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[ssp3]

@UnexpectedBomb, why don't you take any macos9lives.com page source, let the Claude create a html page based on it and pass the final product to Bolkonskij or to whoever looks after the homepage to integrate?

@Bolkonskij, why so pesimistic? We all are still here, alive and kicking 

[IIO]

it has always been difficult for new members to find stuff in a 10 year old forums.
even finding back an old thread which you know about can get complicated when you are not able to recall a keyword to enter in a google search.

we were debating how to distill valuable info, especially about new developments and discoveries, into some sort of website for years, but it is not exactly easy.

[UnexpectedBomb]

@UnexpectedBomb, why don't you take any macos9lives.com page source, let the Claude create a html page based on it and pass the final product to Bolkonskij or to whoever looks after the homepage to integrate?

I just might do that!

we were debating how to distill valuable info, especially about new developments and discoveries, into some sort of website for years, but it is not exactly easy.

Two ideas on this:

1) Public read-only current-state page with G4 compatibility matrix (like I described above) accompanied by a submission form, so that people in the community like myself can submit updates to the site mods each time a new fix/solution/hack has been created/discovered, unlocking or improving some kind of OS 9 functionality. The page would be curated by the mods and updated at their discretion.

2) Mac OS 9 Wiki page that allows anyone in the community to provide updates on OS 9 breakthroughs. Much less work for the mods, but a greater chance of nonsense and/or half-baked, broken "fixes" to be published (although I'm not too worried about that, as this is a rather niche focus as far as Apple things go)

[laulandn]

Sites like this live and breath by their users.

Sometimes, when you have a good idea for someone else to do, that someone may be YOU!

So, anyone with good ideas that haven't been done, I'd say, just do 'em if nobody else has.

----

This site has turned out to be mostly about three things, as far as I see:
1. Music, specifically the use of synthesizers or older software and hardware with such.
2. Running MacOS 9 on hardware it may not have been intended for.
3. "I'm having a problem with SUCH-AND-SUCH, has anyone else?"
(not in that particular order)

Which is actually pretty cool, even if not, exactly, the original vision.

The content that is here is there because it is what users actually want.

It is hard to go through this, and any other similar forum, because a lot of times the info IS there, but spread out over multiple posts, or a decade old.

So summaries, or new documents are great ideas.  None of us has enough time to do everything.  If you DO have time, consider creating what is missing.

[smilesdavis]

im trying in the forum i was made moderator with my "timelines"

you have no idea how much time goes into this analyzing fotos and researching and buying cards.

i wish there was a list of all unsupported mac os 9 hardware and easy scripts to get mac os 9 going there

[laulandn]

I'm being slightly facetious, but only slightly with this, but maybe not...as people who don't have a lot of mac experience may ask about these very machines. 

These will not run MacOS 9 using the patches discussed, some may run it, but in emulation, or already do natively (no patches needed):

G5's (cpu differences...lack of drivers...I believe?).
m68ks (wrong cpu).
apple silicon (wrong cpu)
nubus ppc (no open firmware?).
603's and 604's (already do natively...no need for these patches.  You should not run an "unsupported version of macos 9" on these, just use the stock release).

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Working, but limits:

old world macs (with toolbox roms, not on disk) will be a little more difficult, but should be ok?

dual cpus are not made use of, as far as I know (incompatibility with mutliprocessing services?)

some chipsets and memory controllers are better supported than others.

If you see someone running MacOS 9 on their machine, and wonder about yours, you might check developer notes or documentation to see if your machine uses a similar chipset.  If it does, you are probably in luck.

don't expect all io devices to work, most do or have workarounds, but the first thing you may see is graphics or audio not working well.  Some of these are macos 9 driver issues, and not related to these patches at all.

If you have trouble with macos 9, consider trying System 7.6.  That may sound crazy, but may help you diagnose why macos 9 is having trouble.  System 7.6 is even more limited driver wise, but does work well on a machines like minis.

usb support is good, but many devices will lack macos 9 drivers.  If you have usb 2, you will probably need to take care of that separately, or it will just act as usb 1.

For some g3 or g4 accelerators, you may or may not need to use an extension to enable caches?

Not all your memory may be visible to macos 9 due to a design flaw.  There are some workarounds for this, but they are not perfect.

If you have trouble, remove all unneeded cards or devices and try again.

Some exotic hard drive controllers may or may not work, or, if they do, may not have all their features supported?

----

I've put question marks on things I wasn't personally sure of.

The above may not be FULLY entirely correct, but has some good guidelines.

Feel free to quote or use, I know some of it may be wrong, so correct if you feel the need to do so.