Sorbet Leopard - Your Power Mac Unleashed

[ww2_1943]

@ww2_1943 I will append @Amethyst1's answer with the following notes on using RAM disks ...

Typically, you should not create a disk as large as the entire installed capacity. If you fill that with files, the system will end up swapping to disk for everything; and because you control what resides in memory (via the RAM disk), the system can't automatically get rid of it and go back to using its native memory banks.

As a rule of thumb, I would suggest leaving 512 MB to 1 GB free for the rest of the system to use (at minimum), so in your case that would be creating one anywhere from 64 MB to 512 MB in size for most uses. Be aware though that with such a relatively cramped amount of memory to begin with, while you will see certain I/O performance improvements (with files stored on the RAM disk), overall memory performance (for normal RAM tasks) may suffer. All in all, it is really a feature for higher-end G4s and G5s with RAM to spare.

In regards to disabling shadows, Sorbet does not ship with ShadowKiller; rather, it uses a custom implementation provided by @AphoticD in the form of an embedded binary, with a user-accessible switch located at Sorbet Tools > System > Quartz Compositor > Toggle Window Shadows (just as the Sorbet Tips section @ the project's Macintosh Garden page describes).

For more post-install tips, tricks, and tweaks, please see Sorbet Tips at the above link.

I ended up going through the tips and finding the shadow tool.

I’m going to leave the RAM disk alone.

This version of Sorbet is running so well! It is honestly mind blowing. I can multitask without issue. Safari is unreal! With the old version of WebKit and tenfourfox it took forever to open. The whole computer just struggled. None of that happens now!!!

This is just unreal to me

 

[z970]

@ww2_1943 As Max Bondarchenko once said (somewhere, I can't remember where): "It's just like magic".

 

[ww2_1943]

@ww2_1943 As Max Bondarchenko once said (somewhere, I can't remember where): "It's just like magic".

I even had AirPods working for a bit. Now I can’t get them to stay connected. Oh well

 

[smeisinger]

Thanks for the amazing work! I updated today by creating a new partition, then using CCC to clone the Sorbet Leopard Image on there and the CCC'ed everything I needed (libraries, documents, apps) over from my old Sorbet Leopard installation. Worked perfectly.

I'm confused with the maintenance folder in "Sorbet Tools" though. In 1.4 there was only one script in there (IIRC). Now there are 6.

4/5/6 are self explanatory but what do 1/2/3 do? Are they just for setting up the schedule when 4/5/6 are executed automatically? I didn't find anything about it, sorry if I might be blind and that information actually is somewhere already

edit: Woah, Youtube works in SL's new Safari on my 1.5GHz 12" Powerbook! I definitely didn't expected that.

 

[z970]

@smeisinger 1, 2, and 3 are just manual switches to run the system's built-in BSD maintenance scripts on demand (more info here).

It is recommended to run them every once in a while, or periodically in accordance with their respective names. Otherwise, the system might over time start leaving temporary files in places they shouldn't be, allow junk to gradually build up, and just work slightly less efficiently overall.

You can think of them (alongside repairing the disk permissions) as akin to a series of minor oil changes, re-lubrications, and under-the-hood tune-ups for your Mac.

EDIT: Try the Wikipedia bookmark as well. There will be a lot of things laced throughout this system you didn't expect.

 

[smeisinger]

Thanks! All clear now

Here's a video of Youtube's performance in SL's Safari on my 1.5GHz 12" Powerbook. That's so amazing.

Also please take note of Safari's virtually non-existent start up time.

2022-05-16 00.44.30.mov

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[ww2_1943]

Is there a RAM purge command or application for 10.5.8? I tried “sudo purge” in terminal which was unrecognized.

 

[z970]

@ww2_1943 Earlier on during the project's development, there was a custom Launch Daemon that was supposed to automatically free up inactive RAM back into the main pool every half-hour or so (if I remember correctly), and this of course was based on the purge binary found in the Developer Tools package bundled with Xcode. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work universally between both the G4 and G5 architectures (it presumably contained CPU specific code hinging on which machine the binary was originally installed into), so the feature was scrapped.

