What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[Minghold]

Over the next two or three years, I'll change everything to some flavour of Linux, both the Macs and the Windows PCs....

Any i-series processor Mac with 8gb ram should run Mojave/HFS+ with Linux VMs in Parallels 18. Then, keep at least one mid-range 4gb PC lap and put Windows 10 IoT LTSC 2021gen2 on it (install from USB ISO offline, say no to all MS options, then massgrave it later) for updates until 2032(!); also apparently has the driver-finding guts from W11, because it seems to find obscure stuff a lot easier.

As always with Macs, use Terminal commands to disable SIP, MRT, MDS_stores, Spotlight Indexing, Reportcrash, and Software Update (to keep Catalina from accidentally wrecking Mojave installations. Good luck.

 

[mortlocli]

Got Q4OS working on a iMac 5,1 running from a usb stick.
Made the stick with Q4OS on a netbook and using the built in S4 Snapshot t make a iso file which when used to instal to a usb stick, boots on the iMac via holding down the D key.

Still 'boot loader' issues with a external SSD or HD install.,, firefox 146.0.1 (64-bit) works ok in here.

 

[mortlocli]

Info from 'inxi -b' - no radeon support:
Linux mx1 6.1.0-41-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.158-1 (2025-11-09) x8
6_64 GNU/Linux
demo@mx1:~/Desktop$ inxi
CPU: dual core Intel Core2 T7200 (-MCP-) speed/min/max: 999/1000/2000 MHz
Kernel: 6.1.0-41-amd64 x86_64 Up: 1h 15m Mem: 2103.0/2968.5 MiB (70.8%)
Storage: 178.05 GiB (3.2% used) Procs: 192 Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.26
demo@mx1:~/Desktop$ inxi -b
System:
Host: mx1 Kernel: 6.1.0-41-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Trinity
v: R14.1.1 Distro: Q4OS 5.8.1-n1
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac5,1 v: 1.0
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F42786A9 v: DVT serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: Apple v: IM51.88Z.0090.B09.0706270921 date: 06/27/07
CPU:
Info: dual core Intel Core2 T7200 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 1046
min/max: 1000/2000
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD RV530/M56-P [Mobility Radeon X1600] driver: N/A
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: N/A
unloaded: fbdev dri: swrast gpu: N/A resolution: 1440x900~77Hz
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.6 128 bits)
Network:
Device-1: Marvell 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet driver: sky2
Device-2: Broadcom BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n driver: N/A
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 178.05 GiB used: 5.67 GiB (3.2%)
Info:
Processes: 192 Uptime: 1h 16m Memory: 2.9 GiB used: 2.07 GiB (71.3%)
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.26

 

[DCBassman]

Any i-series processor Mac with 8gb ram should run Mojave/HFS+ with Linux VMs in Parallels 18. Then, keep at least one mid-range 4gb PC lap and put Windows 10 IoT LTSC 2021gen2 on it (install from USB ISO offline, say no to all MS options, then massgrave it later) for updates until 2032(!); also apparently has the driver-finding guts from W11, because it seems to find obscure stuff a lot easier.

As always with Macs, use Terminal commands to disable SIP, MRT, MDS_stores, Spotlight Indexing, Reportcrash, and Software Update (to keep Catalina from accidentally wrecking Mojave installations. Good luck.

Windows 10 IoT - every Windows machine I have already running it.
I actually have no user requirements for macOS at all, so what machines I keep will run whatever Linux natively. At some point, I'll try Big Linux, as you've suggested elsewhere.
I may try one machine on a stripped-down Mojave install just to see how it runs. Maybe I'll hold back the 4GB 2013 Air 11" for that, as it won't need to run any VMs. Is there a specific reference anywhere on how to strip Mojave to its bones?

 

[MBAir2010]

. Is there a specific reference anywhere on how to strip Mojave to its bones?

not that I know of, unless someone can grab some code and delete that after or even during upload.
what I do is remove all  programs like news/stocks/music etc.
from docks, sidebars or keeping them from appearing or activating since they are stuck in the system,

 

[DouglasCarroll]

Windows 10 IoT - every Windows machine I have already running it.
I actually have no user requirements for macOS at all, so what machines I keep will run whatever Linux natively. At some point, I'll try Big Linux, as you've suggested elsewhere.
I may try one machine on a stripped-down Mojave install just to see how it runs. Maybe I'll hold back the 4GB 2013 Air 11" for that, as it won't need to run any VMs. Is there a specific reference anywhere on how to strip Mojave to its bones?

