Amiga.org

Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Software News => Topic started by: Piru on October 12, 2009, 08:42:33 PM

Title: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Piru on October 12, 2009, 08:42:33 PM
The MorphOS development team is proud to announce the public release of MorphOS 2.4, the first ever public version to install on Mac mini G4 machines. In addition to the extended hardware support, existing users will benefit from various bug fixes and a few new features. For an overview of the included changes, please read our release notes (http://www.morphos-team.net/releasenotes-2.4.html).

We strongly urge owners of Mac mini G4 computers to carefully read our installation (http://www.morphos-team.net/installation.html) and troubleshoot (http://www.morphos-team.net/faq.html) guides before they attempt to install MorphOS for the first time. Existing users can upgrade via the familiar procedure but are encouraged to read the guides as well. MorphOS 2.4 is available for download in our files section (http://www.morphos-team.net/downloads.html).

In related news, MorphOS 2.4 will be demonstrated at the upcoming Amiga Meeting (http://www.amigameeting.de/) in Bad Bramstedt. Interested users will be able to pay and register MorphOS at the event.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: spihunter on October 13, 2009, 12:44:40 AM
Damn! I wish I would have bought a mini in advance! I highly advise folks in the US to check your local Craiglist first before hitting fleabay...:)
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Piru on October 13, 2009, 06:21:26 AM
Here's the unofficial "MorphOS and OSX dual boot installation guide for Mac Mini" by jacadcaps:

http://dreamolers.binaryriot.org/dualboot.pdf (http://dreamolers.binaryriot.org/dualboot.pdf)
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: TNovosel on October 13, 2009, 07:07:13 AM
Great news!!!! Thank you MorphOs Team!!!
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: cicero790 on October 13, 2009, 09:44:01 AM
Sisu never fails Piru :)  Great news.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Duce on October 13, 2009, 10:35:59 AM
How compatible is MorphOS with old 68k Amiga software?

I bought a SAM and OS 4.1 to run an old school telnet BBS and was rather disappointed with the compatibility.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: takemehomegrandma on October 13, 2009, 05:09:01 PM
Quote from: Duce;525781
How compatible is MorphOS with old 68k Amiga software?

I bought a SAM and OS 4.1 to run an old school telnet BBS and was rather disappointed with the compatibility.


MorphOS offers noticeably better Amiga compatibility than OS4 (it's a prioritized area for the MorphOS developers, while OS4 devs happily modifies and introduces new things into the Amiga space that doubtlessly affects compatibility), but it's not a 68k HW emulator, so don't expect miracles with stuff that is *very* "old school" (if that means HW banging, system unfriendly software). Then you should buy a real Amiga, or use WinUEA or such.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: itix on October 13, 2009, 06:08:04 PM
Quote from: Duce;525781
How compatible is MorphOS with old 68k Amiga software?


RTG/AHI compatible applications should run but there are always exceptions.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: spihunter on October 13, 2009, 06:45:15 PM
You guys should submit this as news to Mac Mini specific sites like 123MacMini.com
You never know how many people still have G4 Mini's lying around that might want to try a new OS for it?
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: x56h34 on October 13, 2009, 08:06:44 PM
Congratulations on this release! Very well done, MorphOS team!

Question: Can you install MorphOS alongside of an existing OSX installation? The dual-boot guide seems to cover installation from scratch (e.g. install OSX and MorphOS from scratch and have them co-exist)? Thanks.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Piru on October 13, 2009, 08:28:07 PM
Quote from: x56h34;525855
Question: Can you install MorphOS alongside of an existing OSX installation? The dual-boot guide seems to cover installation from scratch (e.g. install OSX and MorphOS from scratch and have them co-exist)? Thanks.
If you want to do that you need to resize your existing Mac OS X partition (unless of course you have unpartitioned area on the HDD, in which case you can just continue adding the partitions needed by MorphOS and skip installing Mac OS X).

The resize should be possible by booting off the Mac OS X Leopard install DVD, or if you don't have that, by using Ubuntu (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89960).

Once you have enough storage for the MorphOS and MorphOS boot partitions (as described by the pdf) you should be able to proceed to create the partitions needed. Just skip the part where you install Mac OS X (as it already is installed, obviously).

