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ahriman

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 12, 2007
32
0
got a question from someone using a pre-intel MBP: can the emulation (if that is what actually is happening) that her MBP performs for running OS 9 be accomplished on the intel architecture?
 
There are some hackjob methods for getting Mac OS 9 on the Intel Macs. I did it to see if it worked for one thing and the speed was unusable. I would consider it a no go at this point.

jon
 
Um, there is no PPC MBP, but no, Intel procs can't run OS9 at all.

perhaps my models are confused then. she is running 10.2.something and it is pre-intel ("the version just before intel" she says), so was there another chip/chipset used between PPC and intel-based? or were the silver 15.1" notebooks simply called "macbooks" then?
 
perhaps my models are confused then. she is running 10.2.something and it is pre-intel ("the version just before intel" she says), so was there another chip/chipset used between PPC and intel-based? or were the silver 15.1" notebooks simply called "macbooks" then?

They were called PowerBooks, they had PowerPC processors instead of Intel, and they ccan run an OS 9 emulation environment called Classic within OS X. Intel Macs (like MacBooks/MacBook Pros) cannot run Classic at all.

There is a way to run OS 9 on Intel called SheepShaver. http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/en/projects/sheepshaver It's a bit buggy though and it doesn't support most games.
 
perhaps my models are confused then. she is running 10.2.something and it is pre-intel ("the version just before intel" she says), so was there another chip/chipset used between PPC and intel-based? or were the silver 15.1" notebooks simply called "macbooks" then?

She is using a G4, probably the first aluminum "powerbook", either that, or a Ti "powerbook"

Either way, she is using a PPC processor, a G4 (PowerPC 7450, PowerPC 7455 or PowerPC 7447).

If she is indeed using 10.2, the original Aluminum Powerbook would be the latest machine she could have, because it originally came with 10.2.8
 
Little Apple history lesson here: "Pre-Intel" MBPs weren't called MBPs, they were PowerBooks (which I still think is a cooler name :p), and the lower-end consumer laptops were called iBooks (shiny white casing). There was no "in between" PowerPC and Intel, it went right from PowerPC G4 processors to Intel Core Duo processors. Therefore Apple decided to change the PowerBook's name to MacBook Pro, and the iBook's name to MacBook, because they wanted the name "Mac" to be in every new Mac's name.

And I've heard of SheepShaver, but I have no idea how it performs, seeing as how I've never used it.





POP QUIZ!! Haha, jk. I'm not that mean :D.

eek. beat to it.
 
Unless you are running a program called Basilisk II. Which allows some OS 9 programs to work on a Intel Mac.

Basilisk II is a 68K Mac emulator. Not a PowerPC Mac emulator. Therefore the highest OS you can use with Basilisk II is 7.6, and you can only run 68K programs with it.

As mentioned, SheepShaver will run OS 9, but (as usual with these things), there is no support for any kind of hardware acceleration.

--Eric
 
I believe if the machine has a G4 processor then it can run OS9 natively, though I have heard that some models w/the G4 will not boot into OS9...a firmware issue, I think. And I'm pretty sure that no version of Tiger will support OS9 in Classic mode.

In any case, on every G4 I've used I've installed OS9 on a separate partition and it's worked more or less flawlessly. Note that you don't have to put OS9 on a separate partition (if the chipset/OS supports it), but I always did, just because...
 
I believe if the machine has a G4 processor then it can run OS9 natively, though I have heard that some models w/the G4 will not boot into OS9...a firmware issue, I think. And I'm pretty sure that no version of Tiger will support OS9 in Classic mode.

As long as the PowerMac doesn't have FW800 and the rest of the machines DDR memory -- they all boot OS 9.

These things changed the hardware enough that OS 9 wasn't able to boot, the eMac was the only machine with a firmware issue right before the switch from the SDR PowerMac chipset to the DDR iMac chipset.

For the Intel Macs, likely somebody may come up with a G3 virtual machine.
 
No. Tiger supports Classic just fine. I have Classic on all my systems running Tiger along with a System 9 System folder.

and how do you enter "classic" mode? is it a boot-time choice? or is it an application/emulation?
 
You just run an OS 9 app and Classic starts automatically. You can also start it manually from Sys Prefs > Classic.
 
for os9 emulation on intel there is an app called sheepshaver, i havnt used it as i have no need but its out there (for windows linux or intel osx)
 
Before the Intel switch, the high-end silver machines were called "PowerBooks" and the white low-end machines were called "iBooks". After the Intel switch they became MacBook Pro and MacBook.
 
I don't know how well this will work on an Intel Mac, but you might be able to run OS 9 in Q. I think that it has an option to emulate a Mac OS 9-capable machine. But, like I said, it might not work under Rosetta well or at all, and I'm not 100% sure it has OS 9 emulation.
 
and how do you enter "classic" mode? is it a boot-time choice? or is it an application/emulation?
On my G3 and G4 PowerMac, as well as my TiBook, I can boot in OS 9 by selecting it as a startup disk. Of course, I also have Classic emulation as an option to run when in Mac OS X.

My 1GHz iMac G4 however can not boot into OS 9, the first iMac model to not allow such an option.
 
There seems to be some confusion here.

Classic, meaning the Classic Environment run within OS X, is supported by any version of Mac OS X on any PowerPC Mac.

OS 9 itself, meaning the ability to start up and run your computer in OS 9, is not supported in Macs made from 2003 on. (A small exception is that Apple continued to sell OS-9-booting PowerMac G4s to schools, even into 2003.) I think the G5 also explicitly doesn't support booting in OS 9, as it's a 64-bit chip if for no other reason.
 
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