PowerBook 5,2 (A1046) with OS 9.

[WillyWonka]

Hello to everybody


Found out that it might be possible to install OS 9 in my loved PowerBook G4. As OS X Tiger has lost the ability to run dropbox and spotify, I'd prefer to have this computer with a lightweight system.

My english is bad and my Mac expertise is low so I'm making a list of things needed.

ISO for unsupported Macs: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2143.0.html

At first I tried to burn it but nothing happened. Before buying new CDs I want to know the proper way to burn the image. The disc will be burnt with the PowerBook itself as my other computer is a MacBook Air. Can it be done with Disk utility?

Then I have read about iMic modified ROM in this thread http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2337.0.html

But the link to thinkclassic doesn't seem to work. What can I do? Do I need another Mac to install it? How?

I know some of the info is available but i don't get it well. Also i would like to know from somebody who has done the install with the same Mac to know possible caveats before starting... because if I brick my PB I don't have my Tiger discs here (I can wait, I have them family home but...).

Thanks in advance

W.

[darthnVader]

There really hasn't been much progress on that model, I bet you could get it to run, but things like sound, sleep, the tracpad, airport(WiFi) won't work, or won't work well.

I can't remember if I made a driver for the R9600 Mobility graphics, but it would only support basic screen resolution switching and bit depth changes.

I did get the PowerBook6,8 12" to work, somewhat, it takes a lot of reading, learning, and testing.

[WillyWonka]

I got it working... better than expected.

To boot the universal disc from here i needed to edit the NVRAM in OpenFirmware (i got it from somewhere i don't remember well, but got it copied in a document). After that the CD started fine, except that it was a 640x480 resolution with a big black frame...

The installation went fine but after reboot the startup from the hard drive froze in a gray screen. Once the multiprocessing extension gets removed i finally get it, again at 640x480. I go to the Monitors Control Panel and see that the Mac detects TWO screens. Color LCD @ 1280x854 and a second one. I click a Use defaults button and finally get full resolution but with that "ghost" screen. I can actually move the mouse to a corner and it goes beyond the limit... strange.

So to sum up, 15" PB G4 1.25GHz 2GB RAM, model A1046, PowerBook 5,2...

Trackpad works
Fullscreen works, with a ghost screen, only millions of colors (which is great)
Sleep does not work, it asks for additional software.
Speakers DO WORK.
Airport Extreme obvioulsy does not and will not work
Ethernet DOES NOT work. Tried disabling and enabling AppleTalk in the Chooser and even setting manual IP but nothing...
Dial Up is not working but honestly it is not a real world problem (i just had my landline phone right next to the Mac so tried to plug it in to have a vintage internet experience...  )

If someone can give some ideas about networking... I mean i wanted to use this for iTunes and some old software or games. If internet is not working everything gets tooooooo annoying. Maybe i should recover my Imation SuperDisk to transfer things... or just come back to Tiger.

[darthnVader]

Cool, glad you got it going.

Under OS 9, launch the Apple System Profiler and give me the name of your graphics card shown there?

I'll make a basic 'NDRV' for the 9600 M,  the ghost display will be gone, and you will be able to switch the LCD resolutions and bit depth.

Sorry, no support of graphics acceleration on the 9600 M.

As far as ethernet, I'm not sure, I haven't had any trouble getting it to work on the Powerbook6,7 and 6,8, both from 2005.

[Astroman]

I have the 1Ghz version of that Powerbook, which should be identical in networking.
The Ethernet port seems to fall back to 10 or 100 Mhz half duplex and looses the ability to negotiate transfer speed.
Configuring a port on the router manually got the network going again.
Start with 100/half duplex and lower the setting if still no response.

[WillyWonka]

Cool, glad you got it going.

Under OS 9, launch the Apple System Profiler and give me the name of your graphics card shown there?

I'll make a basic 'NDRV' for the 9600 M,  the ghost display will be gone, and you will be able to switch the LCD resolutions and bit depth.

Sorry, no support of graphics acceleration on the 9600 M.

As far as ethernet, I'm not sure, I haven't had any trouble getting it to work on the Powerbook6,7 and 6,8, both from 2005.

The Card name is ATI,Jasper_A . Thank you so much!

As for the ethernet, looks like my crappy router doesn't have the ability to change those settings...    And it's sad because we got it replaced by the ISP recently, it was possible with the old one.

I think I might look for a usb dongle for basic internet... but it's a pain.

[darthnVader]

Cool, glad you got it going.

Under OS 9, launch the Apple System Profiler and give me the name of your graphics card shown there?

I'll make a basic 'NDRV' for the 9600 M,  the ghost display will be gone, and you will be able to switch the LCD resolutions and bit depth.

Sorry, no support of graphics acceleration on the 9600 M.

As far as ethernet, I'm not sure, I haven't had any trouble getting it to work on the Powerbook6,7 and 6,8, both from 2005.

The Card name is ATI,Jasper_A . Thank you so much!

