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What have you done with an early Intel recently?

Played around with a newly acquired Late 2009 Mini today. It is a 2.26ghz model and it came with a 160 GB HDD with Snow Leopard installed and 2 GB of RAM. I decided to swap my SSD and 8 GB of RAM from my early 2009 Mini into the late 2009 and put the late '09's HDD and 2 GB of RAM into the early '09. Haven't decided exactly what I will do with the early '09 now. Probably make it a Leopard or Snow Leopard box, or if I upgrade it again, maybe Mavericks.

Since the late '09 has a faster CPU, I decided to try out the patched version of Big Sur. While I do prefer earlier versions of macOS, I just couldn't resist trying out Big Sur on here. I replaced the Snow Leopard that was on my SSD with Mojave first because I figured a newer OS was needed to run the OpenCore program and download Big Sur. In hindsight I should have used High Sierra or installed Mojave on an HFS+ partition instead because the APFS boot loader from Mojave interfered with me being able to get into startup manager. That and the 2009 minis weird issue of USB devices not being recognized after a reboot, requiring one to unplug and plug back in the USB cable(s) again, also affected my ability to get into startup manager. So it's hard to say whether the USB issue or the APFS bootloader was to blame. Big Sur without graphics acceleration is awful, things like setting the time zone during setup became a struggle. Once graphics acceleration is enabled thanks to post-install patches, the experience of running Big Sur is not bad. It's not my favorite macOS, but so far it works. It's cool to be able to run Apple's latest macOS on a Mac that's over a decade old.

I'm still able to dual boot with Linux as well. After reinstalling rEFInd, I am able to boot into Linux by selecting EFI from OpenCore, which takes me to rEFInd where I can boot into Linux.
 
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MacFoxG4 said:
Since the late '09 has a faster CPU, I decided to try out the patched version of Big Sur.
Click to expand...
Not that there's an awfully big difference between 2 and 2.26 GHz. :)

MacFoxG4 said:
Once graphics acceleration is enabled thanks to post-install patches, the experience of running Big Sur is not bad.
Click to expand...
Good to know that accelerated graphics are possible - macOS is basically useless otherwise.
 
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wicknix said:
Oh, and here's an updated InterWeb (60.9.4) and SpiderWeb (2.2.3) made possible by this machine. :D
Click to expand...

Upgraded add-ons in SpiderWeb 2.2.3 are all rendered incompatible :( (except for the ones shipped with SW)

In preceding SW 2.2.2 it was possible to upgrade extensions to recent versions: decentraleyes-1.4.3, https-always-5.2.26, uBlock0_1.16.4.28, ematrix-4.4.8

Interestingly github-wc-polyfill-1.1.7 is no longer compatible either.

Editing the install.rdf is of no help this time, it seems.

Any solution?

Edit: oops, this should belong to the SpiderWeb thread
 
So this is the second summer with my Mac Mini 3,1 which I keep in the garage. Last summer I shut it down for the duration of the summer, but this summer I decided to move it in along with the ICY Dock 2TB RAID I use attached to it. That's just so I can keep it on this summer.

Also brought up both Mini's via screen sharing and the PC via MRD.

Will have to decide what I'm going to do with the G4 NAS out there though.

Today's high is 107º. Summer in Phoenix.

2021-06-05 13.44.33-1.jpg
2021-06-05 13.44.47-1.jpg
2021-06-05 13.45.03-1.jpg


EDIT: Here's the ICY DOCK. Note that despite sitting on top of my Mac Pro it's attached to my Mini.

2021-06-05 14.16.26.jpg
 
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I have the 2 and 2.53Ghz 09 Minis. Still running El Capitan on both but I suppose I could try running something newer for a bit of fun at some point.
 
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Following on from this post and this one and drawing inspiration from this Mac fan, I set up my C2D 2010 MBA to play arcade games in the correct aspect ratio so that they can be presented and enjoyed in the manner that they were meant to be seen by the player. Donkey Kong, for example is one of many titles that uses a vertical display for the arcade machine and this is what it looks like when played on my MBA's 16:9 LCD:

04xSxxw.png

uAJL7f0.png

K9V1PXm.png


(It also looks strange on a 4:3 monitor too.)

Using a portable 16:9 LED TV (that I miraculously found abandoned one night in my local neighbourhood) tilted sideways, I connected it to the MBA via DisplayPort to HDMI, booted Snow Leopard in clamshell mode and configured the TV to rotate to 90 degrees in order to mimic a vertical display.

