Amiga OS4 on old (PPC) Macs

[niklasni1]

A 7600 is not going to have any networking servers running by default. The only FTP/HTTP servers were 3rd party, too.

It has got two serial ports (on mini-DIN socets), marked modem and printer. Both can be connected to PC serial ports (both 9 and 25 pin) with a simple mechanical adaptor.

But even if you got into OpenFirmware via serial, the only thing you would be able to do was boot it into MacOS 8.6 or whatever's on it and there's no way to interact with that over serial line.

Basically, no keyboard and monitor == useless Mac. It will boot up without a keyboard attached, though (no need to Press F1 to Resume), but you can do fuck all with it unless it's been configured first.

I might pay you for the RAM and G3 card, though..

[niklasni1]

Actually, someone with a mack might be able to put together a boot ISO for you with an FTP server on it which you could burn.

You'd need to access the firmware (or a keyboard) to boot from the CD, though..

[bloodline]

niklasni1 wrote:
A 7600 is not going to have any networking servers running by default. The only FTP/HTTP servers were 3rd party, too.

It has got two serial ports (on mini-DIN socets), marked modem and printer. Both can be connected to PC serial ports (both 9 and 25 pin) with a simple mechanical adaptor.

But even if you got into OpenFirmware via serial, the only thing you would be able to do was boot it into MacOS 8.6 or whatever's on it and there's no way to interact with that over serial line.

Basically, no keyboard and monitor == useless Mac. It will boot up without a keyboard attached, though (no need to Press F1 to Resume), but you can do fuck all with it unless it's been configured first.

I might pay you for the RAM and G3 card, though..

Yup, I guessed it basically a brick...

You can buy the CPU card new from Sonnet for $50 (http://store1.sonnettech.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_32&products_id=44)  and I'm pretty sure the ram would cost more to send than you could pick up from you local junk store... :-/

The SCSI HD is a bit more interesting...

[bloodline]

niklasni1 wrote:
Actually, someone with a mack might be able to put together a boot ISO for you with an FTP server on it which you could burn.

I like that thinking... perhaps a Boot CD with VNC on it?

You'd need to access the firmware (or a keyboard) to boot from the CD, though..

BUM!!!! :-x

[bloodline]

bloodline wrote:

niklasni1 wrote:
Actually, someone with a mack might be able to put together a boot ISO for you with an FTP server on it which you could burn.

I like that thinking... perhaps a Boot CD with VNC on it?

You'd need to access the firmware (or a keyboard) to boot from the CD, though..

BUM!!!! :-x

What about an auto running CD that will run upon insertion... which will start a VNC server?

[niklasni1]

bloodline wrote:
You can buy the CPU card new from Sonnet for $50 (http://store1.sonnettech.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_32&products_id=44)  and I'm pretty sure the ram would cost more to send than you could pick up from you local junk store... :-/

Sonnet don't sell to Europe from their site.

The RAM is actually a special type (5v 168 pin, as opposed to the 3.3v 168 pin which was used in PCs at the time) and, whilst not exactly 'rare' is not quite /that/ common either... Depending on how many chips makes up your 256MB set and how easy it would be to get money to you, I might actually be genuinely interested.

[bloodline]

niklasni1 wrote:

bloodline wrote:
You can buy the CPU card new from Sonnet for $50 (http://store1.sonnettech.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_32&products_id=44)  and I'm pretty sure the ram would cost more to send than you could pick up from you local junk store... :-/

Sonnet don't sell to Europe from their site.

The RAM is actually a special type (5v 168 pin, as opposed to the 3.3v 168 pin which was used in PCs at the time) and, whilst not exactly 'rare' is not quite /that/ common either... Depending on how many chips makes up your 256MB set and how easy it would be to get money to you, I might actually be genuinely interested.

Ok, where do you live?

[tiffers]

DBAlex wrote:
I know a guy who has this installed on a HD...

Did you actually see it running yourself? Do you know how stable it was?

tiffers

[Fizza]

dammy wrote:

This boot CD is useless without an actual copy of OS4. It just lets you boot OS4 itself.

Guess if there is no OS4 on ftp or bittorrent, it's all safe. :-D

Dammy

This type of reply is baffling unless viewed from a very twisted perspective. Basically, you're saying that wanting OS4 to run on a Mac is a bad thing as an increase in demand for OS4 will cause it to be  pirated, and therefore those who want to see OS4 go somewhere are basically just encouraging piracy? Or better yet, those who want to put run it on Macs will definitely not buy a copy of OS4 and are pirates themselves already... talk about judge & jury. My honest opinion is that these types of voices have prevailed far too long in this saga and it's only gotten us nowhere, I think it's time to see these people for who they are, I can't imagine this person, or someone who would agree with him wants anything to be done at all and really have gotten naysaying down to a fine art, or profession. I'm guessing that if Dammy had any input, Shapeshifter would never have happened way back when...

