G4 Powerbook5,7 trying to run Mac os 9

[johnsmtih]

So I recently brought home an old Powerbook5,7 from the computer shop I work in and it is in great condition only problem is it officially can only run Mac OS X. Running Mac OS X on a PowerPC seams pointless to me since I have Snow Leopard on both an Intel Imac and on my main laptop under VM enabling me to run OS X PPC apps. I'd really like to use this to run Mac 9 games since my only other machine that can run 9 is my Imac g3 from spring 2001 (not really portable). So when I found out about this form and Mac OS 9.2.2 Unsupported G4s.iso I got excited, for a change it actually would show up on the boot menu when holding alt, but would not boot to it. I tried nvedit some things around per this forms suggestion https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?id=347

Code: [Select]

nvedit
 
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0

80010201 encode-int " cpu-version" property
which got me to a loading screen, but one of the extensions tries to load and it locks up eventually giving me the bomb icon. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestion on how to proceed. Worst case I could run Tiger with classic, but previous experience on my G3 has told me it is not as smooth of a gaming experience.

[GaryN]

So, there's no "Eureka it works!" post regarding OS9 on a 5,7.
The closest you'll get is a "Hey, it kinda works here on my 5,6"
Since a 5,6 and a 5,7 are virtually identical except for screen size, maybe there's some good info there for you.

It's here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4278.0.html

Generally speaking, a good guideline is that any Mac with built-in USB2 will be a very uphill climb.

[johnsmtih]

So, there's no "Eureka it works!" post regarding OS9 on a 5,7.
The closest you'll get is a "Hey, it kinda works here on my 5,6"
Since a 5,6 and a 5,7 are virtually identical except for screen size, maybe there's some good info there for you.

It's here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4278.0.html

Generally speaking, a good guideline is that any Mac with built-in USB2 will be a very uphill climb.

Thank you I'll look into this right away, I only got this machine since they were going to throw it out other wise I would of probably tried to get one with official support for 9. (Maybe I should still)

[GaryN]

Don't toss it. 17" 1.67GHz Macbooks are kinda scarce. Even running Classic there are probably some good things you can do with it. In OSX you can watch Tube all day long too.

[Greystash]

I've been meaning to do a post for the past few weeks but haven't gotten around to it. I recently got OS9 pretty much fully working except GPU acceleration on my 17" PBG4. I can't remember if it's a 1.67Ghz or not though.. Will let you know once I've written up the guide.

[Greystash]

Turns out mine is a 1.33Ghz. Might be worth a try though.. http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4841.0.html

[franklin_m]

I'm looking at this too.

I currently have this machine running from a choice of OS X 10.4.11 disks (one internal, one firewire). I want to change the internal drive to boot OS 9 directly. I'm wondering how I can learn to manipulate the ROM, as in: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4841.msg34769.html#msg34769

On my OS X 10.4.11 setup, I have CodeWarrior 8 working. So I'm looking at making a control panel / driver for DFS. OpenBSD has code for this, and it's relatively easy to read: https://github.com/lattera/openbsd/blob/994554055e51e3258969a1a2f2bead8628cc3dc9/sys/arch/macppc/dev/dfs.c

[darthnVader]

I'm looking at this too.

I currently have this machine running from a choice of OS X 10.4.11 disks (one internal, one firewire). I want to change the internal drive to boot OS 9 directly. I'm wondering how I can learn to manipulate the ROM, as in: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4841.msg34769.html#msg34769

On my OS X 10.4.11 setup, I have CodeWarrior 8 working. So I'm looking at making a control panel / driver for DFS. OpenBSD has code for this, and it's relatively easy to read: https://github.com/lattera/openbsd/blob/994554055e51e3258969a1a2f2bead8628cc3dc9/sys/arch/macppc/dev/dfs.c

Building a custom Mac OS ROM is pretty straightforward:

https://github.com/elliotnunn/newworld-rom

Have a look at newworld-rom/scripts/bootmake.py, here we can make most of the needed changes. Making patches to the 4MB ROM image used to build the Mac OS ROM is a little harder, but can also be done:

https://github.com/elliotnunn/powermac-rom

[franklin_m]

I got this to install and boot by following the Powerbook5,6 instructions here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4781.0.html

The trackpad doesn't work, as expected, and the display is only 800x600 for now, but it boots, the keyboard/mouse work, and there are no brightness issues.

