[starkey]

I was thinking of upgrading to OS X. I have a Lombard (bronze keyboard) powerbook. Does anyone have any experience with OS X on this model. I don't use the SCSI on the machine anymore so that's not an issue.

Thanks.

Hi,
I've got X 10.1.2 on a Bronze here, and it works well .. video/graphics are a bit sluggish feeling, but it works well enough. I should mention that this PB has 384MB RAM as well.

Now if I can just convince them to hook me up with a new TiBook 667, I'm sure the OS X experience will improve

[Cellery]

I found OS X on my Lombard 400 so sluggish I upgraded to a TiBook. Keep in mind that the graphics chipset won't have OS X support for it, ever. About the only thing you can do to improve performance is to have lots of RAM. Other than that, it'll be kind of pokey but still useable.

[Jansar]

My father has a bronze, and he runs X. It runs fairly smoothly, since he does, however, have a $hitload of RAM and a major video upgrade. There's my two cents worth. It's really up to you now.

[Cellery]

Originally posted by Jansar:
<STRONG>My father has a bronze, and he runs X. It runs fairly smoothly, since he does, however, have a $hitload of RAM and a major video upgrade. There's my two cents worth. It's really up to you now.</STRONG>

By major video upgrade, do you mean a new graphics accelerator board?

[Jansar]

Yeah. But, they're very hard to find, though.

[Cellery]

Ah, I was under the impression the the video card/chip was soldered to the motherboard and non-upgradeable. That was one of the reasons I bought the TiBook (much better GPU/VRAM). If only my Lombard's screen clutch/display assembly hadn't pooped out, I might still be using it.

[Graymalkin]

I ran OSX on my Lombard 333 for a while but ended up going back to OS9. For some reason OSX wouldn't let me boot into anything other than OSX using Startup Disk so in order to boot into 9 I had to boot from a CD and then use 9's copy of Startup Disk to select the OS9 partition. I couldn't get ANY games to work under X because Apple dropped support for their older ATI chips which means no OpenGL support for my Lombard with OSX. I also had to run in 16-bit colour mode just to have semi-acceptable response in Aqua. Stuff works fine and all (if you only want to run IE and AppleWorks) but it is slow as can be. Some people are happy with the performance of OSX on their old 266 iMacs but I like my system to do stuff when I tell it to, not when it decides to get around to it. For reference I have 256mb of RAM and a 20gb hard drive I put in myself.

Cool features of OSX were the BSD subsystem which I was instantly at ease with, the ability to connect to Windows computers out of the box (with 10.1), and improvements in stuff like the control panel. Architecturally I love OSX but the performance sucked bunnies on my Lombard personally. Proceed with caution is my advice.

[jed]

I am running osx.1.2 on a Lombard 400 with 512mb of ram right now. It's a little bit slower interface-wise than os9.x but it's not unbearable. I'm loving it! I just installed iPhoto too. Some programs are slow to open and sometimes looking thru directories is slow but I wouldn't call it insanely so... I don't feel the need to upgrade to a Ti or anything

[Jansar]

Originally posted by Cellery:
<STRONG>Ah, I was under the impression the the video card/chip was soldered to the motherboard and non-upgradeable. That was one of the reasons I bought the TiBook (much better GPU/VRAM). If only my Lombard's screen clutch/display assembly hadn't pooped out, I might still be using it.</STRONG>

Oh trust me, it was not an easy scenario. The computer had to be, in a way, put together all over again with new parts. Basically, since the PowerBook was getting pretty old, we've (me and my dad) decided to see how nasty we could make our machine. We could not get much better parts, though, but the setup now is much better than it used to be.

[hansthijs]

I've got a pismo 400. If I put 10.1 on it and it is not what I aspect, can I put 9 back?
groeten van hans

[Jansar]

Just erase the volume and stick your OS 9 CD back in if OS X does not turn out to what you want it to be. Each Mac OS CD has the operating system on it, so you can run it without an OS on your drive.

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by hansthijs:
<STRONG>I've got a pismo 400. If I put 10.1 on it and it is not what I aspect, can I put 9 back?
groeten van hans </STRONG>

Of course.

[msykes]

Lombard 333Mhz with 320 megs of ram... been running OSX since 10.0.0 on March 24th. I would say the performance is "acceptable" under 10.1. I don't think I would call it fast, but it's not slow either. Yeah, you wont' be able to play many games that require OpenGL or heavy graphics, but it plays Age of Empires II just fine!

If you like OSX, I would definitely recommend going for the upgrade.

Mike

[Rainy Day]

Originally posted by Cellery:
<STRONG>I found OS X on my Lombard 400 so sluggish I upgraded to a TiBook. Keep in mind that the graphics chipset won't have OS X support for it, ever. About the only thing you can do to improve performance is to have lots of RAM. Other than that, it'll be kind of pokey but still useable.</STRONG>

Lot's of RAM (at least 300 MB) is good, but don't overlook upgrading that HD. A faster HD will make quite a difference on a disk intensive OS like MacOS X. Won't speed up graphics that much, but everything else will definitely feel snappier. IBM TravelStars are excellent choices, and the 30 GB drive is only about $140 these days.