Is it possible that OS4 would be pirated? Of course it is, but even if it's pirated at 50%, at least that 50% of selling something to a market rather than 100% of nothing! I'm certainly not condoning piracy whatsoever, but given the choice I'd rather Microsoft had Dammy's viewpoint and not released Windows for fear of someone pirating it lest it be successful..

As for other legalities (barring Amiga specific ones), I can only say Bootcamp, if Apple is enabling purchasers of Intel Macs to dual boot into Windows Vista natively (one wonders how much MS helped them make that happen), then I can't see how they could kick up a fuss about their obsolete PowerPC hardware being booted into another OS either, in fact they might be glad to be rid of any remaining G4/G5 hardware they have...

[Fizza]

A1260 wrote:
this is a niche market and a hobby os the companies behind it need to make a living you know, this is not the way to do it. while you other here dont care and think this will be the solution to shortage of suitable hardware. for a little time it may be true but then these few mac's that run this will be old and very popular on ebay, we will again have ridiculous high prices and people start whining. as this aint enough there will not be any new updates of the aos because you killed of the business for these small companies like hyperion. what then? you ever thing of it?... so continue with your greedy ways of wanting everything free and act like children. when aos4.0 is dead its your fault, period!.

  :-x

Absolute rubbish, Amiga wasn't always a niche you know! Who knows where it would lead having a viable option for running (legally) OS4 on Mac hardware, there's tons of it out there, and tons of it that people might be interested in putting to use, which all adds up to sales for an OS vendor willing to exploit it. I'm sure if it was even a reasonable success within the Amiga/geek, or even Linux community I'm sure that would put some money in the coffers for Amiga Inc/Hyperion to develop Amiga OS further. I can't see dual G5 machines being obsolete in the next three to four years. Do you want Amiga OS to be successful again, or are you content being a pseudo legal analyst instead? If you were such a good one, I'm surprised that you think it's wise to presume that people who want Amiga OS to run on Mac hardware want it done for free.

[_ThEcRoW]

Bloodline, haven't read the entire thread but saw somewhere boot cd. Are you working on a os4 boot cd for macs?
I'm higly interested.
Thanks in advance!!!

[bloodline]

_ThEcRoW wrote:
Bloodline, haven't read the entire thread but saw somewhere boot cd. Are you working on a os4 boot cd for macs?
I'm higly interested.
Thanks in advance!!!

I was working on a headless PowerMac boot CD... sadly the PowerMac's total lack of industry standard connectors has totally defeated my efforts...

To be really honest, I'm more likely to run AROS than OS4 on this old PowerMac... I have a BlizzPPC and virtually no PPC only Amiga Software...

[persia]

Yep, the only viable solution to put OS4 in the hands of the teaming masses of Amiga users (we'll maybe not teaming masses,but...) is to have it run on PPC Mac hardware,  I just cycled out 15 PPC Macs at work, replacing them with Intels.  We''ll dump those PPC Mac cheaply.  There's at least a dozen more I'll be taking out of service this calendar year.  

There's a glut of PPC Macs on the market.  Here in Australia no one have ever been charged with running legally purchased software on non-Eula allowed equipment.  I don't think they could be charged under current Australian law.  You bought the software, you bought the hardware, it's nobodies business what you do with them.

If you can buy a highend "Amiga" (ppc mac) and os4 for less than $400 who's the loser?  Nobody, Amiga inc (KMOS) does not and never has produced hardware.  Same with Hyperion.

[Vlabguy1]

I would def, be interested to see if OS4 can//will be ported to Mac.  I have several older and newer Macs that would love Amiga OS4 ... :-)..
The hope that this will happen is the only reason why Im hangin onto these
machines..


Rich

[amigadave]

@persia,

Just out of curiosity, what model PPC Macs are you taking out of service?  When you say you are replacing the PPC Macs with Intel, I assume you mean Intel Macs?  What type of business is it that decided to use Mac in the first place instead of Windows boxes?

I have said it before in great detail.  Releasing an equivalent to bootcamp that would allow the installation and running of the currently available, AmigaOS4 for Classic Amigas on all models of PPC Macs would be the best thing that has ever happened to the Amiga community, Hyperion and the long suffering developers that have been so under paid for their work on OS4.  Maybe it would even generate enough renewed interest and small amount of money to allow more future work and a port to what ever the AOS4 team want it to run on so they can make a little more money.  If they cannot see that and are still so narrow minded and determined to keep AOS4 only on proprietary non-existant hardware, then they do not deserve my support.

[persia]

We're a University, and yes we are buying intel Macs that will DUal Boot Leopard and XP.  So much software runs better on Intel Macs than PPC ones that we are trying to get rid of as many PPC Macs as possible.

We replaced my aging G5 with a dual Quad core intel.  The difference is night and day.