Beginner guidance

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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macintime
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Beginner guidance

Post by macintime »

Hello,

I have a collection of Macintosh m68k software stored in Apple DiskCopy 4.2 disk images. I would like to use my Arch Linux x64 QEMU host to emulate a PowerPC guest and install a Classic MacOS version to use my collection of m68k software. As I understand, I can use QEMU for PowerPC emulation and would be able to run Classic MacOS versions 8.5 to 9.2.2 which will provide m68k emulation in the OS. I also need a compatible Macintosh ROM file for the PowerPC guest.

Is all this correct? What Classic MacOS guest OS version and ROM file will provide a solid, bug-free experience? What is the maximum RAM and storage that I can assign to the guest? What methods exist to transfer files from host to guest? Is there anything else I am missing?

Thanks for any help.
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adespoton
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Re: Beginner guidance

Post by adespoton »

macintime wrote: Wed Apr 28, 2021 1:18 pm Hello,

I have a collection of Macintosh m68k software stored in Apple DiskCopy 4.2 disk images. I would like to use my Arch Linux x64 QEMU host to emulate a PowerPC guest and install a Classic MacOS version to use my collection of m68k software. As I understand, I can use QEMU for PowerPC emulation and would be able to run Classic MacOS versions 8.5 to 9.2.2 which will provide m68k emulation in the OS. I also need a compatible Macintosh ROM file for the PowerPC guest.

Is all this correct? What Classic MacOS guest OS version and ROM file will provide a solid, bug-free experience? What is the maximum RAM and storage that I can assign to the guest? What methods exist to transfer files from host to guest? Is there anything else I am missing?

Thanks for any help.
Almost correct. QEMU-PPC will run Mac OS versions 9.0.4 through 9.2.2, which will run most (but not all) 68k software. No ROM file is needed; it's built in to the OS.

However, you won't get reliable sound.

If you're specifically attempting to run 68k software, you are better off running Basilisk II and Mac OS 8.1 (Quadra ROM needed) for post-System 6 68k software. For earlier software that only runs on a particular Mac model, you're better off using Mini vMac compiled for that target model (128k, Plus, Classic, SE, or II).

If you want to run Mac OS 8.5 through 9.0.4 to run PPC software, your best bet is to use SheepShaver, which provides essentially the same interface as Basilisk II with the same requirements (PPC ROM needed instead of Quadra ROM).

Here's a link to my emulation matrix, followed by a link to my game compatibility list, which currently mostly shows how 68k games run on Mac OS 9.2.2:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 2nWC9_t2w/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... beZg39Q9A/

For good measure, I'll throw in my Apple ROM compatability sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... Dk7QDyKPY/
macintime
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Re: Beginner guidance

Post by macintime »

Thanks for the very informative reply! Those links are amazing.

I will try Basilisk II and Mac OS 8.1. My classic Mac days ended with a Centris 610 running either Mac OS 7.x or 8.1.

What methods are available for copying files from host to guest? FTP?

My goal is to have all my DiskCopy images extracted to the guest's virtual storage device. What is the maximum RAM and storage that I can assign a Mac OS 8.1 guest?

Thanks for all the help!
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Cat_7
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Re: Beginner guidance

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

We have several guides about how to set up these emulators.
Questions like what the maximum size of a drive should be, how to get files in an out of the emulator are answered there. The guide linked to below does not directly aim a running in Linux, but the installation process is very comparable.
https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/basilisk_ii_setup

As your host is a Linux installation, we do not provide downloads to install Basilisk. For that you can either search your software repositories for a pre-built package or compile Basilisk yourself:
https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/co ... r_in_linux

Best,
Cat_7
macintime
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Re: Beginner guidance

Post by macintime »

Thank you!

The Arch community has Basilisk in their AUR (Arch User Repository) which should make it easy to compile.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/basiliskii-git/
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