Warning: Resizing a partition is always a hazardous trick. Be sure you've backed up all data you can't afford to lose in case the excrement hits the fan.


If this all sounds too complicated you can always back up all data (Time Machine), boot off the install DVD, repartition and restore the backup.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Jose on October 13, 2009, 11:18:11 PM
Great accomplishment, congratulations!!
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Lando on October 14, 2009, 12:37:44 AM
Quote from: spihunter;525847
You guys should submit this as news to Mac Mini specific sites like 123MacMini.com
You never know how many people still have G4 Mini's lying around that might want to try a new OS for it?


I agree.  There also seems to be quite a bit of a crossover in Amiga (or ex-Amiga) users and Mac users, as evidenced in this gallery pic and the comments thereof http://www.123macmini.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=177.  A new, non-Linux based OS to run on PPC Macs is not something that happens every day!
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: redfox on October 14, 2009, 02:55:22 AM
Congratulations to the MorphOS development team.

---
redfox
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: x56h34 on October 14, 2009, 03:39:33 AM
Quote from: Piru;525860
If you want to do that you need to resize your existing Mac OS X partition (unless of course you have unpartitioned area on the HDD, in which case you can just continue adding the partitions needed by MorphOS and skip installing Mac OS X).

The resize should be possible by booting off the Mac OS X Leopard install DVD, or if you don't have that, by using Ubuntu (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89960).

Once you have enough storage for the MorphOS and MorphOS boot partitions (as described by the pdf) you should be able to proceed to create the partitions needed. Just skip the part where you install Mac OS X (as it already is installed, obviously).

Warning: Resizing a partition is always a hazardous trick. Be sure you've backed up all data you can't afford to lose in case the excrement hits the fan.


If this all sounds too complicated you can always back up all data (Time Machine), boot off the install DVD, repartition and restore the backup.
Thanks Piru. I appreciate the advice. I will give it a try.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: SamuraiCrow on October 14, 2009, 05:03:05 AM
Quote from: spihunter;525847
You guys should submit this as news to Mac Mini specific sites like 123MacMini.com
You never know how many people still have G4 Mini's lying around that might want to try a new OS for it?

I made a post in their alternative operating systems forum.  I think I'll wait for a few replies before I try to post a news item.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Amiduffer on October 14, 2009, 06:31:52 AM
Congratulations.

This might make it worth trying MorphOS.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: NovaCoder on October 14, 2009, 12:32:44 PM
Cool, well done.

Any plans to bring it to other PPC Mac's?
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Lurch on October 14, 2009, 10:57:25 PM
This is very exciting news as now it's affordable something I can probably purchase and get a nextgen Amiga experience :-)

So all I need now is a G4 macmini... have some money coming through so fingers crossed I can pickup one.. seem to be around the $500NZD mark :-) Plus side is it is something I can purchase locally... A shame this isnt AmigaOS 4.1 :-/
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Jose on October 14, 2009, 11:11:14 PM
Yeah, high end G4 Mac towers would make a very good target :) Are there any similarities that allow some code to be reused ?
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: TheGoose on October 15, 2009, 06:03:48 PM
Wow, nice guide. Damn, even the partitioner program is sexy.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: Piru on October 16, 2009, 09:06:09 AM
Quote from: x56h34;525855
The dual-boot guide seems to cover installation from scratch (e.g. install OSX and MorphOS from scratch and have them co-exist)

Jacek has updated the dualboot PDF to include the case of installing MorphOS and preserving the previous OS X installation:

http://dreamolers.binaryriot.org/dualboot.pdf
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: x56h34 on October 16, 2009, 01:45:42 PM
Quote from: Piru;526138
Jacek has updated the dualboot PDF to include the case of installing MorphOS and preserving the previous OS X installation:

http://dreamolers.binaryriot.org/dualboot.pdf
Excellent. Thank you and Jacek so much for taking the time to address this.
Title: Re: MorphOS 2.4 - First Release with Mac mini Support
Post by: krize on October 19, 2009, 04:06:55 PM
Its really great, the mac mini is now my main computer !! I enjoy !! :)