Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Mac OS 9, Hacks & Upgrades => Topic started by: UnexpectedBomb on September 06, 2026, 10:10:39 PM
-
A true USB 2.0 solution for CardBus under Mac OS 9 is here!
I developed a single system extension for Titanium G4 PowerBooks that will give you true USB 2.0 speeds for NEC-chipset CardBus cards under Mac OS 9. Just drop it into your Extensions folder and reboot!
Not sure if your card has the NEC-chipset? Download and run the CardBusCompat compatibility checker app that will give you a verdict not only on your CardBus card's compatibility, but also the machine itself. Only the Titanium G4 has been tested and verified so far. I have not yet tested this on any G3 PowerBook models, but I suspect at least one of them should work, particularly the Pismo. If you have a G3 PowerBook and can test, please let me know what you find!
Other non-NEC chipsets (such as VIA) will NOT work; in my testing, cards with these chipsets usually made my TiBook crash. Adaptec cards, such as the DuoConnect and the USB2connect models, reliably contained the NEC-chipset, so you may consider hunting one of those down if you want to try it out but don't have a card yet.
Both the system extension (CardBus_EHCI_Ext.bin) and the compatibility checker app can be found here, under Assets:
https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-USB2-EHCI/releases#release-cbrel
COMING SOON: Bluetooth for Mac OS 9.... muahaha