Is there any hope that this will work one day on a OldWorldMac?

As a System Extension, it should, hopefully.

Is there any hope that this will work one day on a OldWorldMac?

Excellent work, @UnexpectedBomb, thank you for the ongoing effort. I'm glad the efforts are still going towards having it all happen through the Mac OS ROM with no helper app, multi-plugging and, I presume, booting at 2.0. I hope it gets there someday.

Once I get some time to use a computer with GitHub access, I will try the injector on a mini ROM and test. Perhaps by then the next release might be upon us?

Thanks for sharing this exciting software.
First impressions were good - it loads quickly, and looks nicely straightforward, but unfortunately it seems too buggy to use right now.
I managed to get access to one site I can't with any other Mac browser, but others give long waits or lock-ups.
But then it started to go awry with odd things happening and becoming increasingly unstable. Even after quitting MacSurf, the OS misbehaves and fonts in other apps get messed up.
Also noted the URL is really difficult to edit for some reason.
Tried in OS9.2.2 on G3 350 & G4 450.

Sounds interesting. Like to try it out but link doesn't seem to work....

2.0 (shipping Jan 16, 1997) EM Jul 97, Sweetwater "Feb 24 97", Sweetwater "Feb 27 97"
- 100% PowerPC native (still runs great on any 68030 Mac or faster)
- Support for Apple Sound Manager — play and record CD-quality digital audio on Power Macintosh with no extra hardware (available as a free upgrade Q1 1997)
- Exceptional sample rate conversion produces virtually no harmonic distortion
- Expanded support for Pro Tools III TDM, including 16 TDM busses, 4 sends per track (pre or post), aux tracks and master faders
- Supports QuickTime Musical Instruments — plays MIDI on Macintosh internal speaker
- Drag-and-drop markers on the main tracks overview and audio editor
- “Unlimited” “takes” per track — keeps your track list short and manageable
- Nondestructive MIDI output processing
- MIDI echo and arpeggiator effects — now every synth you own can be an arpeggiator!
- Unlimited multiple mixdowns for an entire sequence with instant recall
- Adjust Beats feature lets you drag beats and barlines to line up with notes
- Global selection — data stays selected in all windows, even after successive edits
- Smart Selections™ provides “intelligent assistance” for fast, musical editing
- MIDI scrubbing
- Improved real-time notation — the best automated transcription you can get
New version! Digital Performer 2.0 Macintosh midi sequencing & digital audio recording/editing/mixing/effects / with music notation printing2.1 (shipping Jun 1997) SOS Jul 97, EM Aug 97, Sound Manager Audio I/O Timing Calibration Guide, Update Guide – Read This First! Installation Instructions
40 or more tracks of digital-audio recording, mixing, busing, EQ and effects processing on a Power Macintosh, performed nondestructively and in real time without dedicated internal audio hardware
real-time effects, including reverb, compression, limiting, expansion, gating, chorus and echo
new Samplers window for transferring samples between the Macintosh and compatible hardware samplers
local sample storage and integrated DSP processing
expanded integration with contemporary samplers, including the E-mu E4 series
2.11 (released Sep 26, 1997, at the 103rd AES Convention in New York City) EM Oct 97, SOS Oct 97,MOTU.com, SOS Dec 97, KORG.com
support for Digidesign Pro Tools|24 (introduced Sep 24, 1997, and publicly presented at AES beginning Sep 26, 1997)
Korg 1212 I/O support
Apple Sound Manager support
Digidesign AudioMedia II and AudioMedia III support
free eVerb MAS plug-in
MAS support announced by DUY for four plug-ins
support for contemporary Akai, Roland and E-mu samplers
Configuring Digital Performer
