Snow Leopard on Unsupported PowerPC Macs

[JoyBed]

Thats a different story: You can always leave some % of the drive capacity unallocated (not included in any partition) and the drive itself can re-map that for trim-like purposes.
Not quite as effective and with tradeoff of some 100s MB for it.

Still better than no trimm at all I think.

 

[NikolaPPC]

Trim SATA only -> PowerMac 12,1 (iMac 20“ G5 iSight) and the dual and quad G5 Tower have SATA instead of PATA.

That means only G5 will benefit from it?

Cheers, Nikola!

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi @NikilaPPC,

PowerMac G4's with PCI addon card will have it too as long as they support the TRIM command
and the SSD itself supports it which means all recent SSDs

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[NikolaPPC]

Good too know! If there really are TRIM kexts in SL build that are universal binary, it will be beneficial!


Cheers, Nikola!

 

[666sheep]

Hi @666sheep,

Just to confirm you have an AGP and a PCI not PCI Express correct?

Best regards,
voidRunner

Correct. PCI. I tried to run them both at the same time and system boots only when the display is connected to AGP one. When I plug it to PCI card, it crashes the driver. Separately both cards are working without problems.

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi @666sheep,

Thanx for the info.
@Larsvonhier So now we have another possibility to have QE/CI using PCI graphics if
it's a Geforce.
The Rage128 you tested is PCI also correct?
If so then the problem with QE/CI is AGP cards plus ATI's in general

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[armdn]

Hello everyone,
late to the party but I had to give it a go.
Got 10A190 (@Larsvonhier's image) booted on DA with QS CPU.

I had two GF 6200 handy, AGP and PCI one. AGP - no QE/CI, with PCI one it works OOTB. This kinda confirms your existing findings.

View attachment 922858View attachment 922859

Whoa! Where the hell did you find ROM for the 6200 PCI?!

 

[Molon Labe]

I had two GF 6200 handy, AGP and PCI one. AGP - no QE/CI, with PCI one it works OOTB. This kinda confirms your existing findings.

Which 6200 PCI card did you use?
I have one of these:
https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=b3854a57-852e-43ee-9e2a-a2e0373f8ea3

I headed on to the MacElite to look for the 6200 PCI ROM, but it is not there.
While there I looked around and found this info that might be helpful (don't remember if this has already been tried by someone here):
http://themacelite.wikidot.com/kext-mod
You can add your card's ID on the IOPCIMatch register if it is not there and see if that enables QE & CI.
On the 10A190 boot image, there are extensions for many Nvidia families, just make sure you know which one is used by the 6200 (NV44A).
On the Mac Mini G4, the onboard 9200 uses the Radeon8500 extension on Leopard, but this extension is not found on SL.
I installed ATI Displays 4.5.7 but that extension isn't included either.

I tried to download AGPGart.kext sourcecode from:
https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/71308-new-agpgart/?
But the download links seem to be dead.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Hi @666sheep,

Thanx for the info.
@Larsvonhier So now we have another possibility to have QE/CI using PCI graphics if
it's a Geforce.
The Rage128 you tested is PCI also correct?
If so then the problem with QE/CI is AGP cards plus ATI's in general

Best regards,
voidRunner

Exactly, the Rage128 I tested was plain PCI.
---
In the meantime I also found and tested two more ATI Radon cards:
Radeon 7000 (32MB) PCI
Radeon 9200 (128MB) PCI
Both behave the same: QuartzGL supported, but no QE / CI.
---
I invested some time to "wayback" on some sites to see if I could find the AGPGart sources. Might have found a valid link on TonyMac but could not DL due no member there...

 

[Larsvonhier]

Another dig in my basement: Nvidia FX5200 PCI.

This time, I can report success after plugging this thingy into my dual G5 (PowerMac7,2)!

Drivers load as usual (NVDANV30HAL, NVDAResman, Geforce) and I have full accel:
Core Image: HW accelerated
Quartz Extreme: Supported
QuartzGL: Supported

OpenMark runs, and iTunes visualizer effects also.
Only issue right now (might be that my previous attempts with XPost Facto (!) corrupted something): There are blocky black screen artefacts on window button elements...

Will try this setup in a G4 and report back / edit here.

edit:
Same positive result on a PowerMac G4 AGP (but with the FX5200 PCI as sole GPU).

 

[Larsvonhier]

Speaking of XpostFacto: There might be some treasures in there that are still useful...

I found a PPC version AGPGart.kext that is already plist-adapted to one of our troublemakers, the ATI 9600 and ATI 9700 GPUs (that share the same PCI Vendor/Device ID combination, namely 0x1002,0x4e50).
For some reason I can´t get it to load, have not yet dived into the dependencies to other kexts (IOGraphicsFamily or AppleMacRiscPCI). Something to experiment again at last. The AGPGart.kext says (c) Apple and v1.0 - perhaps there is some newer PPC version out there?

