Mac OS 9 Lives

Classic Mac OS Hardware => Mac OS 9 on Unsupported Hardware => Topic started by: darthnVader on February 17, 2021, 12:45:15 AM

Title: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on February 17, 2021, 12:45:15 AM
I've asked RossDarker to put us together an install CD/DVD for OS 9 on the Early iBook G4's.

If you'd like to see such a thing, please chime in here so we can gage interest in the project.

For those that don't know Ross maintains the install CD for OS 9 on the Mini, and it's a great success, and I think Ross would do one for the early iBook G4's if he knew people would find it useful.

Maybe, we could put together a group of people willing to make a small donation so that we can buy and ship an early iBook G4 to Ross for testing, these things can normally be had for $35 or less, plus the costs of shipping.

So, who is in?

I'm in, and would be willing to purchase, or donate to the purchase of an iBook for Ross, if we can get some other small donations to cover the costs of shipping.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: DieHard on February 17, 2021, 10:21:38 AM
I'm in...
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: Eason85 on February 18, 2021, 09:15:40 AM
What's the difference between an "early" iBook g4 vs the mid 2005 iBook? I just bought a mid-2005 to give it a try.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: DracheMitch on February 18, 2021, 05:58:40 PM
Is this to make it for the 7455 or the 7447a? I have a 7447a I can’t get 9 to boot on that I really want to use as my portable 9 machine.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on February 19, 2021, 12:51:47 AM
What's the difference between an "early" iBook g4 vs the mid 2005 iBook? I just bought a mid-2005 to give it a try.

The Early iBook G4's (2003/Early 2004/Late 2004) Range from 800Mhz/933Mhz/1.0Ghz G4 7457( 2003 ) 1.0ghz/1.2Ghz G4 7447a( Early 2004 ) 1.2Ghz/1.33ghz G4 7447a( late 2004 ) and all share the Radeon 9200 Mobility graphics, supported by OS 9 with our hacked drivers. Where as the mid 2005 uses the Radeon 9550 graphics and can only be used in 'NDRV'( screen resolution and bit depth changing only ).

Technically, the R9200 is the same GPU as the Radeon 8500/9000 when it comes to driver support, it's just a binary patch to add device ID's to the OS 9 drivers and a special 'NDRV' we took from OS X and packaged for OS 9.

The 9550 is of the family of the R9600/R9700 and there were never any OS 9 driver for us to hack, so no 2D/3D graphics acceleration is ever going to be written for OS 9 without a complete rewrite of OS 9's graphics stack. Never likely to happen, because Apple won't share the documentation.

The other major difference between the Early iBook G4's and the Mid 2005 is the ADB trackpad vs the USB Trackpad. The USB trackpad is a non standard HID device and has no OS 9 drivers, and no OS X drivers in versions of OS X that shipped before mid 2005. It does have linux drivers, so it would be relatively trivial to write an OS 9 driver for it. The USB Trackpad will work by removing USB drivers, but then you lose USB functionality, and the trackpad still tracks the screen way too slow to be used.

BlueTooth and Wifi don't work on either model, no drivers.

Sleep doesn't work on either model, no documentation on Apple's K2 chipset, and no documentation on OS 9's Power Stack, tho I think we can get Hibernation to file to work in lieu of proper sleep under OS 9.

USB only works in USB1.1 mode, no driver for USB2 under OS 9. Again, relatively trivial to write driver for OS 9.

Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on February 26, 2021, 03:44:43 AM
I've been working on a ROM for @RossDarker to compile us a new install/restore CD/DVD for the Early iBook G4's. I've run into a bit of a pickle, the 7457 that came in the Original iBook G4 doesn't support DFS, so the script I use for the 7447a iBooks to set-dfs-high will cause the Original iBook G4 with the 7457 to stop executing the ROM.

Can I use a Bootscript in the Mac OS ROM to check the model and make an if case for the 7447a without effecting the 7455?

Basically I need to check if we are running on PowerBook6,3 then do nothing with DFS, but if we are running on PowerBook6,5 then set-dfs-high. I could also check the cpu-version property, but I'd need the same if cases.

