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What have you done with a PowerPC today?

alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2020
1,088
2,315
Lastic said:
Slow :D and since I'm using a machine with only 1,25 GB RAM and 1.07 Ghz CPU it doesn't aid much.
Python3.7 chews away 300Mb RAM for the GNS3 server and GUI, then add another lowest-spec 256Mb for the vIOS L2 Cisco QCOW image and there goes your RAM.

As with my Powerbook G4 12" running Leopard , it was mere a PoC that it can be done but you won't be running 8 virtual routers in GNS3 doing BGP on a G4.

Cisco IOU however is however feasible since it takes up for less RAM or using Dynamips to run "real" router binary images.
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On another note, I decided to install OpenBSD 6.7 on my Thinkpad just to know the differences between the packages/ports on AMD64 vs macppc.

Toying around on the Thinkpad with i3, iridium (chromium) and vimium, I stumbled across this Youtube video where a guy uses vimium to copy the Youtube URL to the clipboard and an i3 shortcut to launch mpv with this copied url.


mpv apparantly since version 0.9.x has been hooked with youtube-dl and as such can launch an Youtube video directly.


So I thought to give it a try on OpenBSD 6.6 on the iBook with mpv 0.29.x something.

And indeed you can copy a Youtube URL and it will start playing it , but even with 360p aka

mpv -vo xv -ao sdl --ytdl-format=18 <Youtube_URL> the video is choking hard .

Also there seems to be something weird with Mesa constantly complaining about an incorrect version of OpenGL.

Imagine if we could compile an recent altivec enabled mpv , it would allows us to open a Youtube URL and stream it directly via mpv (even on Leopard), basically what smtube used to do before it now also needs to download the video first and then play it back.
Click to expand...

Video is choking hard because all the hardware accelerated options are not up to the task on OpenBSD, at least not on a Radeon 9200. The AltiVec enabled FFMPEG enables the software accelerated xvideo using AltiVec instead of your GPU and that can play 360p YouTube videos on high end G4’s.

If your up to it, I recommend uninstalling mpv, uninstalling the standard FFMPEG if it is installed, installing the AltiVec FFMPEG if not installed, then compiling mpv in ports from source. It may work, may not never tried. I can’t remember if it will use its own internal FFMPEG or if it will use the one currently installed.
 
L

Lastic

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2016
879
757
North of the HellHole
alex_free said:
Video is choking hard because all the hardware accelerated options are not up to the task on OpenBSD, at least not on a Radeon 9200. The AltiVec enabled FFMPEG enables the software accelerated xvideo using AltiVec instead of your GPU and that can play 360p YouTube videos on high end G4’s.

If your up to it, I recommend uninstalling mpv, uninstalling the standard FFMPEG if it is installed, installing the AltiVec FFMPEG if not installed, then compiling mpv in ports from source. It may work, may not never tried. I can’t remember if it will use its own internal FFMPEG or if it will use the one currently installed.
Click to expand...

It will search for ffmpeg but since only the altivec flavor is installed from ports, it uses that one.
Now compiling mpv from ports ...

Whilst after 4 hours of struggling with flexget, showrss magnet links and rtorrent on my OBSD 6.7 Thinkpad, the Thinkpad is now using a showrss Python script to use aria2c downloading ShowRSS magnet links :)

Next up on the Thinkpad, dunst notifications from aria2c running as a daemon using notify-send without those bloody RPC calls.
 
L

Lastic

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2016
879
757
North of the HellHole
Well @alex_free the good news, it is using the Altivec ffmpeg with vo x11/xv and it's better but my system is just too slow.

The first 30 seconds it has to buffer with mpv -vo x11 -ao sndio -ytdl-format=18 (aka 360p) <YT_URL> but then the playback is in sync, however this is in a window , not fullscreen.

So if anybody has an faster machine than I have currently with OpenBSD 6.6 or higher ( mine is iBook G4 12" 1.07Ghz 1,25Mb RAM) , give it a try.
Basically you need to compile ffmpeg as described in Alex's topic here https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...for-openbsd-6-6-and-6-7.2237346/post-28487917 and compile mpv from ports.
If you only have the altivec enabled ffmpeg ( check with pkg_info -a | grep ffmpeg ) installed, the mpv port will use it.
You might want to do an pkg_add youtube-dl up front.
 
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alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2020
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Lastic said:
Well @alex_free the good news, it is using the Altivec ffmpeg with vo x11/xv and it's better but my system is just too slow.

The first 30 seconds it has to buffer with mpv -vo x11 -ao sndio -ytdl-format=18 (aka 360p) <YT_URL> but then the playback is in sync, however this is in a window , not fullscreen.

