Pointers for Installing OS 9 on G4 iBook?

[chanthing]

Greetings,

I hate to burst in here like a newbie needing my hand held, but I've reviewed a bunch of posts and it's still not quite clear to me what steps I need to take to install OS 9 on my 14" iBook G4 1333Mhz.

It has a new unformatted disk. I would really appreciate pointers to posts that would answer questions like:

        Which CD image do I want to start with?
        Are there any firmware changes I need to make first?
        Are there files I need to move/change on the install?
        What's the proper way to format my disk to include the right partition scheme and/or drivers?

FWIW, I am a former user of Opcode StudioVision and I would be in heaven if I could resurrect this laptop in order to run that software. Further, I will definitely write-up the steps I took if I end up being successful in getting it working.

Also, FWIW, I am a computer professional very comfortable with command-line usage, hacking with open firmware, etc. I just need to know the specific steps to take and their proper order.

Thanks very much for any tips/pointers....

[GaryN]

I think that one is still a work in progress. Refer to: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2744.0.html

[nanopico]

I think that one is still a work in progress. Refer to: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2744.0.html

Has any one done the 14" 1.33 Ghz yet?  It's got the Radeon 9200 and is different from the 12" 1.33 ghz I have been working on.

[chanthing]

Ok, thanks for the info. I tried using the "Mac OS 9.2.2 Unsupported G4s.iso" and just get the flashing question mark.

Fooled around with setting nvram according to http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,762.msg10193.html#msg10193 with not much luck.

Guess I may have to find some legacy hardware to buy.

Appreciate the responses.

[nanopico]

The flashing ? means it can't find something bootable.  Have you verified you can boot an OS X install cd from the optical drive?
It's possible something is wrong with the optical drive.

If the optical drive is for sure working proceed.

I'm not sure much if any testing has gone into your specific model, so there maybe issues.
Try downloading this image.  It is an absolute minimum image.  If that doesn't boot then there is something hanging up.  If it does boot then it indicates the machine is capable of booting 9.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,3277.0.html

From there I think we can get you some help installing.

[chanthing]

The flashing ? means it can't find something bootable.  Have you verified you can boot an OS X install cd from the optical drive?
It's possible something is wrong with the optical drive.

If the optical drive is for sure working proceed.

I'm not sure much if any testing has gone into your specific model, so there maybe issues.
Try downloading this image.  It is an absolute minimum image.  If that doesn't boot then there is something hanging up.  If it does boot then it indicates the machine is capable of booting 9.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,3277.0.html

From there I think we can get you some help installing.

Yeah, I can boot the OSX install CD as well as the diagnostics CD that came with the iBook. I'll try your minimum image and see how it goes. Thanks very much for the help.

[chanthing]

Ok, now we're getting somewhere.

I stored the following commands in nvram via nvedit:

dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
80010201 encode-int " cpu-version" property
" /" select-dev
0 " graphic-options" get-my-property 2drop !
unselect

And then was able to boot the Unsupported CD-ROM. I then formatted the disk and used the restore procedure.

Unfortunately, now when I try to boot from the hard drive, it hangs at the very end.

How do I know what changes to make in the System and Extensions folders in order to get the iBook to fully boot from the hard drive and have the best possible functionality?

Really appreciate everyone's help.

[nanopico]

Like it hangs when it looks like it's done loading extensions and before it goes to the desktop?

That sounds like the sound issue on the next and last revision of the iBook.


In open firmware you can try this.

Code: [Select]

dev /pci@F2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-a

" screamer" encode-string " compatible" property

device-end

if it's the sound device this will solve it.
You will have no audio what so ever from the built in speakers or audio jack.

This is something I'm trying to resolve.

[chanthing]

Like it hangs when it looks like it's done loading extensions and before it goes to the desktop?

It hangs with just a tiny sliver of space left to go in the progress bar. Nine extension icons appear along the bottom with the last one being the one with the little "PC" floppy in it.

That sounds like the sound issue on the next and last revision of the iBook.


In open firmware you can try this.

Code: [Select]

dev /pci@F2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-a

" screamer" encode-string " compatible" property

device-end

if it's the sound device this will solve it.
You will have no audio what so ever from the built in speakers or audio jack.

This is something I'm trying to resolve.

Tried that with no luck. I also moved a whole bunch of extensions and libraries out of the extensions folder, as well as the multiprocessing folder out of system.

Is there any way to get verbose diagnostics when booting? Is there maybe a hidden logfile somewhere?

Question: If I boot directly into Open Firmware, do the commands in nvram get executed (assuming use-nvramrc? is set to true)? Or do I have to do an nvedit and nvrun?

To be certain, I ran all the commands into open firmware before booting with the "mac-boot" command. Strangely, if I just try "boot", it complains about not being able to find hd. Should I use "reset-all" instead?

FWIW, my device tree also has /pci@F2000000/mac-io/i2s/i2s-b. Should I set the property for that dev as well?

[chanthing]

Success! 

By removing some extensions, including the Multiprocessing folder (I thought I had disabled it previously, but had not), I am now able to boot from the hard drive.

It doesn't find my airport card for some reason.

When I try to sleep it complains that some system software is missing.

I'll have to do some more thorough testing to see exactly which extensions are problematic.

Next test is to see if my Tascam FireOne will work and if I can get going with StudioVision...

[nanopico]

Success! 

By removing some extensions, including the Multiprocessing folder (I thought I had disabled it previously, but had not), I am now able to boot from the hard drive.

It doesn't find my airport card for some reason.

When I try to sleep it complains that some system software is missing.

I'll have to do some more thorough testing to see exactly which extensions are problematic.

Next test is to see if my Tascam FireOne will work and if I can get going with StudioVision...

The airport won't be found or work as it's an airport extreme and OS 9 has no clue how to handle that.

Sleep will not work as that is implemented in the Multiprocessor extension. This extension handles more than just multi-processor support.

I'm curious if the FireOne will install and work.  Were there even drivers for OS 9 for that?

[MacOS Plus]

Is there any way to get verbose diagnostics when booting? Is there maybe a hidden logfile somewhere?

  For context I'm going to post this here in response.  One of the things that's always driven me the most nuts about classic Mac OS is the lack of an integral verbose boot option.  At the very least, without requiring a separate utility, the extensions and control panels should always display their name in text as they load and the invisible ones should be displayed (as in Multiprocessing).  This feature probably wouldn't be very difficult to implement.  It could be turned on via a control panel preference or another held-down key during startup.  Something like this would have saved me weeks worth of hours of troubleshooting hell in the past.  Conflict Catcher didn't quite cut it for me.

  Ideally there would be some mechanism to allow a user dialog box to pop up which would mimic the extensions manager, and before anything else loads.  This avoids the occasional catch-22 where an all-or-nothing load won't finish boot either way, requiring the boot drive to be edited via target disk mode or physically being transferred to another machine temporarily to move files manually.

  I'll re-post this in the OS 9.2.3 feature request thread later.

[nanopico]

The closest you will get to any log output from the actual OS by enabling the kernel debugger log.
The annoying thing is it stays up the entire time you are using the machine and kind of get's in the way.
It does sort of show extension info as it loads them, but not enough detail and usually goes by too fast to be usable.
If you want to enable it just out of curiosity
In open firmware

Code: [Select]

dev /
3000000 encode-int " AAPL,debug" property


[chanthing]

I'm curious if the FireOne will install and work.  Were there even drivers for OS 9 for that?

No, unfortunately, that was wishful thinking on my part. For some weird reason I thought I had used the FireOne with my old G4 PowerMac, but apparently not.