What have you done with a PowerPC today?

[mikas]

Yesterday I secure erased two failed hard drives, but had to use the hardware method - a four pound club hammer

Cheers

Hugh

Ha ha.
Just recently I did that for my friend.
Every time I do that kind of "secure erase", I have a strong need to check inside of the device too. I found my avatar there, and a couple of decent refrigerator magnets too.

HDDs are often called spinning rust, but today actually seems the disks are more often than not made out of glass.

ps. unfortunately I had to postpone my nostalgic PPC trip a little. Needed to do some work. Next I want to find my backups of a G5 tower. There should be some programs to test it with. I hope I do have backups somewhere, because the G5 spinning rust quit on me.

 

[mikas]

Can I see a picture or screenshot of that? (I had 9.2.2 running at 3840x2400 so probably hold the world record in this regard LOL)

wow.
I can imagine the vast desktop of OS 9. And all that mouse work to travel from one corner to another. It wasn't a PPC combo was it? Did I miss the info?

I think a have a Radeon X800 XT somewhere. But that's not going to get anywhere near there, what you think? Maybe something like 1600x1200 ballpark.

 

[Amethyst1]

@Amethyst1
Refresh rate is not so fast .

Single-link DVI can't do much more than that at 3840×2400 - e.g. 17.1 Hz is the absolute maximum using CVT-RB timings.

And as @Tratkazir_the_1st says, the refresh rate is only 30 Hz at 3440 x 1440.

What about 2560×1080 at 50 Hz - was that not an option? 1920×1080 is not the correct aspect ratio for your monitor, so you either have black bars at the sides or (presumably) a weirdly stretched image.

I can imagine the vast desktop of OS 9. And all that mouse work to travel from one corner to another. It wasn't a PPC combo was it? Did I miss the info?

Sure - it was an 800 MHz PowerBook G4 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500.

I think a have a Radeon X800 XT somewhere. But that's not going to get anywhere near there, what you think?

The limiting factor is the pixel clock, which can be up to 165 MHz via single-link DVI. Dual-link DVI is specified for up to 330 MHz but might go higher depending on the GPU. If you reduce the refresh rate far enough, e.g. to 17 Hz or less for single-link, you can run 3840×2400. IIRC Radeon X1x00 cards are limited to a width of 2880 pixels via single-link DVI; 3840 is fine via dual-link DVI though. But I don't know if an X800 is subject to the same limitation.

 

[Captain Trips]

I will do that the next time I power up the Mac mini G4.

OK, I got back in the Mac mini G4 earlier this evening and took screen shots. Most of the resolutions don't make any change when I click on them, only the 3440 x 1440 @ 30 Hz and 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz were "selectable" as far as higher resolutions go. I did not see a 2560 x 1080 entry.

First up is the resolution I am using, 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz. It doesn't look warped nor are there any black bars. (EDIT: But the I look at both screen shots below the they are in this post I do notice a difference, but it is subtle.)

Second is the highest resolution, 3440 x 1440 @ 30 Hz. Menu items, popup windows and other things that can't scale (or that I do not know how to scale) look too tiny for me, so I use 1920 x 1080 instead.

[EDIT: "to tiny" -> "too tiny"]

 

[Doq]

How does your monitor handle scaling non-native aspect ratios? Does it stretch the picture or letterbox it?

No particular reason to ask and it's not gonna affect anything, but if it stretches I'll feel really bad. 🙃

 

[Captain Trips]

How does your monitor handle scaling non-native aspect ratios? Does it stretch the picture or letterbox it?

No particular reason to ask and it's not gonna affect anything, but if it stretches I'll feel really bad. 🙃

This is the first time I have tried a non-native aspect ratio with this monitor since every Mac I have connected supports 3440 x 1440 and looks good doing so.

It is possible with some more knowledge on my part I can use 3440 x 1440 in Mac OS 9 without tiny fonts for the system software and menus. If not, the "1920 x 1080" works fine for me.

 

[alex_free]

Can I see a picture or screenshot of that? (I had 9.2.2 running at 3840x2400 so probably hold the world record in this regard LOL)

The future is now old man, OS 9 at over 4K is insane!

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

look to tiny for me

Real pixel hunting .

 

[mikas]

I thought I had seen that card just recently, and yes, even took a picture of it last week, and there you go. My best bet for a high end graphics for my dual G5 tower. An AGP GPU with ADC for ACD. Now that would be enough abbreviations for one sentence. I just need to set this up and running now, don't I. If only I can find my legless ACD 22".
Just wait a minute..