AXZ040t.png


Let's see Donkey Kong as Nintendo had intended!

OSWMC7f.png

BvmT8aI.png

EFtlDs6.png


Huge difference, right? :D

SdIOUdY.png

W5QYe1s.png

DQeHOe0.png

D3p9iQK.png

Gx8Uaky.png

IFQ5UIb.png


Some photos of the TV positioned sideways and in action:

jYxfdTu.jpg

uUqZ9SE.jpg

2fVpO4J.jpg


I'll have to try a few more titles that use a vertical display and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to set up. I could repurpose a wrecked MacBook 1,1 as a dedicated unit. The only thing that concerned me is that the fan was on full-blast whilst the MBA was in clamshell mode. Does anyone know why and should I be worried about this?
 
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I have waited a really long time to post this.

I’m typing this reply from the 17-inch A1261 (MacBookPro4,1) I acquired in a local trade in June 2019.

I have another thread on here going into tedious detail on how I had set aside the OEM logic board (a 2.5GHz T9300) with plans to get the GPU replaced. This ultimately didn’t happen because I found a good deal on a replacement logic board with a 2.6GHz (T9500) CPU.

Trouble was, that replacement logic board, despite being refurbished by Apple (I think) with the corrected GeForce 8600M GT GPU, failed within ten minutes after I powered it on for the first time. I watched the display go into nasty dithering and then freezing, followed by the GPU just being dead.

After back and forth, the seller delivered a replacement this week. This replacement, so far, is working very well (fingers staying crossed) and running Snow Leopard. It’s running on a 500GB m.2-to-2.5" SATA SSD.

The rest of this MacBook Pro did not get a tremendous amount of use before the original owner experienced the G84-602-A2 GPU of Death. When I got it from them, they’d had it sitting in a closet for several years. In short, the case and display are in incredibly good condition, somewhere between excellent and near-mint.

[I mirrored this ironclad build of 10.6.8 from my early 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro (currently running an automix of djay.app, which is what it’s been doing most days lately). That 2011 MacBook Pro has run the same 10.6.8 install since 2011, and that install was migrated over from a long-gone 2009 MacBook Pro purchased from Apple on 5 September 2009 (which is to say: it was OEM-bundled with 10.6.0). This install has a very long lineage with lots of tweaks along the way.]

I still need to buy a new battery to unlock the rest of the clock speed, but this laptop is the one I’ve been waiting to use, if my math is correct, for exactly 105 weeks. I’ve dreamt of it for a lot longer. This display is wonderful. The original owner ordered it with the glossy hi-res LED option. (I’d have preferred the anti-glare, but this display is in such good condition that I’m not really going to complain.)

Below is a screencap running Firefox Legacy 52.9.1p1 (“Nightly”) and System Profiler. It lacks a serial number, but I can fix that later. :)

Eventually I’ll get around to posting a pic of this MBP alongside my A1139 PowerBook G4 on the Club 17 thread.

Screen shot 2021-06-10 at 08.48.03.png

1623330947248.png
 
Last edited:
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TheShortTimer said:
Following on from this post and this one and drawing inspiration from this Mac fan, I set up my C2D 2010 MBA to play arcade games in the correct aspect ratio so that they can be presented and enjoyed in the manner that they were meant to be seen by the player. Donkey Kong, for example is one of many titles that uses a vertical display for the arcade machine and this is what it looks like when played on my MBA's 16:9 LCD:

04xSxxw.png

uAJL7f0.png

K9V1PXm.png


(It also looks strange on a 4:3 monitor too.)

Using a portable 16:9 LED TV (that I miraculously found abandoned one night in my local neighbourhood) tilted sideways, I connected it to the MBA via DisplayPort to HDMI, booted Snow Leopard in clamshell mode and configured the TV to rotate to 90 degrees in order to mimic a vertical display.

AXZ040t.png


Let's see Donkey Kong as Nintendo had intended!

OSWMC7f.png

BvmT8aI.png

EFtlDs6.png


Huge difference, right? :D

SdIOUdY.png

W5QYe1s.png

DQeHOe0.png

D3p9iQK.png

Gx8Uaky.png

IFQ5UIb.png


Some photos of the TV positioned sideways and in action:

jYxfdTu.jpg

uUqZ9SE.jpg

2fVpO4J.jpg


I'll have to try a few more titles that use a vertical display and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to set up. I could repurpose a wrecked MacBook 1,1 as a dedicated unit. The only thing that concerned me is that the fan was on full-blast whilst the MBA was in clamshell mode. Does anyone know why and should I be worried about this?
Click to expand...

