SheepShaver refuses to run

[Silent Flamer]

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ERROR: cannot create SHM segment for Kernel Data: no space left on device.

Usually error messages express something different from what they seem to tell, but just to be sure: How much space is available unused on your HD?

Plenty; around 30 GB.

Mac OS can support such a size? I thought System 7 only supported up to 2GB? In that case , the Hard Disk size limit couldn't have jumped that much!

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

This is about the physical HD in the MacBook, not about a volume in the emulator.

[Silent Flamer]

Oh . Okay . But my hard disk has over 50% free , and that's about 91.3GB . I don't think 30GB would do much...

[n9yty]

I am having the same problem, I think. It was exiting with error 255.

I let it create the preferences file and then edited it so that "nosound true" was set, and it will launch.

I do not know why having sound enabled on my 2011 MacBook Pro is causing problems, but I don't need sound for my application so this is acceptable.

Maybe it will help others?

[Vox]

I am having the same problem, I think. It was exiting with error 255.

I let it create the preferences file and then edited it so that "nosound true" was set, and it will launch.

I do not know why having sound enabled on my 2011 MacBook Pro is causing problems, but I don't need sound for my application so this is acceptable.

Maybe it will help others?

Yes, it did help! Sorry to bring back to life this very old thread, I just wanted to say that this suggestion solved the problem in my Macbook.

At some point I updated to Snow Leopard, but the update did not solve my problem. Then, I disabled the sound as suggested and SheepShaver is running again.

I am wondering if this is issue has been investigated in the meantime.

[adespoton]

Heh... both issues pointed me immediately to one question: have you updated SDL lately? This appears to be an SDL audio issue. Sorry I didn't notice this thread until just now. I've had this issue in the past when my SDL versions conflicted.

[Vox]

Heh... both issues pointed me immediately to one question: have you updated SDL lately? This appears to be an SDL audio issue. Sorry I didn't notice this thread until just now. I've had this issue in the past when my SDL versions conflicted.

I don't know what SDL is. Is it possible to have it already without knowing about it (e.g. part of system core components)?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Only the more recent SheepShaver for OSX builds linked to from this forum use a SDL.Framework as such in the application bundle. It is unlikely for SDL to be installed without your knowledge. If installed, the default locations would be /Library/Frameworks/SDL.Framework or ~/Library/Frameworks/SDL.Framework

This audio issue is rare, only two reports in all those years. You started this topic four years ago. Which SheepShaver version do you use currently and which is your current OSX version?

[Vox]

This audio issue is rare, only two reports in all those years. You started this topic four years ago. Which SheepShaver version do you use currently and which is your current OSX version?

It says version 2.4 (2012-07-15), running under Snow Leopard 10.6.8. With audio disabled now it runs fine and I am happy with it. But I would be happier if I could have the sound back.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

I read again all of this topic.

1. There is one unanswered question:
Did you use a generic retail 8.5 install CD (green label with large white "8")? A machine specific install CD (usually grey label) may install extensions that can cause problems in SheepShaver. Specifically the Apple Audio Extension causes problems.

2. Since the problem started, you upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard and the problem persisted. Your SheepShaver installation appeared to work fine on your wife's Macbook Pro, while a SheepShaver installation from another user crashed on your black late 2007 Core 2 Duo MacBook.

I am inclined to think that the issue is hardware related. An important hardware difference is that RAM on your MacBook is from OWC, not RAM provided by Apple. It is well established that Macs are extremely sensitive to minimal differences in RAM specifications.

Now, SheepShaver uses memory in a way it should not. Several patches have made SheepShaver run nevertheless, but the basic problem is not solved. Problems may occur when SheepShaver is launched when several other (background) processes are already occupying memory. It could very well be that the combination of SheepShaver's misbehavior in memory with the OWC RAM cause the crash on your MacBook when audio is enabled in SheepShaver preferences.

[Vox]

1. There is one unanswered question:
Did you use a generic retail 8.5 install CD (green label with large white "8")? A machine specific install CD (usually grey label) may install extensions that can cause problems in SheepShaver. Specifically the Apple Audio Extension causes problems.

Yes, I used a retail Mac OS 8.5 CD. I have also a machine specific Mac OS 8.1 CD but Sheepshaver refuses to make any installation with it. So, I am well aware about this issue.

2. Since the problem started, you upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard and the problem persisted. Your SheepShaver installation appeared to work fine on your wife's Macbook Pro, while a SheepShaver installation from another user crashed on your black late 2007 Core 2 Duo MacBook.

I am inclined to think that the issue is hardware related. An important hardware difference is that RAM on your MacBook is from OWC, not RAM provided by Apple. It is well established that Macs are extremely sensitive to minimal differences in RAM specifications.

Well, I found the old, factory memory of the Macbook and installed again. It is just 1 GB total, but I wanted to try your hypothesis. Sheepshaver booted correctly with sound off, but once I tried to start it up with sound turned on, it crashed again. It gave the same error in the console as previously:

21/02/15 17:13:20 [0x0-0x2b02b].SheepShaver[242] Assertion failed: (sigpipe_sa.sa_handler == SIG_DFL || sigpipe_sa.sa_handler == SIG_IGN), function ether_init, file /Users/ronald/Desktop/cebix-macemu-23ee142/SheepShaver/src/MacOSX/../Unix/ether_unix.cpp, line 254.

It is a little more verbose this time but I guess this is due to the different version. I see a path that obviously does not exist in my machine. Has this anything to do with my problem?

