Mac Os 9 booting on: G4 Tower MDD FW800 (Detailed Posts)

[supernova777]

im not in france lol i live near Toronto, Canada

re: power supplies its not worth the effort when u can score another mdd for next to nothing

[chokobo]

Oh wow you are a crazy bastard night owl!

[supernova777]

jakl or imic
how do i do a "ls" in openfirmware + stop it from scrolling endlessly off the page (so i can read it)

so far i did "dev /"
and then "ls"
but it jus scrolls off the page and doesnt stop..
 
in dos u do " |more" but i forget how to do it in OF

[supernova777]

Created an account here just to pop in and say that I have just solved this problem on my own retail MDD G4 FW800. My G4 now dual-boots between OS X Tiger and Mac OS 9.2.2, and both systems are recognized by the Startup Disk control panel.

http://www.blitter.com/
Blitter.Com is a privately run, non-commercial domain promoting Art, Music, Technology and the many intersections thereof.

blitter do u have anything to do with this site?

[Graveyard]

Ok, so i just got my hands on an MDD Dual G4 1,25 GHz. Can you guys point me to a step by step tutorial to get it to boot into OS 9.2.2? I thought it was an older model but i noticed the FW800 port on the back when i opened the box...

[devils_advisor]

You came to the right place but first let me tell you how much money i make

[mrhappy]

Well here's what you need...

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=2143.0

[roginator]

well .. I downloaded file to hack G4 .. I have dual 1.42 G$ machine that is working and it was in storage for some time ..
I wanna switch to os9  cause i own studio and I'm in need for good midi machine for triggering my hardware synths .. so I have 2 options ...

1. ATARI to have like 8 midi outputs

2. G4 OS9.2 hacked ( This one have stealth post) and to run again my 4 UNITORS   - I have 50 synths so I need many midi outputs!

current machine in studio is 2010 Mac pro and logic 10.2  BUT its midi is funny ! jitter with units is all over the place ! ( I never had those problems under logic 6.4.3 on old mac)

so .. problem is that G4 don't want to start boot of old system in file that is here fro download.. it say CLASSIC not supported.. Ill go thru forum today .. but Im asking here so maybe i can get it working sooner

[supernova777]

welcome

current machine in studio is 2010 Mac pro and logic 10.2  BUT its midi is funny ! jitter with units is all over the place ! ( I never had those problems under logic 6.4.3 on old mac)

so .. problem is that G4 don't want to start boot of old system in file that is here fro download.. it say CLASSIC not supported.. Ill go thru forum today .. but Im asking here so maybe i can get it working sooner

everything u need to know to make this 'hack' work is here in this thread, it seems u have not read it carefully enough. you are welcome to do that, or u can download the cd for "unsupported g4's" from the downoads here im not sure if its in the public downloads folder or the members download folder i think it maybe in the public downloads.. but this was an additional solution to the same problem that was created after the fact of thsi thread.. which was a 2nd solution that also worked with a modified "macos.rom" file by our thinkclassic.org user imic.. i suggest u download that cd and burn it and try to boot it.

good luck!

[Philgood]

...I have 50 synths so I need many midi outputs!...

Wow, are you the guy into italo disco ?

[supernova777]

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=2143.0

this is the cd image u want to download if u are unwilling to do the permanent fix of downgrading the firmware, that is illustrated + discussed in this specific thread

[mrhappy]

I have 50 synths so I need many midi outputs!

50 synths.... Holy cow!!!😁

[supernova777]

I have 50 synths so I need many midi outputs!

50 synths.... Holy cow!!!😁

yes yes so what.. are u guys going to attack this poor guy now too??? give it a rest

[mrhappy]

No attacking at all!!!

... It just seemed like a LOT of synths! After I thought about it for a minute though I figured I probably have 10ish or so and I don't even really play keys!!

... Then I thought... Heck, I probably have 30-40 guitars so It didn't seem that excessive at all... in fact now I think roginator should buy MORE synths!!!

