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What have you done with a PowerPC today?

B S Magnet

B S Magnet

macrumors 603
Dec 5, 2018
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23:58:30. Unceded Treaty 13 lands of N Turtle Isle
I managed, after extensive struggling, to install Debian-sid on an iBook G3 clamshell and get xfce installed on it, but it seems a bit sluggish and I’m not sure how to write to nvram from it in order to get Debian to recognize the LCD modification running an XGA display. I have the commands needed for Open Firmware to be tricked into treating the LCD as an XGA and using all pixels, but I’ve only ever done this from Terminal on OS X.
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,604
28,365
I have a new SSD installed on my MP as my boot drive. Once everything was done I wiped the old boot drive and am now using it as a work drive for my job. It's not until today that I discovered it retained the recovery partition and I'm not versed well enough to delete the damn thing - and High Sierra Disk Utility won't show me that partition to delete it.

So, after struggling, I put the MP in TDM and connected to my 17" PowerBook. Repartitioned that drive using Leopard Disk Utility. Hey guess what? Recovery partition gone.

Now I only have ONE recovery partition in my boot picker like I should.

Disk Utility is f*ing useless past a certain version of OS X!
 
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B S Magnet

B S Magnet

macrumors 603
Dec 5, 2018
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23:58:30. Unceded Treaty 13 lands of N Turtle Isle
eyoungren said:
I have a new SSD installed on my MP as my boot drive. Once everything was done I wiped the old boot drive and am now using it as a work drive for my job. It's not until today that I discovered it retained the recovery partition and I'm not versed well enough to delete the damn thing - and High Sierra Disk Utility won't show me that partition to delete it.

So, after struggling, I put the MP in TDM and connected to my 17" PowerBook. Repartitioned that drive using Leopard Disk Utility. Hey guess what? Recovery partition gone.

Now I only have ONE recovery partition in my boot picker like I should.

Disk Utility is f*ing useless past a certain version of OS X!
Click to expand...
Specifically starting with Disk Utility in Lion, precisely when the recovery partition thing began.
 
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alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2020
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Today, I finally got this working, here is the SM64 decompilation port compiled and running natively on PowerPC Leopard (NOT AN EMULATOR)
Picture 2.png
 
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RogerWilco6502

RogerWilco6502

macrumors 68000
Jan 12, 2019
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Tír na nÓg
alex_free said:
It can work on G3 technically, but you need an OpenGL 1.3 GPU (like my Mac Mini’s Radeon 9200). This is possible I believe, maybe @RogerWilco6502 or @Dronecatcher would know?
Click to expand...
I used it on my iBook G3 Dual USB, which has a Rage Mobility 128. I don't know the specifics of what that supports, but I can report it runs. :)

EDIT: sorry, I thought you were talking about PPCMC, got the notification but no context. I have not run this on my G3 >.>
 
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B S Magnet

B S Magnet

macrumors 603
Dec 5, 2018
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23:58:30. Unceded Treaty 13 lands of N Turtle Isle
I think this falls more under the “What have I realized with a PowerPC today?” camp:

Even though I’ve had my 17-inch PowerBook G4 DLSD for 18 months, I hadn’t really used the audio input/output ports on it.

Until today.

I plugged in headphones and instantly noticed there was the cutting out of one channel unless I rotated the plug. The previous owner probably used the audio output port a lot.

To verify, I pulled out my cheap USB borescope to compare the two ports (since the headphones fit a bit more snugly in the input port).

Aside from them being filthy from old use (which I went ahead and cleaned), I figured out why the audio was dropping (and will get around to adjusting the pushed back copper contact plate inside), but with the borescope shots I also noticed the terminus on both ports seemed to be reflecting back at the camera:

1605282828260.png 1605282879444.png


Everymac specifications for the DLSD models states the stereo input/output ports can be used for headphones and mics, but no mention of digital or TOSlink capability. Until today, I thought the ports on my DLSD were analogue-only:

1605284762380.png



The first MacBook Pros, meanwhile, are stated to have the hybrid digital/analogue ports:

1605283215830.png



So until today, I assumed this meant that the only PPC Macs to be equipped with TOSlink digital/analogue input/output ports were the Power Mac G4s (starting with the DA series) and Power Mac G5s (and maybe, though I’m not certain, the iMac G5s), holding off on the addition of TOSlink hybrid ports for the first MacBook Pros.

