What have you done with a PowerPC today?

[mac57mac57]

Thanks for bringing up TenFourBird. I was interested in that once I read this post, but unfortunately, I can't seen to find a working download for it anymore. (Maybe I'm not looking hard enough?)

I was surprised, but indeed TenFourBird 38.9.0 seems to be nowhere to be found anymore out there on the wild, wild web. So, I have taken the step of adding it to my www.retro-computing.com software archives. In this case, I added it to the "Featured Software" archive, from which you can download it:

This page also features a small assortment of other titles. Please be aware that not all of them are Mac-related! The first entry on the list is QDTOOLS.ZIP, an incredible tour de force by long time DOS software author "PhG". QDTools is comprised of over 240 individual DOS (and a small number of WinNT and Win9x) utilities. DOS software is not likely to garner a lot of interest here on MacRumors, and so I thought I would save you the headache of downloading QDTools only to find that it is not relevant (unless you happen to also enjoy vintage DOS PCs in addition to Macs).

So, to download your copy of TenFourBird 38.9.0, go to www.retro-computing.com and click on the "Featured Software" icon near the bottom of the page. You will be presented with another page, whose screenshot appears above. Each software title is a link to its download page, so just click the TenFourBird-39.9.0.zip link and then click the large download icon that appears on the presented page. Voila! You now have TenFourBird-38.9.0.

I have included both the G4 and G5 variants of TenFourBird 38.9.0 and some useful additions to the prefs.js file and the userchrome.css file. The prefs.js additions allow you to control font sizes used throughout the TenFourBird GUI. The userchrome.css additions change the boring flat black icons on the TenFourBird button bar to nicer more colorful icons. You dont need to use either of these additions (prefs.js, userchrome.css); they are just included if you should want to tinker around with the GUI presentation.

One last thought. If you are using Thunderbird (or its improved Mac variant, BetterBird) on your current Mac, you will find that moving any email that you have archived in local folders on your Mac from the current Thunderbird install to your G5 TenFourBird 38.9.0 install is not at all straightforward. The seemingly obvious "export the email from Thunderbird, import it into TenFourBird" doesn't work. TenFourBird is too old to understand the export format that the current Thunderbird uses. I have a "recipe" for getting around this, and will be happy to share if you find yourself in need of it. Just let me know!

 

[JackAHyde]

Thanks for putting up the download! I really appreciate that you're trying to keep TenFourBird alive.

I eventually (and I do mean eventually!) found it yesterday after prodding ChatGPT enough times, but I ran into a snag trying to set up my Gmail, since I use a Yubikey on it. I can try again later, but I suspect it needs an app password with my current setup.

 

[DisraeliGears]

Hey y'all, PPC classic environment question for you. I've got a graphite 2001 G3 running 10.3.8 (just put in an SSD and 1GB of RAM) that I want to run Deus Ex on, but DE is built for OS 9. I've got 9.2.2 installed and running in a classic environment, but DE also needs like 160mb of virtual memory, which I can't seem to set in classic. Any work arounds here?

 

[joevt]

Hey y'all, PPC classic environment question for you. I've got a graphite 2001 G3 running 10.3.8 (just put in an SSD and 1GB of RAM) that I want to run Deus Ex on, but DE is built for OS 9. I've got 9.2.2 installed and running in a classic environment, but DE also needs like 160mb of virtual memory, which I can't seem to set in classic. Any work arounds here?

Can't G3's boot Mac OS 9 natively?
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=4336.0

 

[JackAHyde]

Yeah, that could probably boot OS 9 natively, although I have little experience with OS 9. Even if it's dual booted with 10.3.8, would that guarantee allowing the virtual memory to be set?

Normally, that's the kind of question I would ask ChatGPT, although it can get some Mac troubleshooting stuff wrong only every now and then.

 

[DisraeliGears]

I mean, the way I got the classic environment running was just installing OS 9.2.2 and then pointing 10.3.8 to those files in OSX's settings.

I haven't played with booting straight into 9.2.2 yet, I was just wondering if anyone knew how/had experience with those settings while running 9 inside OSX.

I have found a spot or two online where they say that booting between 9 and X can cause instability or it's more difficult to boot back into X after 9, but I honestly just did fresh installs of everything so if there are any issues I can always wipe everything and reinstall.

 

[elinsound]

picked up a lombard G3 PB on ebay this week for 40 GBP. excellent condition, no charger... but i found a yo-yo adapter for 30 GBP... and it didn't fit - smaller 2.5mm adapter. short on patience, i pried the round metal edge of the tip and managed to power up the lombard. i had it running for a good few hours, installed a load of wares, and even configured wi-fi via an external card. soon after, upon a restart, it died.
it's now failing to boot whatsoever. i've disconnected PRAM, hit the little reset button, applied pressure to the CPU... all forum answers i'd found. no dice.
totally gutted. the screen is gorgeous on this thing and it runs OS 9 really well. bit of a dream machine for me.
now i don't know whether to fork out another £40 on an adapter to see if it's the plug or not...

 

[barracuda156]

Fixes the current Qt5-based version of Qterminal and its dependencies to build with Qt4 overnight. Doesn't work robustly, at least yet, but works. Python's Textual certainly looks better in it. No support for sixel, alas. Cannot watch HD vids directly in this terminal.

If anyone will want to play with it, it can be installed from my PPCPorts with `sudo port -v install qterminal`. Make sure to run port sync first.

 

[JackAHyde]

I put down an obscene amount of money to get an X800 XT GPU. I am cautiously excited now.

 

[Doq]

Today one of my G4-class power adapters sparked, nearly caught fire. Plugged into Shiratsuyu doing a port install too.

Luckily I have spares. And no damage to Shiratsuyu.

