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

[RossDarker]

Attempting to make Apple Software Restore (ASR) for the mini, will be nicer to use than the drag and drop in my opinion and easier to understand. Just found a little guide in DHIDAW about it, so I am seeing what I can do.

[RossDarker]

I've put together a new toast image that uses ASR to intall Mac OS 9 now (instead of drag and drop). Works well. I have also put a CD extras folder on this image which includes Bugdom, USB Overdrive and Classilla 9.3.3, for if you wish to install those. I will upload this toast image tomorrow because have got to go for a bit.

[RossDarker]

Removed. See my post below for ISO file instead of Toast.

[ry755]

The install image worked! And yeah, it's much better than draging and dropping. Posting this from my G4 Mini!

[RossDarker]

Here is an ISO file, with better credits in the Read Me file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZWthPpEkt_eNgpdJDZpCweXqMi9fXxgf/view?usp=sharing
Click Download Anyway, after you have clicked Download.
If you use Chrome, it may say this file can harm your computer, make sure to NOT discard it and instead keep it, by going to Chrome://downloads

Mac mini G4s will boot off this if this ISO is burned to a CD/DVD.
(Uses Apple Software Restore instead of Drag and Drop, nicer way to install the OS)
This image will be read & write if you are using Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and below, so lock the file to avoid writing to it. Windows users, you probably won't be able to read this file at all, but you can still burn it.

To burn this file
On Mac OS X, without opening the toast file, right click on the toast file and select "Burn Disk Image "Mac mini OS 9 CD.iso" to Disc..."

If this option does not show up, open up Disk Utility, deselect anything that is selected then press burn. Select the toast file and burn it.

On Mac OS 9, you can use Toast application to burn the ISO file. Make sure to select bootable options.

On Windows, right click the ISO and choose burn disc image to disk.

[ELN]

Great to see so many people having fun with their minis! Attached is a ROM with a couple more tweaks: now it declares the machine to be a PowerMac3,5 (Quicksilver 2002), and contains a System Enabler (which might help with the frozen-mouse problem).

I have spent a bit of time picking apart the NanoKernel's interrupt handling code, mostly out of curiosity. The interrupt architecture of the Classic Mac OS is very unusual: PowerPC interrupts get serviced by emulated 68k handlers. This "temporary hack" was supposed to be replaced by Copland's PowerPC-native interrupt architecture within a couple of years of the introduction of the Power Mac. But instead, the Copland model was grafted *on top* of the Classic 68k model. The code that implements all this within a multitasking environment is hard to reverse, full of edge cases, and very very fast. I think that this kind of "liberating desperation" is what attracts a lot of us to the Classic Mac OS.

But when I get back to the mini, I intend to sort out first sound, then sleep.

[RossDarker]

@ELN, nice new ROM, I will put this in the ASR CD tomorrow. Here is a little Custom Mac mini G4 Picture, if you look carefully I changed the CD that is out half way to an OS 9 CD.

[IIO]

something tells me i should better stay away from files uploaded today.

[DieHard]

@ELN, nice new ROM, I will put this in the ASR CD tomorrow. Here is a little Custom Mac mini G4 Picture, if you look carefully I changed the CD that is out half way to an OS 9 CD.

OK... that image is awesome !

[DieHard]

Great to see so many people having fun with their minis! Attached is a ROM with a couple more tweaks: now it declares the machine to be a PowerMac3,5 (Quicksilver 2002), and contains a System Enabler (which might help with the frozen-mouse problem).

But when I get back to the mini, I intend to sort out first sound, then sleep.

Nooooo, the "Cube" thing was really cool... let's take a vote....

[ELN]

Great picture, RossDarker.

The only reason I’ve changed the reported model is that there could well be some code somewhere that checks it anc changed behaviour on that basis. That would be a very nasty hack, but I have seen it happen. I’ll investigate further.

[MacTron]

... and contains a System Enabler (which might help with the frozen-mouse problem).

As you know I was using the Mac Mini develop, with my unsupported Mac, with great successful. But I had never suffered the frozen-mouse problem ...
What I suffer is a sporadic and continous  "open upper drive" command that last a few time, and don't allow the drive plate to be closed, what ever you do, it is forced to stay open. While this is occurring, the mouse is frozen,  I had thougth that the drive was damaged, and the mouse is stopped as a typical effect of an IOWait...

[RossDarker]

@ELN, I have made an ASR CD with the new ROM (Quicksilver identity and that System Enabler). The mouse cursor has not frozen at all but the sound coming out through speakers is either really loud or distorted. I have tested things and this does not happen with the older ROM. For now I will just have the link to a G4 Cube identity as that has better sound for the Mac mini. Do you know the reason behind this sound issue?

[ELN]

Uh-oh! Better revert to the Cube ROM. But I expect that a batter unterstanding of the prim-info structure will clear this up.

[MacOS Plus]

   From what I can tell, the signal from the Mini is essentially coming out at maximum gain by default without the Sound control panel able to set proper variables.  Whatever program is supplying the audio source has to have its own level control or else the content can be loud enough to cause distortion or clipping.  Certainly this was the case when I was testing MP3 playback with WinAmp.  Presumably the Mac OS ROM has some machine-specific overrides that have unpredictable results if applied to another unintended machine model.  It would be nice if we knew how to cap the gain to a safe maximum on the Mini, at least as it applies to line level signal output.

[RossDarker]

Does anyone know how I can get the CD background (tile). The one that is the desktop background when you boot a generic Apple OS 9 CD (I have some such as 9.2.1 and 9.1), that do this. I never found where the tile was stored because there was no Appearance folder in the System Folder of these CD's. Also I tried opening up an Appearance Control Panel and it says I am using a Custom Theme (this is off the CD). And when I click Save Theme, it asks me to name the theme, then nothing else happens. Probably because CD's are Read-Only. But it would not let me save on the hard disk. Anyone know how I can get this to be the background when you boot the Mac mini CD?

[MacTron]

The Startup CD folder is based on The MacTron's System folder, we just remove a few files. This folder is used in almost all ASR disks because is damn fast, optimized and powerful. An so the desktop picture, wich is a 8bit 8x8 pattern -you will liked or not- nothing is fastest and lighter to load, which is very importan when botting from a CD.

Apple uses this "CD background" to note that such System folder only and only can be used on a CD, never it could boot into a HD or other media, which is not the case of this reducted MacTron's System folder that can - alternatively - be used as a drag and drop startup folder in a emergency case. Of course it lacks some utilities, like control strip bar that dramatically reduce the responsiveness of the system. Any way items like this can be added latter if someone consider that it's utility is more than the system performance drawback.

But If you insist... the background you are searching for, is in the System file of a booting Apple CD (or image) 

[IIO]

shouldnt the question be how to generally have a background image in finder windows wwithout third party extensions.

i believe the regular window background (white?) never was in the region of appearance stuff, it is most likely in the system siutcase, eventually not even as standard bitmap resource.

[IIO]

oh you are asking desktop background (it is a while ago that i saw an OS9 installation )

[RossDarker]

Yep, if the CD Background means a slower boot, I will just keep it as it it.