Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?

[RossDarker]

It's a 14" iBook this one with 1024x768 screen, and yep did have a conflict with the 8500 driver, so deleted that but now when I startup, everything is quite choppy with a very jumpy mouse and the icons on the desktop keep reloading.

My 9200 also has the Device ID: 0x5c63, and is 32MB.

I'd test those other commands though is it best to if there currently seems to be something up with the drivers.

[darthnVader]

The bug is the way I patched the drivers to support the device ID, should only show up randomly between boots, same issue as the frozen mouse bug on the Mini.

Once ELN has time to walk me through the patch he made for the Mini, we should be able to fix that.

[RossDarker]

I set the "pci-probe-mask" and all still boots with tbxi18b and the graphics drivers, haven't had the choppy mouse since that either though could be the randomness of it.

After removing the custom Sleeper controls panels and stuff used on the mini, and putting Apple's Energy Saver ones back in, followed by a reboot, going to Sleep does work and the light comes on pulsing, though yes, when waking up from sleep, the light does stop pulsing but the screen doesn't come back on.

The "Apple CPU Plugins" in Multiprocessing is this version:
"4.0, Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 1994-2002
Mac OS CPU Software Z-5.6"

[darthnVader]

I set the "pci-probe-mask" and all still boots with tbxi18b and the graphics drivers, haven't had the choppy mouse since that either though could be the randomness of it.

After removing the custom Sleeper controls panels and stuff used on the mini, and putting Apple's Energy Saver ones back in, followed by a reboot, going to Sleep does work and the light comes on pulsing, though yes, when waking up from sleep, the light does stop pulsing but the screen doesn't come back on.

The "Apple CPU Plugins" in Multiprocessing is this version:
"4.0, Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 1994-2002
Mac OS CPU Software Z-5.6"

That's the same result I'm having, but check, when you first enter sleep, the backlight turns off, then comes back on when the light on the front starts pulsating.

Then it turns back off when we try to exit sleep.

Helps to be in a darker room, so you can tell if the backlight is on or off.

The backlight maybe the issue with the system crashing on sleep exit, or that could be only one part of the issue, we'll have to see if the Mini can enter and exit sleep normally to know if it's one issue or two.

I've noted on the iBook, USB devices can't wake the System, so I assume with the Mini it's going to be the same, hopefully, the Mini can enter Sleep with the proper PCI-probe-mask and prim-info, and the power button can wake it normally.

As I recall, the Mini has no prim-info in Open Firmware, so ELN added what we can assume is the most correct version, tho it may take some fiddling with some of the unknown bits of the prim-info, as I did for the iBook. It's all a lot of trial and error, and I only ended up changing on bit for the iBook's prim-info, and I'm still not 100% sure I have it correct, as the bit I changed is undocumented, but without it we hang on the CPU Plugin loading.

[RossDarker]

Made the room dark, though there don't seem to be any changes with the backlight with sleeping and waking back up and when the sleep light starts pulsating - it seems to just to off completely.

When I do press the power button to wake up though I also hear the disk spin back up and the disc drive does it's sound.

Another observation was when the iBook had been slept, unplugging the power adapter made the screen go very bright with lines, with the sleep light still on, pressing the power button after that put the screen black again with backlight off, and had to force restart.

[DracheMitch]

I would love to see this happen.

I own an iBook G4 12" (PowerBook6,5) and it is my ideal Mac OS 9 laptop.  It's barely heavier than the PowerBook G4 12" and all its hardware is OS 9 supported.

[LarsG5]

Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee, please please pleaaaaseeeeeeeeee could somebody fix backlight control on pre-2005 G4 iBooks please, pretty please

[NKA_krokodil]

I'd absolutely love to run OS9 on my early iBook G4. It's a 12" one from 2003, & while I do also have a Mac Mini G4, my iBook's previous owner installed a 60 GB hard drive into it, while my Mini still has the stock 40 GB one. Curiously, the Airport & Bluetooth cards seem to be missing/not working in my Mini.

I'm yet to open it to check, though.

When I get a chance, I'll try installing the previously listed files & report back to this thread. I've never used OS9, but it looks pretty interesting.

