[gbbeil]

I have a Wallstreet 233 (M4573 with the 512Kb L2 Cache model), 192 Mbyte RAM, 37 Gbyte Hard disk. I would like to upgrade to OS X. Can anyone get me started on how I should go about this? The following is a list of things I’ve found while searching this topic.

1. Need at least 128 Mb RAM.
a. Will 192 Mb be enough to run the OS and several applications?
b. What is the OS X typical RAM usage?

2. Hard drive.
a. Do I need to partiion the drive? If so, how do I go about this?
Will the drive have to be wiped clean first, or will my existing files remain intact?
b. I read I should use Drive Setup from OS 9.
Do I have to do this from a CD or can it be done from the hard drive?
c. Also, I read all partitions should be in HFS+ (Mac OS Extended), and the first partition must be less than 8 Gb?

3. OS X Software
a. What revision level should I max out at? 10.2.6, 10.2.8, 10.3?
b. Does XPostFacto slow down the OS 10.3?

4. Any firmware upgrades I should make or avoid?

5. Will my PCMIA cards still work with OS X assuming I get drivers?
Orinoco Gold wireless
USB card (Macally Cardbus to USB)
Firewire card

6. Will the serial port to my printer still work?

7. Expansion bay modules. I have two expansion modules, the VST SuperDisk drive and a ZIP 100 drive. Are these supported in OS X?

Thanks for any help you provide.

Greg

[Pierre B.]

Originally posted by gbbeil:
I have a Wallstreet 233 (M4573 with the 512Kb L2 Cache model), 192 Mbyte RAM, 37 Gbyte Hard disk. I would like to upgrade to OS X. Can anyone get me started on how I should go about this? The following is a list of things I’ve found while searching this topic.

1. Need at least 128 Mb RAM.
a. Will 192 Mb be enough to run the OS and several applications?
b. What is the OS X typical RAM usage?

OS X will need at least 256 MB to run smoothly by itself. But in practice, the required amount depends also on application usage. With 256 MB RAM don't expect to run many apps at the same time smoothly, as paging out will occur. However, with the Wallstreet series there are much more serious issues under OS X: there is no graphics acceleration at all, no OpenGL, Quicktime runs very poorly; I tried a Wallstreet 266 MHz, 1 MB L2 cache, horrible. OS X seems too much heavy for the Wallstreet.

2. Hard drive.
a. Do I need to partiion the drive? If so, how do I go about this?
Will the drive have to be wiped clean first, or will my existing files remain intact?
b. I read I should use Drive Setup from OS 9.
Do I have to do this from a CD or can it be done from the hard drive?
c. Also, I read all partitions should be in HFS+ (Mac OS Extended), and the first partition must be less than 8 Gb?

If you decide to install OS X, you have to erase first the drive, so a backup is needed. There is no need to partition it, unless you want for some reason preserve a OS 9 installation, separate from the OS X installation. Attention if you partition: in Wallstreets (and other old world Macs), OS X cannot be installed in other than the first 8 GB partition.

3. OS X Software
a. What revision level should I max out at? 10.2.6, 10.2.8, 10.3?
b. Does XPostFacto slow down the OS 10.3?

4. Any firmware upgrades I should make or avoid?

5. Will my PCMIA cards still work with OS X assuming I get drivers?
Orinoco Gold wireless
USB card (Macally Cardbus to USB)
Firewire card

6. Will the serial port to my printer still work?

7. Expansion bay modules. I have two expansion modules, the VST SuperDisk drive and a ZIP 100 drive. Are these supported in OS X?

Wallstreets max out at 10.2.8; Panther leaved them out in the cold. There are no firmware updates for the Wallstreet. I don't know about PCMCIA cards or expansion bay modules (except that the expansion bay floppy drive does not work, while expansion bay hard drives do work), but the serial port will not work.

So, to conclude: personally, If I wanted OS X and especially Panther, I would consider a new powerbook or a G4 iBook. Keep in mind that OS X benefits much from the G4-and above processor. The wallstreet is just too old and it cannot run Panther. It is something like installing Longhorn (not yet released) and its heavy graphics system on a PII.

[runningdog]

Originally posted by gbbeil:
I have a Wallstreet 233 (M4573 with the 512Kb L2 Cache model), 192 Mbyte RAM, 37 Gbyte Hard disk. I would like to upgrade to OS X. Can anyone get me started on how I should go about this? The following is a list of things I’ve found while searching this topic.

1. Need at least 128 Mb RAM.
a. Will 192 Mb be enough to run the OS and several applications?
b. What is the OS X typical RAM usage?

i had 192Mb on my Wallstreet 300 running 10.2.4 and it was pretty slow once i had a couple of apps running. There's a big speed difference when you install more RAM. i currently have 512Mb and i'm very happy with the performance to the point where i'd rather run OSX than OS9.


2. Hard drive.
a. Do I need to partiion the drive? If so, how do I go about this?
Will the drive have to be wiped clean first, or will my existing files remain intact?
b. I read I should use Drive Setup from OS 9.
Do I have to do this from a CD or can it be done from the hard drive?
c. Also, I read all partitions should be in HFS+ (Mac OS Extended), and the first partition must be less than 8 Gb?

You will definitely need to partition the drive. i'm surprised you have done that already due to the 8Gb boot limitation that older Macs have. i guess you've been lucky with your install of OS9. OSX won't even install until the drive is properly formatted. Which means the drive will be reformatted and wiped clean when you partition the drive. After backing up your drive you can partition it using the OSX cd installer. You have to boot from another drive in order to partition your hard drive.


3. OS X Software
a. What revision level should I max out at? 10.2.6, 10.2.8, 10.3?
b. Does XPostFacto slow down the OS 10.3?

i haven't tried 10.3 on my Wallstreet yet so i don't know how well XPostFacto works but i've read some good things about it. Now i don't know where but i've also read tips that help get the sleep functions, cardslots, and video working properly that are currently buggy in the current alpha version of XPostFacto. 10.2.8 works great but somewhere between 10.2.4 and 10.2.8 i lost the ability to use the serial printer port. So every time i tried to find my printer the only options where USB, rendevous, or over ethernet. i never bothered finding a fix for that cause i just switched to using a shared printer via the network. So 10.2.8 works great plus all the other security updates. 10.3 is not supported by Apple and the great XPostFacto app is still being updated to allow Panther to run on a Wallstreet.


4. Any firmware upgrades I should make or avoid?

i can't think of any to avoid. There's been firmware updates for the modem.


5. Will my PCMIA cards still work with OS X assuming I get drivers?
Orinoco Gold wireless
USB card (Macally Cardbus to USB)
Firewire card

Yep, those will work in 10.2.8. There's a freeware wireless driver and a commercial one as well. i'm not sure about using these cards in 10.3 though via XPostFacto. i've read some posts where people have been able to get their cards to work in Panther but only with some kind of workaround.


6. Will the serial port to my printer still work?

Check #3 again.