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OS 9 on Powerbook 1.5

sk8er123

sk8er123

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 2, 2012
35
6
Cincinnati Ohio
Hello all,
I have a Powerbook 1.5ghz that was given to me and I want to use it to run some OS9 games. I've read that you need a special disk of OS9 to install classic on tiger.. I don't have this, but what I do have is a retail disk of OS9, the one with orange lettering. Am I out of luck, or can I use my retail disk?
Sorry for my lack of knowledge on the subject, I was in 2nd grade when OS9 was still popular lol.
 
For classic mode, I'm pretty sure any generic 9.2.2 system folder somewhere on the computer will get the job done. I don't think Classic mode is as picky as some of the later computers that can natively boot OS 9.

Probably the easiest and(relatively) legal way to get this is to download Netbook for OS 9 from this link

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1192

Then follow these instructions to extract the system folder

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/macos9/nR2QQCKaCFA

Drag and drop into your home directory, and you should be able to set that system folder as your OS 9 folder under the "Classic" pane in system preferences.
 
Yeah, just to note here for clarification…

Apple officially "killed" OS9 with Tiger. Now, before every one of you starts shouting "You can run OS9 on Tiger" that's not what I mean.

Steve Jobs announced that OS9 was no longer supported on Tiger. A lot of people took that to mean it wouldn't work. Which, as we all know is not the case.

I had to explain this to a lot of designers running around like chickens with their heads cut off because they thought the world was ending back in the day ("OMG, I can't run QUARKXPRESS 4.11 ANY MORE!!!! I'm SCREWED, how do I get my work done now?!!!!").

You cannot install OS9 directly to a Mac running Tiger. But, as bunnspecial pointed out you can move over the System Folder and use the Classic Pref pane. Something, Apple didn't bother to mention. If you upgraded to Tiger and already had an OS9 folder on the Mac you were good too.

Of course, Apple killed OS9 for real with Leopard when they closed that little loophole we have all exploited at one time or another on Tiger installations.
 
Hmm. Interesting about OS9... Also as a side note, instead of starting a new thread, does anybody know of any good database-like software for Power PC? I need to compile a list of email addresses, with names, etc. Or is excel 2004 my best bet? Preferably something that will run on my PMG5 Quad with Leopard.
 
sk8er123 said:
Hmm. Interesting about OS9... Also as a side note, instead of starting a new thread, does anybody know of any good database-like software for Power PC? I need to compile a list of email addresses, with names, etc. Or is excel 2004 my best bet? Preferably something that will run on my PMG5 Quad with Leopard.
Click to expand...

I don't have any specific suggestions as the(limited) database work I've done has been in Windows, but I'd hunt around on Macintosh Garden.

I'll also put in the plug for the fact that I've got a good friend who is currently doing an MD-PhD, with a PhD in Bioinformatics. A significant portion of his PhD project is writing a database of the human metabalome using mass spectral data. It's written in Perl. Their in-lab workstations and servers are all Linux, but his personal "work" computer is a 13" rMBP. I've not found a version of OS X that didn't include Perl, but you're pretty much stuck on the command line.
 
i don't see a classic pane in my system preferences running 10.4.11. imac g4.
 
gooser said:
i don't see a classic pane in my system preferences running 10.4.11. imac g4.
Click to expand...

From what I recall, the pane will magically appear after you try to run an OS 9 program. If you have an OS 9 system folder somewhere on the hard drive, it will(usually) find it and you won't notice anything. If you didn't have a system folder at the time you tried to run the OS 9 program, the pane will appear and you can later go in and specify the location of your system folder.
 
Filemaker Pro may be more database than one needs. Filemaker also distributes a scaled down database called Bento, though I think it may have been discontinued. Anyway, whatever floats your boat...
 
I was trying to recall the name of the cut down Filemaker, but it escapes me. I know it went discontinued after a while, unsure if it was Intel only.
 
sk8er123 said:
Hmm. Interesting about OS9... Also as a side note, instead of starting a new thread, does anybody know of any good database-like software for Power PC? I need to compile a list of email addresses, with names, etc. Or is excel 2004 my best bet? Preferably something that will run on my PMG5 Quad with Leopard.
Click to expand...

LibreOffice has a database application that's included in the download that should work for you. And there is a PPC version that should run on Leopard and Tiger.
 
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