guest has not initialized the display yet

About Qemu-system-ppc, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, macOS and Linux that can run Mac OS 9.0 up to Mac OS X 10.5

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bhwong
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guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by bhwong »

I have physical harddisks of iMac G5 and MacMini (intel) but no longer have a Mac.

I manage to boot from MacMini harddisk thru my PC's USB port using VirtualBox in my Windows 10, since it doesn't require an emulation of the same Intel Platform. However, I'm not able to do the same from iMac G5 harddisk thru my PC's USB port using QEMU (no success using PearPC as well).

QEMU just throw a "guest has not initialized the display (yet)" error.

The command I run is:
qemu-system-ppc64 -L pc-bios -boot c -M mac99,via=pmu -m 512 -hda .\imacG5\imacG5.vmdk

I create an alias to the USB drive using virtualbox command:
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename imacG5.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1
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adespoton
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by adespoton »

Following up on my comment about your attempts to mount the VMDK in PearPC... qemu should be able to mount the image as it recognizes vmdk files. However, qemu-system-ppc emulates a G4 Mac, not a G5. Therefore, you won't be able to boot your image, although you *should* be able to mount it as a secondary drive once you've booted off of a drive that's been configured for the emulated G4.
bhwong
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by bhwong »

Both G4 and G5 can run MacOSX up to 10.5 right? Does this mean that when we install the same OS on G5, a 64bit version of MacOSX is installed such that it won’t be able to boot from a G4?

But does PearPC emulate G5? I read that it supports up to 10.4, not 10.5.

Anyway, I’m able to Mount G5 disk in virtualbox too. Just that I hope to bring up my iMac G5 OS environment, especially when I have a huge collection of Zinio old magazines inside. (When Zinio changed their format, they didn’t bother to migrate the older magazines into the new format.)
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Cat_7
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

Pearpc basically emulates a G3, some altivec code was added later to allow selecting a G4 processor. I would stay away from PearPC, as it is unstable.
You can check which processors are emulated by Qemu by using qemu-system-ppc.exe -cpu help and which machines are emulated with qemu-system-ppc.exe -machine help

I believe no version of qemu has been able to boot Mac OS using an emulated G5 processor (which is 64 bit). The kernel installed on your G5 image will most probably rely on stuff provided by a G5 processor only. And then there are the peripherals in such a machine that will most likely not be emulated by Qemu.
For booting Mac OS, qemu relies on openbios, which (again I believe) supports 32 bit only.

I guess the best you can do is with:
qemu-system-ppc64 -L pc-bios -cpu g4 -M mac99,via=pmu -m 1024
as qemu will not boot e.g. a leopard iso when you try to use:
qemu-system-ppc64 -L pc-bios -cpu 970 -M mac99,via=pmu -m 1024

Best,
Cat_7
bhwong
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by bhwong »

I do have something in mind but wonder will it works:

If I reinstall the same version of MacOSX over the existing 64bit OS in the original iMac G5 vmdk file thru QEMU, will the existing apps such as Zinio already installed inside, continue to work in the replaced 32bit OS?
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adespoton
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by adespoton »

If the original install was using OS X 10.5, you'd probably have better luck with a clean install that targets the virtual G4 machine, and then use the Migration Assistant (in the Utilities folder) to migrate all your software and preferences from the (mounted) G5 image.

Alternatively, you could use VBox/VMWare/Parallels to create an x86 OS X 10.6 VM, and then use the Migration Assistant from there to pull in all your software and preferences from your vmdk image. Don't go any higher than 10.6 though, because Rosetta only goes that high; your PPC software won't run on a newer Mac OS.
bhwong
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by bhwong »

Unfortunately my MacMini is running MacOSX 10.9.2 and 10.6 is not even available to purchase now: https://www.apple.com/us/shop/go/produc ... ircid=7613

Does this mean there is no way I can recover my iMac G5 MacOSX environment? I'm not able to find any MacOSX disc that comes with iMac G5 too. I don't recall it comes with any recovery disc, only found recovery discs for iMac DV which is Classic 9.x.

Ironically, my iMac DV is still functioning. But both the newer iMac G5 and Mac Mini (intel) are both dead!
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mabam
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Re: guest has not initialized the display yet

Post by mabam »

bhwong wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:04 pm Unfortunately my MacMini is running MacOSX 10.9.2 and 10.6 is not even available to purchase now: https://www.apple.com/us/shop/go/produc ... ircid=7613

It’s still available on eBay. Just search for “Mac Os X Snow Leopard” there. But better don’t buy a model specific one, but the retail version.
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