To acquire it on your own, you would need to manually install the Developer Tools offered alongside Xcode 3.4(?). I am not aware of any other third-party applications that accomplish the same effect.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

I even had AirPods working for a bit. Now I can’t get them to stay connected. Oh well

Which Mac are you trying to get them to work with? I have a USB bluetooth toggle that work pretty reliably with my AirPods Pro on my PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, but not so much on my PowerBook Pismo (with G4 upgrade).

 

[ww2_1943]

Which Mac are you trying to get them to work with? I have a USB bluetooth toggle that work pretty reliably with my AirPods Pro on my PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, but not so much on my PowerBook Pismo (with G4 upgrade).

My G4 Pismo. I have a cheap set of BT headphones coming in that I will try with this.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

My G4 Pismo. I have a cheap set of BT headphones coming in that I will try with this.

Sounds like you're on the same system as me then. Please let me know how it goes.

 

[marcosfisica]

Hey guys! Fantastic update! Thanks for the great work @z970 !
I'm with some troubles running Sorbet on my 12" Powerbook G4.

1) I have a process "SystemUIServer" always running and with 100% of CPU usage. I did some google search and found that this could be solved repairing permissions with disk utilities. I'm doing it right now; It should work? Is it the right solution?

2) I installed iStatMenu with the AppStore and now I just can't uninstall it! I use AppCleaner and it says that istat was removed. It doesn't appear in applications folder anymore. However, it still running, showing up un the menu bar and listed in the activity monitor! I just can't kill it since it looks be a root process. My account is with an admin stats. Shouldn't I be able to install/uninstall anything with an account set as admin?

 

[z970]

@marcosfisica Issue #1: The Installation Guide on Sorbet's download page explicitly mentions to repair the disk permissions after the system has been installed, but before proceeding any further. So in regards to the SystemUIServer issue, you are presumably on the right track.

Issue #2: Open Activity Monitor and look for the exact process name used to identify iStat Menus. Then open up Terminal and enter in "sudo killall <istatmenusprocessname>".

Or alternatively, simply reboot the system. With the iStat application removed, the daemon will not be able to launch again and you will be free from its influences from then on.

 

[r34per]

Phenomenal work on the latest sorbet leopard, as always! I've been using it on my upgraded 1.8ghz G4 sawtooth and it feels a lot faster than the previous build of sorbet leopard i've been running on it(R14 i think). On my DC g5 it just flies, I forget at times I'm using 15+ year old hardware.

 

[pyramidic.shallot]

Hiya, is there any particular reason that Safari's settings seem to be "sticky" for want of a better word? I've tried to change the default search engine from Yahoo to Google and it just changes back on every quit. It's like this on all four installs I've done.

 

[z970]

@r34per It seems that on multiple levels, Leopard has indeed finally been transformed into Snow Leopard -- or perhaps even something more.

Mission accomplished (at long last).

@pyramidic.shallot Very strange. In testing, all other settings seem to be saved on exit, and I can even set the default engine to Bing, and that will be remembered. Yet for some reason or other, it specifically doesn't seem to like Google (although not that I can blame it).

I haven't deleted the master partition yet, and I still have another week or so of time to work with. Maybe I'll see if something can't be done to rectify that and assemble a minor update via another build; either that or a post-install shell script, whatever ends up easiest. No promises, guarantees, or assurances at this stage though.

If I recall correctly, Google uses more JavaScript in the background than Yahoo, and I think Bing uses even more than that. So to provide some explanation, Yahoo was chosen as the default engine because it consistently exhibited the best page loading performance over all three (or at least at the time of testing).

EDIT: As a quick workaround for the meantime, just click on the search icon in the left side of the browser's search bar, and then select Google as the default search engine (for that session).

 

[pyramidic.shallot]

Okay, I've figured out what's going wrong here (hopefully this helps)

So I tried editing SearchProviderShortName in com.apple.Safari.plist, and for the next launch after that, the search engine was Google as expected - however, immediately after launch, Safari appeared to touch the .plist file and delete the SearchProviderShortName key. Then on the following launch after that, back to Yahoo.

For now I've temporarily fixed this by editing SearchProviderShortName, changing my permissions on the .plist file to read only, and locking the file. Obvs not the most ideal solution though!