Hello!

It's seems like you're the "Linux Guru" here then if all you do is run it on old Intel Macs since you don't need the Mac OS on them.

If you don't mind me asking a Linux question....how did you get the built in camera working under Linux with, say, "Zoom" on your old Intel Macs? This has always been the "Linux deal killer" for me. For me no camera = no Linux. I've seen the hacks online where you install the Mac video camera drivers and in spite of trying this multiple time on multiple versions of Linux on multiple machines it never seems to work for me, ever.

How did you get the camera working?

Thanks in advance for any info you might have, I appreciate it!

🙂

 

[DCBassman]

Hello!

It's seems like you're the "Linux Guru" here then if all you do is run it on old Intel Macs since you don't need the Mac OS on them.

If you don't mind me asking a Linux question....how did you get the built in camera working under Linux with, say, "Zoom" on your old Intel Macs? This has always been the "Linux deal killer" for me. For me no camera = no Linux. I've seen the hacks online where you install the Mac video camera drivers and in spite of trying this multiple time on multiple versions of Linux on multiple machines it never seems to work for me, ever.

How did you get the camera working?

Thanks in advance for any info you might have, I appreciate it!

🙂

No Guru I...
The nearest thing I have to a modern Mac is a 2013 Macbook Air 13". This was the only mac laptop which didn't fire up the camera right out of the gate, and it did take some fiddling, annoyingly. I persevered because i like the machine. Al the other? It just works. The one minor annoyance I personally have, and it is minor, is that I like the keyboard backlight on all the time, and there's no easy way to default it to 'on'.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

No Guru I...
The nearest thing I have to a modern Mac is a 2013 Macbook Air 13". This was the only mac laptop which didn't fire up the camera right out of the gate, and it did take some fiddling, annoyingly. I persevered because i like the machine. Al the other? It just works. The one minor annoyance I personally have, and it is minor, is that I like the keyboard backlight on all the time, and there's no easy way to default it to 'on'.

Interesting...my experience was the opposite, the camera never worked on any machine...and I tried a 2015 Mac Book air 13" at one time which should be close to your 2013 I'd think. If you don't mind me asking, which distribution of Linux are you using that activated the camera upon install without any fiddling? That sounds really interesting...

🙂

 

[DCBassman]

Interesting...my experience was the opposite, the camera never worked on any machine...and I tried a 2015 Mac Book air 13" at one time which should be close to your 2013 I'd think. If you don't mind me asking, which distribution of Linux are you using that activated the camera upon install without any fiddling? That sounds really interesting...

🙂

MX Linux, current version is 25. Xfce version. As said, the later machine was the problem. Most of mine are 2011 vintage.
The one insurmountable issue I've found with any Mac and any version of Linux is using Magic Mice/Keyboards. That's a pain if you use Mac desktops or a mouse with your laptop, as I do. But I don't mind using a Logitech or similar mouse on Linux, because I know it will work.

 

[Minghold]

Windows 10 IoT - every Windows machine I have already running it.
I actually have no user requirements for macOS at all, so what machines I keep will run whatever Linux natively. At some point, I'll try Big Linux, as you've suggested elsewhere.
I may try one machine on a stripped-down Mojave install just to see how it runs. Maybe I'll hold back the 4GB 2013 Air 11" for that, as it won't need to run any VMs. Is there a specific reference anywhere on how to strip Mojave to its bones?

Set up as described in my last post, Mojave will use about 1.6 ram of 4, and run fast on spinner drives.

 

[DCBassman]

Set up as described in my last post, Mojave will use about 1.6 ram of 4, and run fast on spinner drives.

Set up on a 2011 (so it's a patched installer) A1278 MBP 13" with SSD and 16GB RAM. Haven't yet disabled everything, but it's running fine with that spec.

 

[TheShortTimer]

For a while I've wanted to watch this film about the 1936 Eiger North Face expedition and I got the chance with the help of the ever trusty VLC and my 13" 2012 MBP running Ventura. 🙂

I was unawares of the full story beforehand and that made my viewing experience all the more emotive. The fictionalised love-interest was unnecessary and something that I would've expected from a Hollywood flick but it remains a powerful film nonetheless.

