Hi,
sorry for TR;DL -> mac mini G4 works OOB with digital DVI cable using full native resolution with v9 installer.
after my older post here where I did experimentation with the silent upgrade G4 Mini with OS9 v8, v9 installer, I stuck totally in regards of VGA/Display with my WSXGA+ 1680x1050 Samsung monitor. I cannot acquire the native resolution, for the WSXGA+ image ratio resolutions every second vertical pixel line disappears, so at full resolution which is 1680x1050 the machine sends 840x1080 dvi signal, then for example 1027x768 works correctly, but any other smaller resolution that has the same ratio as WSXGA+ having every second vertical line disappearing.
I grabbed my older 1.25 GHz Mini again, installed 128 GB mSata->IDE drive in it. I grabbed my DVI cable this time, no dvi-to-vga converter this time, using my Samsung WSXGA+ monitor 1680x1050px.
Why? Because when I boot from v9 CD, the monitor have native resolution via the digital cable!!! Period.
So I first booted from v9 CD, initialized HDD then did the software resotre install... the usual way, as the manual says. Side note, when booting from CD I have native resolution with digital cable, I have the red ATI icon near the clock, with its small acceleration menu, and the display is truly 2d accelerated.
After booting the fresh install from internal drive, the installed OS9 does not have the red ATI accelerator icon, also visible no 2d acceleration present when dragging windows. As expected I don't have native resolution, I have non WSXGA+ image ratio resolutions, I see 1900x1200, 1280x800 etc resolutions that are cropped or not working at all.
So, based on release notes, a newer ATi display driver extension was applied in the v9 installer as well inside the macintosh.hdd image in the Configuration folder. This newer driver having a regression.
What I did I booted again from v9 CD installer disc, initialized again the internal drive, then I drag-and-dropped everything from the v9 CD onto the empty internal-drive, then rebooted.
My internal drive boots the very same os9 that the v9 installer CD have, so I have perferct native resolution via digital cable, red ATi accelerator icon present and 2d acceleration works. :-)
Well after tinkering with this exremely stripped down OS9 that comes directly from v9 CD, to make everything fully working I had to mount the macintosh.hdd from the v9 installer and drag-and-drop the carbonlib and the stuffit extension into my systme folder.
After this, I installed my usual combo, Illustrator9, Photoshop6 and 4, Painter7ProCreate, KPT3/5, Eyecandy, there is no issue so far after 2 weeks of daily usage rendering fractals with kpt5 on 12000x8000 px RGB, doing vector graphics, etc... in regards of extensions no other extension was missing besides stuffit and carbonlib to make this mini again full OS9 graphical workstation with proper full resolution via digital cable! Period.
Due to mstata ssd and having the minimal extensions and machine having Ultra-ATA100 speed, boot to full desktop is 20-25 seconds. Clicking on PS4 it starts up in 4-5 seconds in total.
One, small glitch: sometimes image is not present unless OS9 fully boots into desktop (monitor seeking digital signal), sometimes display is OK from the beginning of the boot (small mac icon smiling in gray background) and I can see OS9 progress bar and loading extensions. I re-booted so far 100 times, the conclusion is: 50% of the cases display is blank until OS booted into desktop fully, 25% cases I can see small mac smiling from the very early stage, the rest of the cases my monitor starts displaying image when extensions are almost loaded. What I can 100% sure say, when I switch on the OS9 mini the worst case 2 minutes later I will have my fully native resolution via digital cable. All the time!
Side note: I can add back slowly extensions and supplementary folders from macintosh.hdd image from v9 CD until I have again the stripe on the desktop, more preference panes, etc... what is show stopper overwriting the ati* extensions from the hdd image, or upgrading with the ati display drivers upgrade packs...
I do not use sound apps, though one who gonna go for a audio workstation, will use anyway firewire or usb external sound card with own drivers.
The monitor preferences app is totally not the same, it seems a very ancient prefpane with white background... tho It works out of the box, I have the full native resolution and a few smaller ones, all working.
Cheers!