I apologise for the length of this post but it offers a summary of
informed comments on solutions to the problem of running Classic
applications on the new macs with Intel Aboard that have been proposed in
the Macintouch discussion forum:-
Christian Kent writes:
"Keen readers may remember the Mac-on-Linux project ("MOL"), which was a
"Macintosh-in-a-window" that runs as a program under Linux. But, like
many Linux programs, this has found its way onto the Mac OS X platform,
thereby providing a "Macintosh-in-a-Mac-window"
The nice thing about this application is that it's just like VMWare or
the new "Virtual PC for Windows" package that Microsoft makes, in that it
uses the native CPU mode. So unlike most emulators (e.g., Virtual PC for
Mac), it runs at very close to full speed.
Now, here it gets interesting: Being a Mac application written for the
(old) PowerPC Mac OS X platform, it should be eligible for emulation by
Rosetta under the new Intel Mac OS X platform. This "MOM" (Mac-on-Mac)
will work with Rosetta on an Intel Mac with just one proviso: That it is
G3-compatible. This is the one large requirement that Rosetta has.
The only other question mark is that MOM requires Apple's X11 environment
... it is still a question whether Rosetta knows how to deal with this,
since we already know it won't want to run the "Classic.app" in today's
Mac OS X. Whether Rosetta supports Apple's X11 is an issue that somebody
may be able to answer (a quick browse shows the OpenOffice team aren't
confident).
If and when these requirements are fulfilled, we will have a very easy
way to run Classic applications written for PowerPC, as well as Classic
applications written for Motorola 68k. MOM will even boot into MacOS 9,
where you can run Classic (and some Carbon) apps written for PowerPC, as
well as really rusty, old M68k applications for Mac OS 8 and earlier.
Indeed, there's nothing stopping you from opening another MOM window to
boot System 7 or something older.
And the good news is, XLR8YourMac reports that Rosetta on a 3.6GHz P4
performs somewhere between an 800MHz G4 and a top-end Dual G5 today,
depending on the tasks."
However Wes Felter expressed doubts:-
Mac-on-Mac uses a kernel extension; Rosetta does not support kernel
extensions. Therefore Mac-on-Mac will not work on Intel Macs.
People seeking a replacement for Classic on Intel Macs might want to look
at QEMU; I suspect with a moderate amount of work it could run OS 9 on
Intel systems.
Boyd Waters replied:-
Classic "support" will almost certainly continue, via emulation:
emaculation.com
Basilisk II is an emulator for 68040 Macintoshes, that runs System 7.5
* ARDI has made Executor forever.
* SoftMac
* SheepShaver SheepShaver provides the first PowerPC G4 emulator,
without MMU support, to enable the execution of MacOS Classic.
Performance with the current CPU emulator and JIT implementation is
roughly 1/8-th of native speeds."
[My note: Executor is for Windows & Linux and does not seem to be being
further developed.]
James Bailey commented:-
I've been experimenting with the PPC version of SheepShaver--version 2.3
available from here:
http://www.gibix.net/dokuwiki/en:projects:sheepshaver
The software is non-trivial to set up but once you've gone through that
chore it is excellent. I've been able to run many different Classic MacOS
applications without a single problem.
As Kevin Lepard posted, the iMac 1.1 update available from Apple works.
You can get it from Apple here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58178
Also as Kevin noted, to get the ROM you need a piece of software called
TomeViewer which does run under the OS X Classic environment. You can get
a copy of TomeViewer from Version Tracker here:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/4561
The final piece of the puzzle is a version of OS 9. I had an old OS 9 CD
that I updated to 9.0.4 which seems to be the recommended version for
SheepShaver. You can get the OS 9.0.4 update from MacUpdate here:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/4374
There is also an update to Mac OS 9.1 on Apple's download pages here:
http://www.info.apple.com/export
Choose OS 9.1 and after you agree with the license you can download the
file(s). You can also download 9.2.1 from the same location. I haven't
tried either of these yet but I plan to.
James Bailey then qualified his previous post:-
To follow up on my previous post. I'm running SheepShaver on a PPC Mac--a
Mac mini. I don't have an Intel based Mac yet. I'm still waiting for my
MacBook Pro to arrive. So my experience so far is with SheepShaver
running natively PPC not using the PPC->x86 interpreter.
Also, I did test with Mac OS 9.1 and it doesn't appear to work with
SheepShaver. After upgrading Mac OS 9.0 you end up with a message that
says the following, "This startup disk will not work on this Macintosh
model. Use the latest installer to update this disk for this model."
Since 9.1 didn't work, I didn't bother to test Mac OS 9.2.1. So if you
need a later version of OS 9 than 9.0.4 you may be out of luck when it
comes to using SheepShaver.
Boyd Waters offered a more up to date (mid Feb) comment that supports
Chris's recent post to our own list:-
Well, I think that SheepShaver is remarkable, but not ready for
mainstream use on Intel Macintoshes.
I have tried over the past three days to get an installation up and
running on my PPC Mac and my Intel iMac. No joy. The PPC version does not
appear to be compatible with Tiger, and the Intel version crashes during
the installation of System software.
If there were a legal way to distribute disk images with a working
macintosh setup on it, then it is possible that SheepShaver would work OK.
I'll try to get a working disk image using the versions for Windows or
Linux: presumably once I get a working disk setup, I can move it over to
the Mac Intel.
I don't think that Grandma could get this to work...
Mike Cohen however had more success:
I managed to get SheepShaver working on my iMac Core Duo, but it wasn't
easy. It's very fussy about the ROM file and OS version. The only CD I
could find that would boot it was my PowerMac G4 Software Restore disk. I
posted the full details at http://www.macmegasite.com/drupal/node/2810
The entire discussion (and much else):- appears at:
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macsonintel/topic1944.html#jun14
Julian
___________________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