 

[DisraeliGears]

Got Deus Ex up and running, just had to install it inside 9.2. I was a bit concerned I wouldn't be able to boot back into OSX, but 9.2 let me select a different OS to boot into, and once I installed it inside 9.2 it would play in the classic environment. That said it clearly runs worse (which makes sense considering the additional overhead) so it's best to just boot straight into 9.2 to play.

 

[JackAHyde]

I figured out how to export my current novel draft from Scrivener 3 for Windows running through Wine on Linux. After that, all I had to do was share the exported file to my G5, import it with Scrivener 2.5, and now I can work on my novel using my G5. The only feature from more modern versions of Scrivener that I'm missing is writing history (showing overall word counts by date) but I love that I'm able to write to my heart's content on my Power Mac G5.

 

[ToniCH]

Separated the G5 Quad cooling block and the radiator, flushed the radiator several times separately and in the ultrasonic with distilled water + vinegar. Then again with distilled water. Also flushed the cooling block with dw. Will continue the project next nice day...

 

[ToniCH]

Received today the G4 Cube SuperVRM. Finally I can advance my Cube project!

Ps. I know I probably cannot use the Sonnet CPU heat sink with the Cube but I just like this color!

 

[JackAHyde]

I had to troubleshoot my Power Mac G5's instability from last night and earlier today. Turns out that LauncherBar was causing so many issues that instantly went away the moment I uninstalled it. I could go back to Quicksilver, but I just wish the PPC build had actual interface themes I could easily download and install instead of hoping that my version of Xcode, installed with the integrity of rubber bands and duct tape, will successfully build them by some miracle.

Other than that, I figured out I could track Scrivener word counts on the G5 by using a dedicated spreadsheet, so I started one on Excel (Office 2008). Then I started moving and organizing more music on iTunes after having some issues with my library last night.

Lastly, my order for the X800 XT got canceled because the idiots who listed it on their site said, after three days of waiting, that they couldn't find the part in stock (why was it listed on your site in the first place?). Consequently, I went looking elsewhere and snagged one that shipped today, but the only drawback is I paid a lot more.

 

[samusaran240]

Well, I just got another Power Mac G5 that I intended to clean up and resell but the case got completely trashed in shipping. I got it for cheap so no big loss for me, in fact, I decided to pick it for parts and I incidentally upgraded my own G5. I went from a FX 5200 Ultra to a Radeon 9600 XT 128MB, 8GB of ram, and dual 2Ghz cpus. :3

From what I red, the 9600 XT tends to out perform the FX 5200 Ultra. Plus, comparing the specs on techpowerup shows that the technical performance of the 9600 XT is in fact better.

Also, the other G5 came with an expansion card that I have no idea what it is. Its super long too.

 

[barracuda156]

Also, the other G5 came with an expansion card that I have no idea what it is. Its super long too.

Looks like Digidesign HD Accel PCI/PCI-X Card for Pro Tools HD.

 

[samusaran240]

Looks like Digidesign HD Accel PCI/PCI-X Card for Pro Tools HD.

Neat! Apparently those are worth a decent amount on ebay. Is there any way to test it without having to buy additional hardware?

 

[barracuda156]

Is there any way to test it without having to buy additional hardware?

I have no idea, I just googled what was written on your card.

 

[ToniCH]

Started my Cube updates. First I installed and tested the new SuperVRM. Then I installed a mSATA drive with new adapters, booted from the original 3.5" HDD via IDE-USB bridge, formatted the mSATA drive to verify its ok.

I then took it out again and plugged it to my MBP via USB3, the 3.5" drive to another USB3 and now I am cloning my Leopard installation to the mSATA.

EDIT: this worked ok and the Cube now boots from mSATA with Leopard. 👍 I'll maybe take a look at the Sonnet CPU installation tomorrow.

My Cube already has GeForce 6200, case fan, max RAM and briefly had a SSD too but I was not happy with the fitment of the adapters and that is why I am swapping to mSATA now.

 

[JackAHyde]

For most of the day, troubleshooting faulty RAM with Rember.

Since I upgraded and maxed out the RAM in the Power Mac G5 a few days ago, I started getting puzzling stability issues, and I've been led to believe that faulty RAM is the culprit. Unfortunately, troubleshooting by running 3 loops on a pair of sticks takes forever, but I think I managed to isolate a faulty stick already.

 

[JackAHyde]

I'm running Rember for some RAM troubleshooting, but I think I've hit a breakthrough. The issue might have been my RAM slots being filled with dust and debris. Just a friendly reminder to anyone with a modular PowerPC system to keep your RAM slots clean.

 

[DisraeliGears]

Question for the thread again... I've got an Apple Mighty Mouse with scroll ball, but for the life of me I can't get it scrolling on 9.2.2. I've also tried with a generic Logi wired optical and that scroll wheel doesn't work either. Is there a driver I need to install to get scrolling working?

 

[mac57mac57]

Well... the Apple Mighty Mouse came out in 2005, well after the heyday of Mac OS 9.2.2. I seriously doubt that you will find an Apple driver that will embrace the scroll function of the Mighty Mouse for that environment.

With some targeted research, you may be able to find other mice with scroll wheels that have specific drivers for 9.2.2, but again, I doubt the Mighty Mouse will be among them.

I would LOVE to be wrong on this one, so if you do find a Mighty Mouse driver for 9.2.2, please let us all know!

 

[JackAHyde]

I'm devastated right now because I thought I had finally isolated bad RAM in my G5 after a good 24 hours of not being able to actually use it. When I thought I was fine, Sorbet started giving me the same general signs of instability. I might have to do a clean install at this point, but that won't even guarantee that everything will be fixed.