[Rainy Day]

Originally posted by Graymalkin:
<STRONG>I ran OSX on my Lombard 333 for a while but ended up going back to OS9. For some reason OSX wouldn't let me boot into anything other than OSX using Startup Disk so in order to boot into 9 I had to boot from a CD and then use 9's copy of Startup Disk to select the OS9 partition. </STRONG>

I have this same problem on my Wallstreet. I have OS 9.1 installed on a separate partition, and about half the time when setting that as the boot drive from MacOS X's Startup Disk, it'll start to boot into 9.1, then stop and reboot into MacOS X again.

I did find a short cut around booting off CD, however: If it starts to reboot MacOS X, force another reboot with Ctrl-Cmd-Power, then hold down Cmd-Option-Shift-Delete (Bypass Startup Disk command) and release it when you see the grey OS 9 background. It then boots up into OS 9 (at least if you have it on a different partition like i do). I think the Cmd-Option-Shift-Delete tells the Mac not to boot off the Startup Disk selection, and it begins scanning other bootable "drives" (e.g. partitions). In my case, because my OS 9 is on its own separate partition, this works.

Important safety tip: When using this technique to restart into OS 9, sometimes the Startup Disk is set to MacOS X. If you wish to restart in OS 9, be sure to check the current setting. Also, never start up MacOS X if you have Password Security turned on! Very bad things can happen to seemingly good people.

For classic support under MacOS X, i have MacOS 9.2 installed on the same partition as MacOS X. So i have MacOS 9 installed on multiple partitions. Even have it on a small third partition (for the purpose of running disk diagnostic utilities).

[vmarks]

Hi,

I have just gotten my hands on a Lombard 333mhz, thanks to the kindness of seanyepez.

Seanyepez left his email set up in Outlook Express, and other neat stuffs.

First order of business, upgrade ram to 512mb. Second step, respect seanyepez's privacy and wipe the hard drive, installing OS X.

so, using this beat up powerbook (external keyboard, external monitor, cause the internal ones are busted. this thing is beat up, believe me, and I love it!)

it boots up in time enough for me to get a drink and settle in, starts iPhoto in three bounces flat, runs iMovie (no firewire card tho.. maybe a cheap one on ebay?) runs iTunes, browses in IE decently--

I think it's just fine! And I didn't even install OS 9.x, this thing can't start classic yet, and I just might leave it that way!


Now, Jansar, if you want to tell me a few more details about the video upgrade you guys did, I'd like to know. did you change the video chip to a newer one that can play dvd without the hardware decoder? what chip, what ram? people want to know!

Thanks to seanyepez for the lombard! it's great!


Victor Marks

[mudmonkey]

Originally posted by vmarks:
<STRONG>it boots up in time enough for me to get a drink and settle in, starts iPhoto in three bounces flat, runs iMovie (no firewire card tho.. maybe a cheap one on ebay?) runs iTunes, browses in IE decently--
</STRONG>

I picked up a NewerTech firewire2go card from macsales.com for $39. It comes with a Quicktime Pro registration! So, that is worth like $30 right there. The card works great in X, I have used iMovie with a camera and my external firewire drive with no problems on my Lombard 400.


Does anyone else have the somewhat common problem (which I have and it drives me friggin' nuts) in which if you sleep your lombard with a usb device attached (under OS X), it will never wake again, and you have to hard reboot?

Numerous complaints have been lodged on Apple boards, but, still no fix. It worked fine until 10.1... Any tips from fellow Lombardians?

[vmarks]

Originally posted by mudmonkey:
<STRONG>


Does anyone else have the somewhat common problem (which I have and it drives me friggin' nuts) in which if you sleep your lombard with a usb device attached (under OS X), it will never wake again, and you have to hard reboot?

Numerous complaints have been lodged on Apple boards, but, still no fix. It worked fine until 10.1... Any tips from fellow Lombardians?</STRONG>

Which USB devices? I haven't tried this yet.

Lodging complaints on the Apple boards does nothing. you have to use the OS X feedback form.

Victor Marks

[mudmonkey]

Originally posted by vmarks:
<STRONG>


Which USB devices? I haven't tried this yet.

Lodging complaints on the Apple boards does nothing. you have to use the OS X feedback form.

</STRONG>

For me, any USB device. In particular, every mouse I have tried (it would be nice to use a mouse rather than the trackpad when I am at my desk).

I have complained (numerous times) via OS X feedback to no avail.

[Circa]

I had os 10.0 and it was dog slow... I may try out 10.1 I hear its alot faster.

