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The Kodiak Thread (Mac OS X Public Beta)

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
647156

647156

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Dec 4, 2011
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Mac OS X Public Beta (internal codename "Kodiak")

Thought we should have this for the sake of completeness now that we have threads for each of the other Mac OS X releases that were available to buy at retail (yes, Public Beta was released to buy too, even though it was still a "beta" release). Before anyone asks why you would want to run it today, the answer is for historical interest, the same as for most of the other early OS X versions. ;)

Supported Hardware:

Generally, Mac OS X Public Beta will run on any G3- or G4-based Mac that was released prior to Public Beta's release, which are:
  • Power Mac G3 (Desktop, Mini Tower, All-in-One, Blue & White)
  • Power Mac G4 (Yikes, Sawtooth, Gigabit)
  • Power Mac G4 Cube
  • iMac G3, G3 DV (models released up to and including 2000)
  • PowerBook G3 (excluding Kanga)
  • iBook G3 (Clamshell)

Minimum RAM:
  • 128MB (unofficially runs on 64MB)

Minimum Hard Drive Space / Partition Size:
  • 1.5GB

Released builds:

There were in fact two different builds of Public Beta released, the main difference was that the later build included support for more languages although there are other subtle differences. For instance Internet Explorer, Mail, Music Player, TextEdit and Stickies have slightly different version numbers in the later build.
  • 1H39 (kernel date August 30, 2000) - was sold in the USA
  • 2E14 (kernel date September 16, 2000) - was sold in other parts of the world

Notes on compatibility:
  • The date on your Mac must be set to prior to May 15, 2001 in order to run Mac OS X Public Beta as it has a hardcoded expiry date that was intended to force users to upgrade to the final release of Mac OS X (10.0 Cheetah).
  • If you have a Power Mac G4 computer that came with an internal ATA disk and you have connected a second ATA disk to the same port, you must install this release of Mac OS X on the original ATA disk.
  • If you have more than one monitor connected to your computer, you may be unable to install this release. To work around this, you may need to unplug the second monitor. If you still cannot install this release, remove any additional display cards.
  • This release of Mac OS X does not support using AirPort.
  • You cannot install this release of Mac OS X on a FireWire or USB disk. This release of Mac OS X provides limited support for FireWire hard disks. While you cannot use a FireWire disk as your Mac OS X startup disk, you can store documents on a FireWire disk.

Apple Software Updates:

The final release of Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah... ;)

Screenshots (both Public Beta builds are running here on a dual-processor Power Mac G4 "Gigabit Ethernet"):

Build 1H39:

1H39.png


Supported languages (first screen of installer):

1H39 languages.jpg


Build 2E14:

2E14.png


Supported languages (first screen of installer):

2E14 languages.jpg


The later build identifies itself as "World Beta" rather than "Public Beta" when viewed using later Mac OS X versions' Startup Disk control panel, indicating its worldwide distribution and support for additional languages:

startup disk.png


The original retail Mac OS X retail package (priced at US$30 or equivalent); this one contains 2E14 but I believe the package was identical, just a different disc (this disc has part number ZM691-2858-A):

public beta.jpg


Software compatible with Mac OS X Public Beta:

  • AppleWorks 6
  • iCab 2.2 Preview

This is a WikiPost. Please contribute by editing with more download links and information.
 
Last edited:
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I knew that was coming :D Great initiative.

Added AppleWorks 6 and iCab 2.2 Preview.
[doublepost=1536310072][/doublepost]
z970mp said:
Alright! Where's Rhapsody?? ;)
Click to expand...
That will come at some point. I kid you not. ;)
 
Amethyst1 said:
That will come at some point. I kid you not. ;)
Click to expand...

I kid you not, I will be excited. :D

It's like the first build of OS X in alpha state, so early in development, they had to use the OS 9 desktop, plus elements of NeXTSTEP! I haven't even seen screenshots!
 
z970mp said:
I kid you not, I will be excited. :D

It's like the first build of OS X in alpha state, so early in development, they had to use the OS 9 desktop, plus elements of NeXTSTEP! I haven't even seen screenshots!
Click to expand...
It depends on the version of Rhapsody you're looking at – 5.0 and 5.1 were early previews but 5.3 to 5.6 were sold in retail. Lots of information including compatible applications and screenshots can be found here.
 
