[Taipan]

Hi!
First I'd like to point out that I don't know anything about BootX, so please don't yell at me if this is complete rubbish:
As far as I know, the first part of the boot process in MacOS X is taken over by BootX. So, couldn't it be possible to modify BootX in a way that it hands over the boot process to MacOS 9 instead of X, thus allowing to boot OS9 on new Macs?

[Person Man]

Originally posted by Taipan:
Hi!
First I'd like to point out that I don't know anything about BootX, so please don't yell at me if this is complete rubbish:
As far as I know, the first part of the boot process in MacOS X is taken over by BootX. So, couldn't it be possible to modify BootX in a way that it hands over the boot process to MacOS 9 instead of X, thus allowing to boot OS9 on new Macs?

In a word... nein

It does not have anything to do with BootX, and just modifying the BootX file will not work. The following is taken from a post I made about the new PowerBooks not being able to boot into OS 9. The information is the same for the new Power Macs.

With every motherboard revision Apple makes, OS 9 needs to be updated to run with it. It's not just drivers, but other low-level code needed to interact with the components on the motherboard. The ROM file would need to be updated as well.

Now, since OS 9 is not open source, the only way some third party could get OS 9 to run on these new machines would be to reverse engineer not only Apple's existing code, but they would also need to reverse engineer Apple's motherboards (both earlier ones to figure out how they did it, and the newer ones to figure out what needs to be changed to make it work). Then they would need to release a new version of the System suitcase (among other things) I don't think Apple would like that too well.

It takes a lot of engineering effort to make Mac OS 9 (and even OS X) run on new hardware, and Apple no longer wants to spend the money to do so, especially in the face of diminishing returns.

So, for someone to be able to make a "hack" or "patch" to allow booting into OS 9 on the new machines, they would need access to the source code of OS 9 and the specifics on the low-level drivers needed for the motherboard (neither of which Apple would be willing to share).

And, I shouldn't have to say this, but there will be people claiming Apple is intentionally crippling the machines, and that they would otherwise be able to boot into OS 9. Apple is NOT crippling their hardware by writing firmware that intentionally won't let you boot into 9. They just aren't be updating OS 9 itself to boot on new hardware any more. (The exception to this is the latest 15" iMac... since it is not based on a new motherboard, it should be able to run OS 9 just fine... Apple made a slight change however, that needs a new Mac OS ROM file... only service providers can get that file however. The next version of the iMac will be based on a new motherboard, or the 15" will be eliminated from the lineup entirely, so the above explanation would then apply).

Alles klar, nicht?

[Taipan]

Thanks for the information! I hope it wasn't my English that made it so obvious that I'm German...

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Taipan:
Thanks for the information! I hope it wasn't my English that made it so obvious that I'm German...

Look what is says after location.

BTW, your English is great. I wouldn't have known it's not your first language except for you saying so.