Here are shots of the recovery CD, booting from the restored system on the internal HD, and the choice to boot into OS X 10.4.11 at boot.

https://imgur.com/a/L6BUD4x

[darthnVader]

I got this to install and boot by following the Powerbook5,6 instructions here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4781.0.html

The trackpad doesn't work, as expected, and the display is only 800x600 for now, but it boots, the keyboard/mouse work, and there are no brightness issues.

Here are shots of the recovery CD, booting from the restored system on the internal HD, and the choice to boot into OS X 10.4.11 at boot.

https://imgur.com/a/L6BUD4x

Did you thy the  modified Jasper driver for screen res and bit depth adjustments?

Let me know if it works, I was thinking I made that for the R9600, but it was reported to work with the R9700.

If it doesn't work I can whip up one for the R9700 pretty easy.

Also removing the HID Library normally gets the Trackpad working in Open Firmware mode. If you boot holding the OPT key to get the Apple Boot Picker and your mouse tracks really slow, then it will track really slow under OS 9.

Blame Apple for using a non-standard HID device. Tho if you have any luck with OS 9 system programing, it shouldn't be too hard to port the linux driver.

[franklin_m]

I wanted to ask you what you're doing to those NDRV files. Do you pull them out of an OS X bundle?

Do I need any of the ATI extensions I moved out of the Extensions directory? Or do I just drop in one NDRV file?

My machine also boots into OS X, and I can see there are some Jasper NDRV files there. I think the 9600 and 9700 are the same architecture, with some different specs. I looked over the linux driver, and it seems like the code is the same for a bunch of these cards.

btw, thank you (and everyone else here) for all the research and hacks. It made it fairly easy to waltz in and boot up on this unsupported machine.

[darthnVader]

I wanted to ask you what you're doing to those NDRV files. Do you pull them out of an OS X bundle?

Do I need any of the ATI extensions I moved out of the Extensions directory? Or do I just drop in one NDRV file?

My machine also boots into OS X, and I can see there are some Jasper NDRV files there. I think the 9600 and 9700 are the same architecture, with some different specs. I looked over the linux driver, and it seems like the code is the same for a bunch of these cards.

btw, thank you (and everyone else here) for all the research and hacks. It made it fairly easy to waltz in and boot up on this unsupported machine.

Yes, I extract the 'NDRV' from OS X's ATI Bundle.

You only need an ATI 'NDRV', the other ATI drivers won't be of any use on a R9700.

[franklin_m]

Thanks, do I need to modify it? I'll try the ones you uploaded in that other thread too. (edit: looks like I need to at least do some resource-fork hacking)

Also, in the interest of getting a real driver, I found Mesa for Mac on Sourceforge. There's a macos directory until version 3.4.2, when I guess they dropped support.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mesa3d/files/MesaLib/

And a really old copy on Macintosh Repository:
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2190-mesa-graphics-library

[franklin_m]

I tried "ATI Jasper2 Driver" from dartnvader's post, and it worked. The backlight was fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1YMPB7JUEE

It's a little slow to draw the desktop after the extensions load, because that's when it seems to start up the external FireWire drive (so, FireWire works, I guess).

[darthnVader]

Thanks, do I need to modify it? I'll try the ones you uploaded in that other thread too. (edit: looks like I need to at least do some resource-fork hacking)

Also, in the interest of getting a real driver, I found Mesa for Mac on Sourceforge. There's a macos directory until version 3.4.2, when I guess they dropped support.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mesa3d/files/MesaLib/

And a really old copy on Macintosh Repository:
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2190-mesa-graphics-library

You'd likely still need a driver for your R9700 to interface with MESA. Maybe port the Radeon driver from Linux.