Digital Performer features fully integrated, direct support for the 1212 I/O. If the 1212 I/O is selected as the Sound Manager input and output device, this may cause problems during the initial Digital Performer audio hardware configuration process. Before configuring Digital Performer for use with the 1212 I/O, we recommend temporarily de-selecting the 1212 I/O in the Sound control panel, as described below.
To configure Digital Performer for use with the 1212 I/O:
1. Quit Digital Performer, if it is currently running.
2. Open the Sound control panel.
3. Select "Built-In" for both Input and Output.
4. Open Digital Performer.
5. Make sure that the MOTU Audio System is selected as the Audio System (in the Basics menu).
6. In the Basics menu, select MOTU Audio System options->Configure Hardware Driver.
The Configure Hardware Driver dialog will appear.
7. Select "Korg 1212" from the menu at the top of the dialog.
8. Set the other parameters as desired, and then press OK.
9. Quit Digital Performer.
10. Go back to the Sound control panel, and re-select the 1212 I/O for Input and Output.2.2 (late 1997)New Features in Digital Performer 2.2, EM Aug 98
What’s New in Digital Performer Version 2.2
• Stereo tracks—edit, mix & process sample-locked stereo audio
• Stereo PureDSP time-scaling and pitch-shifting
• Mono & stereo crossfades—includes batch processing, background processing and custom fade curves
• Sound Manager support—no extra hardware needed to record, play, edit and mix CD-quality hard disk audio on Power Macs
• Support for KORG 1212 I/O audio card
• 32-bit real-time audio effects, including 8-band parametric EQ (up to 40 bands per track), hi-fidelity reverb (eVerb), dynamics, chorus, echo and more
• Dozens of effects presets
• Custom effects presets
• Unique Sample System—drag and drop audio between your Mac and today’s popular samplers
• Support for Adobe Premiere™ audio plug-ins with background processing
• Virtually unlimited audio tracks with new Bounce to Disk feature
• And much more…Installing Digital Performer 2.2 from this CD-ROM
1. Insert this disc into your Macintosh.
2. Double-click the “Install Digital Performer 2.2” icon (or the 2.2J icon for the Japanese version).
3. Follow the directions the installer gives you.
4. When the installer asks for it, insert the Digital Performer 3.5-inch authorization disk that accompanies this CD-ROM.2.3 (shipping by Jan 29, 1998; presented at NAMM Jan/Feb 1998) New features in 2.3 (MOTU.com), What’s new in Digital Performer 2.3 (PDF), MAS Developer Index, Screenshot, Sweetnotes by Sweetwater Spring '98, Digital Performer 2.3 & OS8 by Sweetwater Apri 6 '98
2.4 (May 15, 1998 / installer/package build date: June 4, 1998) Read This First! Digital Performer 2.4 Installation Guide, MOTU.com 2.4, KORG.com Sample-Accurate Sync (ADAT Timecode) New 11/98!, MOTU.com, Macworld Mar 99, MOTU.com 2408 support, Sweetwater Jul 23 1998, KORG.com Digital Performer 2.4 features more efficient MAS, KORG.com Impact of the 1212 I/O on CPU Processing Power., Sample-Accurate Sync (ADAT timecode) New 11/98!, EM Aug 98
What's New in Digital Performer Version 2.4
■ Sonic Modulator plug-in — create rich, unique effects with four LFOs, pitch, phase, amplitude & delay
■ 24-bit recordig — complete support for Pro Tools 24 
■ Dithering — cconvert 24 bit sessions to 16 bit
■ Sample accurate sync — to ADAT with KORG 1212 or MOTU Audio 2408. Or to DA88 with the 2408 and a DPT
■ Drag & Drop sampler support for Yamaha A3000
■ Drag & Drop effects plug-ins — quickly apply, move and duplicate effects by dropping them into "insert sockets"
■ Plug-in effects grouping — store, recall, move and duplicate effects as a group
■ Auto volume display in dB with boost up to +6dB
■ Audition Premiere plug-ins through your audio card and adjust the preview duration up to 60 sec
■ AIFF/WAV file import/export ■ Drag & Drop MIDI file importing dozens at once
