Working - Mac OS 9 on PowerBook G4 5,6 1.67Ghz

[Marlon]

Following =)

[teroyk]

Has anyone had success with getting the PCMCIA controller to work on these more recent machines?  I have a Korg Oasys PCI in a Magma chassis and have spent 8 or 9 hours trying to get it to run under Classic in 10.3.9 (tried Apple MIDI Manager and OMS.)

Maybe testing should start something simpler like PCMCIA card-reader or something. I don't know anybody who has managed OASYS PCI (or any another PCI-card that has only Mac OS 9 drivers) to work in Classic even supported Macs, I think you should boot to 9.2.2.

[IIO]

dont use OMS and classic enviroment in one sentence.

[DracheMitch]

I spent a few hours working on the Trackpad issue, without any luck, I tried the HID and USB drivers from OS 9.1 (v1.4.6) and they didn't work any better.

I also tried USB Overdrive>use custom driver, but the mouse overdrive driver doesn't load for the trackpad.

I also removed the usb trackpad from the device tree in Open Firmware, but OS 9 probes the USB bus and finds it anyway, and it doesn't work any better doing it that way.

It's just a non-standard USB HID device, and OS 9 nor USB Overdrive know how to handle it.

It’s not a USB device at all. Apple portables all used internal ADB connections for keyboard and mouse. On Mac OS 9, external USB input devices are actually run through a shim that translates the USB to ADB.

[DracheMitch]

I also tried USB Overdrive>use custom driver, but the mouse overdrive driver doesn't load for the trackpad.

isnt the trackpad connected via USB 2.0?

The 5,6 PowerBook should have a USB trackpad, but it’s possible they have an ADB, as Apple was mixing ADB and USB for trackpads starting in 2005.  EverMac says 5,6 doesn’t have ADB but every machine has multiple board revisions and you never know with Apple.

[SDG]

The 5,6 PowerBook should have a USB trackpad, but it’s possible they have an ADB, as Apple was mixing ADB and USB for trackpads starting in 2005.  EverMac says 5,6 doesn’t have ADB but every machine has multiple board revisions and you never know with Apple.

The PB 5,7 and 5,8 and the final iBook have USB trackpads. Prior to that all were routed via ADB hence applets like iScroll. It's part of the problem people find when they need replacement keyboards and try to mix and match across models.

[RadicalR]

Hello there! Just wanted to report that I can get a PowerBook6,8 (model A1104) to boot up in 9.2.2. Have to do the Screamer fix, so no audio nor mouse control.

Going to see if I can find a wired mouse so I can install the OS and tinker with it.

edit: Ahahaha, it appears I've gotten the worst model if I wanted to play anything from the classic days.

[Jubadub]

Hello there! Just wanted to report that I can get a PowerBook6,8 (model A1104) to boot up in 9.2.2. Have to do the Screamer fix, so no audio nor mouse control.

Going to see if I can find a wired mouse so I can install the OS and tinker with it.

edit: Ahahaha, it appears I've gotten the worst model if I wanted to play anything from the classic days.

Would it be possible for you to provide the exact steps you took to get it to boot?

[hjalfi]

I've just got this working on a PowerBook G4 15" 1.25GHz. I believe it's a Powerbook 5,2 A1046.

Everything works! Nearly. Touchpad, high screen depth, sound, etc. I haven't tried FireWire because I don't have any other devices. I just followed the instructions and it booted. Thanks very much!

The one thing which doesn't work is ethernet. Unfortunately, that's a bit I particularly need. When it's plugged into my switch, the lights light up and it appears to negotiate gigabit ethernet, but the computer can't see any traffic. Any ideas? USB ethernet adapters don't work (it wants to connect to the internet to get the driver...).

(Gigabit seems rather fast for a 2003 computer, and I wonder if it's getting confused by the switch and that it should be negotiation 100M. Can this be overridden at the computer end?)

[Greystash]

There are several things that might be contributing to it not working. Is the Ethernet device recognised in Apple System Profiler, or TCP/IP etc.?
Your router might be assigning an IP address that is out of range to your machine, and if this is the case you just need to do the following:

• Log into your router's admin interface
• Set a static IP address (in the lower range - e.g. 192.168.1.71) - Google how to do this if you're unsure, all routers are different so one guide won't fit all
• On your Mac open the TCP/IP control panel
• Enter a manual configuration (Using DHCP Server)
  
• Under 'DHCP Client ID' type the static IP Address you created
• Enter the router address under 'Search Domains' e.g. 192.168.1.1
• Try connect

I wrote a brief guide on this a while back here if you need more information:
http://mac-classic.com/guides/no-internet-connection/

Otherwise if your equipment is too new to communicate with the Mac you could get an old router and connect that to the newer one and use it as a switch. This has worked well for me in the past but I think I still had to define the IP range it could assign.

[Jubadub]

I wish this worked on the slightly-better DLSD version of the PowerBook G4 15". Just tried it on mine to confirm it with my own eyes. It's strange, because the hardware is nearly identical, but it's true it won't boot. (It shuts down when attempting to boot from the CD.)

For the 1.67Ghz model I found that it was the sound device that was preventing booting into OS9, as discovered by darthnVader when trying to boot do the same with an iBook. While this is an unrecognised device under OS9 It still worked and I had audio functionality after performing the Open Firmware commands below.
It's likely that the DLSD has other components that are unrecognised by OS9 and are preventing boot. You may be able to tinker with Open Firmware and the device tree to get things working [...]

