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What are you doing with your PPC boxes?
- Thread starter cammykool
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How do you find OpenBSD on the PowerBook? I am specifically looking to buy a G4 12" to run the Puffy OS. What concerns me with OS X 10.5.8 is the lack of security updates. My needs are very basic: a decent browser and a way to SSH.
Having been reminded that I have an iBook G3 (Snow) I decided to re-install OSX.
It is an early 2003 iBook G3 at 800MHz, 640MB RAM, 32MB VRAM. Strangely, it has a non-original 20GB HDD. These were all originally supplied with 30GB Drives, so perhaps this is a later replacement for the original drive?
I have a compatible 160BG drive taken from a torn-down iBook G4, but I am not sure that it is worth the bother trying to get to the guys to replace it!
Anyway, it now has 10.4.11 installed, TenFourFox45 and I am in the process of putting the last version of LibreOffice4 for PPC onto it. In fact, I am typing this post from the iBook G3. I have not tried facebook or YouTube (which seem to be the two golden tests for old computers these days) but I am impressed that it is still possible to get online with a laptop from 2003. This particular laptop is the same age as my PowerMac G5, and they are worlds apart in terms of specification and power.
It is an early 2003 iBook G3 at 800MHz, 640MB RAM, 32MB VRAM. Strangely, it has a non-original 20GB HDD. These were all originally supplied with 30GB Drives, so perhaps this is a later replacement for the original drive?
I have a compatible 160BG drive taken from a torn-down iBook G4, but I am not sure that it is worth the bother trying to get to the guys to replace it!
Anyway, it now has 10.4.11 installed, TenFourFox45 and I am in the process of putting the last version of LibreOffice4 for PPC onto it. In fact, I am typing this post from the iBook G3. I have not tried facebook or YouTube (which seem to be the two golden tests for old computers these days) but I am impressed that it is still possible to get online with a laptop from 2003. This particular laptop is the same age as my PowerMac G5, and they are worlds apart in terms of specification and power.
http://openbsd.cs.toronto.edu/pub/OpenBSD/6.0/macppc/
And download the installxx.iso from there.
Burned it to an CD and did the install from CD.
You will need to boot into a Live Linux afterward , mount the BSD partition and copy ofwboot to it unless you use
the MBR option.
Unfortunately as of 6.0 only Netsurf seems to work, Xombrero , Midori do install but give a SegFault error once started.
On 6.0 Firefox is no longer in the packages.
My best experience was with 5.8,it still has Firefox 39 and Firefox 38-ESR, see here
http://openbsd.cs.toronto.edu/pub/OpenBSD/5.8/packages/powerpc/
5.9 didn't have Firefox anymore, but Xombrero, Midori and Netsurf still work but forget Youtube playback.
{EDIT 2016-sep-30} as off 5.9 Minitube works perfectly for watching Youtube videos.
6.0 has Firefox 45 but only for the Intel architecture.
Overall, it's very lightweight, tmux and fwwm or cwm are so resource-friendly.
As an non-GUI OS with the added security, I would use it to perform console tasks over OS X or Linux, only thing lacking for me personally is Youtube, decent mplayer performance ( it has no 3D accelerated mesa or nouveau on the Nvidia 12") and QEMU which simply doesn't work.
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Having been reminded that I have an iBook G3 (Snow) I decided to re-install OSX.
It is an early 2003 iBook G3 at 800MHz, 640MB RAM, 32MB VRAM. Strangely, it has a non-original 20GB HDD. These were all originally supplied with 30GB Drives, so perhaps this is a later replacement for the original drive?
I have a compatible 160BG drive taken from a torn-down iBook G4, but I am not sure that it is worth the bother trying to get to the guys to replace it!
It is an early 2003 iBook G3 at 800MHz, 640MB RAM, 32MB VRAM. Strangely, it has a non-original 20GB HDD. These were all originally supplied with 30GB Drives, so perhaps this is a later replacement for the original drive?