■ and much more ...Installing Digital Performer 2.4 from this CD-ROM
1. Insert this disc into your Macintosh.
2. Double-click the "Install Digital Performer 2.4" icon (or the 2.4J icon for the Japanese version).
3. Follow the directions the installer gives you.
4. When the installer asks for it, insert the Digital Performer 3.5 inch authorization disk that accompanies this CD-ROM.Starting with version 2.4, Digital Performer supports the 1212 I/O's direct ADAT timecode synchronization.
Basic setup instructions
1. In Basic->Receive Sync, under "Type of sync," select "Sample accurate."
2. In Basics->MOTU Audio System Options->Configure Hardware Driver, select the 1212 I/O, and set the Sync Source to "ADAT."
Except when using the original ADAT without a BRC, the Sync Source can also be set to "SPDIF/word clock." Due to hardware restrictions, "Internal" cannot be used when syncing to ADAT timecode.
Remember to set the ADAT's clock source appropriately! See Setting the word clock source on an ADAT system for more details.
For more detailed information on setting up Digital Performer, please consult the Digital Performer 2.4 update documentation.
Use auto-punch
For best results, Korg recommends using Digital Performer's auto punch in/out feature.
Start the ADAT well before the punch-in point
Start the ADAT well before the punch-in point, on the order of 10-15 seconds. Shorter times may work, as long as you always see Digital Performer's counter moving in sync with the tape before the punch-in point arrives.
When using the BRC, turn off Digital Performer's MMC
When using sample-accurate sync in conjunction with an Alesis BRC, Korg recommends that you turn off Digital Performer's MMC (MIDI Machine Control) features
1. Open Digital Performer's MIDI Machine Control window.
2. Make sure that the MMC Master Button (at the top of the window, between the computer and tape icons) is showing a white arrow; this means that it is deactivated.
3. As an added precaution, set the ADAT/BRC online/offline button to "Offline."2.41 (1998) KORG.com
2.42 (1998) Sweetwater, Sweetwater., MIX (02/01/1999)
2.43 (1998) MOTU.com
2.5 (announced Dec 1, 1998) MOTU.com, EQ Mar 99, SOS, MOTU.com, Sweetwater, EM Jun 99
2.51 (Mar 23 99) 2.51 Update
The enclosed update patcher will update Digital Performer version 2.5 to version 2.51.
Run the patcher, select the installed Digital Performer 2.5 version and update.
Digital Performer 2.51 corrects a file saving problem that resulted in Error=103.
Files that return the Error=103 in DP 2.5 can be opened and resaved with DP 2.51.
This version also corrects a punch in/out record problem.
In DP 2.5, punch in/out record did not work properly when opening a file saved with punch in/out enabled.
Finally, we corrected problems that DP 2.5 had with entering Memory Start/End times.• Direct I/O support for compatible Digidesign hardware, requiring Digidesign System Init 3.3.1 or later
• improved Direct I/O performance with Pro Tools|24 MIX and MIXplus systems
• improved S/PDIF input through AudioMedia III when switching between DAE and MAS, requiring DAE/DSI 3.3.1 or later
• optional PCI-324 Driver and PCI-324 Sound Manager Driver updates
• support for the blue-and-white Power Macintosh G3
• improved input monitoring in BIAS Peak
• improved support for ASIO hardware like the Yamaha DSP Factory
• intended specifically for Digital Performer 2.5 users operating ASIO hardware2.6 (May 18, 1999) MOTU.com, EM Jan '00, Sweetwater, Sweetwater
• Polar - interactive looping/recording environment
• AudioTap, a plug-in that lets you route audio from any Sound Manager-compatible program directly into Performer
• new color-coding schemes and customization options
• powerful, new, fully integrated 24-bit waveform editor• functionally identical to MAS 2.0 as shipped with Digital Performer 2.6
