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cantona7 · Jan 29, 2004, 11:06 AM

all,

hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

i am looking for the actual powermac build numbers. is there a website that lists them?

any ideas?

thanks

tooki · Jan 30, 2004, 03:49 AM

Build numbers are a software thing, e.g. my Mac OS X 10.3.2 with all the updates is Build 7D24. (A "build" refers to a milestone in software development, basically.)

What is it you want to know?

tooki

rjenkinson · Jan 30, 2004, 04:45 AM

here you go: machine IDs.

-r.

cantona7 · Jan 30, 2004, 08:05 AM

thanks guys.

i'm wanting to know the build number of a machine. ie, the number or string that identifies the machine to a restore disk. i think rjenkinson (thanks) is on the right track but i don't really know which are the build numbers/string at looking at the site.

please advise and thanks again.

cantona7 · Jan 30, 2004, 08:17 AM

me again.

looking at the site again, i see the that the processor section has the build number/code. is this correct?

thanks

rjenkinson · Jan 30, 2004, 08:38 AM

the processor section notes which version of the G3, G4 or G5 was used in a particular model. the gestalt ID, however, is used to detetermine the model for older machines or the use of new world ROM in newer machines since all newer machines use the same code, 406. this doesn't mean that all recent macs can't be identified though... they do have unique codes:

http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index....bpage=newworld

-r.

cantona7 · Jan 30, 2004, 11:15 AM

thanks rjenkinson. looks like what i needed.

tooki · Jan 30, 2004, 12:19 PM

Apple's developer tech notes explicitly state that the unique machine ID is deprecated and should not be used -- the reliable method is to use the IO Registry to see whether the Mac in question has the hardware features you need, not to make assumptions based on the model the software perceives the machine to be.

And, again: the numbers you see AREN'T BUILD NUMBERS! A build number is a SOFTWARE thing.

tooki

cantona7 · Jan 30, 2004, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
Apple's developer tech notes explicitly state that the unique machine ID is deprecated and should not be used -- the reliable method is to use the IO Registry to see whether the Mac in question has the hardware features you need, not to make assumptions based on the model the software perceives the machine to be.

And, again: the numbers you see AREN'T BUILD NUMBERS! A build number is a SOFTWARE thing.

tooki

thanks tooki

i understand that my terminology is wrong. sorry for the confusion.

so to io registry. now does one get hold of a list of unique machine ids?

thanks again

tooki · Feb 1, 2004, 12:17 PM

No, you don't understand -- there ARE no more unique machine IDs.

There is a string -- the ones like "PowerBook5,2" -- that is unique to a series of Macs, but it's intentionally not specific enough to tell you the features of a specific model -- as a developer you are expected to use IORegistry to check to see if the features you require are present or not.

See my message above.

tooki