Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

swichd · May 3, 2004, 08:16 PM

Even with a G3 upgrade, a Nubus mac will not run mac os X. Why?

benb · May 3, 2004, 08:31 PM

Because they are really old.

Scientist · May 3, 2004, 09:09 PM

Apple would have to do a whole lot of extra programming to get OS X running on those machines. I don't think you can get linux on those machines for the same reason.

Developer · May 3, 2004, 09:18 PM

I think MKLinux run on Nubus Macs. Maybe other Linuxes as well.

CharlesS · May 3, 2004, 09:37 PM

Why would you want to? Those machines are ancient. OS X on them would be slow as molasses.

Scientist · May 3, 2004, 10:16 PM

Originally posted by Developer:
I think MKLinux run on Nubus Macs. Maybe other Linuxes as well.

You are right. I was thinking of NetBSD.

Big Mac · May 3, 2004, 11:04 PM

Nubus machines? If I recall correctly, only the original Power Macs (the 6100/7100/8100) series still possessed Nubus slots. Are you certain you're not confusing them with the "G2" class pre-G3, PCI Power Macs like the 9500 or the 8600?

Kenneth · May 3, 2004, 11:19 PM

I have one NuBus Mac at all.. the pizzabox.
It runs okay with Mac OS 9.1
I really try MkLinuz on it.. but where can I get a hold on it?

thefamousmred · May 3, 2004, 11:27 PM

http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/

alex_kac · May 3, 2004, 11:38 PM

I think the issue is the ROM. OS X can only run on machines with OpenFirmware for its "BIOS" (I use that term loosely) while those old Macs had the Mac OS ROm and bootloader that just was completely incompatible.

bradoesch · May 4, 2004, 02:58 PM

You don't see people trying to run Windows XP on their 66 Mhz 486 machines for a good reason.

This is the first Nubus Mac I came across, and I refuse to imagine running X on that machine with any upgrade.

Lateralus · May 4, 2004, 03:03 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
You don't see people trying to run Windows XP on their 66 Mhz 486 machines for a good reason.

It's been done.

Somebody hacked the Windows XP installer to remove the processor check.

::maroma:: · May 4, 2004, 03:10 PM

I've got 2 NuBus Macs, one has a G3 card in it. If I recall correctly, OS 9.2 won't even run on it. 9.1 is the highest I can get.

bradoesch · May 4, 2004, 03:11 PM

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
It's been done.

Somebody hacked the Windows XP installer to remove the processor check.

Must've missed it on Slashdot.

eyadams · May 4, 2004, 05:00 PM

Five years ago, when OS X was still being developed, I wrote up a document discussing which models it would run on. That document can still be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~erik/rhap_on_nubus_faq.html. The short answer to the original question is that NuBus Macs would have required a boatload of development, and Apple just didn't have the time or the resources to devote to it. Furthermore, there is the performance issue: OS X is just barely usable on an original iMac; on a fully decked out 9100 it would have been unbearable.

Yes, there was a version of Linux that runs on these machines, and you can still download it from http://www.mklinux.org. It was a strange beast - basically it would boot into a stripped down version of the Classic OS, and then give control either to the Mach 3 kernal or to Classic. Currently, not even NetBSD runs on these machines, as they have a PPC 601 CPU, which is unsupported (see http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/models.html for details).

mitchell_pgh · May 4, 2004, 08:51 PM

Apple is programming for the future, not the past.

starman · May 4, 2004, 11:57 PM

When I bought my new Trailblazer, I was hell-bent on getting one that ran on Edsel gas.

The dealer said that they don't make cars like that anymore.

I was very angry.

Mike

tooki · May 5, 2004, 12:01 AM

Originally posted by eyadams:
OS X is just barely usable on an original iMac; on a fully decked out 9100 it would have been unbearable.

I'd like to see a 9100 of any kind: there was no such model.

The NuBus Power Macs were the 6100/7100/8100 and the Performa and Server variants thereof. The first Power Mac with a 9 in the name (the 9500) was a PCI Mac. There was the short-lived Workgroup Server 9150, though, which was more or less an 8100 in the Quadra 950's monster case.

tooki

DrBoar · May 5, 2004, 02:57 AM

One might assume that "fully decked out 9100" is a typy and that he meant a fully decked out 8100/110.

I have OS X on a 7300/200 and that has at least twise the CPU power of the 100 MHz 601 and a substanially faster system bus and faster motherboard graphics. And that bus is still a problem when you put in a decent IDE drive and PCI graphical card.

In the NUBUS is is even worse no so there really is no point in having X on them.

mitchell_pgh · May 5, 2004, 03:07 AM

Hi, my name is mitchell_pgh, and I have a color classic and I want to make sure that Apple doesn't overlook my model with this new "Tiger" upgrade. I'm rolling along with OS 6, so it's really only 4 upgrades to OS X right...

People are going from Windows 98 to 2000 without many issues...

CharlesS · May 5, 2004, 03:18 AM

Forget the Color Classic, I want to see OS X run on an Apple IIgs.

WHERE'S THE LOVE, APPLE?!!

thefamousmred · May 5, 2004, 09:35 AM

Originally posted by tooki:
I'd like to see a 9100 of any kind: there was no such model.

The NuBus Power Macs were the 6100/7100/8100 and the Performa and Server variants thereof. The first Power Mac with a 9 in the name (the 9500) was a PCI Mac. There was the short-lived Workgroup Server 9150, though, which was more or less an 8100 in the Quadra 950's monster case.

tooki

The 9100 was the desktop version of the 9150. It was developed, but never sold. I never found out why though.

xi_hyperon · May 5, 2004, 12:29 PM

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Forget the Color Classic, I want to see OS X run on an Apple IIgs.

WHERE'S THE LOVE, APPLE?!!

What about my Newton 2100?

swichd · May 6, 2004, 10:39 PM

I've seen winows me running on a 386.

Kenneth · May 6, 2004, 11:24 PM

Do you expect an obsolete product will run the current Mac OS?

no.

Link · May 6, 2004, 11:36 PM

Originally posted by swichd:
I've seen winows me running on a 386.

The latest I've ever seen 9x/ME run on was a 486.

Take a 98Lite build and it'll run really fast

I wanted to install 98 on my 486 laptop but it only has a 486SL - no FPU.

You'd have to have an odd setup to run ME on a 386.

Millennium · May 7, 2004, 09:22 AM

The thing is, NuBus Macs don't just differ from PCI Macs in terms of how many slots they have.

The switchover to PCI actually involved some pretty radical architecture changes. This wasn't an inherent property of the slots being used; it was more along the lines of the fact that other changes were being made, of which PCI slots were only the most visible. A lot of under-the-hood changes were made, to make way for the clones. The clones are now dead, of course, but the changes made were not backed out for future releases.

End result: from a technical perspective, a NuBus Mac is a very different beast from a PCI Mac. Many proprietary Apple technologies from the NuBus era were either drastically scaled back or completely abandoned. Apple no longer supports these technologies, since they don't use them anymore, but this also means that OSX can't run on these machines.

timmerk · May 7, 2004, 01:11 PM

Let's see here... my Centris 650 is a NuBus mac. Why in the world does it not run OS X?

Maybe it's because it's only 20 Mhz. Or maybe it's the 64 MB of RAM is has. Or maybe, it's because OS X doesn't fit on it's 540 MB Hard drive.

But then again, Apple should find a way and let it run on my Centris 650.