Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Mac OS 9, Hacks & Upgrades => Mac OS 9 on Unsupported Hardware => Topic started by: Cloudane on February 13, 2015, 05:34:42 PM
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Greetings and nice work, guys!
It was only really a coincidence that I was cleaning up some old stuff and wondered if it was possible to run OS 9.2 on anything yet (being that the emulators for PC only go up to 9.0). In a last ditch "meh" I dug out my old love the PowerBook G4 (my first Mac :)) and did some Googling and eventually ended up here. Nice timing, as it look like you just got it figured out :o
I grabbed and burned the ISO for unsupported G4 Macs here
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=2143.0
It didn't start but I did the open firmware commands here
https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?pid=4889#p4889
Then it started no problem! I almost died when I saw that old Happy Mac icon :)
Post installation, the boot gets to like 95% worth of the progress bar and freezes. Along the bottom, the jigsaw pieces go as far as what looks like a PC compatibility extension. It's a total hard freeze, no mouse movement.
Still, I'm impressed it made it this far! The display looks ok, the sound works, wow! Of course, if anyone knows how to get further in the boot, all the better...
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will it boot up with extensions off?
(hold shift while booting i think?)
http://support.apple.com/en-ca/TS1926
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That was fast! Good call, I just tried that. Gets to the end of the "Starting Up" progress bar and then freezes again, unfortunately!
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which is the last extension puzzle piece to show up before it freezes?
or does it get past that part?
wait
which machine is it
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.33_12.html geforce FX Go5200
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.33_15.html radeon 9700
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.33_17.html radeon 9600
i think noone has got this to work unfortunately..
i think its a problem to do with the video card ??
does your powerbook have nvidia or radeon graphics?
i think u might be short on luck with this one man:(
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It's the 12. Forgot to mention the size. I seem to recall its NVidia chip can be a bit of a gotcha when trying to hack things onto it.
It gets to like a PC compatibility extension if the extensions are loaded, but as mentioned, also freezes if I hold shift to disable extensions.
Screenshot http://cloudane.com/bucket/2015-02/IMG_0401.JPG
The installer works so I think there's hope?
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(http://cloudane.com/bucket/2015-02/IMG_0401.JPG)
wow thats annoying.. its like RIGHT about to boot too.. 1 tiny little smidge away
it looks like the last things it loaded were USB + pc file exchange ..
if its your only mac os 9 system then theres not much u can do..
if u have another mac os 9 machine u could use target disk mode to access the drive and somehow make some changes
but that might require expertise, experience + precision (and some magic fairy dust)
u would need some help frm "iMic" from thinkclassic
do u have another partition with osx ?
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I know :p
Oh well. I only have OS X systems... including this one I guess. So close, considering the CD boots, as well. I guess that's that. Thanks for the input, though
E: Hold up! I missed something at the end of this post https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?pid=4889#p4889
before rebooting. Worth a shot...
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It works!!! Oh my! I just had to read iMic's post properly over there (whoops) and trash the Multiprocessing folder from "HD > System Folder > Extensions" before rebooting from the installation CD. I recovered it by booting from the CD and doing just that.
Things that don't work that I didn't expect to work anyway:
Airport
Sleep
LAN works, I just poked Google from IE5. They must be shocked.
Great work iMic et al :)
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The CD ROM System Folder hasn't this Multiprocessing folder, if my memory serves.
BTW. What about Video Acceleration?. Maybe iMic have a updated ROM for this PowerBook.
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Great news Cloudane!! how about another success screenshot;)
The CD ROM System Folder hasn't this Multiprocessing folder, if my memory serves.
u mean it was already removed from the install cd?
probably that is for booting the installer...
but the process of doing the install adds the folder during the install perhaps?
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u mean it was already removed from the install cd?
probably that is for booting the installer...
but the process of doing the install adds the folder during the install perhaps?
Yes, you are right.
I don't have this CD. I only need the proper Mac Os ROM, you knows. LOL
But - if I'm not wrong - I have worked in to the startup System folder for this CD. -afro-
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Posting from it now. Whee, postception!
Only VGA mode - it's the oddball NVidia model so I'm not expecting much. I did try an official NVidia OS 9 driver and it just said machine not supported.
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is it a 1.2 or 1.33 - did u overclock the cpu somehow?
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I just realized that this PowerBook have a NV35 video engine (the NVidia GeForce FX Go5200) so... I'm afraid that nobody knows how to make it to work in Mac Os 9 :'(
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i know on windows 98 i was able to edit the .inf graphic file and literally just type in new entries for the video modes and it worked to enable 1680x1050 aspect ratio on my geforce 2..
i believe this card can work but someone has to figure it out..
so untill someone figures it out u are stuck with low color mode
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1.33, no overclocking. Yeah it's the go5200. I remember from my Linux tinkering that it's a bit of a mystery card to support (in the case of Linux it worked, but no one knew how to make sleep work with it) so I don't hold out a lot of hope, will keep an eye open though!
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oh right. the 12 is the screen size .. ;) my bad
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i know on windows 98 i was able to edit the .inf graphic file and literally just type in new entries for the video modes and it worked to enable 1680x1050 aspect ratio on my geforce 2..
i believe this card can work but someone has to figure it out..
so untill someone figures it out u are stuck with low color mode
Even if you could increase the resolution or the bit depth, without proper drivers support, the video card is in "compatibility mode" (no acceleration) and in this way the computer is barely usable.