So if anybody has an faster machine than I have currently with OpenBSD 6.6 or higher ( mine is iBook G4 12" 1.07Ghz 1,25Mb RAM) , give it a try.
Basically you need to compile ffmpeg as described in Alex's topic here https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...for-openbsd-6-6-and-6-7.2237346/post-28487917 and compile mpv from ports.
If you only have the altivec enabled ffmpeg ( check with pkg_info -a | grep ffmpeg ) installed, the mpv port will use it.
You might want to do an pkg_add youtube-dl up front.
Click to expand...

I’d say a 1.42GHZ G4 is the slowest I’d mess with for 360p x264 MP4 videos. It really just needs a lot of speed thrown at it on OpenBSD.
z970mp said:
When you're done with that (it's about half the size of 1984 and was actually a prequel of sorts), you owe it to yourself to tour Fahrenheit 451.

I've already read all three of them. ...But that was before 2020 happened. So, seeming as how they all appeared to come to life (and then some) in the past six months alone, I figured I'd pay them a little reunion to "get with the times", so to speak.

One down, two to go...
Click to expand...

Finished Animal Farm earlier today. Something that really struck me was when the pigs added words to some of the commandments, before changing it all to just one. Thanks for the recommendation, reading your next suggestion now.
 
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M

MacFoxG4

macrumors 6502
Nov 22, 2019
447
623
MacFoxG4 said:
Played with my tangerine iBook G3 that I recently bought on eBay. I love orange and I have always wanted either the tangerine iMac or iBook. Either model is usually pretty expensive, but I managed to get the tangerine iBook for a good deal. There is some cracked plastic in some parts of the case, but I knew that when I bought it. The connector on the yoyo power adapter is heavily oxidized, so I will probably end up buying a replacement (or is it okay to use a power adapter with a connector in that condition?). I used my PDQ's power adapter to power on the iBook today. The screen looked good until I turned it on and saw a thin red vertical line on the right side of the screen. The screen is still useable, but the red line is pretty noticeable. Also, the speakers make a crackle-ly sound on startup.

The specs are as follows:
-60 GB HDD
-320 MB of RAM
-300 mhz CPU
-Tiger/OS 9.2.2 dual boot

The Tiger side had a variety of Office suites installed (Office '08, iWork '09, and AppleWorks 6). There was also a program called StoryBook Weaver that is meant to run under Classic. The OS 9 side has Office 2001 installed along with the usual utilities. One thing I love about the OS 9 side is the orange wallpaper and the orange progress bar on the startup screen. There's also sound effects every time you click on something. I'm guessing this is a theme specific to this Mac?

I largely bought this Mac for aesthetic reasons, but with my dual USB iBook bricked and my PDQ having problems with the PC Card slot, I was going to use the tangerine iBook as my main classic Mac OS laptop. Unfortunately, the red line on the screen is making me wonder if one day the screen will become completely unuseable. This might end up just being a display piece and I will have to get another PPC PowerBook/iBook for classic Mac OS on a laptop.
Click to expand...

I got a new yoyo power adapter for my clamshell iBook and it works! I looked into the thin red line I found on the display and while I couldn't find a post about iBooks specifically, I saw someone had a similar issue on a 2011 iMac and they were basically told to either live with it or get a new iMac. Since finding these iBooks is getting harder and harder these days, I'm just going to live with the red line. I'm going to use this iBook for as long as it will last.
 
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M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Installed a new screen for my G4 TI 1GHZ.. a lot of hard work to do it !
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MacFoxG4 said:
I got a new yoyo power adapter for my clamshell iBook and it works! I looked into the thin red line I found on the display and while I couldn't find a post about iBooks specifically, I saw someone had a similar issue on a 2011 iMac and they were basically told to either live with it or get a new iMac. Since finding these iBooks is getting harder and harder these days, I'm just going to live with the red line. I'm going to use this iBook for as long as it will last.
Click to expand...

Try usedmacs - they have lots of adapters for the PPC machines going back to Beige G3 and older PowerBooks :)
 
W

Wickintime

macrumors member
Feb 27, 2018
83
26
Melbourne, Australia
In the last couple of days, I've taken apart my 12" iBook G4 twice and I'm about to do it again! Give me a simple 'Air' anytime.

I had removed the HDD to scrap the machine but a few months later I decided to use it again. Unfortunately, I had wiped the HDD. I rebuilt it but it would not power up even after leaving it on charge overnight. Took it apart again and checked everything before reassembling it again. This time a whistle sound, then a woosh from the fan and the chime! Yipee. Short lived though, as all I have is the flashing face and ? telling me there is no OS. Unfortunately, the CD drive appears to be dead as it will not load a disc.