Edit: I should say though, because it feels like I am nitpicking, this is absolutely fantastic work. Combined with a proxy running on my server to handle TLS, my iMac G4 feels like a completely modern machine - a little slow, but a machine that I am absolutely comfortable sitting in front of for several hours and never going "gah, gotta remote into a modern mac". Exquisite!

 

[ww2_1943]

It might be best for me to make a new thread for this but since I’m running Sorbet I’m hoping someone here can help.

I bought a G5 1.8 dual processor machine today from FB Marketplace. The previous owner installed a SSD and Linux. I reformatted the drive and now it just runs 10.5.9.

There is a wifi card installed as you can see in the photo. The indicator lights work when I turn this machine on. However, the computer does not recognize an Airport card or wifi.

Is there a driver that will likely work with this? Should I look at purchasing another wifi pci card that is known to work?

Thanks!

 

[Hughmac]

It's Ralink card, and as such is not a Mac native one - try drivers from here - http://www.opendrivers.com/download/driver-121292.html - or as you suggested there are plenty of native cards available on places like eBay.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[originaldotexe]

It might be best for me to make a new thread for this but since I’m running Sorbet I’m hoping someone here can help.

I bought a G5 1.8 dual processor machine today from FB Marketplace. The previous owner installed a SSD and Linux. I reformatted the drive and now it just runs 10.5.9.

There is a wifi card installed as you can see in the photo. The indicator lights work when I turn this machine on. However, the computer does not recognize an Airport card or wifi.

Is there a driver that will likely work with this? Should I look at purchasing another wifi pci card that is known to work?

Thanks!

the following broadcom wifi chips work in leopard and are detected as native airport:
bcm4306
bcm4309
bcm4311
bcm4312
bcm4313
bcm4318
bcm4321
bcm4322

the bcm4322 in particular is desireable because supports 5ghz, wireless n, and wpa2.

however, these are all mini pci-e wifi cards and since your g5 has pci-x, im not sure if there is any way to adapt that like there is for the newer g5's that have pci-e.

 

[ww2_1943]

It's Ralink card, and as such is not a Mac native one - try drivers from here - http://www.opendrivers.com/download/driver-121292.html - or as you suggested there are plenty of native cards available on places like eBay.

Cheers

Hugh

I found a driver for a similar model card that worked. I’m all set now’

 

[ww2_1943]

Just thought I share some screenshots. This was using my Power Mac 1.8ghz DP. I can access Google Drive and view and download pdf files. Accessing Docs is almost impossible. I haven’t figured out a way to download Docs.

One Drive is a different story. I can view and download files without issue. I can even use the browser version of Word though it is very slow. I think it’s better to download a file. Edit it and then upload it.

I took pictures of the activity monitor. The CPUs spike but only briefly. I am not sure how to interpret memory usage though. I can see there is a large VM and it looks like I’m probably using the 1.25gb of ram that’s already installed. I ordered 4GB to upgrade this. Should I see a noticeable difference after I install it?

 

[wicknix]

The more ram the better. It certainly wont hurt anything. As for gdocs, try switching user agents in the browser. Sometimes websites sniff for outdated browsers. Tricking them works some times, but not always. I find using a mobile user agent speeds up google drive and youtube a lot. (classilla/android chrome/ipad)

 

[z970]

I would also add to use Sorbet Tools to switch to the 2D Dock plus disable window shadows, and then use System Preferences (Desktop / SS prefpane) to disable the translucent Menu Bar. Doing all of this together can help to redirect even more hardware resources towards rendering the website and all of its background JS cruft rather than the system itself (especially if the GPU's VRAM happens to be overflowing at any point in time just from having to display so much, which can then cause a negative effect on RAM usage in turn).

Further, you can also use the slightly-boosted QuartzGL version of InterWebPPC (DL #6) with TenFourFoxPEP installed to make an additional impact in overall Web performance. And if that doesn't work, try visiting Office Online from AquaWeb micro. Sans Links2, nothing is faster than that.

 

[Hughmac]

Strange thing - Mactracker (Leopard version) complained I wasn't using 10.5.8 and failed to start - downgrading to Mactracker 5.3 (Tiger version) works fine

Cheers

Hugh