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*Cleaned up the punctuation, spacing, and grammar.

*Cracked an excellent joke.

Question: Are there any exclusive or interesting backgrounds in Public Beta?
 
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What are the contents of System/Library/CoreServices/system_build_version on the 2E14 disc, just out of interest?
 
Amethyst1 said:
What are the contents of System/Library/CoreServices/system_build_version on the 2E14 disc, just out of interest?
Click to expand...
1H39: Kodiak1H39
2E14: WWBeta2E14

"WW" presumably referring to "Worldwide" - interesting, the contents of this file are pretty different for two betas that differ by only a couple of weeks, and may people don't even realise there were two distinct released versions of (I know I never used to know this)...

z970mp said:
Question: Are there any exclusive or interesting backgrounds in Public Beta?
Click to expand...
Not as far as I know, the default one looks the same as Cheetah's and I couldn't find any others to choose from in Public Beta...
 
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@647156: Thanks for answering that. It seems the worldwide build is the one to go for if you want PB no matter what, thanks to the newer kernel and bundled applications.
 
I've found a relatively simple way to bypass the timebomb: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-os-x-public-beta#comment-77794

I've heard whispers of a configuration file where you can change the date of the timebomb but I haven't actually found it in the OS at this point, if that's even the case. It seems that the timebomb is actually totally enforced by the loginwindow application.
 
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Would anyone happen to know which versions of Carbon are included in X DP1 and DP2? Presumably, the one in DP1 is early due to Carbon 1.0 shipping with OS 9 in October. I'd guess the one in DP2 is Carbon 1.0.0 since it uses OS 9.0 for Classic/Blue Box?​
 
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The operation not allowed error occurred when installing the basesystem in macos x developer preview 2.

Disk:Three partitions 1: Mac OS 8.6
2: Preparing to install macosxdeveler preview2
3: empty

I am using iBook clamshell (Orange，300Mhz)

Does anyone know what's going on?
 

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zmx_2023 said:
The operation not allowed error occurred when installing the basesystem in macos x developer preview 2.

Disk:Three partitions 1: Mac OS 8.6
2: Preparing to install macosxdeveler preview2
3: empty

I am using iBook clamshell (Orange，300Mhz)

Does anyone know what's going on?
Click to expand...
It’s been a while 😎… besides of course that your installation medium could be damaged - I assume the partition is using UFS?
Are you trying to install on a >3Gb partition? If yes, create a 3Gb (or smaller) UFS partition and try again.

Additionally try to set the date to something like 1th of november 1999… I have some vague - probably totally incorrect 🤣 - memory that I had an related issue on a blue&white PM G3 when trying to install DP2 at the time and I had to replace PRAM battery because the date and time of the system were off.
I think the Clamshell iBooks use their main battery for that.
 
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zmx_2023 said:
The operation not allowed error occurred when installing the basesystem in macos x developer preview 2.

Disk:Three partitions 1: Mac OS 8.6
2: Preparing to install macosxdeveler preview2
3: empty

I am using iBook clamshell (Orange，300Mhz)

Does anyone know what's going on?
Click to expand...

A good place to ask this question is on The Kodiak Thread — useful because once you’re able to find a remedy for the obstacle you’re running into at the moment, it can be added to that thread’s WikiPost.
 
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Slartibart said:
It’s been a while 😎… besides of course that your installation medium could be damaged - I assume the partition is using UFS?
Are you trying to install on a >3Gb partition? If yes, create a 3Gb (or smaller) UFS partition and try again.

Additionally try to set the date to something like 1th of november 1999… I have some vague - probably totally incorrect 🤣 - memory that I had an related issue on a blue&white PM G3 when trying to install DP2 at the time and I had to replace PRAM battery because the date and time of the system were off.
I think the Clamshell iBooks use their main battery for that.
Click to expand...
Thank you, but after I set the date to November 1, 1999 and used the UFS with the size of 2GB, the same error as the original one still appears
 
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Well... I remember getting this to run on a 100mhz Performa 6300CD. Don't remember what I did but it ran very badly.

May have been something Apple overlooked. Hell someone was able to install Windows 11 on a Pentium 4.
 
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