Mac OS 9 iMac G4 6,3 1.25 With FX5200 Ultra

[docangle]

I am trying to get my iMac 1.25Ghz 17" FX 5200 Ultra to boot Mac OS 9.  I have the 1.0ghz and after changing the Mac OS Rom will boot without issues.  With this iMac it will start to boot using the G4 version fo the Universal CD but the screen goes black.  I ave searched the forums and others had the issue, and was able to get past this issue by updating the Mac OS ROM and removing Multi folder, and ATI Drivers.  I am not having any luck.

I have tried making changes to the NVRAM using multiple settings but the end result is the same.  I tried using the G3 and G4 version of the Universal CD but can't even get the system to recognize it.

I even tried to make a DMG from the 1.0 GHz Mac OS 9 partition and restoring it to the 6,3 and again removing all ATI Driver extensions and Multi Proc. folder when I try to boot I get a Disk Icon and it sounds like the HD just keeps clicking repeatedly (almost like a dead drive, but the drive is fine)

I do understand that the 5200 doesn't have acceleration support, but from searching, it seemed as though I can get basic video support.

[darthnVader]

Why would you remove the ATI drivers?

Try and remove the nVidia drivers. Tho I doubt that is the issue.

Likely you'll need to set the debugging properties in Open Firmware.

Code: [Select]

dev / 13FFF encode-int " AAPL,debug" property

[macStuff]

if you already have another machine that boots os9 why bother getting this one to boot it? why not use it for X instead if you have two?

every mac user falls into illogical obsession lol
myself included

the fx5200 still boggles my mind why they ever even bothered to use that graphics chip

[docangle]

I will try setting the debug options.  The reason for trying to get Mac OS 9 working on the 1.25 is my LCD is failing on the 1.0 Ghz machine.  The LCD's between the two machines are not pin comptabile.

[docangle]

Okay, I have success!

So I am going to summarize what I did to get it to work in case someone else has this same exact model.

First, the system will not boot the CD because of two items, the first being the CPU is not on the white list (causing a grey screen) and second the audio driver which will cause the system to crash and bomb while loading.

So I need to add the followinh in Open Firmware:

1. Enter Open Firmware by turning the machine on and holding Opt and Cmd plus O and F
2. Enter the following commands, be very careful to check for selling and spacing:

nvedit
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
80010201 encode-int " cpu-version" property
dev /pci@F2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-a
" screamer" encode-string " compatible" property
device-end
CTRL+C
nvstore
setenv use-nvramrc? true
reset-all

I was able to get the CD to start up.

Since I used SuperDuper to copy my existing Mac OS 9. I copied the MAc OS ROM 10.1 to the System Folder and removed and readded Finder and System to bless the folder (This can be done from Mac OS X by entering: sudo bless -folder9 "/System Folder"  in terminal)

What Works:

USB 2.0
FireWire

What doesn't work:

Video, so obviously I can't make brightness adjustment and my Resolution and Colors are stuck to default.  The weird thing is if I startup using the Boot Screen (Holding Opt during boot and go into Mac OS 9) I am stuck with 256 colors.  If I boot using the startup disk option Control Panel (via Mac OS 9 Control Panel)  I will get millions of colors.

Audio,  Audio doesn't work since it was needed to be disabled to get Mac OS 9 to even boot.  I am sure I can use a USB option it Mac OS 9 drivers are available.


I know that there is an option for a standard framebuffer video driver that will allow you to change color depths and resolutions but have been unable to find them.

Not being able to adjust brightness is also a bummer, no solution found.

Also for further reference:

Audio is Texas Instruments TAS3004

Video Nvidia FX5200 Ultra

Also, Mac OS 9 Partition needs to be the first partition, if you have it on the second partition I seem to get a flashing disk icon.  When experimenting I can even get it to boot if it is the Third partition, just not the Second, don't know if it is unique to my system set up, but if you run into this you know what to do!  Also, if you are using the drag and drop method you obviously need to have the Mac OS 9 driver installed which can only be done by Mac OS 9 Drive Setup utility or Mac OS X.  Strange enough If I boot using the Mac OS X 10.4 DVD and use Disk Utilities I am not presented with the option to install driver during partition process, I had to use Firewire Target mode to partition system using another Mac with 10.4 installed.

[macStuff]

interesting - ive never used this -folder9 option before
https://ss64.com/osx/bless.html

congrats on your success;

[nuphunk]

Docangle

hats off to you! Thanks so much for sharing.

I have the same spec 6,3 machine, still stuck at grey screen.

3 partitions with OS9 drivers and Not journaled.

The 1st partition is has OS9 System installed to the iMac in Target mode from another machine booted from CD (Mac OS 9.2.2 Unsupported G4s)

Followed your steps:


nvedit
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
80010201 encode-int " cpu-version" property
dev /pci@F2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-a
" screamer" encode-string " compatible" property
device-end
CTRL+C
nvstore
setenv use-nvramrc? true
reset-all


• Boots

• Happy Mac

• Happy mac disappears

• Grey screen for 2 seconds

• Very dark grey screen

• After a couple of minutes i got intermittent flash of white horizontal lines against the grey screen for 10 second

• Returns to very dark grey screen


This happens if i boot from the drive or the CD


I am sure i am missing something very basic!

I did make a mistake entering your Open Firmware code initiall (missed space after dev)
I re-entered the code again. Could this cause problems?

Any pointers very much appreciated!

Thanks
Pete

[darthnVader]

The GF5200 is going to be problematic.

nVidia/Apple made the drivers for OS 9/OS X unlike any other 'NDRV' driver, they require the NVDA Resource Manager.

The nvidia driver in OS 9 has the type 'NDRV', but it's two parts, the nvidia driver( looks something like a 'NDRV') and the NVDA,ResMan.

