Clamshell SE non-firewire

[sanfrancisofont1984]

Just received such a machine. The color is Graphite.

The hardware seems mostly stock (a whopping 6GB hard disk!) apart from an extra 64M RAM stick.

The software is a little odd (for me at least). It would appear to boot Mac OS 8/9, then flashes the question mark and finally (slowly) boot into OS X Jaguar. It is not snappy even without opening any app.

What I already know:
Officially it could go between 8.3 and OS X Panther.
RAM stick is cheap and relatively easy to replace/install.
Hard drive replacement is difficult but possible.

I don't have very high expectations. I think it could be a decent late night PDF reading machine? I would prefer to use OS X for this purpose.
For web browser I would go with a proxy/offload solution.

Anything you want to tell me?

 

[Amethyst1]

I'd max out the RAM, install an SSD (mSATA plus adapter) and go for Tiger as far as OS X is concerned, with all optimisations possible. Or Panther maybe, if I didn't need anything that requires Tiger.

 

[sanfrancisofont1984]

Looks like Tiger requires a bit of fiddling for non-FireWire models. I think I would do RAM upgrade and clean install Panther first.

Would be cool to see if I could eventually install Tiger over a USB DVD drive. Since the USB is 1.1 it is going to be a long coffee break ...

 

[Amethyst1]

Just a tiny bit of fiddling (faking the model ID in OF)

Installing Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” without the use of XPostFacto on an iBook G3 Clamshell without FireWire

I just got an original iBook G3/300 (sometimes also referred to as “Clamshell”) from a friend and I have to say that I do like it very much. The hardware performance is essentially the same as I am…

luttztfz.wordpress.com

That's gonna be a week-long coffee break

 

[TheShortTimer]

Don't forget, there's a modified version of Tiger available from the Garden that will install and run on G3's without the need for dabbling with OF. I've installed 10.4 on my G3/350 via USB 1.1 in 40 minutes - less painful than when I would manually set up Win 9x on my 24x CD-ROM PII 350: because I still had to then install the drivers afterwards...

 

[Dronecatcher]

Don't forget, there's a modified version of Tiger available from the Garden that will install and run on G3's without the need for dabbling with OF.

Good call....wish that'd been around when I put Tiger on my Clamshell!
@sanfrancisofont1984 if you do go with Tiger you need to run every optimisation going, use Onyx to turn off all GUI effects/transitions and use ShadowKiller too.

 

[Amethyst1]

slowly) boot into OS X Jaguar. It is not snappy even without opening any app.

With 128 MB RAM (which is nothing for OS X) and that slow hard drive, that's to be expected.

Edit - turns out the SE has 64MB onboard. So that'll be 128.

 

[weckart]

Fortunately, Tiger also comes in a CD flavour, so you could install via the onboard CD drive without messing with USB.

 

[bobesch]

I'd go just for os9 on this early Clamshell and hook the machine into a nice PPC-network so you won't miss anything and avoid frustration coming from the limits of RAM and 6GB hard-drive (concerning Tiger).
Makes you more feel options, instead of limits.

 

[sanfrancisofont1984]

Thanks for all the answers. I went with Panther due to my curiosity. Believe it or not it comes with a PDF reader

The idle RAM at boot is like 10 out of 128MB. So I did order an 512MB stick.

 

[Amethyst1]

Would you say Panther is snappier than Jaguar even with just 128mb?

 

[Project Alice]

Don't forget, there's a modified version of Tiger available from the Garden that will install and run on G3's without the need for dabbling with OF. I've installed 10.4 on my G3/350 via USB 1.1 in 40 minutes - less painful than when I would manually set up Win 9x on my 24x CD-ROM PII 350: because I still had to then install the drivers afterwards...

Good call....wish that'd been around when I put Tiger on my Clamshell!
@sanfrancisofont1984 if you do go with Tiger you need to run every optimisation going, use Onyx to turn off all GUI effects/transitions and use ShadowKiller too.

How did I not know about this? That would've made installation on my Bondi a bit quicker.

Thanks for all the answers. I went with Panther due to my curiosity. Believe it or not it comes with a PDF reader

The idle RAM at boot is like 10 out of 128MB. So I did order an 512MB stick.

For the record, Tiger is basically an optimized version of Panther. In my experience, out of the box it is either faster or the same as Panther. The only thing that gets annoying is the occasional indexing that spotlight does, if you chose to leave spotlight enabled on such a system.
My favorite reason for using Tiger over Panther on G3s is the fact that Tiger does not do the "Optimizing system performance" on literally every single run of the Installer.

Looks like Tiger requires a bit of fiddling for non-FireWire models. I think I would do RAM upgrade and clean install Panther first.

Tiger will actually boot on any G3 without issue. The installer complains on models without FW. So if you decided to upgrade the drive you could install Tiger to it before sticking it into the iBook and avoid any tweaks on the iBook itself. Xpostfacto is also an option.

 

[sanfrancisofont1984]

Would you say Panther is snappier than Jaguar even with just 128mb?

Seems like so. Maybe just the advantage of a new clean install.

 

[Amethyst1]

Seems like so. Maybe just the advantage of a new clean install.

One of Panther's main selling points was that its noticeably faster than Jag throughout.

 

[sanfrancisofont1984]

Ram upgrade installed. Still on Panther. Doesn’t feel like it is faster.

 

[sanfrancisofont1984]

TIL Panther's preview wouldn't support PDF 1.5. So I had to find and install Adobe Reader 7.