Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jubadub]

I'm very pleased to hear about the move to leverage the Mac OS ROM file via @ELN's tbxi project. Yes, that's the way. I think literal system Extensions exist inside it?

Which brings me to the following point: @joevt I believe Old World ROM Macs will have to rely on a normal system Extension that would go inside the Extensions folder. What that might imply, though, is that USB booting with 2.0 speeds might not happen, but then again, I think no Old World ROM Mac can boot via USB at all, can they?

I'm not aware of Old World ROM Mac being able to use the Mac OS ROM file (although I could be wrong), but what I know they can use is System Enablers, AKA "gibblies". I don't know if it's possible to put USB drivers on them, though.

Worst case scenario, the app/service implementation we currently have could be kept for Old World ROM Macs if all else fails, whereas we leverage a Mac OS ROM patch for New World ROM Macs.

[Rairii]

My own analysis about the USB mass storage issues:

Apple actually released the source for the USB mass storage driver, in the USB DDK Examples\USBSampleStorageDriver.

It's not 100% the same but most of the code is identical.

Looking at what could be failing regards to REQUEST SENSE, it seems the CDB length in the CBW is always set to 12 bytes. Most USB mass storage drivers will not use 12-byte CDBs at all, and it seems Mac OS's USB mass storage driver doesn't even send any real 12-byte command at all.

Not sure why it works for OHCI, probably would need to check the REQUEST SENSE response (dump from macsbug or so).

[Jubadub]

Thank you @Rairii for sharing invaluable insight here with us!

I will share your link here so that it is even easier to find for the devs here:

https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/apple/ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/

More specifically:

USB_DDK_1.5.1f1.img.sea.hqx

Overall "Mac_OS_USB" directory, e.g. USB_DDK_1.5.9f1.img.bin. (Latest version?)

[UnexpectedBomb]

Hi all, thank you for these replies. They've been critical in guiding my latest iterations. I've already had some success with modifying the Mac OS ROM. If all goes well, this will likely result in two or more modified ROMs being built with native EHCI capability, customized by machine type. The MDD will continue to be priority #1, as it is the easiest test case. Once I have native EHCI working reliably on the MDD, I will modify the Mini's custom ROM in a similar manner and continue from there.

I am actively monitoring this thread on a near-daily basis. If anyone has additional tips, theories, or resources you can send my way, please continue to do so. Once again, thank you so much for the help you all have provided so far. I will be periodically updating the repo as time allows.

-UB

[Protools5LEGuy]

Thank you for all this.

[AlpineRaven]

oooh how exciting - that looks really good!! Watching this!
Cheers
AP

[IIO]

I've already had some success with modifying the Mac OS ROM.

while i am pretty clueless about OS and hardware level stuff i am not suprised that it goes in that direction now - tbxi also was my first thought when i saw you reporting that you can´t load your driver before the OS9 driver loaded (but had to.)

if that is sufficient is another question, but the ROM is at least loaded before the extensions folder.

[DieHard]

I don't get on here as much as I would like... but I just read thru this entire topic 2X and I am enjoying a large cup of coffee while my mind is literally being blown as I try to wrap my head around the technical aspects and all the time and effort put into this breakthrough.

It never ceases to amaze me... this forum has attracted some of the most talented and tenacious people on the planet.  I can remeber, when the only members were mactron, Chris, and myself and there were many, many days and no sleep nights spent reverse engineering copy protected DAW plugins, host software, and creating and testing ASR images.

Nice to see that so many others over the years have claimed the "no sleep until it works" torch.  You guys are rockstars by every metric.

[torvan]

I am amazed at all the head cracking! Thank you so much for the effort you are making and I am excited to be watching for it to be complete!

[Jubadub]

Hi all, thank you for these replies. They've been critical in guiding my latest iterations. I've already had some success with modifying the Mac OS ROM. If all goes well, this will likely result in two or more modified ROMs being built with native EHCI capability, customized by machine type. The MDD will continue to be priority #1, as it is the easiest test case. Once I have native EHCI working reliably on the MDD, I will modify the Mini's custom ROM in a similar manner and continue from there.

I am actively monitoring this thread on a near-daily basis. If anyone has additional tips, theories, or resources you can send my way, please continue to do so. Once again, thank you so much for the help you all have provided so far. I will be periodically updating the repo as time allows.

-UB

(Bold emphasis mine.)