[spiky_dog]

I use OS X on a 333 MHz Lombard. It's slow, especially in apps such as Acrobat Reader. Thus the new iMac on order. I have had USB issues, like Mudmonkey, but mine is slightly different: wake up computer with USB Audio device, after which the USB ports are dead. Unplugging the USB Audio device at this point leads to an immediate kernel panic. I've reported this problem to Apple. Anyways, a Lombard running OS X is a perfectly capable email/web/word processing machine -- just don't expect to run OpenGL programs, or tear it up in Quake.

[wulf]

Just so you know, there is a well-documented issue with a small proportion of Lombards running OS X. Basically, they freeze unpredictably (this happens with mine, so it's stuck in OS 9 pending the availability of a proc. upgrade). It's possibly caused by faulty a MMU on the motherboard, as the problem is linked with RAM in the top slot.

There was a humungously long thread on MacFixit about it, the second part of which is here:
OS X on Lombards (part 2)

There's another thread about it on the Apple Support forums where an Apple Tech admits to the problem, but as far as I know they never promoted a fix or workaround... (Having said that, I did stop monitoring the issue some months ago.)

Not that I'm trying to put you off or anything, hopefully your machine is unaffected

wulf

PS. Anyone heard anything about the Powerlogix G4/500 upgrade for Lombards? Their site says "shipping Christmas 2001" and I read somewhere they were being launched at MacWorld, but I still haven't seen them availble to order...

Originally posted by wulf:
<STRONG>Just so you know, there is a well-documented issue with a small proportion of Lombards running OS X. Basically, they freeze unpredictably (this happens with mine, so it's stuck in OS 9 pending the availability of a proc. upgrade). It's possibly caused by faulty a MMU on the motherboard, as the problem is linked with RAM in the top slot.
</STRONG>

Is this possibly related to the brand of RAM you're using? <font color = blue>EDIT: I read the link you posted. I didn't mean to insult you with that question. Obviously, RAM is only one part of the equation, the processor card being the other.</font>

I'm using modules like this:

256mb, meant for Thinkpad T20.

I haven't had any freezes so far, but I also haven't tried USB devices much yet.

Pictures of my beat up lombard are here: (I will be fixing it up and painting it to look nicer than the first attempt)
Http://homepage.mac.com/lvmarks/PhotoAlbum8.html


Interesting tho- I have 512mb in my uglified lombard and OS X installed, updated, boots, like a champ. It sleeps, wakes from sleep, runs iPhoto.... I must just be lucky- When I get some time, I'll run tattletech and other programs linked in the macfixit list and see what revision card I have.

Victor Marks
[email protected]

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: vmarks ]

[CheesePuff]

vmarks, what the hell did you do with your PowerBook?

[vmarks]

Originally posted by CheesePuff:
<STRONG>vmarks, what the hell did you do with your PowerBook? </STRONG>

You'll have to ask seanyepez about that, he was good enough to donate it to me in the condition you see on the page. (well, worse, actually- the keys are going back on it after I superglued the rubber membrane underneath the keys back together, so it would even be usable.

Still, I'm grateful, it's my only powerbook ever, and it made that page in iPhoto. I'm going to get the inverter for the screen repaired, and an iBook keyboard for it, thanks to pbparts.com- then I'll work on making it look good.

[wulf]

Is this possibly related to the brand of RAM you're using? EDIT: I read the link you posted. I didn't mean to insult you with that question. Obviously, RAM is only one part of the equation, the processor card being the other.

No insult taken In fact when I was troubleshooting the thing early on, I went to the extent of swapping out a RAM-card from a Pismo that was running OS X just fine. My Lombard still exhibited the freezes...

Anyway the problem does only seem to exist in a minority of Lombards ... I'll probably upg mine to a G4/500 when this new Powerlogix board is available in the UK.

wulf

[wulf]

Is this possibly related to the brand of RAM you're using? EDIT: I read the link you posted. I didn't mean to insult you with that question. Obviously, RAM is only one part of the equation, the processor card being the other.

No insult taken In fact when I was troubleshooting the thing early on, I went to the extent of swapping out a RAM-card from a Pismo that was running OS X just fine. My Lombard still exhibited the freezes...

Anyway the problem does only seem to exist in a minority of Lombards ... I'll probably upg mine to a G4/500 when this new Powerlogix board is available in the UK.

wulf

[Robo-X]

Just found this thread.

Wulf did you get the G4 upgrade for the Lombard? They are finally shipping the G4 upgrades for Wallstreet/Lombard/Pismo PBs. I am considering getting it myself but wanted to hear if it works or make OS X work before I decide on getting it.

//Rob

[Timothy Maxwell]

I have the G3 Lombard with OSX installed. It was slow in the original installation. OS 10.5 was much better. I upgraded to Jaguar and the computer runs even better.

I currently use the Lombard as a back up and fax server. It works just fine.

[Paul S]

My Lombard runs Jaguar pretty good with 384MB of RAM. My only complaint is no AppleTalk driver support for 802.11 cards. I have a WaveLan Silver card and can't print to my AppleTalk printer. Does anyone know of a card, or software that supports AppleTalk?