Sorbet Leopard - Your Power Mac Unleashed

[Dronecatcher]

I took pictures of the activity monitor.

Always toggle to All Processes not just My Processes and order by CPU use - often the culprit of consumed resources will be a background System process.

The bane of most PPC online use is javascript - use selective blockers where you can but in most cases now, that breaks functionality - there's only so much you can do.

For a long time, mobile device user agents were a useful tool but their reach is becoming limited as time moves on.

As long as you approach online PPC Macs with a different mindset - a slower pace and a limited feature set all is good but you shouldn't expect them to negotiate sprawling code hives like Google Docs.

Having said that, I've never even tried to optimise for Google/One Drive - there may well be a combination of TFF/InterWeb Boxes and UA that turn out a good result or even a web proxy/portal that offers a cut down version?

When I want to share documents across computers I use shared online drives via WebDAV - this gives me an unreal legacy compatibility - even OS9 and old Symbian phones!

 

[originaldotexe]

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

should be able to just hex edit the binary and replace the 8 with a 9 in that code area

 

[ChrisCharman]

should be able to just hex edit the binary and replace the 8 with a 9 in that code area

Or just change the system version to report correctly as 10.5.8 again, which will prevent any other compatibility issues.

 

[ww2_1943]

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.

I actually already added TenFourFoxPEP. The only thing that differed from the install instructions when I moved the file to the specified folder it didn’t replace an existing file. So I hope it’s still working.

I use the 2D dock and turn off shadows on my G4 Pismo. I like the look of those and hoped the G5 could handle that. I can see though that it would likely help when browsing the web to turn it off.

I have 4GB of RAM on order. I’m looking forward to seeing what difference that makes.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I have 4GB of RAM on order. I’m looking forward to seeing what difference that makes.

It will make a difference and is always a good move.

Using the right software is the ultimate PPC upgrade at this stage

 

[ww2_1943]

It will make a difference and is always a good move.

Using the right software is the ultimate PPC upgrade at this stage

Is it worth adding a Radeon 9650 to replace the 9600?

 

[Dronecatcher]

Is it worth adding a Radeon 9650 to replace the 9600?

My findings replacing a stock nvidia 6600 with a Quadro 4500 (which was a huge leap according to benchmarks) was zero difference for my needs and tests - however, if you're a gamer looking for higher FPS it's a different story.

Outside of gaming the only justification I'd see with a GPU upgrade on PPC is for Core Image compliancy or to escape a card with a low VRAM.

 

[Amethyst1]

Is it worth adding a Radeon 9650 to replace the 9600?

A 9650 may even be slightly slower than a 9600. The main thing it has over the 9600 is the dual-link DVI port, allowing resolutions higher than 1920×1200 to be run at 60 Hz.

 

[ww2_1943]

A 9650 may even be slightly slower than a 9600. The main thing it has over the 9600 is the dual-link DVI port, allowing resolutions higher than 1920×1200 to be run at 60 Hz.

Yes, I found some reviews after I posted. If anything a better choice might be a Radeon X800 XT.

 

[wicknix]

The 9600 is a decent card and is supported by morphos and linux in case you ever go that route.

 

[z970]

@Hughmac I've added instructions to Mactracker's download page for using the 10.5.8-only version with Sorbet Leopard.

In a nutshell, go to Sorbet Tools > Appearance > macOS High Sierra > Use 10.5.8 Version Number. Then open Mactracker. This script will temporarily set the system identifier back a release to 10.5.8 (useful for a small handful of post-10.5.8 software), before automatically setting it back to the correct version of 10.5.9.

@ww2_1943 The G5 can handle that. What it can't necessarily handle is the incoherent mess of code that is the modern Web, on top of OS eye candy. But that will mostly free up the GPU, and to be fair, it is debatable how much difference the GPU actually makes when Web browsing in comparison to the CPU (unless you are using Safari, which is hardware accelerated).

The TenFourFoxPEP prefs.js is definitely supposed to replace a preexisting file. I would double-check your installation, and then verify with about:support that many different preferences were indeed changed.

 

[PowerPC_RAD750]

Question: under 1.5, is anyone else having a freezing problem when transferring large amounts of data?

I'm running 1.5 on my 1.42 MDD ->Sata Controller ->Samsung SSD and whenever I try to import anything more than 6GB from the external LaCie, the system freezes.

iTunes imports, photos..anything.

 

[ww2_1943]

@Hughmac I've added instructions to Mactracker's download page for using the 10.5.8-only version with Sorbet Leopard.

In a nutshell, go to Sorbet Tools > Appearance > macOS High Sierra > Use 10.5.8 Version Number. Then open Mactracker. This script will temporarily set the system identifier back a release to 10.5.8 (useful for a small handful of post-10.5.8 software), before automatically setting it back to the correct version of 10.5.9.