[supernova777]

mr happy is on the sauce again

[mrhappy]

mr happy is on the sauce again

Yes... Only HOT sauce this time!!😁

[Nymunariya]

I tried the firmware flashing on my dual 1.25Ghz MDD FW800 (currently has 4.6.??), and apparently it loads correctly, but after I push go, I get the following text for a fraction of a second, followed by the OS X grey prohibitory sign. I even tried the holding down the power button until a long tone comes out and then entered open firmware:

Code: [Select]

loading XCOFF

tsize=23000 dsize=2000 bsize=9c000 entry=1c12100
SECTIONS:
.text    01c00000 01c00000 00023000 000000d4
.data    01c23000 01c23000 00002000 000230d4
.bss     01c25000 01c25000 0009c000 00000000
loading .text, done..
loading .data, done..
clearing .bss, done..
_
Even with the special macos9lives cd for non-supported G4s, I see the grey screen, get a cursor, followed by the OS9 grey floppy with a flashing question mark and the cd drive comes out. 

I even reformatted the primary hardddrive with a 10.2.7 cd that allowed me to install OS 9 drivers, partitioned it to be 64GB and 160GB, and copied the system folder from the cd to the 64GB harddrive, and even blessed it using the command line in OS X, but then I got the same result from the cd. (I even copied the OS9 install from the os9general.dmg from the 10.2.7 cd and replaced the ROM with the one from the macos9lives cd), but same flashing floppy result.

I don't know if it's related, but I am unable to boot into Firewire Disk Mode on that machine.  I've tried unplugging the second (slave) harddrive, moved the jumper on the main (master) from master to cable select and back, disconnected the DVD drive, disconnected all harddrives, but no matter what, the computer just shuts down after a few moments. Even with the keyboard plugged directly into the USB ports (not over a hub).  I've tried pram resets, taking out the battery on the motherboard.

[supernova777]

im not sure how to help as ive never seen this result.. but
using a 10.1 or 10.2 cd to do the formatting + partitioning -- i wouldnt reccommend that you use those..
better to use panther or tiger versions of osx... only because they are more commonplace.

do u have any pci cards installed that could be altering the boot up operation such as a hard drive controller of some sort?

[Nymunariya]

im not sure how to help as ive never seen this result.. but
using a 10.1 or 10.2 cd to do the formatting + partitioning -- i wouldnt reccommend that you use those..
better to use panther or tiger versions of osx... only because they are more commonplace.

yeah, I imagine the 10.2 tools aren't the greatest. It was my only option since I can't get target disk mode to work and I only have the following cds: 10.2.0 (won't boot), 10.2.4 Server (won't boot), 10.2.7 (will boot), 10.4 (will boot, but won't give me the option for installing OS 9 drivers). Taking it out and putting it in another computer might not be an option (I'll have to see how to remove it, but I don't have another computer to put it in, without buying exact converters or a firewire hub)

do u have any pci cards installed that could be altering the boot up operation such as a hard drive controller of some sort?

The only (removable) components that are installed are:

• Some graphics card (DVI and ADC connectors)
• Four 512MB RAM chips
• Edit: 200some GB ATA HD
• Edit: 70some GB ATA HD
• Edit: Superdrive

I don't know if it's relevant, but there's a red led that lights up on the board between the ram and pci slot.  I can't install Adobe CS without taking out the last stick of ram--I found reference to some bug that the CS installers won't work with 2GB of ram. Otherwise I haven't had any problems with the ram.  I also don't have any other mac compatable graphics cards laying around, so I do have a fairly new Radeon (not sure exactly which) that I bought for a Linux AMD machine that I'm not using.

[Nymunariya]

IT'S HAPPENING!!!!! \(^_^)/

sooo after moseying around in Mac Os 9 boot on unsupported iMac G4 (Flat-panel):

... he thought it was a sawtooth but it was a 4pci slot gigabit ethernet model.. ccmac was talking about reverting the firmware but it turned out this was not neccessary all tht was neccessary to boot 8.6 on the sawtooth was having the original cd which contained the 2.5.1 rom - but the comments he said about saving out a copy of the firmware are whats relevant to this thread and also his comments about this guy, pareis + his openfirmware abilities.. he wrote a script to flash firmware of a mac directly from mac os x called "fwupdater" http://pareis.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/running-firmware-updaters-from-mac-os-x/ AHA! ...

so I tried the fwupdater app. Downloaded it. Modified the script so it would pull up the 4.4 MDD firmware. Sudo'd it in Leopard.  Next thing I knew my G4 was shutting down and that was it.   I don't have a programmer button, but it was mentioned here to hold down the power button until the G4 starts freaking out.  Next thing I knew there was an OS9 style progress bar, and then cd drive popped out, and then it went back in.  And then I had to pick my jaw off the ground.  OS 9 is showing up as a startup option and now I'm chilling in OS 9.  AWW YIS.

Thanks superNova777!