 

[mikas]

Here we go again. I had two X 800 XTs actually. One was already installed in there. Lucky me.
And a 2,5" HHD installed, in place of the 3,5" which died some time ago. Maybe years ago, can't remember exactly.

Did not find my 22" cinema, but this 23" ACD belongs to a G5 better anyway.
ACD 22" is reserved for the cube in there.

I did not remember these G5 came with a hovercraft. Where is it..I can hear it..

10.5.8 in. Now I need to find the back ups, not much to play with here..

 

[Captain Trips]

What about 2560×1080 at 50 Hz - was that not an option? 1920×1080 is not the correct aspect ratio for your monitor, so you either have black bars at the sides or (presumably) a weirdly stretched image.

So in addition to the screenshots I posted showing Mac OS 9 at 3440 x 1440 and 1920 x 1080, here is a screen shot of all the resolution options I get for the Mac mini G4's graphics card. When I click on about 70 - 80% of them nothing changes, which is OK because I can get the resolutions I want.

 

[mikas]

Nice resolutions.
My 4K display is in other use right now, so did not get to find out X800 XT capabilities. Not yet, I'll try later.

Instead I booted my QuickSilver 933MHz while I was at it. And though my 22" ACD is still hiding on some box there, I found my legless and frameless 23" ACD. It looks a little rude, but works. I think it needed a new backlight inverter, and the project left at that stage then I had replaced it. Leg too is broken of course. They almost all are in these bigger ACD screens I think.

Found a hockey puck too (see pic), and an almost matching kbd. Inside I have a Samsung 840 120GB with a chinese PATA/SATA adapter. It's green, not red, can't remember which of the colors there the reliable ones.

Two partitions in here again, OS X 10.4.11 and 9.2.2. And now I found some applications too, so I can have my nostalgia trip with those.

And the battery needs replacement for sure, 1/2 AA 3,6V. These can still be bought easily locally too.

What a measly memory config. though.

 

[mikas]

I love fiddling with OS 9 occasionally.

But now I had some nasty OS 9 problems. I remember they (system x.x and MacOS) were not the most stable systems back those days. You might have had to restart quite often your Mac. And there were no auto saves back then. That's why I have my thumb and forefinger still at that same command-S distance from each other even when I am asleep.

1) First OS 9 gave me some mysterious "there has happened an error because of an error type error" messages. Great feedback info OS, thanks very much.

Tackled that one though, it was wrong memory type in the middle slot. Removed it, and OS 9 works ok again.
Started to make some serious art with PhotoShop 4.0. Was so proud with my achievings after couple of minutes, that I went on to a well deserved break.
...
2) Mac had gone to sleep.
Pressed a key, it woke up. Kind of. Only gray screen, nothing helps but a forced shut down.

Could this be because of the PATA/SATA installation of an SSD? It seems it waits something forever with that gray screen. I don't know. I'll try to search the subforum, but if you happen to be able to help right away, I'd be grateful.

Attaching the art, I think I saved it..

 

[Macbookprodude]

The future is now old man, OS 9 at over 4K is insane!

He isn’t old, he is 21.. OS 9 to support a 4K screen is simply radikal !

 

[galgot]

Managed to build Midnight Commander file manager on OSX Server 1.2 :


Not the latest version of course... But I'm quite happy to have it running on Rhapsody.
Uploaded the sources and how to on the Mac Garden, no installer packages, I don't know how to do this.

Also uploaded there different versions of SSH installer packages for OSX Server 1.2 :


Together with sources files to build it .

 

[iF34R]

So, I got the Lacie d2 dual dvd+/- drive, firewire. It looks brand new, so pretty, and large lol. Anyways, I have it all hooked up, plop in a DVD movie, and the stupid DVD player on the mac tells me there isn't any valid dvd drive! 10.4.11. I was stupid excited, and now I'm frowny faced.

 

[Project Alice]

So, I got the Lacie d2 dual dvd+/- drive, firewire. It looks brand new, so pretty, and large lol. Anyways, I have it all hooked up, plop in a DVD movie, and the stupid DVD player on the mac tells me there isn't any valid dvd drive! 10.4.11. I was stupid excited, and now I'm frowny faced.

