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

[ELN]

MacOS Plus was spot on there.

I got the mini booting by filling the ROM with log spam and diving into those calls that would crash the machine. In that process I managed to fix two major incompatibilities:

• The CPU Plugin for the G4 expects THRM registers and crashes without them
• The Native Power Manager requires some opaque info from Open Firmware (I really just spoofed this, inexpertly)

More airy-fairy stuff, like subtle hardware incompatibility, is still beyond my ability to debug. I can’t possibly track down all code that special-cases based on machine ID, so for now I have just chosen something roughly appropriate-looking. (I am strongly considering creating a brand-new machine ID to clear out the cobwebs.)

I do have a pretty decent build system that I am more than happy to share, to help with, or just to run on request. It is useful even just to make changes to the Open Firmware script a la iMic. So if anyone on the board wants to tinker but needs help getting started — or if they know someone who might — then get in touch!

[Ninester]

Nice! My flea bay mini 1.43 – 512Mb ram – 80GB Seagate made it in yesterday. Installed OS9 with two partitions, 9 in one, Tiger in the other partition mainly for housekeeping.

Using M$ wired mouse and dell keyboard no issues, old powered speakers for sound.

As noted always wants to boot into Tiger unless I use the option key.  OS9 startup utility sees Tiger, Tiger does not see OS9 in the start up utility.

Time is being offset +5 hours when booting back into OS 9 from Tiger. Quickly reset using time sever. Lol, erase Tiger, should fix all the niggles.

I copied the completely installed OS 9 folder to a backup drive. Would there be any issues to drag and drop if I hose OS9?  Will the drive folder always to remain named “Macintosh HD”?

Anyway, thanks to all for your hard work!

[steppentier]

Booting OS9 from Firewire drive isn't working, right?

[RossDarker]

I boot from FireWire drives a lot actually, make sure the partition is not too big, and you definitely got the OS 9 drivers on the whole disk.

[steppentier]

Strange thing. I'm plugged same FW drive to Cube G4 (not booting from that, only mounted) and ejected.
After that, plugged again to mac-mini with v7 patched OS9 and on boot screen i can select now the external FW drive OS9 partition (before that it was invisible in boot screen).
Booting works fine now and i'm happy

I had problems with another FW case, but with this one, OS9 booting was not working on Cube G4 too.
So, maybe it must reconfig it with Oxford update tool (java app).

[RossDarker]

I've often had FireWire drivers not showing when holding down the option key. I find the way around is to either press the "Reload" button, turn the drive off or on again, or to restart with it on/off then turn it on if it was off. With my LaCie disk, it's always nice when I press the reload button, and I see the light on the front start flashing rapidly and hear the disk spin up, then it shows up. I guess it's luck. I find selecting the startup disk from OS 9 an easier way, that's if you have it available of course.

[RossDarker]

About firewire, anyone know which extensions or what's required to format a FW drive from the Mac mini CD, not the installed OS, but from the live CD. Like when you open drive setup, FW disks are <not supported>, but from within the OS you can do what you want with them in drive setup.

[IIO]

About firewire, anyone know which extensions or what's required to format a FW drive from the Mac mini CD, not the installed OS, but from the live CD. Like when you open drive setup, FW disks are <not supported>, but from within the OS you can do what you want with them in drive setup.

i never noticed that this doesnt work from a CD (how would i).  maybe just a missing extension?

otherwise what about copying drive setup to the freshly formatted internal HD and run it from there?

[RossDarker]

Wait a second it turns out it it is <not supported> in the OS from hard disk as well, on the Mac mini at least. I can use drive setup on FW drives from my Titanium PowerBook, but not the Mac mini, so maybe it's hardware.

[IIO]

you tried that with a drive with OS9 drivers already installed?

[RossDarker]

Yeah it's the same disk from both machines, OS 9 drivers present, as sometimes I startup from the disk.

[DieHard]

As Mactron Mentioned (see the below link), you have to use a slightly older version of drive setup to partition/format FW drives, the 2.1 version in 9.2.2 is total crap when it comes to FW drives

Info Here
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4154.msg28836.html#msg28836

[RossDarker]

Diehard, I did actually include both versions of drive setup on the Mac mini CD (1.9.2 and 2.1), the one that opens when you startup is 2.1, but 1.9.2 is found in:

Mac mini OS 9 CD:Applications:Drive Setup 1.9.2

And that is cool, with 1.9.2, I can initialise FW disks from the Mac mini.

Although, the version of drive setup on my Titanium PowerBook is v2.1, and that can format FW drives, but only on the ti and not the mini. (don't have any other os 9 machines to test)

But for now then if you need to restore the Mac mini System onto a FW disk, from the Mac mini, you need to use Drive Setup 1.9.2 in the Applications folder in the CD to do it, to initialise it.

[IIO]

right, that would be the next step; using an older version of drive setup.

but i wonder why things like that do sometimes work and sometimes not.

[RossDarker]

When I had drive setup 1.9.2 open at startup, it would open it the top left, and then get covered by the read me file when that opens. With 2.1 it opens in the middle, so does not get covered, and so I decided to make it so 2.1 opens at startup instead. If I were to swap it for 1.9.2, for better Mac mini support, how would I make it open the window in the centre like in 2.1, instead of the top left?

[IIO]

centering is complicatd but you can move the window by moving its WIND or DLG resources right in resdit. the possition will be s aved to all other possibly needed flags in other resources.

i am using a modified app myslef, with green background a disabled command-key for formatting in the menubar since syste 7, so i can tell by heart it has regular window resources.

[IIO]

good that i havee macos9 minis, so that i can easily look it up

DLOG ID 256

then in resedit: resource menu in menubar / "autoposition" / lets you center with 2 clicks.

[RossDarker]

Cheers IIO I'll try it

[IIO]

...

[DieHard]

Diehard, I did actually include both versions of drive setup on the Mac mini CD (1.9.2 and 2.1), the one that opens when you startup is 2.1, but 1.9.2 is found in:
Mac mini OS 9 CD:Applications:Drive Setup 1.9.2

That is great, your higher self knew it would be needed

And that is cool, with 1.9.2, I can initialise FW disks from the Mac mini.

M.A.R.L. Labs was right again, this makes no sense that the older version succeeds and v2.1 doen not (Fuc&ing Apple, same old shit), but it has proven to be true, this is great news for those who want to run the mini with an External FW drive, also remember, that daisy chaining off the single FW port should work !  It is critical, IMO, you power all FW devices if you attempt this and NOT draw too many amps from the little mini logic board

Although, the version of drive setup on my Titanium PowerBook is v2.1, and that can format FW drives, but only on the ti and not the mini. (don't have any other os 9 machines to test)

Really, now that is unexpected; again, makes no sense as usual, since version 2.1 does NOT work on QS Tower or MDD when wanting to partition FW drives, HDST app with work, but search the forum, I am not a fan of Hard disk speed Tools these days since it modifies the disk drivers and can sometimes cause drives that are moved to a different mac not to mount... I am guessing the TI working with drive setup 2.1 on FW drives is a real mystery; maybe the guy at apple developed it on a TI and did not test it on other units and the "bug" was never realized. IMO, it has to be a bug... unless the goal was to remove functionality from the last version 2.1