I have a compatible 160BG drive taken from a torn-down iBook G4, but I am not sure that it is worth the bother trying to get to the guys to replace it!
Try pulling the keyboard to look at the original sticker to verify. Sometimes, specific customers like businesses and educational institutions could special order them in more affordable configurations according to their needs. Personally, I would not strip an iBook down to run a used drive of questionable history. I would purchase an affordable SSD and run that and it would be a perfect little Tiger machine.
If the intent is to run OS 9 natively and you're suggesting one of the white iBooks then he needs to be careful which one he purchases. Only the earliest models are capable of booting OS 9 natively and one of those models requires iBook specific OS 9 media to do so.
At the moment I am swearing at my G5. I gave it a nice brand new 500GB HDD and now it doesn't want to play ball! Everything has installed, but it keeps beach-balling for some reason. I am about to attempt another complete re-install of everything to see if that helps. I may have to put the old HDD back into it because it worked perfectly with that one! It was larger capacity, so I wanted to put it back into my Mac Pro.
Since I'm now working with several different network vendor equipment but a lot of Fortinet physicall stuff , just as a POC
tried to install the free qcow2 kvm image on my 12" Powerbook G4 using qemu-system-x86_64, cpu kvm64 , virtio filesystem and nic's with a tap interface so it can reach the interwebz.
Gave the qemu VM 512 MB of RAM so off course OS X starts swapping , luckely it's an SSD
But hey, it runs on 10 year old hardware that's not even Intel !
Next up , try to reduce the RAM footprint and add a virtual DMZ behind it as an on the road test lab thingie.
( Could also easily VPN to work to the real stuff but that's no fun )
tried to install the free qcow2 kvm image on my 12" Powerbook G4 using qemu-system-x86_64, cpu kvm64 , virtio filesystem and nic's with a tap interface so it can reach the interwebz.
Gave the qemu VM 512 MB of RAM so off course OS X starts swapping , luckely it's an SSD
But hey, it runs on 10 year old hardware that's not even Intel !
Next up , try to reduce the RAM footprint and add a virtual DMZ behind it as an on the road test lab thingie.
( Could also easily VPN to work to the real stuff but that's no fun )
Water fox is still useable and will be. It glitches pretty bad, but it works well enough
My DC 2.0/4GB G5 still powers as my main desktop. Web browsing (combo WebKit/Tenfourfox), iTunes for my nano/shuffle and online outlook email for work. Absolute workhorse - purchased it for $50 3 or so years ago and hasn't skipped a beat since. Before that had a DP 1.8 I had for a few years prior.
Secondary machine powers my second screen (linked to G5 via teleport) is Quicksilver G4/933/1.5GB.
I do have an iPad Pro that I use for anything else I need, however I haven't had a desire to upgrade my desktop setup at all.
Secondary machine powers my second screen (linked to G5 via teleport) is Quicksilver G4/933/1.5GB.
I do have an iPad Pro that I use for anything else I need, however I haven't had a desire to upgrade my desktop setup at all.
I've made my decision. My G5 has lots of advantages other than software (like 2 displays, for example), so I'm sticking with that.
I find it quite pathetic in a way that Apple still sold the G3 processor in the iBooks into 2003. I understand the whole issue of why G5s could never be used in a laptop, but the G4 PowerBooks were out for years at that point so it was almost like running a dead horse into the ground by continuing to sell the G3 in the iBook in 2003. My goal is to get a 1.42 GHz iBook G4, but that has yet to come to fruition.
What brand and model hard drive is it? Sometimes you have to use a jumper to put it into SATA I/II backwards compatibility mode, otherwise it will run awful or the drive will not be recognized at all in some cases.
I use my G4 imac for all the common things: Music (listening and writing) Photos (photoshop runs really well with this iMac), Movies, web browsing. Also its the only computer that still work with my firewire ipod. and i can use this imac to burn old software for my other old macs and use a usb floppy to put files on my Macintosh computers (Macintosh SE, Classic II) so this mac is perfect in everyway for everything i do now.