• improved support for AudioMedia sample rates under the MAS native AudioMedia driver2.61-MTS (update notes dated Oct 18, 1999; released Oct 21, 1999) MOTU.com, MIX Aug '00, 2.6 to 2.61-MTS Patcher (Oct 21 '99), 2.61 Update Notes (Oct 26 '99)
Now Supports
• MOTU 2408
• Yamaha DSP Factory
• Sonorus StudI/O
• Event Electronics Layla
All current Digidesign systems including
• Project II
• Pro Tools/24
• Pro Tools/24 Mix
• Pro Tools/24 Mix PlusSome of What’s New in Digital Performer
• Built-in waveform editor — use a pencil to remove clicks and pops at the sample level or perform other “destructive” editing without spending hundreds on extra waveform editing software
• MasterWorks Compressor and Limiter plug-ins — 64-bit mastering plug-ins with lookahead peak-limiting and all the advanced features you need
• Graphic 8-band EQ
• Sample-accurate editing — zoom in to the sample level and nudge MIDI and audio events by as little as one sample
• Pro Tools|24 MIX and MIXplus support
• Support for Sonorus StudI/O™, Yamaha DSP Factory™, and Event Layla™
• Digidesign Direct I/O support
• Normalize
• Fade In/Out
• Project copying/backup enhancements — “easily” collect all related audio/fade/analysis files when copying or archiving projects
• and much, much more...Installing Digital Performer from this CD-ROM
1. Insert this disc into your Macintosh.
2. Double-click the “Install Digital Performer” icon (or the “Digital Performer-J” or “Digital Performer-F” icons for the Japanese or French versions).
3. Follow the directions the installer gives you.Digital Performer requires a Power Macintosh with 32 Mb of RAM or more and System 7.5.5 or higher. System 7.6.1 or later is recommended. A 17-inch monitor (or larger) is highly recommended. However, this configuration will not be able to play and record audio under Sound Manager.
current shipping MOTU Audio System 2.03, PCI-324 Driver 1.4 console applications for all MOTU audio hardware, ASIO 2 driver for MOTU hardware2.7 (first demonstrated at MACWORLD 2000, San Francisco, Jan 4 '00; final shipping application build Apr 12 '00; publicly available by May 8 '00)
MOTU.com, Sweetwater Spring '00, EM Oct '00, EM '01, Line 6 Pro Console for DP 2.7
***Does not require a Master Disk.***
Installing Digital Performer 2.7 from this CD-ROM
1. Insert this disc into your Macintosh.
2. Double-click the “Install Digital Performer” icon (or the “Install Digital Performer-J” icon for the Japanese version).
3. Follow the directions the installer gives you.
5. When the installer asks for it, type in the Digital Performer authorization code found on the inside back cover of your Digital Performer Update Guide. If you are updating from Version 2.5 or 2.6, use your 2.5 or 2.6 authorization code.2.71 (Jun '00) Patch
2.72 / USB-Mac Compatible (final application/updater build dated Sep 28 '00)
Now supports • MOTU Audio System • ASIO 1.0 • ASIO 2.0 • DAE/TDM Including the following Digidesign Systems: • Project II • Pro Tools|24 • Pro Tools|24 Mix • Pro Tools|24 Mix Plus.
Includes our exclusive new MIDI timing technology: MTS - MIDI TIME STAMPING. Includes MTS™ — the most accurate MIDI timing available. "If timing is everything, MOTU is definitely on top. This is one tough program to beat." — Electronic Musician, January 2001.
Electronic Musician 2000 Editors Choice, 2001 Editors Choice, TEC Award Winner ×4, Macworld World Class Award Winner ×2, 1998 Eddy Winner3.0 (Jan 18 '01) MOTU.com, EM Apr '01., MIX Mar '01, EQ Mar '01, EQ May 01, Line 6 Pro Console for DP 3.x
3.01 (Sep 24 '01) EQ Nov '01, Sweetwater
3.02 (Dec 13 '01) MIX May '02, MIX Jul '02, EM Aug '02, This document will help you set up your MOTU and Digidesign audio hardware with Soft SampleCell, and Digital Performer
3.1 (Q1 '02) Sweetwater, EQ Oct '01, EQ Jan '02, EQ Mar '02, MIX Mar '02, EM Sep '02, MIX Oct '02
3.11 (Oct 23 02) EQ Feb '03

