resource fork.  The previous ROM has it, although ResEdit throws a warning saying it had to perform a minor repair on it when the file is opened.  Could you check the new ROM file on your end?

  Would it be possible to eventually use the correct Mini machine identifier and add it to the name table so it displays correctly in System Profiler?

[MacOS Plus]

  Weird observation - I didn't catch this right away and I don't know what part of all my screwing around caused it, could have even been just related to a PRAM or PMU reset, but the video mode is now millions of colors.  It still won't let me change it to anything else, but at least it's better than 256.

[grhmhome]

Was anyone successful in installing Mac OS 9.x with a retail disc on their G4 Mac Minis or were they only able to boot with a hard-drive from another machine? I would like to install this, but I would like to know what steps I would need to take, like which version of Mac OS 9.x retail disc I should buy on eBay and how do I use custom system roms? Thanks for your time.

Edit: I found the unsupported G4 easy install version of Mac OS 09. I could try this and replace with the proper roms and use open firmware to spoof my system. I was able to spoof my eMac when I had one so I could run Leopard.

[ELN]

Something about your change to the machine type?

Yep. Apparently the last Power Macs to work without a System Enabler were the graphite G4s. So I have now set the machine type to PowerMac 3,4 (Cube), which seems appropriate. I doubt that any desktop Macs of that age require special power management logic in the OS.

[MacOS Plus]

  I'm still ending up with a decoded file that has no resource fork.  It comes out of the .hqx with proper icon and name in OS 9, but if I download and decode it on OS X the original good file and the new bad file have different icons from each other.

  The end result is still the same - error type 102.  It's weird, since the ROM I was using from post #203 came out right.  Did you change something in your workflow?

[ELN]

The absent resource fork is normal, and in common with earlier releases of the ROM. The resource fork allows the file to act as an Enabler, separately from its “ROM” function. I have stopped including that part since refactoring the build system into the three repos linked above.

I *also* changed some of the Forth code that governs model compatibility. I will revisit this shortly!

[MacOS Plus]

  Okay, got it.  I guess something else is causing the error type 102 then?

[darthnVader]

Got my Mini, but I'm having all sorts of trouble with it.

Fails to launch the ASP when booted from the internal HD, so I don't have any input. USB only starts working after ASP loads.

ATI,RockHopper2 'NDRV' from Leopard( 10.5.8 ) seem to be incompatible with OS 9. My screen go black when the finder should load, then come back with a grey screen with only the mouse. More work needed, I'll have to check earlier versions of the RockHopper2 'NDRV'.

If you install the latest OS 9 ATI drivers, you can load the ATY,Bugsy 'NDRV'. It seems to work, somewhat, screen res changes, but I have no input so I haven't been able to fully test it.

Install last ATI drivers, boot into Open Firmware( Command+Opt+O+F ).

Code: [Select]

dev agp/@10/@0
" ATY,Bugsy" encode-string " compatible" property
bye
I can boot from my PowerBook in target disk mode, but the same System Folder won't work on the internal drive.

[MacOS Plus]

  I tried out "Bugsy" and found it didn't work on DVI but did come up as you described on VGA.  The native resolution for my LCD wasn't available with a low enough refresh rate.  Most of the options that were available had absurdly high refresh rates, although SwitchRes knew enough to flag most of them as no-go for my LCD.

  For kicks I threw a number of other device names at it.  Success was varied, but "Bugsy" is the only one that will allow multiple resolutions.

  The original shipping release of OS X on the G4 Mini was 10.3.7, so I don't know if we can pull a functional NDRV for this machine from anything earlier than that.  Was this chipset available on other machines, and if so, on an earlier version of OS X?

[darthnVader]

Ok, thanks, I'll try some earlier versions of the 'NDRV' and see how they go.

BTW, are you having trouble with USB?

If not, are you using the boot 3 resource in the System Suitcase?

I know it is necessary on my powerbook6,8, but I'm not sure it's needed on the Mini. USB stops working when the System Suitcase loads, and doesn't start again until Apple Systems Profiler opens.

I have ASP in my Startup Items. 