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I'm actually pretty grateful they were still selling G3s into late 2003. I don't doubt for a minute that is the only reason why Tiger and maybe even Panther support the G3 chip. The G3 was also a great mobile chip, so it made a lot of sense in an inexpensive consumer portable because of how cool it ran and even the clock speeds being fairly comparable to what was in the G4 PowerBooks at the time.
Without the G5 available for Laptops, I suppose that they had to keep the G4 as the "premium option" and the G3 as the base-model.
Hmm, what are the specs? I rarely have this problem with my late 2006, but it was the top-end of the lineup.
TenFourFox is going to hit the same dead end after ESR 45 unfortunately. The future of web browsing on both early Intel and PowerPC Macs (running MacOS, not Linux) is going to start looking uncertain soon.
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My G5 has just kinda been pushed aside as a backup computer, or just when I need to use a desktop Mac. My PowerBook G4 is really just used to bridge my Wifi through ethernet to my Desktop PC since I have no wifi chip on it, or ethernet ran to my room. And my brother uses my iBook G4 for his online school classes. Used to use my G4 iBook as a daily from around 09' to 2011, but it needs some maintnence that I'm just to lazy to do to be a daily again, and it'd prob never be a daily again because for me personally, flash 10 just doesn't work out.
In a storage room atm, I just don't have room for a g5 setup alongside my mac pro. But if my mac pro were to catch fire somehow i'm sure my g5 would roar to life once more to save the day editing 1080p video like a champ.
This was from when it was my main machine. Circa 2013
This was from when it was my main machine. Circa 2013
I am so intrigued by the story behind that beast, is it your daily computer? tell me more please.
It was…
Bought it from a member here (@RedCroissant) for $50 and 3 iBook G3s.
All stock at the time except for a Sonnet 1.2Ghz single processor. I upgraded to a Radeon 9800 Pro, a Radeon 9200 and a Radeon 7000. That gave me six displays. But the 9800 Pro was problematic. Stuck in a USB 2.0 card as well.
Eventually another member here sent me a dual processor that turned out not to fit my QS so I swapped with another member for a GigaDesigns 1.8ghz dual. Then my problems with heat began.
That led to a series of failed experiments with fan placement, drive coolers, etc. I finally knocked a hole in the bottom and mounted a second 120mm fan. Every stock fan was replaced. Finally got a a $10 PCI SATA card which I flashed and that worked well for a while.
I believe the PSU has always been wonky because I've lost one USB 2.0 card, two USB/FW cards and two SATA cards to this thing.
At some point last year I picked up a Sonnet 1.8Ghz dual and installed it. Also cleaned up the inside to make it look nicer.
Earlier this year I went to change out a fan of the same size and the Mac refused to chime. Turns out I burnt out the second USB/FW card (but did not know it at the time). So it sat a few months. until I tried again and was surprised to find no power. A spare PSU from @bunnspecial got me going again but this is where I've also discovered that a few other parts went bad.
As it sits, it's got an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT (courtesty of @harrymatic), a ATI Radeon 9200 and flashed Radeon 7000. One 4.0TB SATA, three 1.0TB SATA and one 650GB latop SATA drives. Also, the Sonnet dual.
It will chime. It will begin to boot. I can push it to get to the login screen. That's as far as it will go. It will either lock up after trying to login or it will spew kernal panics before getting to the login screen.
It's either a logicboard, the SATA card again or something else.
At this point, I pretty much consider my test pancake (which this was) to be burnt and I'm looking to swap in either an MDD or a G5. We will see what comes first in the new year. Certain parts will go from this Mac to the next one and I'll probably get to use my Fire GL that's been sitting around as well (can't use it in my QS).
I learned a lot and there are certain things I'd do differently now, but I'm tired of messing with this thing.
That is one fantastic saga. The amount of time those of us in here are willing to put into these Macs is surprising sometimes...
Out of curiosity, what are you using as your main system now?