Mac OS 9 Lives

Mac OS 9 Discussion => Mac OS 9, Hacks & Upgrades => Mac OS 9 on Unsupported Hardware => Topic started by: hjalfi on January 01, 2021, 05:30:10 AM

Title: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz --- does it work?
Post by: hjalfi on January 01, 2021, 05:30:10 AM

I have a PowerBook G4 --- silver keyboard, power button is in the middle of the right hand bezel, and the label in the battery compartment says 1.25GHz/512MB/80G/SuperDrive/BT/APX/Backlit KB. I can't identify the model more than that as for some reason Apple never decided to label this machine.

I can't find a MacOS 9 image which will work. I've tried the universal boot CD, the CD for unsupported G4 Macs, and the Powerbook Titanium 1GHz image. I get 'Bootinfo is not compatible' errors when booting from OF, except for the Titanium image, which does load the ROM but then errors out with 'checksum error. Loading ELF. DO-QUIESCE finished'. multi-boot won't touch the CD images.

What is this machine, and can I get MacOS 9 running on it?

Title: Re: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz --- does it work?
Post by: Hopfenholz on January 01, 2021, 06:29:37 AM

It may be possible to get MacOS 9 to boot but it will never have native graphics support. Your easiest route to a reasonable Mac OS 9 experience is to install 10.3 Tiger and run Classic but obviously that won’t work for a lot of games.

Is it a 15” or a 12”?

Have you tried issuing the open firmware commands to spoof the model type and then booting into the unsupported cd?

Title: Re: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz --- does it work?
Post by: hjalfi on January 01, 2021, 08:16:59 AM

It's a 15". Honestly, I'm not particularly interested in games --- I'm more looking for testing MacOS applications on. What Open Firmware commands should I try?

Title: Re: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz --- does it work?
Post by: GaryN on January 01, 2021, 03:07:27 PM

From your description, it's almost certain you have the 9/2003 Powerbook 5,2;  Model# A1046;  Order# M8981LL/A

Is OS9 possible? Probably…more or less. Read this: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4781.0.html

It's a slightly later model than yours but the process may work. Depending on exactly which software you're trying to test, it may well be much more practical to run 10.4/Classic.

Title: Re: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz --- does it work?
Post by: hjalfi on January 02, 2021, 07:47:50 AM

That's worked almost flawlessly --- including trackpad, speakers, high screen depth, etc. The only bit which isn't is the ethernet port, but I'll take that up on the other thread. Thanks very much!

Mmm, Internet Explorer 5... I wonder if there are still any live exploits on the net?