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Astro13

Cancelled
Original poster
Nov 4, 2023
78
27
I have this issue where I will put the zip file of retrozilla on my Mac, open the app, and it just sits there in the dock with the little grey arrow under it and does nothing
 

erihp

macrumors 6502a
Apr 21, 2020
757
612
Another tip: disable JavaScript (will break some sites), and point your systems DNS to a piHole to block ads.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,365
Opening the console will allow you to see what went wrong
You might want to tell OP where to look in Console and what they might be looking for. Your suggestion is a good one, but OP is unfamiliar with using Console. Explaining Console and what it does would help.

Further, if OP does find anything, you cannot assume that OP knows what they are looking at or how to 'fix' it.

I passed a Ford Model-T on the freeway the other day. It was doing 45mph in the slow lane with cars backed up behind it. The 'fix' would have been 'making the Ford go faster'. How do you fix a Ford Model-T to go faster on the freeway without changing the original?

The G3 is a Ford Model-T in this context.
 
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Astro13

Cancelled
Original poster
Nov 4, 2023
78
27
In reality, this is my first iMac, and I come from windows, so I have no idea what to look for in the console, it just gives me the boot up information, and retrozilla won’t actually launch, it just sits in the dock with the little grey arrow underneath it
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,365
In reality, this is my first iMac, and I come from windows, so I have no idea what to look for in the console, it just gives me the boot up information, and retrozilla won’t actually launch, it just sits in the dock with the little grey arrow underneath it
Console is basically an app that shows you the logs that the system generates in one place. I'm no expert on it but I do know that you can get your head wrapped around what you find in there. Depending on what you have installed (not just apps) a lot of stuff can write to the logs and it's not always an error.

The problem with the suggestion to use Console to find out what's 'wrong' or what's 'happening' is that even if you do find it and understand it, there is likely nothing you can do to 'fix' it.

Assuming you can 'fix' something that Console indicates is a problem related to internet browsing, that is highly unlikely to make your G3 iMac suddenly start web browsing at the speed of an M2 Mac.

Essentially, while a good troubleshooting tip (if you understand Console and it's messages) it is not likely to 'solve' your problem. Your iMac is a G3, a 20+ year old Mac trying to deal with a modern internet with limited amounts of ram and an old processor. That is the problem.

Console can't solve that.
 
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Astro13

Cancelled
Original poster
Nov 4, 2023
78
27
Console is basically an app that shows you the logs that the system generates in one place. I'm no expert on it but I do know that you can get your head wrapped around what you find in there. Depending on what you have installed (not just apps) a lot of stuff can write to the logs and it's not always an error.

The problem with the suggestion to use Console to find out what's 'wrong' or what's 'happening' is that even if you do find it and understand it, there is likely nothing you can do to 'fix' it.

Assuming you can 'fix' something that Console indicates is a problem related to internet browsing, that is highly unlikely to make your G3 iMac suddenly start web browsing at the speed of an M2 Mac.

Essentially, while a good troubleshooting tip (if you understand Console and it's messages) it is not likely to 'solve' your problem. Your iMac is a G3, a 20+ year old Mac trying to deal with a modern internet with limited amounts of ram and an old processor. That is the problem.

Console can't solve that.
I don’t need to browse at the speed of a modern Mac, I just want retrozilla to open, because it does nothing except do the thing where it bounces and then the grey arrow comes up, but the app never opens
 

Ryan Bremer

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2022
131
107
Then just use Safari, the easiest web browser to use on the Mac. You can browse news with 68k.news, Facebook with mbasic.facebook.com, YouTube with iteroni.com or another invidious instance,
TigerKit might be an option too.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,365
I don’t need to browse at the speed of a modern Mac, I just want retrozilla to open, because it does nothing except do the thing where it bounces and then the grey arrow comes up, but the app never opens
My point in all that is that you aren't going to get what you want - an acceptable browsing experience. It's not 1998 anymore.

I don't mean to sound rude, I am not trying to be. Just factual. Even with a Quad G5 and max ram things are no longer acceptable, at least for me, to browse the internet in a manner I wish.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,365
Then just use Safari, the easiest web browser to use on the Mac. You can browse news with 68k.news, Facebook with mbasic.facebook.com, YouTube with iteroni.com or another invidious instance,
TigerKit might be an option too.
Safari. On a G3 iMac?

You are offering OP solutions, but those solutions limit OP to what they can actually browse. Outdated certificates, complex websites and modern websites limit using Safari if OP wants to browse the rest of the web. But, If OP is okay with this limited browsing experience though, then all the solutions offered in this thread will work.
 

Astro13

Cancelled
Original poster
Nov 4, 2023
78
27
I just want to access macintosh garden, internet archive, and these forums on the Mac, that’s it, because usb 1.1 transfer speeds suck and I have been downloading it on my modern computer and using a usb drive to transfer it over to the iMac. I just need a web browser that does not take 5 minutes to register my scrolling. I don’t need facebook, or YouTube, or the news. I just want to write my essays and play doom on the Mac and not wait an hour for a 1 gb to transfer off the USB drive onto the mac
 

Ryan Bremer

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2022
131
107
Everyone seems to have forgot about the tls 1.3 Links2 build? It works even on Mac OS X 10.3 and allows you to access the forums (XenForo supports posting with javascript disabled)
 

Astro13

Cancelled
Original poster
Nov 4, 2023
78
27
Everyone seems to have forgot about the tls 1.3 Links2 build? It works even on Mac OS X 10.3 and allows you to access the forums (XenForo supports posting with javascript disabled)
Does it work with macintosh garden
 

Ryan Bremer

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2022
131
107
sure, you can view the forums, read the latest news, download youtube videos for offline playback, and browse macintosh garden!
 

Astro13

Cancelled
Original poster
Nov 4, 2023
78
27
Thank you everyone for all your help, let’s hope I can get this to function the way I need it to, it has other problems that also need to be addressed, but thanks to everyone here, it’s got one less, out of a list, of so many problems… This is going to take a while
 

wicknix

macrumors 68030
Jun 4, 2017
2,621
5,304
Wisconsin, USA
So I should be able to use links2 to do what I want to do with this Mac?
Links2 would be very archaic in rendering, but it'll work. If RetroZilla doesn't start it sounds like you might have a corrupt user account. You could A) create a new user and see if that helps, or B) give DarkWeb or ArcticFoxPPC a try as they are lighter than TenFourFox and InterWebPPC.
 

Certificate of Excellence

macrumors 6502a
Feb 9, 2021
945
1,458
Don't forget with Links2 you need X11 installed if you want to leverage the GUI version, so there is that added step. It doesn't sound like OP would be too comfortable at all with a text based Terminal browsing experience. I agree DarkWeb and AF are good options for the meager resources of an iMac g3 & OSX. Interestingly, Retrozilla initially did the same thing for me as OP on my B&W a few days back. I did not have the time to investigate/trouble shoot at that time

*Just got Retrozilla working. The user experience is very similar to L2 but a bit snappier. I also prefer the UI a bit more. Ive been experiencing some stability issues with L2 preceding KPs. It works but minutes in, L2 goes unresponsive in activity monitor then followed by a kp, so I am happy to report RZ working well for me now.

I think all in on these g3s I am partial to Darkweb. For me, it is a good balance between relative speed, functionality and comfortable GUI.
 
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