So, where can I go from here to load an OS?
I suppose could open it again and take the DVD drive apart to check the belt.
Or perhaps I could remove the HDD and load it with an OS via my iMac - would this work and if so how would be the best way?
Can I load the OS directly from the internet?

Any help greatly appreciated!!
 
repairedCheese

repairedCheese

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2020
632
835
Wickintime said:
So, where can I go from here to load an OS?
Click to expand...
Since you have another Mac, using target disk mode is an option, assuming your iMac can install the version of the Mac OS you're looking to install. And, assuming your iMac even has firewire ports. If your iMac is old enough, then putting the iBook into target disk mode by holding down the letter T, and connecting it to the iMac by firewire would basically be the same as taking the iBook apart and putting the hard drive into another Mac, as far as the installer is concerned.

But no, there's no way to install directly from the internet. There's the option of putting the Mac OS disk onto a usb drive, but booting off usb is so hit or miss I have no clue if it'd work, not to mention you've only got usb1 to work with.

Hope that helps.
 
RogerWilco6502

RogerWilco6502

macrumors 68000
Jan 12, 2019
1,823
1,944
Tír na nÓg
Today I did some computer collection management using AppleWorks 6 and my iBook G3 as well as played Minecraft 1.5.2 on my Mac Mini G4. I also ran backups using my Power Mac G4. :)
 
originaldotexe

originaldotexe

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2020
255
430
Kentucky
last night I converted all of my music from FLAC to ALAC and fixed all the metadata tags so that it displays properly in iTunes on my G4 powermac.
Picture 1.png
 
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cmbrodermann

cmbrodermann

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2019
6
2
Miami, Fl
I use my 2005 15" Powerbook G4 (1.5Ghz) with a 256 GB SSD inside as my home server, serving up audio and video files off its internal SSD and an external 250 GB FireWire 800 RAID 1 setup (going to be upgrading it to 4TB soon). It's been nothing but easy sailing and full 1080p movies as well as my entire music library has no problems at all going through the 10/100 Ethernet connection on the PB across my home network via WiFi. I can even log into it through my 2009 iMac or my Hackintosh PC upstairs. It's never let me down and it's been a great device for me.
 
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MacFoxG4

macrumors 6502
Nov 22, 2019
447
623
Decided to transfer the RAM from my broken iBook G3 Dual USB to my Tangerine Clamshell. Installation of RAM was super easy. The battery in the Clamshell is dead, won't charge at all, so I removed it before I did the RAM upgrade. During all of this I realized just how rough looking this iBook is. I noticed that there was a tiny, phillips screw stuck between the two pieces of plastic that make up the top half of the case. I removed this screw and discovered that there is a gap between these two plastic pieces on the lower left-hand corner. The hex screw that is on the lower left side of the top half of the case (under the screen) won't catch inside the screw hole because the plastic is so cracked in that area. This must be what caused that tiny gap in the lower left corner between the two pieces of plastic that make up the top part of the case. I'm hoping maybe I could use tape to hold the corner together? Not sure what else I can do.

The iBook still works depsite this. I'm contemplating the idea of downgrading from OS 9.2.2 to 8.6 (I already removed OS X as I didn't feel like I needed it on this Mac). I heard that if the firmware on these iBooks gets updated that you can't go back to 8.6. I'm not sure if this iBook has had the firmware update or not.
 
originaldotexe

originaldotexe

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2020
255
430
Kentucky
today I managed to score a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3 with an upgraded GeForce 6800 GT card, as well as the accompanying 20" Cinema HD display + the power supply for the display, for the amazing deal of 100% free except for the gas money required to get there (it's about a 30 minute drive, nothing crazy)
I've been spending the day installing Mac OS X Tiger on it and getting everything configured. tomorrow I'm gonna start installing all of my programs and testing out the performance of it. it should be way faster than my MDD, as it not only has better processors, and a much, much better video card, but it also has more RAM as well (2.5GB in the G5 as opposed to 2GB in the MDD)

EDIT: this G5 is now going to be my main PowerPC Mac, and the G4 will be used for something else, possibly as a file storage server or something.
 
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Baldung99

Baldung99

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2019
75
24
Yesterday I used my 15" PowerBook for some gaming (I wanted to see how Postal 2 ran on it).

Today though... I'm trying to figure out a way to install an OS on my 17" PowerBook that has no optical drive (and maybe not even the possibility of putting one in there).
 
Amethyst1

Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,787
12,187
Baldung99 said:
I'm trying to figure out a way to install an OS on my 17" PowerBook that has no optical drive
Click to expand...
Put the 17 in TDM, connect it to the 15 using Firewire and run the install on the 15, telling it to install on the 17's hard drive.
 
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