 

[Paddy OPlastic]

Hello!

It's seems like you're the "Linux Guru" here then if all you do is run it on old Intel Macs since you don't need the Mac OS on them.

If you don't mind me asking a Linux question....how did you get the built in camera working under Linux with, say, "Zoom" on your old Intel Macs? This has always been the "Linux deal killer" for me. For me no camera = no Linux. I've seen the hacks online where you install the Mac video camera drivers and in spite of trying this multiple time on multiple versions of Linux on multiple machines it never seems to work for me, ever.

How did you get the camera working?

Thanks in advance for any info you might have, I appreciate it!

🙂

I have two iMacs with working webcams. The first is a 10,1 from late 2009 which has an iSight camera and it worked with KDE Neon (Ubuntu/Debian based) out of the box. My 15,1 has the FaceTime camera and needed the FacetimeHD driver:

Home

Reverse engineered Linux driver for the FacetimeHD (Broadcom 1570) PCIe webcam - patjak/facetimehd

github.com

I installed it as a DKMS module. Don't forget the firmware!

 

[Paddy OPlastic]

MX Linux, current version is 25. Xfce version. As said, the later machine was the problem. Most of mine are 2011 vintage.
The one insurmountable issue I've found with any Mac and any version of Linux is using Magic Mice/Keyboards. That's a pain if you use Mac desktops or a mouse with your laptop, as I do. But I don't mind using a Logitech or similar mouse on Linux, because I know it will work.

I don't have a Magic Mouse and I generally use the Magic Keyboard plugged in, although the keyboard works fine when I pair it as a regular Bluetooth keyboard.

 

[DCBassman]

I don't have a Magic Mouse and I generally use the Magic Keyboard plugged in, although the keyboard works fine when I pair it as a regular Bluetooth keyboard.

Agreed, it's getting it paired that can be a pain. This, in my experience, is not limited to Apple Bluetooth devices, it's the way the service is implemented in Linux that is the problem.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

I have two iMacs with working webcams. The first is a 10,1 from late 2009 which has an iSight camera and it worked with KDE Neon (Ubuntu/Debian based) out of the box. My 15,1 has the FaceTime camera and needed the FacetimeHD driver:

Home

Reverse engineered Linux driver for the FacetimeHD (Broadcom 1570) PCIe webcam - patjak/facetimehd

github.com

I installed it as a DKMS module. Don't forget the firmware!

This looks interesting...thanks for the info! I'll check it out.

 

[mortlocli]

Just did a install of osx 10.6 on my iMac 6,1 and discovered a new browser:

PowerFox Browser

PowerFox is a secure, modern, and open-source web browser for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.5 Leopard, and 10.4 Tiger for Intel and PowerPC Macs.

powerfox.jazzzny.me

using it now.

 

[Sh3ldon]

using it now.

And it has the default theme that even the new Firefox should have. Newer is not always better.

 

[mortlocli]

I haven't really tested it yet...working to a tight data access limitation - but I'm sure you guys will find te good n te bad.

 

[alex_free]

Been playing through Fallout 1 on my MacBook 2,1. There is TOO many ways to play this game on said hardware. You have the Official OS X version (probably would work up to 10.6.8 on this hardware with Rosetta, some nvidia Macs can’t play it past 10.5.something due to driver not supporting 256 color), the original windows release (should be fine on XP which is part of my triple boot), and the GOG version.

I went with the GOG version because usually that always makes sense. Like with other 90s classics such as unreal tournament 99, etc. No DRM patched up, etc. Well that was a mistake. Turns out the GOG version is based off of the censored euro version (which even removes some quests and characters due to being too dark and controversial, like this is when drug became chem and whatnot, even tho the cutscenes literally say drug in the audio haha) and has additional community patches like widescreen.

That’s all good, and it does work on XP, but I read that the original creator of the whole franchise (who has an awesome Youtube channel talking about being a game developer in the 90s and making this game) made sure that the Classic Mac OS 7-9 version and the PC version could use the same saves. Well that was true if both are v1.0 or v1.1 official patch, and I assume the same with the later OS X version, but not with the GOG version which sadly just crashes on tiger when loading my GOG saves which while it makes sense I wouldn’t play the GOG version again. I’ve already beat the first main quest and am hours into it, so I’m not restarting over.