Maybe if I gave one ROM the PowerBook6,3 compatible property and another ROM the PowerBook6,5 compatible property, and we put both in the System Folder of our boot/install CD/DVD, Open Firmware would pick the correct one?

That really doesn't seem like a good solution, nor does making a separate install DISC for the Original iBook G4, as that's twice as much work on Ross.

The last alternative would be to do nothing with DFS, and just add a user's note to set-dis-high in Open Firmware before booting when they want to run the CPU at full speed, or just leave them the option to install the Mac OS ROM that set-dis-high?

 
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on February 27, 2021, 12:29:01 PM
https://youtu.be/9SGUteOKrE8
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: DieHard on February 28, 2021, 12:07:14 PM
https://youtu.be/9SGUteOKrE8

1st: thanks for the "Diehard" reference

2nd: that is so weird you included the Bill Paxton scene that I play at least once a month and still get a laugh out of it,
"That's just fu%kin great man, now WTF are we we supposed to do" I remember to repeat this mantra every time I break a component off a logic board
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 02, 2021, 03:46:58 AM
Seems Ross ended up with the PowerBook,6,3, that would be the original iBook G4 with the 7457 CPU.

The ROM I've been using on my iBook G4( PowerBook6,5 ) doesn't seem to work on the 6,3, I suspect that I was using the Mac mini branch with the patches for the Mini with a 7447a with a custom prim_info string and the THERM register patch.

I think the 7457 likely doesn't need that THREM register patch, and maybe preventing booting.

iMac really started all this ROM hacking and OS 9 booting on unsupported systems with a iBook, and I think that was the 6,3, so we may end up with needing two install discs, not my preferred solution, but I doubt we can make an if case for a patch like the THERM register patch.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 02, 2021, 04:18:02 AM
Ross, give this ROM a try:

Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 03, 2021, 10:25:09 AM
Ross, give this ROM a try:

This one doesn't seem to boot for me, and another odd thing is that it doesn't show up when holding the option key as previous one did after I made that little edit, even though both have PowerBook6,3 in now.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 04, 2021, 01:59:27 AM
Something gone wrong with my build env, you'll have to load the :tbxi from Open Firmware by providing the absolute path. IE:

Code: [Select]
boot hd:9,\System%20Folder\tbxi29
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 04, 2021, 03:54:53 AM
Working pretty good!

Originally still didn't like to boot from the internal HD, so I decided to try it on a CD-RW which was definitely formatted properly and that did work, and that also meant I was finally able to format the internal HD with drive setup and this time not over firewire from a different Mac.

Volume's all working, and after I put the graphics drivers in Extensions, the desktop background now shows the proper pattern and Bugdom starts (didn't before I put the drivers in), however Bugdom does say that no 3D accelerator was found.
And then yeah there's the brightness slider which seems to be stuck.

Another question though, should I be including the Sleeper extension and control panel on this CD like I do for the mini or is this one okay without.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 04, 2021, 06:34:41 AM
Working pretty good!

Originally still didn't like to boot from the internal HD, so I decided to try it on a CD-RW which was definitely formatted properly and that did work, and that also meant I was finally able to format the internal HD with drive setup and this time not over firewire from a different Mac.

Volume's all working, and after I put the graphics drivers in Extensions, the desktop background now shows the proper pattern and Bugdom starts (didn't before I put the drivers in), however Bugdom does say that no 3D accelerator was found.
And then yeah there's the brightness slider which seems to be stuck.

Another question though, should I be including the Sleeper extension and control panel on this CD like I do for the mini or is this one okay without.

Now that you are sure you have proper OS 9 drivers, you may want to try tbxi18, as it's a better branch I've been maintaining than tbxi29.

I have big news on Sleep, I have successfully entered sleep to ram on my iBook G4( iBook6,5 )Sleeps on lid closed, sleeps on menu command, and sleeps on Energy Saver preferences.

I'm crashing on wake, but I've got some other things to try, and I'm sure one of the issues is the dodgy hack I'm using for the backlight. System enters sleep, sleep light on the front comes on and pulsates like it should, however the backlight comes back on when system enters sleep, and goes back off when we thy to enter wake.