[RossDarker]

With the tbxi tool from ELN, I've dumped and repacked the tbxi18b rom into one that now has a resource fork, and boots without needing Open Firmware commands.
Made an full install disc if anyone is interested, uses ASR as usual, and works fine on my iBook G4 1GHz 14", which is a PowerBook6,3. Results may vary across different devices, perhaps the backlight will be inverted on others.

For my device, the sound, backlight, trackpad, and DVD player all work perfectly - which have been common issues in other Macs. However, sleep doesn't work properly - so don't shut the lid of the iBook, instead use Sleep from the Special menu, which utilises the 'Sleeper' extension from Jon, same as in the Mini.
This system also uses custom ATI drivers, more details are above in this thread.

This CD is allowed to boot on PowerBook6,3 and PowerBook6,5 by default.

Rarely on boot, the mouse gets stuck as with the Mac mini, other rare times everything loads but then keeps refreshing at about 1fps. A reboot will solve both issues.

ISO: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VLSZDYEtUfzpNzTk3ODuisnYJ6PPTC_l/

The Mac OS ROM (BinHex'd) is also attached for quick access, maybe to modify an existing OS 9 installation.
If more progress is ever made on Sleep, I'd be able to update this.

[FBz]

I'll give it a go.
(Download and try possibly this weekend.)
Thanks!

[bamdad]

too bad this doesn't work on a PowerBook6,7 :(

i know there is a topic about this, and that the radeon card in the 2005 models has no os 9 drivers, but still, i'm always hoping someone might cook up something..

i have a pismo with 9.1 and it does everything i need it to, but it's bulky to carry around

[FBz]

Seems that I owe Ross an apology. Mea culpa!

Have yet to have the time to try that downloaded file.
But I shall, eventually.

Having way too much fun here (not really) making sawdust und welding.

[DieHard]

Yes, I have also dragged my feet, I will get this on a download board and give it the attention it needs as soon as I can

[FBz]

Well, well, well…
I’ve two 6,5 G4 iBooks - a 1.07 and a 1.2 (thanks to DH).
Both boot fine from the installer disc.

But as my luck would have it…
the backlight is then inverted on both! What’s the solution for this?

I can “see” everything on screen after the initial splash screens, but then all goes DARK.
Shining a flashlight down (and on) from above the screen reveals all that is open.

Update:
Nevermind. Brightness keyboard keys are "reversed".
One must "dim" the display in order to brighten it for viewing. 

Will now try install later today!

[FBz]

Easy Peezy and quite cool. Now this 6,5 G4 iBook boots OS 9 like a rocket.Thanks Ross!
[Wonder if there would be any advantage to using Drive Setup 2.1 over DS 1.9.2?]

Anyway…

Almost every machine here is a dual-boot. So I began (backwards) formatting the original internal 30 GB spinner Toshiba HD with a retail Leopard installer disc and two-partitioning it. (1st partition = 10 GB for OS 9 and the remainder 2nd partition for Leopard.) Then I installed Leopard. [Big dummy.] Had to scratch that and begin again by partitioning and installing OS 9 first, with the downloaded OS 9 from Ross. Then I reinstalled Leopard. (Still not so smart.) Every attempted boot with Leopard froze after revealing some problem loading the Dock. Regroup.

Then instead, I installed Tiger 10.4 on that second larger partition and it booted fine. Maybe I’ll have to “sneak up” on Leopard? (I prefer Tiger anyway.) BUT, partition and install OS 9 from Ross’s DL first.

Biggest pain is the need to dim the screen when booting from (or into) OS 9 in order to “see” the desktop and the brightness controls are thus reversed. You can choose to reboot into Tiger from OS 9 but in order to then boot back into OS 9 from Tiger, I use the Option-boot (and remember to “dim” the brightness when the screen appears to be blank / black). It will remind you.

No trackpad problems freezing and I have yet to attach a mouse to the thing. Initially I did my normal Extension Manager culling of control panels & extensions in OS 9… and I disabled Sleeper. Then I reactivated it and set screensaver delay to 30 minutes. Everything else I left alone as you do not want this thing to go to sleep because it will not wake… until after a reboot. (And then you’re reminded to reset the brightness!)

I wonder if that brightness inversion is only on the 6.5’s and not the 6.3’s?