Once the turn of the minis comes, these are the 6 (at least the first 4) relevant ROMs, all conveniently gathered in one place

This is going to be very helpful down the road. Thank you!

Nice to see that so many others over the years have claimed the "no sleep until it works" torch.  You guys are rockstars by every metric.

Thank you for the kind words, @DieHard! Truthfully I'm just standing on the shoulders of OS 9 giants like yourself.

I have released a new USB 2.0 build that I felt was a big enough leap forward that it deserved its own new forum post here:

https://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=7847

For those of you following this thread, please check it out and test it if you have the chance. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

New build of the USB 2.0 driver is up. This is a big step from the beta I posted last time.

If you tried the first one you will remember the ritual: boot unplugged, run a launcher, wait for a prompt, insert at the right moment, one mount per launch. All of that is gone.

WHAT IS BETTER

- The driver now loads from the Mac OS ROM at boot, as an OS owned driver. Doesn't live in an app, and still no Extension needed.
- Mac OS 9 mounts the volume itself, through its normal path.
- Hot-plug works. Insert, eject, unplug, re-insert, or swap in a different drive, as often as you like. Pulling a drive without ejecting no longer leaves a damaged disk behind.
- Restart with the driver active is safe. It used to come back with a frozen mouse cursor.
- Reads run about 20 MB/s, roughly 20x USB 1.1. Writes are slower than that, but still blazing compared to USB 1.1.

INSTALLING

***FIRST: copy the Mac OS ROM out of your System Folder and keep it somewhere safe. You will want it if anything goes wrong. DON'T SKIP THIS STEP! Then pick one of these:

STEP 1A) ON A G4 MDD THAT BOOTS OS 9 ON ITS STOCK ROM: grab the prebuilt ROM from the release page. That is the exact file I have been testing with, so it needs no tools at all.

(NOT if your machine only boots OS 9 because of a community ROM patch, so an FW800 MDD, a Mini, an aluminium PowerBook and so on. My prebuilt file does not contain that patch, and installing it would take away the thing making your machine boot.)

STEP 1B) ON ANY OTHER NEW WORLD MAC, a B&W G3 for example: the prebuilt one is built from an MDD's ROM and is specific to that machine, so patch your own instead. Run the injector from the repo against your copy. It writes out a patched ROM and leaves the original alone.

Old World Macs, so a beige G3 or a 9600, have no Mac OS ROM file for this to patch, and none of this applies to them. Note that is not the same question as whether the machine has PCI slots. A beige G3 has slots and still cannot use it; a Mac mini G4 has none and could.

STEP 2) Boot from a CD or another volume and put the patched ROM into the System Folder in place of the original. (You cannot swap it while booted from that same System Folder.) Drop the small faceless helper into System Folder > Startup Items, boot normally with nothing plugged in, then insert a drive.

Again, the injector creates a ROM patch meant for non-MDD machines, so keep your original ROM safely stored somewhere and make sure you can boot from something else first. Fully reversible, but only if you kept it.

The injector has only ever been run against two ROMs, both mine. If it will not patch yours, or the result will not boot, tell me which Mac and OS 9 version you are on.

STILL TO DO

-One drive at a time. A second one inserted while another is mounted is ignored. Multi-device is what I am working on now.
-External hubs are not driven yet, including the hub in an Apple Cinema Display.
-A drive attached at boot mounts at 1.1, not 2.0. Plug it in after booting.
-Only tested on a G4 MDD with an IOGEAR NEC based PCI card. Other EHCI chipsets should bind, since the driver matches on the EHCI class code and reads the card's geometry at runtime, but I have not tried one. On board USB 2.0 is experimental and can hang (e.g. G4 Mini, aluminum PowerBooks, etc). Continue to treat this as a beta and do not put anything irreplaceable on it yet.

ONE LOG NOTE

You will see plenty of lines like this in EHCIUIM_init.log:

!! v47 STALL - self-probe transfer not completing:

Ignore them. That diagnostic fires on any transfer in flight, which during a copy is constant. My last soak logged 174 of them alongside 18,223 completed transfers and zero errors. Badly named, and I will fix it.

