Gack ! … My G5 Tower just failed & I need to run OS 9 …

[simonwhelan]

Well … As Dr. Nick on the Simpsons TV show sez :

“Hi Everybody” !

I’m a Mac software developer. Actually, I’ve been developing software on Apple machines since 179.

I was using 1 of my development machines, :

A Tower Power Mac G5 (Model No. A1047, Emac No. : 1969) to run legacy apps under Mac OS 9 emulation.

To make a long story short … The graphics card on the machine failed and therefore I have to use another machine to run legacy apps under OS 9 emulation.

I have a Mac Mini with :

• 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

• 4 GB 1067 MhZ DDR3 RAM

• 1 Terabyte internal hard drive

• Running Mac OS 10.8 (12A269).

This is the Mac Mini that has an external power supply and an DVD built in..

What I need to know is :

How do I get Mac OS 9 up and running on this machine so that I can run the legacy apps I need in order to deal with certain kinds of software development ?

When I set up the G5 Tower several years ago I seem to remember that Apple itself included the OS 9 Emulator as part of the system software they shipped with that machine.

So … I guess I have 2 very basic and very general questions; i.e. :

• Where do I get the OS 9 emulation software ?

• How do I install it ?

I would greatly appreciate any advice, suggestions and information any of the folks on this forum could pass my way.

You can contact me either on this forum or at the following email address :

simonwhel@yahoo.com

I’d like to thank every one in advance for any & all help, advice & suggestions you can send my way,

Simon Whelan.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

The Classic "emulator" (virtualization rather than emulation) that shipped with MacOSX will run only on a PPC Mac in MacOSX 10.4 (Tiger) or earlier. No way it can be used on any modern Mac, including yours.

You can try if SheepShaver meets your needs. It emulates a PPC Mac and it will run MacOS 7.5.3 through 9.0.4.
Downloads: http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewto ... =20&t=7360
Setup guide: http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/she ... os_x_setup

[adespoton]

Another suggestion is to pick up a Mac Mini G4 off of eBay or a similar location. They generally run for around $20-$100. I got two given to me for free

[simonwhelan]

Email : simonwhel@yahoo.com

Hi Ronald P. Regensburg :

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.

I apologize for the delay in getting back to but I’ve been busy with other things.

I’ve noted the 2 Earls you mentioned in your reply; i.e. :

• Downloads: l viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7360Downloads: l viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7360

• Setup guide: http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/she ... os_x_setup

I’m going to go through them very thoroughly and very carefully to see if they are what I need to solve my Mac OS 9 legacy app problem.

Thank you.

So … If I’ve understood you correctly … No Intel based Mac will run Classic.

So … I’m out of luck with my older Mac Mini, which does have an Intel microprocessor in it.

So … It looks like you are right … I should try to run “SheepShaver”.

The problem is that the only version of Mac OS 9 I have is OS 9.2.1.

This is a problem because SheepShaver, as you mentioned in your reply to my posting, only runs Mac OS 7.5.3 to 9.0.4 .

Do you have any idea where I could get a copy of Mac OS 9.0.4 ?

I’ve also heard about something called “Chubby Bunny” which is supposed to be a variant on SheepShaver, which is supposedly easier to install.

Do you happen to know anything about that ?

Also you mention that there is a difference between “Emulation” & “Virtualization”.

I’m wondering if you can explain to me what the difference is between the 2 terms ? I’m just curious.

The specific legacy apps that I need to run are as follows :

• ClarusDraw

• Older versions of Photoshop.

But … I really do want to thank you for all your help & advice …

Thank you.

All the best … Simon Whelan.

[simonwhelan]

Hi “adespoton” :

Thank you for your suggestion.

Apparently, if I’ve got this right, NO Intel based Mac can run Classic under emulation.

Before I try buying a Mac Mini G4 I’m going to thoroughly investigate trying to get my older Mac Mini to run SheepShaver.

The current installed OS is 10.5.6 .

It has :

• a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4 GB of 1,067 MHz DDR3 RAM.
• A brand new 1 terrabyte internal hard drive.

All the best & thanks for your suggestion.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

If you can find a Mac Mini G4 as adespoton suggested: It has a PPC processor and it can run the PPC version of OSX 10.4 (Tiger) and in it MacOS 9.2.x (preferably 9.2.2) in the Classic environment.

Some of your other questions:
- Searching the web, you can find retail 9.0.4 install CD images for download (Torrent and such). Make sure it is the image of a retail disk, not one provided with a specific machine.
- Emulation creates a virtual machine with a different processor, for instance a PPC machine on an Intel machine. Apple's Classic environment is an integrated virtualization of PPC on PPC.
- Chubby Bunny COI is indeed easy to set up, but it is impossible to modify settings to your needs. The regular SheepShaver builds are much more flexible.

[simonwhelan]

Hi Ronald :

Thanks for all your help.

I'll try acting on your suggestions.

All the best … Simon

[adespoton]

A further note on emulation vs. virtualization:

Emulation involves dynamically translating instructions meant for one piece of hardware to work in software.

As such, an iPhone can emulate a car horn.

Virtualization involves replicating hardware interfaces in software.

As such, a computer can virtualize a combination lock.

Virtualization tends to be more focused on the interface, where emulation tends to be more focused on replicating the signals under the hood.

VirtualBox, VMWare and KVM are all virtualizers that make an existing machine's hardware accessible in multiple virtual software environments, such that one set of hardware can be used by multiple software configurations at the same time.

QEMU, SheepShaver, Basilisk II, etc. are *mostly* emulators because they attempt to create virtual hardware that can be run on top of other unrelated hardware.

I say mostly, because all three listed products also have a degree of virtualization to speed up the emulation -- they only emulate what they need to, and virtualize the rest. QEMU is the biggest one for this; if you run qemu-ppc on an actual PowerPC computer, it will just pass the instructions directly to the host without passing them through an emulation layer.

So a virtualizer is basically an instruction broker that knows how to pass along information to the right place at the right time. An emulator takes the place of that hardware and returns the results that the original hardware it is emulating would have returned. Most modern emulators and virtualizers are really a combination of the two (VirtualBox, for example, contains an old version of QEMU to do basic emulation of hardware peripherals).

[TiddK]

Chubby Bunny runs a pre-packaged version of OS 9.0.4 within SheepShaver. It comes pre-loaded with MacWrite, ClarisWorks 1, Word Perfect, and one or two other things. It also allows you to add to the drives it supports by optional allocations of 250MB, 500MB, and 1GB virtual drives in your Users/Shared folder. That way you could install ClarisDraw and versions of Photoshop which will mostly require more space than the 'Classic' virtual drive which Chubby Bunny assigns at the start.

You should be aware that OS 9.0.4 is a lot less stable than OS 8.6