I'd really like someone with the Mini to try this, I sold mine on some while back, we're pretty close to cracking the sleep to ram nut, as I suspected, it's USB2 and the Airport Extreme card crashing the iBook when we try to enter sleep, both can be disabled with the proper "pic-probe-mask" in Open Firmware, without disabling USB1.1.

I'll start a new thread on the sleep issues soon.

As before, you need to provide the absolute path to tbxi18.

Also, if you have OS X, I need the prim-info from you iBook G4( 6,3 )

Code: [Select]
ioreg -l | grep prim-info
If you don't have OS X installed you can get it from OF but not OS 9 as my tbxi is setting the prim-info to what works on the 6,5.

 
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 04, 2021, 08:05:53 AM
With tbxi18, I'm left at:
Code: [Select]
set-dfs-high, unknown word
 ok
0 >

For the prim info from the iBook:
Code: [Select]
"prim-info" = <000000ff0000006000003e8000017fb50202d607000000000001130046000220101400>
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 04, 2021, 02:57:24 PM
With tbxi18, I'm left at:
Code: [Select]
set-dfs-high, unknown word
 ok
0 >

For the prim info from the iBook:
Code: [Select]
"prim-info" = <000000ff0000006000003e8000017fb50202d607000000000001130046000220101400>

Looks like we have the same prim-info, so that's good, now if we can just get on the some ROM file, try this one, it should have the backlight enabled, tho for me it's inverted, you may boot up to your backlight being all the way down if your's is inverted, just try the brightness down key if you can't see anything.

Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 05, 2021, 03:08:46 AM
This 18b one is working good, the backlight wasn't inverted as well, with the brightness keys working as normal.
Another thing, DVD player is working too with the usual patch.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 05, 2021, 03:36:18 AM
This 18b one is working good, the backlight wasn't inverted as well, with the brightness keys working as normal.
Another thing, DVD player is working too with the usual patch.

That's good news, now we are using the same branch with my 6,5 and your 6,3, I just need to fix my build env so our ROM is a valid :tbxi.

If you have a chance, checkout sleep, and see if that works any better for you. You must have the latest Apple CPU Plugin in the /Extensions/Multiprocessor folder( 4.0 I think ).

And boot with this "pci-probe-mask".

Code: [Select]
setenv pci-probe-mask 0xf8fbffff
reset-all

If something goes wrong and the iBook won't boot, hold Command+Power at startup, keep holding, wait for the  Programers tone, keep holding, wait for the boot chime, keep holding, the system will enter OF with the defaults loaded.

Reset the pci-probe-mask:

Code: [Select]
setenv pci-probe-mask 0xfffffff
reset-all

Also check the device ID of your R9200, mine is 5c63, just want to make sure it's the same.



Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 05, 2021, 03:40:25 AM
Ross,

Make sure you don't have a conflict between the R8500 3D driver, the I changed the name of the 8500 3D Driver to 9200.

If you have both in your System Folder, delete the 8500 3D driver.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 05, 2021, 05:55:43 AM
Ross, is your iBook 12" or 14"?
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 05, 2021, 06:16:25 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 05, 2021, 06:25:56 AM
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.

Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 05, 2021, 06:53:03 AM
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"
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on March 05, 2021, 07:15:26 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on March 05, 2021, 07:36:32 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: DracheMitch on March 20, 2021, 02:34:14 PM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: LarsG5 on April 01, 2021, 11:45:39 AM
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee, please please pleaaaaseeeeeeeeee could somebody fix backlight control on pre-2005 G4 iBooks please, pretty please :(
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: NKA_krokodil on June 25, 2021, 11:57:21 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on August 04, 2022, 07:57:01 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: FBz on August 04, 2022, 12:39:43 PM
I'll give it a go.
(Download and try possibly this weekend.)
Thanks! ;)
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: bamdad on August 20, 2022, 10:39:51 AM
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
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: FBz on August 20, 2022, 07:13:00 PM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: DieHard on August 21, 2022, 03:01:36 PM
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
Title: Re: Install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: FBz on August 22, 2022, 07:42:45 AM
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.  :o