So I tested the ports with my TOSlink connection to my home stereo. To my surprise, the DLSDs are hybrid ports (I also used the borescope to inspect the ports on my 15-inch DLSD, which isn’t in use right now, and it also has the same terminals):

1605282651105.png



I’m guessing the addition of the optical in/out on the DLSD PowerBooks were one of those features which was undersold as a new addition, in addition to all the more obvious upgrades from the earlier SLSD predecessors. Archive-dot-org to Apple’s site in November 2005 does mention the optical capability in the tech specs. I had never noticed this before, nor had run across any other mention of it.

1605283937332.png



(Note: it turns out the 17-inch SLSDs only were equipped with digital input/output ports, as well.)

1605284159856.png

In any case, this knowledge arrives 15 years too late, but this is still a neat find worth sharing! :D
 

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bobesch

bobesch

macrumors 68020
Oct 21, 2015
2,142
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Kiel, Germany
"All things Compact Flash ..."
Last night I've spent some time on my Powerbook Wallstreet/PDQ to get rid of it's "singing hard-drive"
The thread "Need to backup the Powerbook Wallstreet PDQ G3 hard drive.." started by @iluvmacs99 gave me the inspiration.
I removed the hard drive and I'm waiting for a 44-pin CF to IDE adapter as a replacement now.
In the meantime there's a PCMCIA-CF-card adapter that does serve for a fresh install of os9 and my favourite bunch of productivity and connectivity apps #9 (BTW also added the MacintoshGarden-links to that posting, where previously missing).
The Wallstreet will serve as "Mac in the middle" to connect simultaneously to an 68k Macintosh via LocalTalk and PPC/os9 via Ethernet/WLAN-bridge. Since it doesn't sport USB-ports, an USB2.0-PCMCIA-card serves for this purpose - especially to also power the Vonets-WLAN-to-Ethernet-Bridge.
Now I have a versatile os9 installation, that can be swapped between Powerbooks etc. and thanks to the inspiration of @repairedCheese #8 I'm also a proud owner of a FireWire-CF-Card-Reader now, so I can boot a lot of my old Macs to os9 via CF-Card/FireWire 😊

Unfortunately I am still not clever enough, when it comes to the drive-cloning & blessing thing ...:oops:
 
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1042686

1042686

Cancelled
Sep 3, 2016
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Hmm, fired up my garage A1047 DP2.0Ghz (posting from this box), cleaned it up a bit (was dusty), cleaned up and reorganized my garage/PC/repair old stuff work station and reconnected some FW peripherals to the a1047.

The G5 killed it on tunes while I was out here. :D

*edit - Im always surprised how well this old box crushes the mundane day to day internet tasks I do on computers that cost way more than the $20 I paid for this one.
 
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wicknix

wicknix

macrumors 68030
Jun 4, 2017
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5,307
Wisconsin, USA
I spent the last few days hunting out software and customizing my MOS install. Other than an outdated ffmpeg (from 2009) that prevents me from streaming Twitch.tv, i found enough to make this a viable daily driver, and i have been using it as such. I also installed the developer SDK, so maybe i'll try building/porting a newer ffmpeg someday.

morphos-minig4.png
 
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alex_free

alex_free

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Feb 24, 2020
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Today, I tracked down the full screen issue in SDL2.0.6 and fixed it! This means the sm64 port can use sdl2 and have working full screen, and also that I can try to patch this for Panther and update Panther SDL2 to version 2.0.6, released in 2017 !

github.com

fix full screen · alex-free/leopard_sdl2.0.6@713f26b

SDL2 version 2.0.6 for Mac OS X 10.5 ppc. Uses https://gist.githubusercontent.com/miniupnp/6de808a8939711fcb856eaa049c18883/raw/61f73ee0a3af0b24fafcc73adfb356462db6d747/SDL2-2.0.6_OSX_105.patch and applies additional changes by myself for better support. - fix full screen ·...
github.com github.com
 
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M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
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While I didn't do much, i am slowly considering packing away these PPC macs, since it will be a matter of time when none of them will browse the internet anymore and can't be used for anything useful anymore. I give this till at least 2024, maybe sooner. The writing is on the wall.. with the release of Apple's M1 which I don't believe for a second is more powerful than Intel, I think PPC's days are numbered. Its now hard to find anything PPC at good low prices on ebay. As the years get higher and higher, PPC will cease to exist.
 
R

Riku7

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2014
208
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Macbookprodude said:
While I didn't do much, i am slowly considering packing away these PPC macs, since it will be a matter of time when none of them will browse the internet anymore and can't be used for anything useful anymore.
Click to expand...
I don't get it. Among other things, writing and documents are timeless and the need to produce them it isn't going anywhere. But if you classify internet browsing to be the definition of useful, sure, in that case I'm actually very surprised that you even stuck with them for this long.
 
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