Author Topic: Mac OS 9 booting on: PowerBook G4 1.33 GHz 17" Al 5,3  (Read 915 times)

Offline ssp3

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Mac OS 9 booting on: PowerBook G4 1.33 GHz 17" Al 5,3
« on: October 23, 2023, 09:00:11 PM »
Made my own ROM for the 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 the other day.

Adding ATI driver by darthnVader made resolution switching possible.
I also made the backlight adjustment to work.

Audio works without quirks.
ASIO driver for my FireWire MH 2882 interface works.
FW800 port works at FW400 speeds, but has the same problems as any other FW800 equipped PB G4 with many external drives (but not all) producing errors.
Networking not tested (not interested).

What doesn't work is graphics acceleration, but, honestly, I can live with that until darthnVader nails it (nag, nag).  :D

Given that 17" 1 GHz model often has problems with L3 cache and disables it, this one has a chance to become my favourite large display G4 portable machine, because it has larger L2 cache and is faster.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2023, 09:16:30 PM by ssp3 »
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Offline DieHard

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Re: Mac OS 9 booting on: PowerBook G4 1.33 GHz 17" Al 5,3
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2023, 09:44:32 AM »
Excellent !  Please attach the ROM and ATI drivers here for easy reference for others that may have a 1.33 :)

I am thinking that Darth gave the 9600 a good try and in the end, we may never get acceleration for it :(

Offline ssp3

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Re: Mac OS 9 booting on: PowerBook G4 1.33 GHz 17" Al 5,3
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2023, 03:02:42 PM »
So, here are the necessary files.

1. The ROM file. Based on 10.2.1 Made explicitly for 17" PowerBook G4 1.33 GHz. It is reflected in 'About this Macintosh' and 'Get Info' windows.
2. ATI extension made by darthnVader.

NOTES.
* It won't work in any other G4.
* You have to remove Multiprocessing folder from Extensions folder or machine will hang.
* The boot drive has to be made on/from another machine.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.