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OS 9 on Power Mac G5?

AmazingHenry

AmazingHenry

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 6, 2015
1,285
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Central Michigan
A while back I tried this guide on my iBook G4 to try to get it to boot into OS 9, but it didn't work because the iBook was newer than the one in the guide. But my PowerMac G5 is from about the same time, maybe older. Would it be possible to install OS 9 on the G5 using this method? I'm going to try it out. Just think how fast OS 9 would be on a G5. If anyone knows that this would not work, please let me know. I'll get started soon. I appreciate any additional information that may help.

Oh, there used to be a piece of software called CountDown G5 that would run OS 9 on the G5, but you can't get it any more.
 
You're not the first with that idea. There has been significant effort by the OS 9 community to get OS 9 working on G5 machines, but so far the G5 machines are just too incompatible with the old operating systems that this has still not been proven possible. With non-OS 9 bootable G4 units, often the hardware was not completely incompatible with OS 9, which is why they succeeded on those. Virtualisation is the only option for OS 9 on G5 units, native booting is simply impossible.
 
Daniël Oosterhuis said:
You're not the first with that idea. There has been significant effort by the OS 9 community to get OS 9 working on G5 machines, but so far the G5 machines are just too incompatible with the old operating systems that this has still not been proven possible. With non-OS 9 bootable G4 units, often the hardware was not completely incompatible with OS 9, which is why they succeeded on those. Virtualisation is the only option for OS 9 on G5 units, native booting is simply impossible.
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Thanks for telling me. I think I'll still try it, just for fun. :D
 
HFTaylor12 said:
Thanks for telling me. I think I'll still try it, just for fun. :D
Click to expand...
Sure, if you manage to write the appropriate drivers for the PowerMac G5's chipset architecture, and manage to write drivers for the G5, since OS 9 never received these either, you could. But good luck with that.
 
Daniël Oosterhuis said:
Sure, if you manage to write the appropriate drivers for the PowerMac G5's chipset architecture, and manage to write drivers for the G5, since OS 9 never received these either, you could. But good luck with that.
Click to expand...
OK, OK, it's probably impossible and I shouldn't be wasting my time. There's one thing I'd like to try and then I'm done with this experiment.
 
Best bet is to run 10.4 and the Classic layer. I've never used it on a G5 and it might not even exist(!) but it's the best bet.
 
MysticCow said:
Best bet is to run 10.4 and the Classic layer. I've never used it on a G5 and it might not even exist(!) but it's the best bet.
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You can run Classic under 10.4 on a G5. Did it for years because QuarkXPress 4.11 and Pagemaker 7.0 are OS9 only.
 
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Somehow CountDown G5 got OS 9 booting on G5 systems, and I've tried to learn a little more about it, but there's almost no information and I can't find a download.Too bad. Thanks for your information, everybody!
 
HFTaylor12 said:
I'm not a very big fan of OS 9 either, but imagine the speed. OS 9 on a Mac that already runs Leopard at a decent speed!
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I get that.

Just not my cup of tea. The moment I was able to finally get rid of OS9/Classic I bid goodbye. My experience with OS9 was not an exceptional one.

System 7, on the other hand, I liked a lot better.
 
1.42 g4 from a late MDD in a early MDD loaded with OS9 is super fast. A quicksilver with an accelerator in it pretty close as to not feel the difference.
 
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