Heads up that the multi-device release will be a matched ROM and helper that install together, so if you would rather install once than twice, it is fine to wait until then. Eventually the goal is to have all of this integrated into the ROM, even the helper app itself, but we are not there yet.

Beyond that, the most useful thing anyone can do is run it on a PCI card different from mine. Both of the worst bugs so far came from hardware not behaving the way the spec says. As always, please let me know of both your successes and failures with this new build!

Source, build steps, injector and the technical writeups are all here: https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/MacOS9-USB2-EHCI

-UB

UPDATE: VBL Fix v2 is up, now Classic-safe!

First off, thanks to everyone for the testing and the kind words. Special thanks to @n8blz for the seriously thorough shakedown: 30-plus restart cycles with zero freezes, then pulling the fix back out and watching the freeze return on the very first reboot. That's exactly the before-and-after I was hoping someone would run. It's the clearest confirmation I could ask for that we're fixing the right thing.

Thanks also to @xc68000 for putting both fixes through their paces and catching an edge-case that I didn't anticipate: booting an OS 9 partition inside Classic on Tiger would hang while loading the VBL fix. The cause makes sense once you see it. Under Classic the display is virtualized by Mac OS X, so there's no real ATI hardware behind the boot display. The fix works by re-issuing the display driver's "enable VBL interrupt" call, and under Classic that call has nothing real to talk to, so it wedges. The freeze itself doesn't even happen under Classic, since OS X is driving the actual display, so the right move is for the fix to just stay out of the way there.

That's all v2 does. At startup it checks (via Gestalt) whether it's running inside the Classic environment, and if it is, it quits without doing anything. On native OS 9 nothing changes at all: the check can only ever make it skip under Classic, never on real hardware, so v2 behaves identically to v1 on an actual mini. It's a safe drop-in over v1, and there's no rush to update unless you run OS 9 under Classic.

@xc68000, whenever you get a chance, could you drop v2 in and confirm your Classic on Tiger boot no longer hangs? That's the one setup I can't test here as I don't have anything booting Tiger/Classic right now, so your confirmation would be helpful.

You can grab it from the v2.0 release here: https://github.com/UnexpectedBomb/G4-Mac-Mini-VBL-Fix/releases/tag/v2.0

Install is the same as before: drop VBLFix_v2 into your Startup Items folder. There's also a VBLAutofix tester build in the release that reports what it did with a beep and a log, if you'd like to watch it catch a freeze in the act.

Thanks again, everyone. It's been a blast seeing this help so many minis. The next milestone will be to fully integrate this solution into the ROM itself for a truly seamless experience. I'll keep you posted!

-UB

Quote from: UnexpectedBomb on July 03, 2026, 12:55:28 AM

Thankfully, I am not reinventing the wheel after all 

mr. firmtek-sata-drivers is a member here.

Quote

I plan to eventually have a USB-to-SATA power cable plugged into an MDD USB port to power a SATA drive (if that actually works).

that works for sure, the usual 99 cents adapters makes any SSD an USB stick.

the practice problem with those is only that they are usually greater than 32gig, which means you have to use HFS instead of FAT32, and then this media is basically PPC-to-10.12 only. (for interchanging with windows or mac pro 2010 and above that sucks.)

will be interesting to see what speed you will get with your new USB 2 attempt.

Noted on the FAT32 vs HFS issue. I had been exclusively going down the HFS route to just try and get that piece working first. But honestly the whole eSATA effort is getting mothballed until USB 2.0 has been finalized/matured (it's the bigger priority by far) so that I'm not making two sets of custom MDD Mac OS ROM files independent of each other; the goal is to eventually have a single custom "mass storage" MDD ROM that covers both EHCI and eSATA functionality all in one go. I'm still far away from that finish line, but USB 2.0 is making good progress. I plan post an update in the USB 2.0 thread later this week if things continue going well.