Once the turn of the minis comes, these are the 6 (at least the first 4) relevant ROMs, all conveniently gathered in one place:

Mac mini G4 ROMs (Macintosh Garden)

In other words:
- Mac OS ROM, stock 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, has Mac mini's "v8" patches;
- Mac OS ROM, stock 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, has Mac mini's "v9" patches;
- Mac OS ROM, Rairii's 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, has Mac mini's "v8" patches;
- Mac OS ROM, Rairii's 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, has Mac mini's "v9" patches;

I also talk about them on this newly-made post (also readable from here).

With regards to the MDD and almost all other PowerMacs, at least the following come to mind:

1 - Stock "Mac OS ROM" version 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, as discussed and seen here. The latest, most up-to-date Mac OS ROM officially provided by Apple, in the "691-4872-A" disc;

2 - "Mac OS ROM" version 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, with modifications to accept more than 1.5 GB RAM (third limit-breaking ROM attempt). This is the most important ROM for MDD users, even though we never were able to reach the theoretical 2.0 GB limit (yet), but "only" 1.625 GB.

3 - "Mac OS ROM" version 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, modified by Rairii (v20251203) with additional compatibility to also support older Mac OS versions all the way down to System 7.0 by implementing back functions that were removed from the ROMs as newer versions came out (works perfectly with Mac OS 9.2.2, too, except it breaks Power MachTen).

4 - Stock "Mac OS ROM" version 8.7, the first Mac OS ROM intended for Mac OS 9.2.2, and the last Mac OS ROM version that is able to function without causing massive visual glitches on a number of games.

5 - "Mac OS ROM" version 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9, slightly modified so that any PowerPC-based Mac will at least try to boot Mac OS with it, as opposed to artificially give up. Also known as the "Universal" ROM, and also known as the ROM "for all unsupported G4 Macs" or "previously-unsupported G4 Macs". Its version string is edited to also say "(Generic)" next to "CPU Software 5.9", so you know this isn't the usual 10.2.1 with CPU Software 5.9 ROM. This was done by @iMic circa 2014, as far as I know. You can download the whole ISO via Hotline from Mac OS 9 Lives!, but I have attached its ROM to this post for convenience, too.

Those are all the relevant ROM files I know of, as far as Mac OS 9.2.2 is concerned. But otherwise, there might be another 4 ROMs of interest:

1 - Stock Mac OS ROM 2.5.1, the latest ROM to be included with Mac OS 8.6 by Apple, through this disc (691-2460-A), or simply this tiny download, and presumably has better G4 / AltiVec support than previous ROMs up until that point, although still presumably incomplete. (AltiVec support was only complete with Mac OS 9, according to the author of the kernel.)
This ROM might be of use to Mac OS 8.6 users, in particular.

2 - Mac OS ROM 2.5.1, modified by "LightBulbFun", renamed to "Sawteeth". Designed to help certain Macs that are artifically blocked from booting Mac OS 8.6 to boot into it. Can sometimes be used in conjuction with Rairii's ROMs (v20251203) to further help with that (since it is called "Sawteeth", it can coexist in the same System Folder as Rairii's "Mac OS ROM", both tbxi files work together). You can download directly from this post, to which it is attached.

3 - Mac OS ROM 2.5.1, modified by Rairii (v20251203), to assist in booting Mac OS versions that predate Mac OS 8.6. When this ROM is good enough, it might work better with older versions of Mac OS than Rairii's 10.2.1-based ROM.

4 - Mac OS ROM 1.7.1, modified by Rairii (v20251203), to assist in booting older Mac OS versions. When this ROM is good enough, it might work better with older versions of Mac OS than Rairii's 10.2.1-based and 2.5.1-based ROMs. However, this one is old enough as not to even have USB support, so beware.

Finally, I noticed that, in our Hotline archives, we also have a special disc just for the "PowerBook G4 Titanium 1 GHz" for running Mac OS 9.2.2, which uses a Mac OS ROM version 9.0.1, which seems like has also been modified compared to stock 9.0.1, but other than that, I don't know much about it. Other folks here might. I also don't know if that PowerBook model has USB 2.0 hardware, or if USB 2.0 hardware can be attached to it via CardBus, PCMIA (or whatever it was called) or similar, but if not, it might not be relevant for this topic. But I have attached the seemingly-modified ROM to this post here, as well, just in case, and for convenience.