Now I want to get an old display to set up all portrait mode and then do nothing but play all the Namco/Nintendo arcade versions of games, thanks a whole lot for planting that bug in my brain.
 
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TheShortTimer said:
Following on from this post and this one and drawing inspiration from this Mac fan, I set up my C2D 2010 MBA to play arcade games in the correct aspect ratio so that they can be presented and enjoyed in the manner that they were meant to be seen by the player. Donkey Kong, for example is one of many titles that uses a vertical display for the arcade machine and this is what it looks like when played on my MBA's 16:9 LCD:
Click to expand...

Hey, how is MameOSX's controller support? Is there an interface that makes it easy to configure? This has been a bit of pain point for me in Mac emulators. The only one that seems to get it right is OpenEmu, which I have... other nitpicky issues with. (I don't like iTunes and I don't want a second one for my games.)
 
B S Magnet said:
Now I want to get an old display to set up all portrait mode and then do nothing but play all the Namco/Nintendo arcade versions of games, thanks a whole lot for planting that bug in my brain.
Click to expand...

You're very welcome! :D

In turn, I hold this person responsible for planting the bug in my brain in the first place. :)

Wowfunhappy said:
Hey, how is MameOSX's controller support? Is there an interface that makes it easy to configure? This has been a bit of pain point for me in Mac emulators. The only one that seems to get it right is OpenEmu, which I have... other nitpicky issues with. (I don't like iTunes and I don't want a second one for my games.)
Click to expand...

It's unbelievably easy to use a controller in MAME OS X. Anything that is recognised by macOS will be detected by MAME OS X and it's just a matter of pressing the TAB key whilst a game is running which then opens the set up options and configuring the controller by assigning the controller to UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT and the fire buttons etc. Sometimes MAME OS X will automatically configure it for you. I'm able to use my Xbox 360 pad within MAME OS X thanks to the Tattiebogle driver. Plug and play - pun intended. ;)
 
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MultiFinder17 said:
I did change up my setup at school a bit. In place of the 2008 20", I've put in a 2009 21"! The 20" is now at home on my tech workbench. It's nice to have the higher-res screen of the 21", and it aesthetically matches the 27" 2010 next to it :D

I feel like I could post in this thread every day "I did everything for my job with early Intel Macs" :p

View attachment 1732310

View attachment 1732309
Click to expand...
Ace stickers, mate!
 
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@TheShortTimer
By some unknown reason I'm getting trouble entire week with access to everymac.com. It's forces me to guess captures and there is no guarantee that site will be shown. Tor Browser is not much different.
 

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MacFoxG4 said:
I decided to swap my SSD and 8 GB of RAM from my early 2009 Mini into the late 2009 and put the late '09's HDD and 2 GB of RAM into the early '09. Haven't decided exactly what I will do with the early '09 now. Probably make it a Leopard or Snow Leopard box, or if I upgrade it again, maybe Mavericks.
Click to expand...
I reversed this decision last night and put the SSD and 8 GB of RAM back into my early '09 Mini. Broke my iFixit knife tool and the IR cable in both Minis during the process, but was otherwise successful. I'll keep the late '09 Mini for parts. There is no difference in Big Sur on the early '09 vs the late '09. I went back to my early '09 partly out of sentiment, partly because it is in better physical condition than the late '09, and partly because the early '09 Mini gives me the option of running Leopard should I ever need it. I ran Leopard on the early '09 today by restoring a DMG I had made of my Sawtooth's Leopard partition. System profiler correctly identified the Mini with all the right info, but Leopard still had the name of "[insert username here's]-powermac-g4-AGP-Graphics." I have the early '09 dual booted with Snow Leopard and Ubuntu now. At some point, I would like to buy a bigger SSD so I can triple boot and add Big Sur back.
 
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Tratkazir_the_1st said:
@TheShortTimer
By some unknown reason I'm getting trouble entire week with access to everymac.com. It's forces me to guess captures and there is no guarantee that site will be shown. Tor Browser is not much different.
Click to expand...

That's really strange. Initially I suspected that it might be an issue with your location or ISP but the fact that you also experience this difficulty with TOR as well is a mystery. Perhaps more knowledgeable members can shed some light on what's happening?

I had intended to show you that your MacBook is definitely on-topic here - thanks to its C2D CPU. :)

dMokVii.png
 
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