I haven't figured out how to hack it yet, complicated by the fact I killed my Quicksilver with an ill advised hack to the CPU card.

I'm not sure if the driver has checksum, but no hacks to it seem to work at all. When I again have a working G4 tower with an AGP slot, I'll start working on this again.......

[nuphunk]

Good luck

May the force be with you!

[nuphunk]

Dear docangle

Realised that i hadn't followed this step in your instructions:

".... I copied the MAc OS ROM 10.1 to the System Folder ...." (doh!)

Newbie questions:

• Where can i get this file?
Is it one of SnakeCoils mentioned in this thread? http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1173.0.html

I have only a TiBook with bootable os9 - can i find it there?

Many thanks,

Pete

[ssp3]

What doesn't work:

Video, so obviously I can't make brightness adjustment and my Resolution and Colors are stuck to default.  The weird thing is if I startup using the Boot Screen (Holding Opt during boot and go into Mac OS 9) I am stuck with 256 colors.  If I boot using the startup disk option Control Panel (via Mac OS 9 Control Panel)  I will get millions of colors.

Have you tried Griffin's 'Super Res' control panel to change resolutions?

[docangle]

I have not been able to to find super res 1.1

NVM, found it here: http://web.archive.org/web/20051029042959/http://www.griffintechnology.com/archive/ftp/super_res_11.hqx

[docangle]

I had this issue with the grey screen and also I realized that I made a mistake editing nvram.  You need to erase NVRAM and start again.

reset-nvram - This sets up a factory reset of the NVRAM.

set-defaults - Sets the flag so that the defaults embedded in ROM can be returned back to factory default

reset-all - FACTORY reset complete.. and machine reboots

and start over!

Also Drang and Drop File is here http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1859.0.html

Docangle

hats off to you! Thanks so much for sharing.

I have the same spec 6,3 machine, still stuck at grey screen.

3 partitions with OS9 drivers and Not journaled.

The 1st partition is has OS9 System installed to the iMac in Target mode from another machine booted from CD (Mac OS 9.2.2 Unsupported G4s)

Followed your steps:


nvedit
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
80010201 encode-int " cpu-version" property
dev /pci@F2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-a
" screamer" encode-string " compatible" property
device-end
CTRL+C
nvstore
setenv use-nvramrc? true
reset-all


• Boots

• Happy Mac

• Happy mac disappears

• Grey screen for 2 seconds

• Very dark grey screen

• After a couple of minutes i got intermittent flash of white horizontal lines against the grey screen for 10 second

• Returns to very dark grey screen


This happens if i boot from the drive or the CD


I am sure i am missing something very basic!

I did make a mistake entering your Open Firmware code initiall (missed space after dev)
I re-entered the code again. Could this cause problems?

Any pointers very much appreciated!

Thanks
Pete

[docangle]

Can be downloaded at thinkclassic, https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?id=46&p=5

Post #120

Dear docangle

Realised that i hadn't followed this step in your instructions:

".... I copied the MAc OS ROM 10.1 to the System Folder ...." (doh!)

Newbie questions:

• Where can i get this file?
Is it one of SnakeCoils mentioned in this thread? http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1173.0.html

I have only a TiBook with bootable os9 - can i find it there?

Many thanks,

Pete

[docangle]

Side note, I have a Powerbook with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, have you had any luck wither drivers for that particular graphics card?

The GF5200 is going to be problematic.

nVidia/Apple made the drivers for OS 9/OS X unlike any other 'NDRV' driver, they require the NVDA Resource Manager.

The nvidia driver in OS 9 has the type 'NDRV', but it's two parts, the nvidia driver( looks something like a 'NDRV') and the NVDA,ResMan.

I haven't figured out how to hack it yet, complicated by the fact I killed my Quicksilver with an ill advised hack to the CPU card.

I'm not sure if the driver has checksum, but no hacks to it seem to work at all. When I again have a working G4 tower with an AGP slot, I'll start working on this again.......

[nuphunk]

Why would you remove the ATI drivers?

Try and remove the nVidia drivers. Tho I doubt that is the issue.

Likely you'll need to set the debugging properties in Open Firmware.

Code: [Select]

dev / 13FFF encode-int " AAPL,debug" property

You were spot on darthVader!  After days of trying that's the only way i got past the dark grey screen and can now completely boot.

Did you disable the Nvidia drivers too Docangle? (thanks for you replies BTW!)

[nuphunk]

AAAAAAAAAAArgh

Got a OWC SSD 250g and was hoping to transfer my working OS9 booting OS9 partition but...

I cloned the original and working OSX and OS9 partitions to SSD counterparts

OSX boots fine

OS9 hangs on a question mark disk icon then eventually crashes....

SSD definitely has the os9 drivers (verified in system profile)

Any ideas why?

Thanks
Pete

[Lark456]

does anyone have a straightforward way of doing this? tried it on mine and got the black screen even after changing debugging options. my drive doesnt read CDs but it reads DVDs so i burned the unsupported iso onto a DVD. i get the happy mac and then a black screen. Any ideas?

[Lark456]

alright! good news! got it to work. What i did was install OS9 for unsupported g4s by taking the hard drive out of my imac, putting it in my powermac G3 B&W, and installing it through there to get full OS9 driver support on the hard drive. to fix the black screen boot issue once i put the hard drive back in my iMac, i booted into another os (I used OSX 10.4), go to the OS9 partition, then to the System Folder and Extensions. From there, remove anything labelled nvidia, as well as the multiprocessing folder. There you go! hope this helps someone lol!

[IIO]

after cloning a drive or volume the MacOS folder usually is not yet blessed.

after copying a system folder it usually works.