I think that this is not hardware related. Besides, Sheepshaver worked fine with the new memory from OWC for quite some time, and then started to crash inexplicably. Also, my wife's Macbook Pro runs on Crucial memory now and Sheepshaver works just fine with audio enabled. What may have happened is that some OS X update changed something which Sheepshaver relied upon to generate sound. On the other hand I thought that the OS X updates were machine-agnostic. Or am I mistaken?

Now, SheepShaver uses memory in a way it should not. Several patches have made SheepShaver run nevertheless, but the basic problem is not solved. Problems may occur when SheepShaver is launched when several other (background) processes are already occupying memory. It could very well be that the combination of SheepShaver's misbehavior in memory with the OWC RAM cause the crash on your MacBook when audio is enabled in SheepShaver preferences.

Is there any development on Sheepshaver still going on? Any hope to make it more "gentle", so to say, and fix the audio issue?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

21/02/15 17:13:20 [0x0-0x2b02b].SheepShaver[242] Assertion failed: (sigpipe_sa.sa_handler == SIG_DFL || sigpipe_sa.sa_handler == SIG_IGN), function ether_init, file /Users/ronald/Desktop/cebix-macemu-23ee142/SheepShaver/src/MacOSX/../Unix/ether_unix.cpp, line 254.

This is absolutely bizarre. This path to the ether_unix.cpp file can only have existed on my OSX 10.6 machine while building the SheepShaver application from the source files on my desktop, downloaded from GitHub cebix-macemu.

Exactly which SheepShaver build (build date!) do you use?

Is there any development on Sheepshaver still going on? Any hope to make it more "gentle", so to say, and fix the audio issue?

Since regular development of SheepShaver and BasiliskII stopped in 2006, various users with programmer skills have contributed to the source code with bug fixes and new features. But I am afraid that it will not be enough to keep these emulators alive. They may very well stop working in a next OSX version, possibly even as soon as with OSX 10.11.

[Vox]

Exactly which SheepShaver build (build date!) do you use?

I don't have anymore the original .zip file. The cmd-I command on the Sheepshaver binary gives version 2.4 (2012-07-15). I hope it makes sense for what you are looking for.

Since regular development of SheepShaver and BasiliskII stopped in 2006, various users with programmer skills have contributed to the source code with bug fixes and new features. But I am afraid that it will not be enough to keep these emulators alive. They may very well stop working in a next OSX version, possibly even as soon as with OSX 10.11.

Really a pity. Is it that difficult, once the emulation software is clean and stable enough, to simply update it so that it works with newer OS X releases?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

1. Try the latest build (see sticky topic in SheepShaver forum). You can simply replace the SheepShaver application, but before launching it best remove the existing ~/.sheepshaver_nvram file using the included "Zap PRAM" script.

2. If you post here the content of the prefs file, we can see if there are any unusual entries in it.
In Terminal type open ~/.sheepshaver_prefs followed by a return. The file will open in your default text editor. Select all content, copy it, and post it here.

Is it that difficult, once the emulation software is clean and stable enough, to simply update it so that it works with newer OS X releases?

Yes, it is complex. Bringing this software up-to-date will ask much of developers in terms of skills, effort, and time. These applications use functions that are long deprecated and that will be removed from OSX one by one. Also, the way they use memory will certainly be made impossible at some point in the future. The latest OSX version in which SheepShaver can be compiled is 10.6. The ability to read CDs was lost in 10.8. In 10.10 SheepShaver does not run anymore in 64-bit mode.

[Vox]

1. Try the latest build (see sticky topic in SheepShaver forum). You can simply replace the SheepShaver application, but before launching it best remove the existing ~/.sheepshaver_nvram file using the included "Zap PRAM" script.

OK, I tried it. No change, same problem with audio enabled.

2. If you post here the content of the prefs file, we can see if there are any unusual entries in it.
In Terminal type open ~/.sheepshaver_prefs followed by a return. The file will open in your default text editor. Select all content, copy it, and post it here.

Here it is:

disk MacOS8.dsk
cdrom /dev/poll/cdrom
extfs /Users/petros/Downloads
screen win/1280/730
windowmodes 0
screenmodes 0
seriala /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem
seriala /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem
serialb /dev/null
rom Mac OS ROM
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 67108864
frameskip 0
gfxaccel true
nocdrom false
nonet false
nosound true
nogui false
noclipconversion false
ignoresegv true
ignoreillegal false
jit true
jit68k false
keyboardtype 5
ether
keycodes false
keycodefile
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 1
dsp /dev/dsp
mixer /dev/mixer
ignoresegv true
idlewait true

Yes, it is complex. Bringing this software up-to-date will ask much of developers in terms of skills, effort, and time. These applications use functions that are long deprecated and that will be removed from OSX one by one. Also, the way they use memory will certainly be made impossible at some point in the future. The latest OSX version in which SheepShaver can be compiled is 10.6. The ability to read CDs was lost in 10.8. In 10.10 SheepShaver does not run anymore in 64-bit mode.

One solution for future Macs would be to use Sheepshaver in a Snow Leopard virtual machine running through VMWare Fusion. Is it known if it will run in this way?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

I do not see anything unusual in your settings. You could try to lower the RAM setting in SheepShaver preferences to 512MB or 256MB.

One solution for future Macs would be to use Sheepshaver in a Snow Leopard virtual machine running through VMWare Fusion. Is it known if it will run in this way?

Without hacks, regular Snow Leopard cannot be installed in VMware Fusion (or Parallels Desktop), but Snow Leopard Server can. Yes, SheepShaver will run that way.