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mac freak · 09:41 PM

There's no actual unsupported hardware... just a block from booting the OS.

And don't just tell me "OS 9 is dead!"

EDIT: Sorry 'bout the typo in the subject line!

drcarl · May 7, 2003, 10:29 PM

I havn't heard of any work-arounds. I have a 2002 machine, but am curious on how to do it. Any one have some theoretical solutions?

philzilla · May 8, 2003, 05:07 AM

why the hell would you want to do that? are you mad?

murbot · May 8, 2003, 10:43 AM

Well, it's a 30% speed boost at least, if you can do it.

Person Man · May 8, 2003, 01:40 PM

Originally posted by mac freak:
There's no actual unsupported hardware... just a block from booting the OS.

And don't just tell me "OS 9 is dead!"

EDIT: Sorry 'bout the typo in the subject line!

Actually, it's not really a "block" from booting the operating system, Apple did not release an updated ROM file to the public that supports the machine. (Service providers can get that file)

With every motherboard revision Apple makes, OS 9 needs to be updated to run with it. It's not just drivers, but other low-level code needed to interact with the components on the motherboard. The ROM file would need to be updated as well.

Now, since OS 9 is not open source, the only way some third party could get OS 9 to run on these new machines would be to reverse engineer not only Apple's existing code, but they would also need to reverse engineer Apple's motherboards (both earlier ones to figure out how they did it, and the newer ones to figure out what needs to be changed to make it work). Then they would need to release a new version of the System suitcase (among other things) I don't think Apple would like that too well.

It takes a lot of engineering effort to make Mac OS 9 (and even OS X) run on new hardware, and Apple no longer wants to spend the money to do so, especially in the face of diminishing returns.

So, for someone to be able to make a "hack" or "patch" to allow booting into OS 9 on the new machines, they would need access to the source code of OS 9 and the specifics on the low-level drivers needed for the motherboard (neither of which Apple would be willing to share).

And, I shouldn't have to say this, but there will be people claiming Apple is intentionally crippling the machines, and that they would otherwise be able to boot into OS 9. Apple is NOT crippling their hardware by writing firmware that intentionally won't let you boot into 9. They just aren't be updating OS 9 itself to boot on new hardware any more. (The exception to this is the latest 15" iMac... since it is not based on a new motherboard, it should be able to run OS 9 just fine... Apple made a slight change however, that needs a new Mac OS ROM file... only service providers can get that file however. The next version of the iMac will be based on a new motherboard, or the 15" will be eliminated from the lineup entirely, so the above explanation would then apply).

Oh yes... Mac OS 9 is dead.

tooki · May 8, 2003, 06:39 PM

There is unsupported hardware: Airport Extreme.

The new eMacs (except the SuperDrive version) are bootable into OS 9, but the fine print says that Airport Extreme is OS X-only.

tooki

mac freak · May 8, 2003, 10:54 PM

Is the mobo really different from what it was on the previous revision? I thought all they did was update the processor speeds and add Airport Extreme (which, if unsupported under OS 9, still should not prevent booting).

This question actually applies to a friend of mine who got his first Mac recently and, since it's the fastest machine in his house, wanted to use it as his gaming machine. However, the main online game he plays, Warcraft III, runs like crap in OS X. From mucho first-hand experience, I can say that WC3 runs nearly 100% faster on the same machine simply by using OS 9 instead of X. It's sad, really, as OS X is a truly superior OS... that just severely sucks for a number of popular games.

If it really would have been a lot of effort to get OS 9 to run on these basically-the-same-as-the-last-revision iMacs, then I can see why they didn't do it; but for god's sake, my friend has come away thinking that Macs are excessively slow because of this, and I keep telling him "If I could find a way to boot it into 9, your problem would be solved... ".

Oh well. What can ya do? The low-end iMac proves that Apple is ready and willing to intentionally block off OS 9 booting.

Person Man · May 11, 2003, 10:35 PM

Originally posted by mac freak:
Is the mobo really different from what it was on the previous revision? I thought all they did was update the processor speeds and add Airport Extreme (which, if unsupported under OS 9, still should not prevent booting).

Oh well. What can ya do? The low-end iMac proves that Apple is ready and willing to intentionally block off OS 9 booting.

Yes, the motherboard is different enough to require a new version of the Mac OS ROM file to boot into Mac OS 9. And no, Apple is not intentionally blocking the ability to boot into OS 9. They are just not providing the updated ROM file to do so. Big difference.