I have a feeling that all the newcomer user base is mostly interested in getting cheap G3/G4, slapping OS9 onto it, playing a retro game or two and then putting the machine back in the corner.

Well to be fair, os9 as daily driver in 2024 isnt really an option

We would profit if we enter a mindset where its just a hobby rather
Than for professional use

Quote from: Knezzen on April 28, 2024, 07:38:56 AM

Know of a thread from the forum that should be posted as a tutorial on the new website? Please post it below!

 - display calibration

LOL. I think I'm the only one here who does it on a regular basis.

I wrote about it in the past here:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=4726
and here
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=6582.msg49764#msg49764
and here
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=3481.msg50307#msg50307
and here recently
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=7061

Not much of an interest, I have to say.

P.S. All the displays that I tested in Mini display oddities thread were calibrated too.

P.P.S. I have a feeling that all the newcomer user base is mostly interested in getting cheap G3/G4, slapping OS9 onto it, playing a retro game or two and then putting the machine back in the corner. All the tutorials will be "für die Katz".

Many many things etc...

With links!

What mode is the graphics card trying to use when the display goes black?

Some things to try:
- A modern display that isn't limited to 1920x1080 60Hz. I have a Acer XV273K 4K display which can accept anything up to 5K60 or 8K30 via DisplayPort. Not sure about HDMI/DVI though.
- Connect two displays - one display that is known to work so that you can see what timing is being attempted on the display that doesn't work.
- If you can't get two displays, then maybe a screen sharing app, so you can use another Mac to see what's happening when the display goes black on the first Mac.
- A custom EDID adapter like Dr HDMI 8K.
- A scan converter that can take an input and convert it to a different timing that is acceptable by the display.
- A HDMI capture device (USB or PCIe) - maybe it can accept what ever is being output.
- SwitchRes - I don't remember if the OS 9 version has custom timing options? Maybe it can at least disable modes that don't work with your display.

Regarding DVI to HDMI adapters : they are all single link even if they say dual link.

Noname VGA to HDMI USB-Powered Active Converter are terrible. They only work with some modes, produce blurry results, and loose some lines of pixels.

Nvidia 7800 or Nvidia Quadro FX4500 should be able to do 1440p60 or 4K30 using Dual Link DVI to DisplayPort adapter.

In the post by ELN that you linked, he mentions his PEF viewer and assembler python scripts. He said:
"To achieve this, I got sidetracked and wrote a single-file PowerPC assembler script (ppcasm.py) and PEF dump/rebuild script (cfmtool.py):"
 https://github.com/elliotnunn/tbxi-patches/
I haven't tried them to verify that the disassemble -> assemble steps are deterministic/reversible, such that you can disassemble the assembled product to get an assembly that matches the first assembly (for example, my DumpPCIRom -> toke utilities can recreate the Open Firmware PCI option ROM from the Forth code generated by the original Open Firmware PCI option ROM). If they work, then that might be the simplest way to go. The labels generated by cfmtool could be altered to be order based instead of position based if they are not already.

A python script to rename all the labels in IDA is another option. Hopper can also do PEF but it's buggy.

Re. disassembler - check PM.
Whether it can compare binaries, I don't think so, i.e. I don't see such option in the menus. It can produce dif file, but that one is probably based on changes one makes to the disassembled binary. I also have to admit that I only scratched the surface of this monster.

There is a VisualDiffer for OSX, but I don't think that the way it compares binaries is useful here. See attachment with both asms compared.
Then there's Araxis Merge, but that's not much better either.

Can you change the assembly format to use order based names instead of offset based names?

I don't see that option.

MPW - never ever used it, don't have it installed. (I'm not a programmer).

I suppose one could easily create a script to rename offset based labels as order based labels.

The disassembler does support Python 2.7 ..