[darthnVader]

I cooked up an 'NDRV' from Tiger( 10.4.0 ), it had the same issue with my VGA display( Grey screen after system boot changed the screen res )

Connecting to DVI to HDMI let me boot, and everything was detected correctly, monitor, proper screen res., Vram, but changing the screen res or bit depth resulted in a proper screen res, but had the grey screen issue with an active mouse.

However I just remembered I hacked the Mac OS ROM for the built in display of the iBook, so I'll try and redownload the ROM and see if that changes anything.

Otherwise we're going to have to hope that 10.3.x has a compatible 'NDRV' or anything else ( 2D/3D ) will be a non-starter.

I was really hoping this was going to work, as OS 9 is useless to me without 2D/3D acell.

No great loss, I have a Dual 1Ghz Quicksilver with a Radeon 9000 that works just fine with OS 9.

I also get the type 2 error with ELN's latest Rom, but USB works, disabling the extension did nothing.

As it is, the system is just far to unstable, sometimes it boots, sometimes the ASP and Finder fail and I can't use the System, because I have no input until ASP loads.

These Mini's are turning out to be more trouble than they are worth for OS 9 booting, I'll give it another go, but if I can't figure way the system is hanging, I'm just going to run X on it. 

[darthnVader]

Here is the RockHopper2 'NDRV', likely won't work with VGA. It's a good idea to trash your display preference before you try and boot it.

 

[ELN]

Sorry about my frequent absences! I’ve just started a new uni rotation where attendance is “strongly encouraged”.

I can’t say much about graphics acceleration. But I’d say that the general instability of the system is due to my no-PMU hack. Once we get a real PMU driver working, I expect this to go away.

Then, I wil focus on patching one of these almost-working ndrvs.

And I will get a fresh working ROM through to you all soon!

[MacOS Plus]

Ok, thanks, I'll try some earlier versions of the 'NDRV' and see how they go.

BTW, are you having trouble with USB?

If not, are you using the boot 3 resource in the System Suitcase?

I know it is necessary on my powerbook6,8, but I'm not sure it's needed on the Mini. USB stops working when the System Suitcase loads, and doesn't start again until Apple Systems Profiler opens.

I have ASP in my Startup Items.

  The funny thing is, I've had no problem with USB at all nor any other strange problems, other than the system shutting down once from the phantom battery warning.  I'm using a pre-exisiting 9.2.2 drive created from the Unsupported G4s ASR, final ATI drivers, Multiprocessing/Apple Audio Extension/Energy Saver Control Panel disabled.  The only unusual additions are SwitchRes and USB Overdrive, although I highly doubt these made any difference.  (USB Overdrive doesn't set any features properly on the A1152 mouse I'm using right now anyway.)  The only other problem I have is the need to force-quit the Finder once upon reaching the desktop, and this is only due to the non-working sound device.  Well, that and the Control Panels sub-menu never working from the Apple Menu.  The Finder force-quit isn't needed if I set the "screamer" compatible property to the sound device in OF first.  There's still a warning pop-up about missing software preventing sleep capability, which will be related either to the sound or video device.  The boot drive works internally or on firewire externally with no difference other than the need to enter the Option-hold boot menu to get at the firewire.

  Where specifically would you suggest I copy/paste that NDRV to?  Should it be added at the end of the file or replace an existing section?  Or do I just use it directly as an additional extension?

Update - Okay, so it clearly loads this file as an additional extension.  On DVI and VGA it leads to a grey screen with mouse pointer when the Finder should load.  I have to reset PRAM after this to clear the problem once the extension is disabled.  Seems like a good start though.  We may have to compare NDRV content between older and newer versions of other devices to see what's changed or missing in the OS X NDRV.  It's got to be something fairly simple, presumably missing code related to the old code model of desktop rendering.

[ELN]

Do us a favour and try this one?

[darthnVader]

The 'NDRV' from 10.3.7 seems to work with OS 9( Digital Not Tested ).

I modified the ATI drivers to load for our Mini's.

They are buggy, but they work, somewhat

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4277.0.html