This is a 1.07 GHz iBook G4 with 1.25 GB of RAM.
Just a bit speedier than my normal upstairs “desk compliment” 800 MHz G3 iBook (Mini “Moby Dick”).
Will begin loading other software on this G4 as time allows.

Oh… and a Happy Birthday to old man Greystash!
Thirty-one? Gawd that’s old.

Have a G4 iBook? Give this a try!

[RossDarker]

I left it as Drive Setup 1.9.2 as this allows you to format FireWire disks (including Macs over Target Disk Mode) which can’t seem to be done with DS 2.1, didn’t seem to be any other major changes than that between the versions, but I haven’t looked at changelogs!

Something reminds me that the inverted backlight can be fixed for the 6,5 but then it becomes inverted on the 6,3 - and so on (might not be the case). So there would have to be a better fix of course so both can work correctly.

Thanks for trying the install!

[FBz]

I began favoring Drive Setup 2.1 over DS 1.9.2 during the early days of the Mac Mini OS 9 installs. Seems that it cut the Mini’s initial boot time over using 1.9.2 (specifically with SSDs - IIRC). Now I nearly always use 2.1 with all G4’s - for formatting and partitioning. BUT I also keep a copy of 1.9.2 in the Utilities / Drive Setup folder - just for formatting external firewire drives used with OS 9.

(The Universal OS 9 Install has DS 1.9.2 while MacTron’s Rescue & Install has DS 2.1.)

So I may try to use 2.1 to reformat & partition the Toshiba HD in this G4 iBook (eventually) and then reinstall OS 9 from the G4 iBook Install CD. Just to see if there is any real performance difference.

As for the inverted backlight… if the fix for that is ever located / remembered, I’d love to know it and use it. I don’t mind the sleep issue as I seldom ever use a laptop for extended periods anyway. The solution for the backlight would be of great use for me.

Both G4 iBooks here are slated for winter projects. I planned on tearing them down and installing SSDs and some general cleaning & internal maintenance. (I may change my plans however after opening the first one as I understand that they are no picnic to disassemble.) But it’s that old notion of “What use is any G4, if it can’t boot OS 9?”.

And of course, I’ll try Leopard again too.

Much thanks again Ross. Do please keep us posted.

[vorob]

I'm a retro laptop collector, recently got iBook G4 (A1133) in my collection. While I was checking what retro games I could play on it I learned the story about OS9 Classic environment, its cons and so on. I also have a chance on getting older iBook G4 (A1054), as I understood it's fully compatible with OS9 and i can install this OS (with some work, of course) and i'll have fully HW acceleration and games will be working. Right?

p.s. is there a classic environment thread somewhere? I want to try fixing some stuff on my A1133, but don't know where to ask

[teroyk]

p.s. is there a classic environment thread somewhere? I want to try fixing some stuff on my A1133, but don't know where to ask

go:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,139.0.html
and start new topic for your question.

[vorob]

With the tbxi tool from ELN, I've dumped and repacked the tbxi18b rom into one that now has a resource fork, and boots without needing Open Firmware commands.
Made an full install disc if anyone is interested, uses ASR as usual, and works fine on my iBook G4 1GHz 14", which is a PowerBook6,3. Results may vary across different devices, perhaps the backlight will be inverted on others.

For my device, the sound, backlight, trackpad, and DVD player all work perfectly - which have been common issues in other Macs. However, sleep doesn't work properly - so don't shut the lid of the iBook, instead use Sleep from the Special menu, which utilises the 'Sleeper' extension from Jon, same as in the Mini.
This system also uses custom ATI drivers, more details are above in this thread.

This CD is allowed to boot on PowerBook6,3 and PowerBook6,5 by default.

Rarely on boot, the mouse gets stuck as with the Mac mini, other rare times everything loads but then keeps refreshing at about 1fps. A reboot will solve both issues.

ISO: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VLSZDYEtUfzpNzTk3ODuisnYJ6PPTC_l/

The Mac OS ROM (BinHex'd) is also attached for quick access, maybe to modify an existing OS 9 installation.
If more progress is ever made on Sleep, I'd be able to update this.

Downloading and burning this thing now. That's all i need? Just an ordinary installation? Cause i saw some video on youtube and there were some additional moves.