At 2:05 PM -0600 1/1/2011, Greg Kennedy wrote:
Digital Audio dual-533 models, with a 40gb hard drive, GeForce2 MX,
and 640mb RAM.
<http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_533.html>
As a Christmas gift to my wife, I thought it might be nice to format
this PC and set it up as an audio recording studio, running an older
version of GarageBand and Logic Express and plugging it into her
Yamaha digital piano through an M-Audio Midisport Uno MIDI->USB
adapter. Here are the steps I have taken:
1. Install OS X 10.3 Panther. Upgrade to 10.3.9 through repeated
Software Update.
Panther is kindof stone age. To avoid spending a whole lot of time
finding ancient versions of things, you might want to consider
putting Tiger (OS X 10.4.11) on it. 10.4.11 is the last official OS
release supported. (and see way below)
* The PC100 128MB RAM stick I put in the spare slot is not
recognized. Some research shows that certain Power Macs are picky
and require PC133 as a minimum. Is this one of those models?
Per the specs, this PM G4 requires PC-133 memory. Putting much
slower PC-100 memory in, if the controller supported it, would be
like tying bricks to its tires.
* The DVD burner drive I installed, an IBM-branded Hitachi HL_DT_ST
G10N, is recognized only as a CD reader. It won't burn DVDs and
blank DVDs are simply ejected. I don't know anything about locating
Mac drivers or if that is even necessary. I want to burn some DMGs
or audio CDs from here.
Panther has very limited / specific model burner support. You can
try creating a new profile for this burner, by using PatchBurn.
<http://www.patchburn.de/>
I've found that Roxio Toast 7 Titanium is supported on 10.3, can
this tool burn DVDs even where OS X can't recognize the drive?
Try PatchBurn first. Then, once the drive is working, take a look at
apps such as Burn. Toast may be ok, I'm just not a big fan.
* The spare hard drive I put in here is having S.M.A.R.T. status of
"failing". I know what this means, no advice needed : )
Try zero'ing then re-partitioning the drive with Disk Utility anyway.
Sometimes SMART lies.
* My firmware is outdated (4.1.8f, latest from what I know is 4.2.8)
but now that I have installed OS X I can't use the firmware updater.
Okay, so I can put 9.2.2 back on here, does Disk Utility support
nondestructive repartitioning so I don't lose my installation?
No, it does not. But as long as you put the OS 9 drivers on the
drive in the first place, you can just add OS 9 to the boot volume.
No need to worry about OS X -- the two OSes know about each other.
If you didn't check that box to add the drivers, then you'll need to
do OS 9 elsewhere. Or, you can clone your OS X volume easily enough;
no need to reinstall things.
* Wireless - this has no Airport card in the little Airport card
slot. I have no idea how to go about finding a solution for this
and, probably, won't bother. I would imagine the expense would be
pretty high for a compatible card.
LEM Swap sometimes has them. There are 3rd party USB Wi-Fi dongle
type things, but their software sux. Easier to just go wired, IMO.
That's a lot of issues and I haven't even gotten to installing the
software I want to use. In fact I've been thinking about this
project on a "grander scale" and I am wondering if even my Step 1
was a bad choice, and I should have gone with either 9.2 (and really
outdated hardware) or 10.4 (though the system requirements seem
steep).
I would be willing to go 10.4 if I knew that this hardware would run
it faster than 10.3. Otherwise I don't want to bother. This is one
of those "set it up and let it sit" installations, I want everything
perfected the first time so I don't have to get in and mess around
with things later.
Tiger runs great on all G4s and most G3s. It has a few features,
specifically Spotlight and Dashboard, that can be resource piggy, but
that's not big deal, as you can just turn 'em off. Once that's done,
you'll find that Tiger is *faster* than Panther.
There are ways to hack Leopard (10.5)'s installer to make it talk to
a 533-MHz G4, which would open the field for apps greatly, but I
cannot vouch for its overall performance. I know that others on this
list have put Leopard on older Macs. Perhaps they'll chime in wrt
its performance.
HTH,
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
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