I am revisiting this after what feels like an eternity, but I re-attempted booting OS 9 on my DLSD following all the steps in this thread plus anything else I could find from your personal website, such as:
https://mac-classic.com/articles/mac-os-9-on-unsupported-systems/
https://mac-classic.com/articles/open-firmware-scripts/

Unfortunately, I got the same result I did years ago. So then I went on to follow your advice on attempting to disable further devices in OpenFirmware, but I could not figure out how to do that. I looked up every OF syntax and command I could find:
https://mac-classic.com/articles/open-firmware-basics/
http://www.firmworks.com/QuickRef.html
https://library.morph.zone/Open_Firmware
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-open-firmware-wiki.2225024/

... But I still turned up with empty hands. I can somewhat browse around the device tree, set their properties and all that (to a very small capacity), but I still have no idea how to disable things.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. The DLSD has so much OS 9 potential (even without GPU acceleration), and getting even 10.2 Jaguar to boot would be very good with its superior Classic mode (and in some ways even superior OS X native environment over OS X Panther and even Tiger/Leo+).

Leaving this DLSD with just Tiger and Leo is just sad. I hope I can change that.

[ssp3]

You definitely have to get rid of Multiprocessing folder! The stupid thing is that you can't disable contents of MP folder with "Extensions off" (shift key), you have to remove manually while booted from another drive/volume.

I don't have PB 5,6 but I do have 12" PB 6,8 which is also 7447a based and I was able to boot it succesfully into OS9 by first using instructions by Greystash and later by using ROM file by Nanopico (I think, I modified it slightly) + only the Screamer fix in OF.

Code: [Select]

nvedit

dev /pci@f2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-a

" screamer" encode-string " compatible" property

device-end


Ctrl + C to exit the nvram editor.


nvstore

setenv use-nvramrc? true

reset-all


P.S. If you want to try the ROM I was using, let me know.

[DrNo7]

I am interested by the ROM file to try on my PB 12 1.5GHz

[ssp3]

There you go.

Don't forget to:
1. apply the Screamer fix in OF,
2. remove Multiprocessing folder,
3. remove USB HID extension, if you want to use trackpad or leave it in place, if using mouse.

Bear in mind that all 7447a based PBs will run at reduced speed in OS9.

I think that Screamer fix could also be integrated into ROM, but I'm not a OpenFirmware specialist.

EDIT. This is the correct file, please re-download.

[Jubadub]

You definitely have to get rid of Multiprocessing folder! The stupid thing is that you can't disable contents of MP folder with "Extensions off" (shift key), you have to remove manually while booted from another drive/volume.

I don't have PB 5,6 but I do have 12" PB 6,8 which is also 7447a based and I was able to boot it succesfully into OS9 by first using instructions by Greystash and later by using ROM file by Nanopico (I think, I modified it slightly) + only the Screamer fix in OF.

That tip about "Extensions Off" Shift key boot not being sufficient to prevent the MP Extensions from loading is very useful, thank you. I will give this another go, now with that in mind. I may also try that ROM you shared. I forgot to mention before, but the outcome I got each time happened regardless if I was holding Shift or not when booting. I will check the contents of the CD I was using to boot with to see if the MP Extensions were there or not.

Unlike Greystash's, my model is the PB5,8 rather than PB5,6 though, so there are some things in hardware and firmware that set my model apart from the PBs that successfully booted so far (DDR2 RAM, GPT booting support IIRC etc.). Still, I will keep trying. I wish I knew how to disable a given OF device tree item, though.

About 7447a-based PBs having reduced speed in OS 9, that's the first time I heard about such a thing, I have to admit I'm skeptical about that. I do think, though, that I have seen some discussions in the past on PPC MacRumors subforum darthnvader talking about configuring in OF processor states that allow us to underclock the PPC CPUs by setting them to some sort of "extra low power" state or the other, but that was years ago, so my memory is fuzzy on that.

[ssp3]

About 7447a-based PBs having reduced speed in OS 9, that's the first time I heard about such a thing, I have to admit I'm skeptical about that.

Try 'System Info' application from Norton Tools and see it for yourself.

[DrNo7]

About 7447a-based PBs having reduced speed in OS 9, that's the first time I heard about such a thing, I have to admit I'm skeptical about that.

Try 'System Info' application from Norton Tools and see it for yourself.

But could it be Norton reporting incorrectly the situation because it does not support 7447a CPUs or because the CPU is treated as another model in OpenFirmware to get OS9 to boot?

[robespierre]

The best way is to use "Clockometer" from Newer Technology.
Some of the latest G4s (like the Dual-Layer PBG4) use dynamic speed throttling and this can influence the measured clock speed.

[ssp3]

But could it be Norton reporting incorrectly the situation because it does not support 7447a CPUs or because the CPU is treated as another model in OpenFirmware to get OS9 to boot?

Norton does not "report the situation", it runs calculations and shows the results, which then could be compared to results from other machines. IIRC darthnvader determined it in a different way. Search the forum for his posts.

[Jubadub]

You definitely have to get rid of Multiprocessing folder! The stupid thing is that you can't disable contents of MP folder with "Extensions off" (shift key), you have to remove manually while booted from another drive/volume.

I forgot to mention, I got back into this, and checked for the presence of the "Multiprocessing" folder, but it was already absent from the CD I was using (our "official" CD for "unsupported G4s" in general). For emphasis, my PowerBook is not the 5,6 model discussed in this thread, but rather its immediate successor, and final PowerPC PowerBook of them all, the 5,8 model.

I still wish I knew how to disable a given device in the OF device tree. Without that knowledge, I cannot even begin to experiment. I assume there must be a Forth command that does this.