@ww2_1943 The G5 can handle that. What it can't necessarily handle is the incoherent mess of code that is the modern Web, on top of OS eye candy. But that will mostly free up the GPU, and to be fair, it is debatable how much difference the GPU actually makes when Web browsing in comparison to the CPU (unless you are using Safari, which is hardware accelerated).

The TenFourFoxPEP prefs.js is definitely supposed to replace a preexisting file. I would double-check your installation, and then verify with about:support that many different preferences were indeed changed.

I put the TenFourFoxPEP file in the wrong place. Fixed it.
I am posting this from InterWebPCC on my G5!

 

[Amethyst1]

Question: under 1.5, is anyone else having a freezing problem when transferring large amounts of data?

Does this also happen under vanilla Leopard or earlier versions of Sorbet?

 

[originaldotexe]

Yes, I found some reviews after I posted. If anything a better choice might be a Radeon X800 XT.

if you're wanting to play games, powerpc mac os x games seem to be much more optimized for nvidia than ati. nvidia gets quite a lot more fps in minecraft than an equivalent ati card for example. although they are still both very fast if you have a high end card

 

[PowerPC_RAD750]

Does this also happen under vanilla Leopard or earlier versions of Sorbet?

Thank you for the reply. No, this doesn't happen under vanilla Leopard. I have not tried earlier revisions of Sorbet Leopard.

I also haven't tried it on a PowerBook to see if its the Sata card. The snappy interface is great as well as the included programs/utilities. If I can't solve this problem I'll have to stick with factory Leopard. I haven't had a complete lockup like that with OS X since a single instance with Tiger.

 

[ww2_1943]

Dang. Something weird happened. I was using my G5. I actually had two websites going that I didn’t expect to work. After about 45min the fans started going full blast. The keyboard and mouse stopped working. The laser on the mouse wasn’t even working. Now that I have restarted my wireless card isn’t working at all.

UPDATE: I added a PRAM battery today. I took it out and restarted. Now the wifi card works.

I also installed iStat. Here is a picture of temps. I have no idea what’s normal or not. Hoping I could get some feedback.

 

[wicknix]

That's pretty consistent with my G5's. I average 108F - 153F depending on load. It goes slightly higher when i'm compiling large software via macports (like interwebppc). Otherwise your temps look ok to me.

 

[z970]

@PowerPC_RAD750 Might you have third-party drivers for your SATA card present in vanilla Leopard that are not installed in Sorbet (the base of which is just a fresh installation of 10.5.8)?

I've never seen this behavior occur anywhere, so I cannot offer many solutions to you. That said, I would boot into both vanilla Leopard and Sorbet and compare the lists within System Profiler > Software > Extensions to rule out if there aren't any differences between the two.

 

[PowerPC_RAD750]

@z970 Thank you for the suggestion. The SATA cards are plug-and-play, working all the way back to OS 9.2. That is a good idea though; I'll check the Extension lists.

 

[ww2_1943]

It feels so close! I subscribed to a podcast through a rss link. Then this menu came up on iTunes but nothing will play. I get a warning. Is there a way to make podcast work in iTunes or is it just impossible at this point?

 

[Dronecatcher]

It feels so close! I subscribed to a podcast through a rss link. Then this menu came up on iTunes but nothing will play. I get a warning. Is there a way to make podcast work in iTunes or is it just impossible at this point?

Just download the mp3 and play/add manually?

 

[ww2_1943]

Just download the mp3 and play/add manually?

That or stream through the browser. It just looked like it was going to work!
I wish I knew how to do the kind of stuff you and @z970 can do! I would try and get iTunes to work.

Overall, I can't complain. Sorbet has been a lot of fun for me. There is just something vastly appealing to putting hardware that is over 20 years old to work.

 

[wicknix]

I use this: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/newsfire

Cheers

 

[z970]

@ww2_1943 My guess is that the version of WebKit embedded in iTunes uses too old a version of TLS to establish a connection to the podcasting site, or at least the domain on which the media file is hosted on. So while maybe it can connect to and then display the podcast list (TLS requirements meet eye-to-eye), the hosted file locations have different requirements (for some silly reason).

But that is only speculation. Assuming that were indeed the case however, you might try using the Wayback Machine as a proxy for iTunes to connect to instead of the site directly (akin to as recently detailed in the TLS 1.3 thread), but save for that, there wouldn't be anything else you could do. But once again, that's all speculation surrounding the vague reasons why iTunes isn't fetching the files; it could also be something else entirely.

Now, with that being said ...

If you have both a sustained drive and unfailing patience, you can do anything. Or to put it another way, determination + time x resources = results.

Just ask questions of how things work, and how exactly resource-rich corporations like Apple assembled a piece of software such as (or more relevant, a cohesive user experience like that offered in) Mac OS X. Wherever possible, use the same tools that they used for their own products, and continually refer to a base idea or collection of wishes for guidance in which direction to progress. And you must exist in an endless state of learning, because you never know what you might add to your arsenal along the way.

I hope that was helpful.