[Taipan]

Hi!

On German ebay there someone is selling a PowerMac G4 Dual 1,25 with FW800 and claims that it can boot OS9 and OS X. I asked him via e-mail to check this again, because there are no PMs with FW800 that boot into OS9, and he told me that apparently there are, because he's 100% sure that he's got one. What do you think about that, is there a model I do not know about?
Thanks!

[reader50]

With the FW800 models, Apple removed official support for an OS9 boot. However, there were intermittent reports of people finding workarounds. None got confirmed that I know of.

Of those who bought the new machines, most could not be bothered to experiment in any depth. Several people tried some of the simpler workarounds that were thought up, but they gave up at the first roadblock.

So far as I know, no one tried serious work in Open Firmware, hacks to the bootx file, or even installing Startup Disk from an earlier version of the OS. We don't really know if they can boot OS9 with a little help or not.

I'd like to know exactly how this guy made it work. As shipped from the factory, the FW800 models will not allow an OS9 install to be selected, and an OS 9.2.1 boot CD cannot boot them. At the very least, you would need to make a custom OS9 install somewhere, with the latest file versions from the FW800's Classic file set. Probably need to install an older Startup Disk pane as well, or edit the PRAM to forcibly reset the boot volume pointer.

Don't believe him unless he can prove it.

[Eriamjh]

Nope. Don't believe.

[euphras]

I found the offer and asked the seller if it´s a hack. But his ebay rating are a bit suspicious: http://cgi2.ebay.de/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI...2&items=25

[Leonard]

Reader50 is correct on this... I have yet to see anyone actually get a FW800 PowerMac G4 to boot MacOS 9, and actually see the workaround to do it. There were alot of "workarounds", but most of the workarounds I saw, just told you how to install MacOS 9, they didn't tell you how to actually boot the FW800 PowerMac G4 in MacOS 9. All Macs come with MacOS 9 installed or allow it to be installed to use it for classsic. It's how do you hack the PowerMac G4 (most likely it's firmware) to get it to boot.

[euphras]

So today the seller replied:

Quote:"Hallo,

die Verkaufspolitik von Apple ist grundsätzlich die, daß mensch nur noch OSX nutzen soll - nun gibt es aber diverse Bereiche, wo es erforderlich ist, noch mit OS 9 zu arbeiten, weil z.B. für bestimmte Peripherie keine Treiber existieren etc. (als Beispiel: Druckvorstufe). Apple ist daher dazu übergegangen, immer noch mindestens ein Gerät anzubieten, das mit OS 9 bootfähig ist, um
diese Kunden nicht zu vergraulen. Bei diesem Gerät handelt es sich um ein reguläres G4-Modell, an dem nichts manipuliert oder dergleichen ist, es kommt direkt von Apple und stammt aus der regulären Produktion (ich denke, man hat einfach eine bestimmte Stückzahl sozusagen zurückgehalten, wie man es vorher mit einer SP-Maschine getan hat). Das Gerät ist mit allen Versionen von OS 9 nutzbar, die Version 9.21 wird mitgeliefert.

Gruss, XXX"

Google translation:"Hello, the marketing policy of Apple is in principle those that humans are to only use OS X - now there are however various ranges, where it is necessary to work still with OS 9 because e.g. for certain periphery no drivers exist to etc. (as example: Printing preliminary stage). Apple did not change over to offer still at least one equipment which is bootable with OS 9, in order these customers to vergraulen. With this equipment it acts around a regular G4-Modell, at which nothing is manipulated or such a thing, it comes themselves directly of Apple and originates from regular production (I think, one have simply a certain number of items held back as it were, like one it with a SP machine did before). The equipment is usable with all versions of OS 9, the version 9.21 is provided. Greeting, XXX"

Apple store Germany also offers 1,25 GHz DP machines that are capable to boot OS 9: http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObje....7.1.2.0.0.1.0