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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: nagaflas on August 10, 2004, 11:21:58 PM
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This might be a dumb question, but here goes...
Is there any way I can install some sort of native Amiga compatible OS on my old Umax C600 SuperMac? Can MorphOS or something be installed on this machine? If so, it would be a good investment, eventhough the thing has a 603e running at 166mhz.
:-D Leshaun Fossett
Memphis, TN
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Not that I know of. :-(
If you find one, let us know. I've got a PowerMac 7200 (603 @ 120mhz) that is currently serving as a paperweight.
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If you find one, let us know. I've got a PowerMac 7200 (603 @ 120mhz) that is currently serving as a paperweight
Thats what they were built for. :-D
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Thats what they were built for. :-D
Tell me about it. It's the only computer I've ever regretted saving from a dumpster. haha!
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get yourself a sonnet crescendo g3/g4 upgrade card, then you can run OSX (should you want to), MacOS, YDL, etc...
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get yourself a sonnet crescendo g3/g4 upgrade card, then you can run OSX (should you want to), MacOS, YDL, etc...
Well, that's good in theory, but in the US, they cost as much (or more) than a complete used G3 system. Plus they are slower, not officially supported for OSX 10.3, etc....
As it is, it'll run OS 8.5 and several flavors of Linux. I think mine has an old RedHat 6.2 PPC installed, though I also messed with YellowDog. Really, the box is quite useless. I haven't fired it up in over a year. I'd strip it and take the SCSI HD and CDROM out of it and chuck the rest, if it weren't serving the valuable purpose of keeping some old SGI IRIX installation notes from blowing away. ;-)
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Oh, well. Looks like I'm gonna have to buy a Pegesus. Thanks, guys.
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Have you tried it using BeOS with it.. the PPC version should work fine and BeUAE probably would work..
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Check out Debian. It has a good track record with PPC's,
as far as I know. You could probably run UAE on top of
Debian. It won't be very fast though. I used to run Debian
on my 604e. Never tried UAE on it though.
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Old Macs are crap...
You will only be able to use BeOS with it if it has PCI slots, but then again there is now very little PPC software written for BeOS.
I have an IMac and and the PPC model right before it, and no thankx to apple not releasing info on there hardware, they serve as nothing but dead weight. I'd be happy to run Mac OS 8 or 9 on them if the OS was anywhere near as kool and responsive as Amiga OS, or even Winblows for that matter. I could run winblows 98 on a machine of the same specs a LOT faster without having tons of low memory issues, and all the crap that goes along with using Mac OS.
OSX would be an option, but alas, like all Linux distros with a decent GUI is bloatware and would be ungodly sloooooowwwwwww.
I'm keeping mine around just incase AROS ever gets ported to them.
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Check out Debian. It has a good track record with PPC's, as far as I know
Yes. I run Debian on several Old World Macs with good success. One is a 5400 which shares the same motherboard as the U600 (the Alchemy mobo). Debian works much better on old Macs than YDL 3.0 and above does. I haven't tried Gentoo on PPC myself so I can't comment on that.
A vanilla U600 isn't really up to running the latest Linux desktop environments, but with plenty of RAM, a lighter window manager and sensibly-chosen apps it would make a serviceable desktop machine.
Alternatively, you could always put the machine to use as a server. I have a Starmax 3000 which acts the file and print server and network gateway for my local network. This is based on a derivative of the Alchemy mobo - the Tanzania - and it runs Debian well (and also has the benefit of being silent since I ripped out all the fans - it still never gets warm). In this case, however, I upgraded with a G3 card (they plug in the cache-RAM slot on the Alchemy, Tanzania and Gazelle boards - look for a Sonnet Crescendo or something similar). Memory is always going to be a problem, though - the Alchemy is limited to 136 MB, AFAICR.
You could probably run UAE on top of Debian. It won't be very fast though. I used to run Debian on my 604e. Never tried UAE on it though.
It'd be almost unuseable on a 166 MHz 603e. Look for a G3 upgrade card - or nag somebody to finish the PPC JIT. ;-)
Cheers,
Rich
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Ilwrath wrote:
Not that I know of. :-(
If you find one, let us know. I've got a PowerMac 7200 (603 @ 120mhz) that is currently serving as a paperweight.
7200s had a 601 cpu.
The best use I could find for my 8200 was use it as a pop server.
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7200s had a 601 cpu.
Ooops. I just glanced at the front fascia and it said 7200/120. I just assumed it was a 603, because I didn't think the 601s went past 100mhz. Silly me. So mine is even MORE useless than most. I really regret saving it. haha!
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I hated an o40cpu one i bought it was so iritating i took the 32mb of ram out of it and the hard drive and threw it out. :-)
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nagaflas wrote:
This might be a dumb question, but here goes...
Is there any way I can install some sort of native Amiga compatible OS on my old Umax C600 SuperMac? Can MorphOS or something be installed on this machine? If so, it would be a good investment, eventhough the thing has a 603e running at 166mhz.
:-D Leshaun Fossett
Memphis, TN
You could run NetBSD (http://netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/models.html), though it will take a bit of hackistry to install, and a PCI video card and further fiddling to enable video. That's more than enough horsepower for a home router or simple webserver to fiddle on, though, whether or not you can get graphics up.
The 7200 is more screwed - per that site, the 601 is soldered with no opportunity for expansion. Rather than pitch it in the dumpster, pair it up with OS9 and the next Imagewriter you find in the trash, and donate it to anyone who could make use of a basic word processing box (Boys' and Girls' Club, local school, homeless shelter for typing resumes)...
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I saw a 9600-300mhz 604e Powermac with 64mb ram and 4bg hard drive go for £22 on ebay this morning, I wish I had have bid on it :-(
Only problem is it has OS8 and by the looks of it I need OS 9.1 at least to do what I want (Msn messenger and MP3)
Robert
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I got a Powerwave last year for not much more. Still haven't put it to much use yet...its going to a friend on long term loan, along with my 21" SGI monitor. I just don't have the space! And I don't have time to wrestle with MacOS, as I'm still trying to get all these Amigas up and running as I'd like.
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XDelusion wrote:
Old Macs are crap...
Agreed actually, shock horror! Mac zealot agrees!!
In fact, anything earlier than 10.2 Jaguar is bad IMO.
Thats why Amigas were my main choice until around 2 years ago. :-)
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I picked up a PowerMac 7200/200 a year or so ago, and I still can't figure out exactly what I can do with it, might make a handy door stop one day, lucky I didn't pay anything for it...hehe