Anyways I’ve never played a real turn based rpg that works the way this does. I had to watch a tutorial called How tf to play fallout 1 which did a great job without spoiling anything. This game does not hold your hand. There are no quest markers, and you have to just talk to everyone to figure out what and where to go. And then you can get there and can have no idea the right way to go (my absolute favorite was I got to necropolis and it’s just a huge map of ghouls, the main path is barricaded in and it tells you you can not proceed, you must find a different way. After you walk around the whole map finding nothing you notice a sewer drain, which looking back at a hint a bought from an npc mentioning sewer water being used as part of the water recycling system for a vault made sense. But there’s nothing distinguishing it from the rest of the scenery until you try clicking it and then it all makes sense). The game is very dark and even the 256bit color graphics are more realistic and dark and gritty in style then fallout 4’s cartoonish ones.

I can’t tell you how strange it is to be so distracted by a game that you end up being late to something IRL and don’t remember 2 hours passing. Highly recommend.

 

[alex_free]

(deleted)

 

[MacFoxG4]

Dealing with dead batteries on my 2006 MBP. Both the main battery and the PRAM battery decided to die. Not having a PRAM battery isn't so bad, except even after I set the date and time, it won't connect to Wi-Fi. I have to restart the Mac after setting the date and time in order to get Wi-Fi working again. Unfortunately, this MBP uses this weird PRAM battery where it's a CR2025 wrapped in plastic with black and red wires attached it that go to a plug, which connects to the logic board. This battery doesn't seem to be made anymore, kinda like the PB G3 PRAM battery situation. I was able to salvage the PRAM battery from my previous 2006 MBP and after setting the date and time once, it has so far saved the settings upon each subsequent boot and I don't need to restart the Mac every time I want to connect to Wi-Fi. Hopefully this "new" PRAM battery lasts.

I haven't sourced a new main battery yet. The one I have is a NewerTech, and it only lasted me 3 years. Is that normal? I'm wary of buying another one, but maybe this is the best there is? I don't really need a main battery, I just like having one so I don't have a huge hole in the bottom of my MacBook Pro.

 

[ToniCH]

Unfortunately, this MBP uses this weird PRAM battery where it's a CR2025 wrapped in plastic with black and red wires attached it that go to a plug, which connects to the logic board.

There is nothing weird about it. It is a CR2025 battery wrapped in plastic with wires and plug. 😱 That is how most laptops have their PRAM-batteries during last 15 years. 😉 Well, they might not be CR2025 but a coin cell in plastic with a plug. Just buy one from ebay. Try to get one with same plug but if not possible buy another type and transfer your original plug to the new battery leads.

Or buy a plain coin cell battery and transfer your original leads to it and wrap the thing into electric tape or shrink wrap.

Look closely: is it a CR2025 or BR2025? The latter is common type used as PRAM battery as it will hold up better in hot environment. Those are rarely available in your local supermarket but can be ordered from net stores. But if it is CR then use CR.

The one I have is a NewerTech, and it only lasted me 3 years. Is that normal?

If your main battery is missing or dead the PRAM battery is the only thing keeping the clock and settings in memory so it might die faster than if your main battery is ok.

 

[MacFoxG4]

There is nothing weird about it. It is a CR2025 battery wrapped in plastic with wires and plug. 😱 That is how most laptops have their PRAM-batteries during last 15 years. 😉 Well, they might not be CR2025 but a coin cell in plastic with a plug. Just buy one from ebay. Try to get one with same plug but if not possible buy another type and transfer your original plug to the new battery leads.

Or buy a plain coin cell battery and transfer your original leads to it and wrap the thing into electric tape or shrink wrap.

Look closely: is it a CR2025 or BR2025? The latter is common type used as PRAM battery as it will hold up better in hot environment. Those are rarely available in your local supermarket but can be ordered from net stores. But if it is CR then use CR.


If your main battery is missing or dead the PRAM battery is the only thing keeping the clock and settings in memory so it might die faster than if your main battery is ok.

It’s weird to me because it’s not in a traditional battery holder. No need to be condescending.

 

[ToniCH]

It’s weird to me because it’s not in a traditional battery holder. No need to be condescending.

That was not my intention. I was saying it is normal in most laptops made in a long time. You do not need to search for some weird exotic mystery battery from any Apple only vendor. You can easily replace it. You can even check if there is space to install a battery holder, they are available separately. It might be in too tight spot though.