Two other kexts do load (and I have the impression that two of my Titanium G4 now really shut down instead of going to limbo waiting for hard reset or loss of power supply). One of my Alu G4 PowerBooks (1,67GHz G4) is not impressed by them and still has to be rude-forced-shutdown, though. The lower-spec 1GHz (PB 5,2) shuts down perfectly while only loading/using one of the kexts.
Perhaps there are other machines out there on which this can be tested/verified?
The kexts are OpenOldWorldNVRAM.kext and OpenPMUNVRAMController.kext.

 

[sockusminimus]

Which 6200 PCI card did you use?
I have one of these:
https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=b3854a57-852e-43ee-9e2a-a2e0373f8ea3

I headed on to the MacElite to look for the 6200 PCI ROM, but it is not there.
While there I looked around and found this info that might be helpful (don't remember if this has already been tried by someone here):
http://themacelite.wikidot.com/kext-mod
You can add your card's ID on the IOPCIMatch register if it is not there and see if that enables QE & CI.
On the 10A190 boot image, there are extensions for many Nvidia families, just make sure you know which one is used by the 6200 (NV44A).
On the Mac Mini G4, the onboard 9200 uses the Radeon8500 extension on Leopard, but this extension is not found on SL.
I installed ATI Displays 4.5.7 but that extension isn't included either.

I tried to download AGPGart.kext sourcecode from:
https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/71308-new-agpgart/?
But the download links seem to be dead.

Here ya'll go.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Here ya'll go.

Very good - thank you @sockusminimus !
Seems to be a crude mix of linux and Apple parts, let´s see if/how we can compile that for ATI AGP GPUs (mainly the 9600/9700 in PowerBooks). Also by quick glance at the sources, I could not make sense of the question if there could be one kext for all different cards (looking at some tables with ATY types and distinction between ATI and NVidia makes me think so) or if we end up with different kexts for various cards (treatment of the video buffer sizes might indicate that).
But anyway, a good starting point for experiments on compiling this stuff for PPC!

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi @Larsvonhier,

I've tried it but unfortunately it KPs
I think we might need to find the sources for the earlier versions lie 1.0 or 1.2
because the code in this version is x86 chipsets oriented.

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[Larsvonhier]

Hi @Larsvonhier,

I've tried it but unfortunately it KPs
I think we might need to find the sources for the earlier versions lie 1.0 or 1.2
because the code in this version is x86 chipsets oriented.

Best regards,
voidRunner

I noticed that also (x86).
Can you take a picture of the KP?

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi all,

I went looking again at the ATI kexts inside 096 and I found that
for the ATIRadeonX1000's the ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle iis
still PPC enabled.
Does anyone have a PCIe card that can use ATIRadeonX1000 kext
and try this out by swapping the binaries inside each of the other
components ( VADriver.bundle, GA.plugin and kext ) and see if there is
any change?

@Larsvonhier I'm posting the picture of the KP next

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi @Larsvonhier,

Here it is.

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi all,

For those of you that may have installed the server version ( like me ) and
want to "change" to the client version you can rename the
file /System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist to something else
and then just logout or reboot.
You'll have the picture login window and some other stuff that was different
in Server like some of the Preference Panes in System Preferences like "Sharing".

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[Molon Labe]

Compiled AGPGart.kext on 10A190. Extension on either /Library/Extensions or /System/Library/Extensions seems to be ignored (no kernel panics, system boots fine, but kextstat shows it is not loaded).
Loading extension manually with kextload succeeds and kextstat shows it is loaded.
My current test system is a Mac Mini G4 with no drivers for the builtin Radeon 9200, so I can't seem to test much further.
Maybe someone else can find out if the Nvidia 6200 AGP benefits from it since it will be some time before I can work on my G4 cube with a 6200.

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi @Molon Labe,

Did you change in Info.plist to match your Radeon?
The Info.plist does a match on IOPCIClassMatch and the values there
are not right.
You can replace it with the match from @Larsvonhier AGPGart kext a few posts back.
Look at his Info.plist.
Than it tries to load and gives a KP.

