10.6 Snow Leopard PowerPC Development

[Project Alice]

I booted up Leopard, fought with DU for a couple minutes about the scan for restore setting, and then it successfully restored (surprisingly, as I can count on one hand how many times I've had that happen) and successfully booted. Not sure why that made a difference but it did.

 

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

I've found that DU has issues when doing whole drive vs partition based disk saves. Have had tons of annoying issues trying to restore full disk images even when the sizes match. I've had DU say everything is fine more times than I can count but then puke when restoring or the disk is unusable.

 

[Project Alice]

I’m attempting to install Office 2008, when running the installer, installer crashes after a second or 2. The log shows

Installer[7270]: Rosetta required to install

Not really sure how to fix that lmao

Edit: Installing it with the terminal worked, but it’s very unstable. I’m going to attempt to install the updates.

 

[barracuda156]

I’m attempting to install Office 2008, when running the installer, installer crashes after a second or 2. The log shows

Installer[7270]: Rosetta required to install

Not really sure how to fix that lmao

Perhaps install Rosetta?

 

[ChrisCharman]

I’m attempting to install Office 2008, when running the installer, installer crashes after a second or 2. The log shows

Installer[7270]: Rosetta required to install

Not really sure how to fix that lmao

Edit: Installing it with the terminal worked, but it’s very unstable. I’m going to attempt to install the updates.

Yes we should remove and disable rosetta to prevent potential interference with PowerPC binaries.

Further reasons for Removing Rosetta in Snow Leopard for PowerPC


1. Not Needed on PowerPC

• Rosetta was designed only for PowerPC-to-Intel translation, allowing Intel Macs to run PowerPC apps.

• Since our project focuses on running Snow Leopard natively on PowerPC, Rosetta serves no purpose.

2. Code Bloat & Complexity

• Rosetta adds unnecessary binary translation infrastructure, increasing kernel complexity.

• Removing it streamlines the OS, reducing unnecessary overhead.

3. Intel-Specific Dependencies

• Rosetta relies on Intel-specific instructions and kernel hooks that have no equivalent on PowerPC.

• Keeping it would require rewriting or disabling large parts of the translation layer.

4. Memory & Performance Overhead

• Even if left dormant, Rosetta reserves memory and system resources.

• Removing it frees up RAM and simplifies system calls.

5. Focus on PowerPC Optimisation

• Instead of maintaining a useless compatibility layer, effort is better spent improving native PowerPC performance, drivers, and optimizations.

In summary

Since Rosetta only translates PowerPC apps to Intel, it is completely irrelevant in a PowerPC-native system. Removing it reduces complexity, saves resources, and improves system efficiency.

To disable without kernel modifications:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.oahd.plist
sudo mv /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.oahd.plist /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.oahd.plist.disabled
sudo chmod 000 /usr/libexec/oahd
sudo chflags schg /usr/libexec/oahd
sudo nvram boot-args="no_rosetta=1"

 

[barracuda156]

Yes we should remove and disable rosetta to prevent potential interference with PowerPC binaries.

Further reasons for Removing Rosetta in Snow Leopard for PowerPC


1. Not Needed on PowerPC

• Rosetta was designed only for PowerPC-to-Intel translation, allowing Intel Macs to run PowerPC apps.

• Since our project focuses on running Snow Leopard natively on PowerPC, Rosetta serves no purpose.

2. Code Bloat & Complexity

• Rosetta adds unnecessary binary translation infrastructure, increasing kernel complexity.

• Removing it streamlines the OS, reducing unnecessary overhead.

3. Intel-Specific Dependencies

• Rosetta relies on Intel-specific instructions and kernel hooks that have no equivalent on PowerPC.

• Keeping it would require rewriting or disabling large parts of the translation layer.

4. Memory & Performance Overhead

• Even if left dormant, Rosetta reserves memory and system resources.

• Removing it frees up RAM and simplifies system calls.

5. Focus on PowerPC Optimisation

• Instead of maintaining a useless compatibility layer, effort is better spent improving native PowerPC performance, drivers, and optimizations.

In summary

Since Rosetta only translates PowerPC apps to Intel, it is completely irrelevant in a PowerPC-native system. Removing it reduces complexity, saves resources, and improves system efficiency.

To disable without kernel modifications:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.oahd.plist
sudo mv /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.oahd.plist /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.oahd.plist.disabled
sudo chmod 000 /usr/libexec/oahd
sudo chflags schg /usr/libexec/oahd

I think Rosetta shouldn’t even be installed by default to begin with. It is an optional component which can be selected during the OS installation.

 

[ChrisCharman]

@barracuda156 I wasn’t able to create a mirror of your packages using Rsync, Curl or Subversion so ended up building Wget which seems to be working - currently still downloading to a local backup so will update once the thousands of packages have completed.

 

[barracuda156]

@barracuda156 I wasn’t able to create a mirror of your packages using Rsync, Curl or Subversion so ended up building Wget which seems to be working - currently still downloading to a local backup so will update once the thousands of packages have completed.

Thank you, great!

P. S. I will find out how to use rsync, it should work, but I did not use it for mirroring myself yet (I do use it to upload packages etc.).

 

[Gamerabbit]

Hey, I tried today twice to install it on two different HDD to be sure, and everytime i boot it on my PPC G5 it boot then turn off

 

[Hughmac]

Hey, I tried today twice to install it on two different HDD to be sure, and everytime i boot it on my PPC G5 it boot then turn off

Have you followed the guidance in post #1 under Spoiler "Installation Instructions"?

Cheers

Hugh

 

[barracuda156]

Hey, I tried today twice to install it on two different HDD to be sure, and everytime i boot it on my PPC G5 it boot then turn off

You likely need to boot via boot selector (boot with option, choose the disk). There is some bug preventing a direct boot on G5 machines.

 

[TehFalcon]

Does anyone know if ATI 9800's in G5's work? On 10A190 they are not supported, but 10.5.8 does support them.

 

[Gamerabbit]

Have you followed the guidance in post #1 under Spoiler "Installation Instructions"?

Cheers

Hugh

Yup
The only different thing I used another software to clone instead of the system one because it wouldn’t work with the system one :/

 

[barracuda156]

Yup
The only different thing I used another software to clone instead of the system one because it wouldn’t work with the system one :/

There were failures due to CCC usage.
Disk Utility should be used.

 

[ChrisCharman]

Does anyone know if ATI 9800's in G5's work? On 10A190 they are not supported, but 10.5.8 does support them.

If you’re using the latest Alpha 5 image then all GPUs supported by 10.5.8 should work as @educovas patched graphics acceleration using the same files. Ignore any confusion you might read about ATi vs Nvidia support in 10.6.8 on PowerPC, that’s simply a misunderstanding of a specific build that was created for @barracuda156 for testing purposes - the main disk images should support all GPUs officially supported under Leopard.

 

[ChrisCharman]

Yup
The only different thing I used another software to clone instead of the system one because it wouldn’t work with the system one :/

Make sure you ‘scan image for restore’ before trying to restore it and ensure that erase destination checkbox is ticked (even if it’s already erased) otherwise a block level copy will not take place and the new image will be non-bootable. I have restored the image myself to multiple machines (eMac, PowerMac G4, PowerBook G4s and AGP PowerMac G5) via disk utility with no issues.