Will now try install later today!
Title: Re: Install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: FBz on August 24, 2022, 02:21:04 PM
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. :o

Have a G4 iBook? Give this a try!
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on August 24, 2022, 04:42:29 PM
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!
Title: Re: Install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: FBz on August 24, 2022, 09:54:51 PM
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. ;)
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: vorob on September 18, 2022, 02:32:26 AM
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 :)
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: teroyk on September 19, 2022, 08:22:54 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: vorob on September 24, 2022, 06:47:44 AM
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.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: FBz on September 24, 2022, 11:21:13 AM
Yup. Easy peezy.

Only concern I had was the screen brightness setting after the install.
(The control is reversed and I had to "dim" my screen in order to "see" it after reboot.)

Have fun ;)

*And screen brightness reversal may not be same on all.
So please report your experience. Thanks!
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: vorob on September 25, 2022, 07:25:27 AM
I successfully burned cd on my ibook, launched setup and my backlight turned off. After numerous of light key press i managed to get lowest brightness, but battery then using flashlight :). With it i initialized hdd and start restoring, but in the end i received error message:

There was a problem calculating the checksum of the configuration macintosh hd.img on the volume macintosh hd. You may need to try again.

Any idea?
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: RossDarker on September 25, 2022, 07:34:24 AM
Are you able to mount that Macintosh HD image manually? it’s in the Configurations folder on the CD.

Haven’t had this error before, maybe the disc just didn’t burn correctly, did you use the verify option when burning?

If you can mount the image, you could drag the folders inside over to the HD, but it should restore fine with ASR.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: ceratophyllum on September 28, 2022, 10:20:16 AM
I installed OS 9.2.2 using the boot disk available here on an iBook G4 14" and the screen goes black shortly after most of the extensions load. Pressing brightness down (F1) 20-30 times brightens the screen.  However, I noticed something curious after I installed OpenBSD 7.1 to another partition: if you do not automatically boot mac os 9, but stop at the OpenFirmware prompt and then type mac-boot, Mac OS 9 fully boots and the screen does not go black!

I have run the following openfirmware commands so that the mac waits at the OpenFirmware prompt for me to choose to boot OS 9 (mac-boot) or OpenBSD (boot hd:,ofwboot)

setenv auto-boot? false
reset-all

I am not recommending anyone install OpenBSD 7.1, but rather stopping the boot process at the OF prompt to mitigate the annoying black screen problem (and save the now precious F1 key from wearing out!).

(OpenBSD 7.1 PPC and I suspect most 32bit linux distros currently have NO Firefox and one is better off using the last Classilla on os 9.)
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: vorob on October 27, 2022, 02:46:41 PM
Are you able to mount that Macintosh HD image manually? it’s in the Configurations folder on the CD.

Haven’t had this error before, maybe the disc just didn’t burn correctly, did you use the verify option when burning?

If you can mount the image, you could drag the folders inside over to the HD, but it should restore fine with ASR.

I tried once again and it also alerted me about checksum issues. But i did what you said and after mounting image i successfully copied files to the drive. Now i've got os9 on my ibook :) Thanks!

I think the backlight is not that bright like it is in osx. And when i turn on my pc with os9 i've got black screen, need to press brightness button numerous of times. And i was surprised that os9 don't know how to handle dmg files.

I also don't have space on my hdd, that's strange :)
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: vorob on October 29, 2022, 10:54:10 AM
Yep, take a look left one is 2005 model with OS X tiger and right one is 2004 with os9. It’s definitely not entering it’s full brightness. Any chance to fix it?
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: vorob on February 13, 2023, 02:20:20 AM
Guys, tell me i'm not alone, who have extremely dark picture in OS9 on ibook 2004? And weird light contols.
Title: Re: Poll, who wants a install CD for Early iBook G4's?
Post by: darthnVader on February 13, 2023, 05:27:30 AM
Guys, tell me i'm not alone, who have extremely dark picture in OS9 on ibook 2004? And weird light contols.

Yes, it's an issue.

No it's not likely to be fixed.