In an effort to stay organized and keep information current, I think it would be super helpful to make a new page off the home page called "Unsupported G4's" that contains a compatibility matrix detailing the status of every machine on every hardware component. It could look something like this:
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Mac OS 9 on unsupported G4 hardware - current state, all models Status is for a completed, current-best install, not a stock disc.
Y = works
N = does not work
P = partial, conditional, or only with a patch
- = hardware not present on this machine
? = never tested
| Machine | Boot | Sound | GPU | USB 2.0 | FireWire | AirPort | Bluetooth | Sleep | Ethernet | CardBus |
| Power Mac G4 MDD FW800 | Y | P | P | P | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| eMac G4 1.25GHz (USB 2.0) | Y | P | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| eMac G4 1.42GHz (2005) | P | P | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| iMac G4 15" 1.0GHz (GeForce4 MX) | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| iMac G4 17/20" 1.25GHz (FX 5200) | Y | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| Mac mini G4 (Early 2005) | Y | P | Y | P | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| Mac mini G4 (Late 2005) | Y | P | P | P | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| iBook G4 2003-2004 (Radeon 9200) | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| iBook G4 Mid 2005 (Radeon 9550) | P | P | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| Al PowerBook G4 12" 867MHz | Y | P | Y | - | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| Al PowerBook G4 12" 1.0-1.5GHz | Y | P | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y | - |
| Al PowerBook G4 17" 1.0GHz | Y | P | Y | - | P | N | N | N | P | N |
| Al PowerBook G4 15/17" (Radeon) | Y | P | N | N | Y | N | N | N | P | N |
| Al PowerBook G4 DLSD (Late 2005) | N | N | N | N | ? | N | N | N | ? | N |
| Xserve G4 (all models) | N | - | ? | - | ? | - | - | ? | ? | - |
"Al" = Aluminum. Model IDs, in table order: PowerMac3,6 / PowerMac6,4 / eMac 2005 1.42 / PowerMac6,3 (GeForce4 MX) / PowerMac6,3 (FX 5200) / PowerMac10,1 / PowerMac10,2 / PowerBook6,3 and 6,5 / PowerBook6,7 / PowerBook6,1 / PowerBook6,2, 6,4 and 6,8 / PowerBook5,1 / PowerBook5,2 through 5,7 / PowerBook5,8 and 5,9 / Xserve G4. The Xserve has no audio hardware of any kind, no AirPort slot, no Bluetooth and USB 1.1 only; its cluster node configuration ships with no graphics card at all. The January 2003 PowerBooks (12-inch 867MHz and 17-inch 1.0GHz) are USB 1.1 machines - USB 2.0 arrived with the September 2003 revisions. ------------------------------------------
I was able to scrape all of this together with Claude in about 15 minutes. Something like this would hopefully address the issue originally raised in this thread by @GaryN long ago about compiling all the latest status information into one place that can be easily seen and understood. Maybe we could provide links on certain individual "Y" and "P" values to specific forum threads so people can go find the latest information on that particular solution.