Print

[darthnVader]

As far as the R9200 video Fcode ROM, it mixed in the the Mini's boot rom.

The New World Boot Rom is compressed, but I think JoeVT figured out a way to decompress it. you may want to message him over at the Mac Rumors forums.

If you are adding 32MB of VRAM it would help to have some high res photo of the silent upgrade Mini so we could get a look at the resister and logic board.

Maybe adding the resistors and VRAM is enough or maybe we would need to edit the 32MB FCOde ROM, or just inject/replace it with the FCODE ROM from the silent upgrade Boot ROM.

JoeVT would again be the one to ask.

I don't fool with much of this stuff anymore, we passed the point of diminishing returns on PPC. If you can't email and browse the web at good speed you just end up using sneaker net to move files from a modern Mac to PPC.

If you are just using PPC as a steady state machine to run old programs, all the upgrade paths are known to get the most speed out of them. I'm an upgrade junky but the Mac has to be able to run a modern browser and email or I'm just done with it.

Won't be any more video cards for PPC unless someone unlocks the mysteries of the die shrink 7600's/7900's from Nvidia.  There are no drivers for the Mac OS beyond that and not much we can do.

It's sad when you love hacking FCODE that no computer systems use Open Firmware and run the Mac OS anymore, but Apple went the way they went 20 years ago and these projects have come to an end for me.

Sadly macOS can't do PCI Passthrough via thunderbolt and the macOS can't use video cards via thunderbolt on AppleSoC.

SO until that changes I just don't have any fun to do indoors, so I'm back out in the garage having fun with turbos and hot rods. 

[Jubadub]

[...] I think JoeVT figured out a way to decompress it. you may want to message him over at the Mac Rumors forums.

@joevt has been here on MacOS9Lives, as well.

[joevt]

You can get the Mac mini boot rom using https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/question-how-powerful-of-a-graphics-card-will-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/post-32937887
If you post it here, then I can see if there's fcode for R9200 in there.

[ssp3]

You can get the Mac mini boot rom using https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/question-how-powerful-of-a-graphics-card-will-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/post-32937887
If you post it here, then I can see if there's fcode for R9200 in there.

Hang on.. is that a 'flashrom' build for Mac? Can it be used to dump Mac Mini onboard ROMs? If so, it could be very useful to compare "original" and "silent upgrade" ROMs to figure out what they've screwed improved in graphics department with later one.

[joevt]

Hang on.. is that a 'flashrom' build for Mac? Can it be used to dump Mac Mini onboard ROMs? If so, it could be very useful to compare "original" and "silent upgrade" ROMs to figure out what they've screwed improved in graphics department with later one.

Yes and Yes.

https://github.com/joevt/flashrom/blob/bb1afb074b2dc64aeb3bf5667ab05e731db4aaf1/doc/classic_cli_manpage.rst#L309

Try the anymem programmer first. One of the scripts in the zip file uses that method to get the Mac rom.

There's an internal programmer but it hangs my B&W G3 - it might work on later Macs but I haven't tried it. If it works without crashing then compare the result with the anymem result. You probably need to hold the power button at boot until you hear a chime to get into programmer mode.

The anypci programmer can get the option rom from any PCI card that has an option rom. Some PCI cards hide their option rom after boot (may return bad data). If it has an Open Firmware option ROM image, then DumpPCIRom.sh will convert it to Forth and verify the checksum.

[ssp3]

A bit more detailed instructions would be helpful. All I can see at the moment is a ton of .c files. Do I have to compile them first? And where/which is the script you're talking about?

[joevt]

A bit more detailed instructions would be helpful. All I can see at the moment is a ton of .c files. Do I have to compile them first? And where/which is the script you're talking about?

In the macrumors post that I linked in a previous reply (top of this page) is an attachment.

Try the get-new-world-rom.command script first.

The read-rom-internal.command might work but it might cause a hang. It would be interesting to know if there's a Mac that this method works with. @dosdude1 has a linux version of flashrom that uses this method which works for some Macs.

[ssp3]

In the macrumors post that I linked in a previous reply (top of this page) is an attachment.

Try the get-new-world-rom.command script first.

So, if I understand it correctly, I have to install DirectHW.kext first by using KextUtil.sh, right?
And then I have to put flashrom binary into what? /usr/bin/ ?

[joevt]

So, if I understand it correctly, I have to install DirectHW.kext first by using KextUtil.sh, right?
And then I have to put flashrom binary into what? /usr/bin/ ?

You can view the .command scripts to see how they do it. They install directhw.kext temporarily.

You can install Direct-HW.kext however you like. You can view KextUtil.sh to see how it does it.

You can just use the .command script by double clicking it. It gets executed in a new Terminal.app window.

You do not need to install flashrom to /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin or whatever. You see in the command script it executes flashrom from the same directory that the command script is in using sudo ./flashrom

[joevt]

I tested flashrom in Mac OS X Leopard on my Quad G5. Seems both programmer methods work.
 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/question-how-powerful-of-a-graphics-card-will-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/post-33132482