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[theANY]

Hey y'all,

I'm new in this whole area about OS X modding and I found this here. I literally jumped up from the bed and cheered that finally somebody leaked that (I knew there would be a usable beta but to get one....). And I even more cheered that you guys got this running on PPCs! Okay, there are still some little problems (f.e. the AirPort Extreme card or the Dashboard which keeps on crashing afaik) but it is even more stable running than 10.5. So at first I wanna thank everyone here who helps to get this fully running and keeps on trying. I tried installing it from base with some things like the patches etc. but I didn't got it running on my own. So I used the image created by @Larsvonhier and it works! (Except the known problems.) Sooo between my tries and now are several weeks gone. I have some questions and can offer some help:
Question 1: how tf did you got even the installer running? I used the patcher and the BootX file and several KEXTs, but every time I boot it it runs into a kpanic.
Question 2: what's the status on the thing with the non-working AirPort Extreme cards? Some predictions on what could cause that? Whoever has a got an idea could also pm me, I have got a 2005 PowerBook G4 (see signature) and REALLY MUCH time. Maybe we can get this running.
Question 3: As I could think @Larsvonhier is maybe from Germany (as I am). Maybe you could help me out with some info in German via PM? I don't wanna pm you because you maybe got stuff to do and I don't wanna get on your nerves, so at first I want to ask you.
Some Info:
Due to the fact that DVD DLs don't grow on trees I tried to boot from USB, not only the 10.6 beta but also 10.5 and Ubuntu (wrote a Tutorial about that whole thing in German, will translate and post it later here). It isn't that complex but it needed some testing. So the kpanics wrote up in this message can't be caused by that.
Some funny thing:
several hours after I read about the 10.6 PPC thing I bought a 2009 MacBook Pro for working and messing around with. It is in perfect shape, it stood 11 years on a desk and was not one time moved away from it. An older woman used it for her taxes, has used it one time a year. Not even ONE scratch or bump. And the thing that got me laughing and rolling on the floor: the install discs contain 10.6! What a coincidence! I was busy experimenting with that one and now as it runs good and useable (see signature) I have got time for getting the G4 running 10.6 Beta. It already runs but I wanna get the AirPort card running and get out some bugs. I already got experience with some similar topics (also on a PPC-based platform LOL) and if somebody leads me a bit I think I can help on this topic and be a part of that journey.
At last I want to thank everyone again who helped getting this running and in this already stable state.

With many greetings from Chemnitz
theANY

"PS": I think I will install a copy of 10.6 on my 2009 MBP and then put it next to the PBG4 running 10.6Beta and take a pic, just for the funny look.

Edit: I have got a very fast internet line so if I can help somehow by up- or downloading anything please contact me.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Compiled AGPGart.kext on 10A190. Extension on either /Library/Extensions or /System/Library/Extensions seems to be ignored (no kernel panics, system boots fine, but kextstat shows it is not loaded).
Loading extension manually with kextload succeeds and kextstat shows it is loaded.
My current test system is a Mac Mini G4 with no drivers for the builtin Radeon 9200, so I can't seem to test much further.
Maybe someone else can find out if the Nvidia 6200 AGP benefits from it since it will be some time before I can work on my G4 cube with a 6200.

Unfortunately same KP crashes here when setting correct GPU IDs in plist file.
(Error 300 - data access).
Does that somehow relate to reserving the buffer/framebuffer for the card?

Tried it on ATI 9700...

 

[Molon Labe]

Unfortunately same KP crashes here when setting correct GPU IDs in plist file.
(Error 300 - data access).
Does that somehow relate to reserving the buffer/framebuffer for the card?

Tried it on ATI 9700...

Or could it be the AGP aperture?
I think we can fiddle with that setting within the code.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Hi all,

I went looking again at the ATI kexts inside 096 and I found that
for the ATIRadeonX1000's the ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle iis
still PPC enabled.
Does anyone have a PCIe card that can use ATIRadeonX1000 kext
and try this out by swapping the binaries inside each of the other
components ( VADriver.bundle, GA.plugin and kext ) and see if there is
any change?

@Larsvonhier I'm posting the picture of the KP next

Best regards,
voidRunner

Also, the X2000GA is still PPC!
We might be able to combine some of the ingredients of various drivers then...

Found some interesting „news” here where this was successfully done for hackintosh Leopard - esp. step 5 and deleting ATINDRV seem promising.

[How To] ATI Radeon Mobility x600 QE/CI Enabled with Full Resolution

Hey guys, after a long hard read and alot of head scratching, i finally got QE/CI enabled on my ATI Mobility Radeon x600 with Mac OS X Leopard! Whether this is a good thing or not is a question ive yet to answer. A few cosmetic things are annoying now, such as the completely transparent menubar w...

www.insanelymac.com

 

[Larsvonhier]

While iSight camera works (both the internal USB as also the external FireWire versions), iChat crashes and PhotoBooth v3.0) just displays garbled trash. Photos taken with it appear correctly, though.
Good thing is: Leopard v2.0.(3?) PhotoBooth works on SL - and iChat is really obsolete, I‘d think.