We are figuring out now, that video card support is the main fault in some of this new unofficial "Mac Os 9" machines ...
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If we could code drivers ourselves using previous drivers as templates and tune them to work for these particular cards, I think we could be on to a winner. yep, a lot of work but it's worth looking into. perhaps it's worth contacting developers like NVIDIA / ATI or whoever they are now (can't keep up with the changes lol)
ed
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I tried again with these hints and links but so far no luck with my 1,67 Ghz PowerBook 5,8 . When booting "ALT" to choose the boot-partition it sees the OS9 installer CD but then the computer shuts down. - Any ideas how to proceed?
I did apply the Open Firmware commands mentioned above:
https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?pid=4889#p4889
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I can confirm officially that the model you specify, is like the Powerbook G4 17" 1.67ghz I had in for a couple of days. I confirm that OS 9.2 does NOT work on this machine regardless of ROM change, firmware commands, etc. the reason behind this is due to apple developing these models after OS9.2 was stopped as supprted OS's, so they made their firmware OS X only.
sorry, it won't work. only through classic and that's buggy because of the GPU.
ed
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cyberish..seeing as u have a completely diff model might be best for u to start your own thread rather then hijack this one!
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chris... sure! actually I thought having a model just one generation newer than the one in this post:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.67_15.html
but actually it's two generations newer:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.67_15_hr.html
end of hijacking. thx
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cyberish;
it just makes it easier for someone else googling or looking up the same model in the future
to find the relevant info thats all and avoids confusion of other people commenting on the thread
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Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but it seems like I'm on the same model for a 12" 1.33 (PowerBook 6,4) with the Go5200 graphics so I opted to keep it in this thread rather than start a new one for the same model. When I enter the OF commands listed above and use the CD I burned for the unsupported ISO, I just get the blank blue/grayish screen and nothing happens.
I know the CD seems OK and bootable because I booted with it into a G4 Digital Audio which already does support native OS 9.
Am I missing something? This model does have a 7447A which has been problematic in the past but it looks like this was successfully booted in this thread using that CD and the OF commands listed.
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I know the CD seems OK and bootable because I booted with it into a G4 Digital Audio which already does support native OS 9.
All G4 DA boot 9 unless they have an OS X only graphics card.
Try to follow all http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,127.0.html (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,127.0.html) post to find similarities with your machine.
Did you find another FX 5200 Go on OS9? Radeon 9800 works without 2D/3D accel.
People take out the airport card and the bluetooth module to have less OS X only hardware.
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I know the CD seems OK and bootable because I booted with it into a G4 Digital Audio which already does support native OS 9.
All G4 DA boot 9 unless they have an OS X only graphics card.
Maybe I wasn't clear. I only brought up the G4DA because I wanted to confirm that my inability to get past the initial gray screen on trying to book my PB6,4 wasn't because of a badly burned CD, not because it wasn't booting. Because I was able to boot the CD on a Mac that I know supports OS 9, I more or less ruled out a bad and unbootable CD as the problem. And since I know I entered the OF commands above properly, I don't know where I'm getting stuck trying to boot my 12" PBG4 Al 1.33.
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People take out the airport card and the bluetooth module to have less OS X only hardware.
Did you do that?
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Did you do that?
Just got back to trying it again. Was playing with a new project souping up a 7600.
I didn't do this but for some reason it worked this time. I did have to remove the Multiprocessing folder after the "unsupported G4" CD restored all the files. (I did it on an external FireWire drive, haven't replaced the content of the internal HD yet.) Last time I tried it, I didn't get past a gray screen even after entering the OF commands, and I'm pretty sure I did it right (tried a few times and reset PRAM with each new try), so I have no idea.
Yeah, the Airport in this doesn't work so I had to use a wireless Ethernet bridge I had. The only other thing I've noticed so far at startup is a warning dialog about drivers not being installed for some "unknown" USB device -- which is odd since I had no USB devices installed. But hey, I'm in!
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That unknown USB device will be the internal bluetooth because it is actually a USB device. Had the same in my MDD FW800 and could eliminate the message by physically detaching the BT board.
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That unknown USB device will be the internal bluetooth because it is actually a USB device. Had the same in my MDD FW800 and could eliminate the message by physically detaching the BT board.
Ah, got it, thanks. Was wondering about the significance of taking out the BT module. Leaving in the Airport doesn't seem to matter, it just doesn't work. (That said, if it is in a laptop, it's not usable and it takes power, why leave it?) And since this model has no card slot like my TiBook, the only workaround for getting wifi seems to be a wireless Ethernet bridge. I have one that connects to the USB port for power, assuming the USB port provides enough power on battery to keep it going (how much it hits battery life is a separate issue).
Didn't know the BT device would be treated as USB. I guess it's like how adding a PCI IDE/ATA card to my 7600 leaves that connected ATA drive being reported as SCSI. Anyway, for now I guess I'll just live with that message at startup unless I decide to kick OS X off this machine for good.
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The only difference in your example is that the BT is a true USB device that is hardwired to the USB controller internally through a dedicated port, while the PCI ATA controller card identifies itself as SCSI only for addressing and boot sequence purposes. This practice was common on PCs so that you could select boot device order - the bios only had presets for one ATA and one SCSI device usually, so an add-on ATA card would generally have to take the SCSI device address in order to be bootable. The theory and purpose is loosely similar in Mac terms, but I suspect it's mostly carry-over industry practice than for any other reason.
Anyway, you get the idea.