As for the ethernet, looks like my crappy router doesn't have the ability to change those settings...    And it's sad because we got it replaced by the ISP recently, it was possible with the old one.

I think I might look for a usb dongle for basic internet... but it's a pain.

Ok, we're in luck, I already made a driver for that device.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4593.0;attach=5684

Place it in the extensions folder and reboot.

Let us know how it goes........

[torvan]

Also, I would add that your English is perfectly fine--obviously us native English speakers understood you just fine! In fact, if you had not mentioned it, I would not have known you were not a native English speaker!

[WillyWonka]

Cool, glad you got it going.

Under OS 9, launch the Apple System Profiler and give me the name of your graphics card shown there?

I'll make a basic 'NDRV' for the 9600 M,  the ghost display will be gone, and you will be able to switch the LCD resolutions and bit depth.

Sorry, no support of graphics acceleration on the 9600 M.

As far as ethernet, I'm not sure, I haven't had any trouble getting it to work on the Powerbook6,7 and 6,8, both from 2005.

The Card name is ATI,Jasper_A . Thank you so much!

As for the ethernet, looks like my crappy router doesn't have the ability to change those settings...    And it's sad because we got it replaced by the ISP recently, it was possible with the old one.

I think I might look for a usb dongle for basic internet... but it's a pain.

Ok, we're in luck, I already made a driver for that device.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4593.0;attach=5684

Place it in the extensions folder and reboot.

Let us know how it goes........

Hi darthnVader... sorry for the delay, i have not been at home these days.

Copied the extension in the Extensions folder but... the computer hangs somehow.

The computer boots, the desktop appears and even i've seen the clock changing the minute, but before even the control strip appears, the system freezes. You can still move the cursor but no matter what you try to click, it doesn't work. I had to force shutdown with the power button, boot again with extensions off and remove the file...

I tried to go further. I removed every "ATI xxxxx" extension and started adding them manually on a one by one basis. I thought "ATI 8500 3d Accelerator" and "ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator" aren't necessary in this Mac so i left them for the end. When I had these ones loaded everything seemed to work fine:

ATI Jasper Driver (obvious!)
ATI Driver Update
ATI Graphics Accelerator
ATI Radeon 3D Accelerator
ATI Resource Manager
ATI MPP Manager

Then I added "ATI Video Accelerator" (the one with a little quicktime logo in the icon) and the hang reappeared. So I tried to remove ALL but ATI Jasper and this Video Accelerator and the system WORKS. So it's not this extension alone, is the clash between this and one of the others.

Here comes the question: what do each extension do and which ones are prioritary? I mean i'm not going 3D here (but i hope i can get Caesar III to work  ) but i would like to have all the necessary extensions in place. However,
now I can change resolutions, there is only one real screen, and i can even get to 256 grays mode... THANK YOU so much for your work.



@torvan, thank you for your message. Although you may think my English is good, it can be difficult sometimes to understand messages or long instructions.



Last question. I have no ethernet connection, dialup is not working and Airport Extreme will never work. I still have an original Airport (802.11b) which i've read it is PCMCIA but with some pins changed. Can I plug it in the cardbus slot? The slot itself gets recognised in Apple System Profiler. Is there any other alternative (USB, Firewire...)?

If I can get this PowerBook to the internet i will use it more for sure, if not i think i will get back to my G4 Titanium (screen broken, i'm looking for one...)

[Astroman]

On my Powerbook G4 15" 1Ghz all ports on the left side (including PCMCIA) don't work under OS-9. But these things are strange, so I wouldn't define this as a rule, but just a hint.

If you're familiar with network setup, you may build a dedicated network by a router that only serves the Powerbook. On the PB side it gets the 10/100 half duplex setting, on the output side it's set to the same parameters as your regular router. Just use manual adressing instead of DHCP which your current router most likely supplies.

[WillyWonka]

On my Powerbook G4 15" 1Ghz all ports on the left side (including PCMCIA) don't work under OS-9. But these things are strange, so I wouldn't define this as a rule, but just a hint.

If you're familiar with network setup, you may build a dedicated network by a router that only serves the Powerbook. On the PB side it gets the 10/100 half duplex setting, on the output side it's set to the same parameters as your regular router. Just use manual adressing instead of DHCP which your current router most likely supplies.

In my case the left ports are:

56k modem (doesn't even show up in Apple System Profiler)
USB (it works)
PCMCIA (listed, no cards to test it. Well, an original Airport but i'm not sure...)
Audio ports. Input and output work.


Right ports include DVI, S-Video, FW400, FW800 (none of them i will ever be able to test them, never had a FW periferal) a working USB and the f****** ethernet.


The network thing you comment *might* be feasible, I think there is an old router in the basement, no idea if it allows to set to 10/100 half duplex. However i tried with my iMac doing the internet sharing thing (taking internet from Airport then sharing through the ethernet to the PB) and it didn't work...


I definitely want to get as much as posible working (graphics, network are now the missing things) and then i would update the initial message with the clear, step-by-step and complete guide for this model. I think I ought to do it after all the help and information i got from this forum.