Yeah the DVD player app only allows the built in drive.

I’m not sure it this works on Tiger, but try this

 

[iF34R]

Yeah the DVD player app only allows the built in drive.

I’m not sure it this works on Tiger, but try this

Yeah, so far that's where I am, but hesitant to do it. VLC will play the dvd, but with a black screen, no video; only audio.

 

[B S Magnet]

In another flex with Snow Leopard for PowerPC,

A (seemingly never used) “hybrid” MO drive kit made by Melcoinc/Buffalo arrived from Japan in its factory box, along with a stack of 640MB MO disks (most of which appear to be never used). The box still smells of the factory plastics and rubber compounds.

As digital formats and archiving goes, I find that the magneto-optical format (like MiniDisc) holds up remarkably well over the test of time.

It’s “hybrid” in that it’s FireWire 400 and USB 1.1(!) capable. Yes. “Hybrid”.

I wasn’t sure whether it would work with OS X, since it appeared to be of 2000–01 vintage (it comes bundled with a CD-ROM featuring OS classic drivers). Turns out, with OS X, all one needs to do is insert a disk, open Disk Utility, and format as you like, before using it as you would any writeable volume. Write speeds, even with FW400, are comically slow, but reads are fast enough to play SD video.

I’m doubly surprised by this: 1) Disk Utility in SL (already known to have problems with fsck and verifying permissions) formatted and partitioned it just fine; and 2) this drive appears to be brand-new, despite being manufactred over 20 years ago. And it was cheap.

BRB, throwing together a vapourwave mix-MO for a pal of mine…

 

[Project Alice]

Yeah, so far that's where I am, but hesitant to do it. VLC will play the dvd, but with a black screen, no video; only audio.

Unfortunately the Tiger version of VLC is rather primitive and is hit or miss with most things.

Why are you hesitant? Make a back up of the DVD player app and it should be fine.

 

[alex_free]

PPCMC 7.2.4 source has just been frozen (as long as OpenSSL 3.0 alpha 17 builds no different then alpha 15), doing the final build now release tomorrow!

 

[TheShortTimer]

Yeah, so far that's where I am, but hesitant to do it. VLC will play the dvd, but with a black screen, no video; only audio.

I'm confused by this because I've used VLC under Tiger for many years to play DVDs on G4s and although it's far from perfect in this respect, I haven't encountered this issue. With the help of SAMBA, I was even able to use it to watch a DVD on my iBook G3/500 via a networked WinBox. Something isn't right there. Which version are you using?

Unfortunately the Tiger version of VLC is rather primitive and is hit or miss with most things.

Agreed, Apple's DVD player has the advantage of acceleration over early versions of VLC and it makes a huge difference regarding the fluidity of DVD playback.

Why are you hesitant? Make a back up of the DVD player app and it should be fine.

This is good advice.

On a G3 (and some G4's) use the combination of VLC for playing media files (or even better, use @Dronecatcher's brilliant mView and mViewX instead) and Apple's app for when you need to watch DVDs.

The only hitch with the Apple DVD player is that in accordance with Hollywood, it will insist on forcing you to choose a DVD region and unless the drive has been appropriately flashed, there are just four opportunities to change that region before the drive is permanently locked to one of them.

 

[onre]

Hooked up a Powercore Firewire unit and got the setup going reliably. Sounds wonderful.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

@iF34R
PatchBurn..?

 

[iF34R]

I'm confused by this because I've used VLC under Tiger for many years to play DVDs on G4s and although it's far from perfect in this respect, I haven't encountered this issue. With the help of SAMBA, I was even able to use it to watch a DVD on my iBook G3/500 via a networked WinBox. Something isn't right there. Which version are you using?



Agreed, Apple's DVD player has the advantage of acceleration over early versions of VLC and it makes a huge difference regarding the fluidity of DVD playback.



This is good advice.

On a G3 (and some G4's) use the combination of VLC for playing media files (or even better, use @Dronecatcher's brilliant mView and mViewX instead) and Apple's app for when you need to watch DVDs.

The only hitch with the Apple DVD player is that in accordance with Hollywood, it will insist on forcing you to choose a DVD region and unless the drive has been appropriately flashed, there are just four opportunities to change that region before the drive is permanently locked to one of them.

I'm using 0.9.10 on OS 10.4.11

@iF34R
PatchBurn..?

Thanks again for the info and advice. I'll look into it all.