Amiga OS4 on old (PPC) Macs

[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.

I would gladly pay more than the retail price of windows and mac os x put together for an operating system that was neither windows nor unix! seriously, there are enough people doing random things like running mac os x on regular PCs right now that I think there's an opportunity that someone should take advantage of.

[bd1308]

can someone give me a run-down of this off board (pm)?

I have literally fifteen G4 and G3 macs that could use an OS facelift

[persia]

Yeah, I don't get it, either Hyperion has rights to OS 4 or the don't.  If they do then why don't they produce a version that runs on Macs.  If they don't have rights then they are sunk anyway, so why wait for the court?



:destroy:

[persia]

As I understand it you just need to hand uboot code since the most of the old PPC Macs have radeon graphics cards...

[Varthall]

persia wrote:
Yeah, I don't get it, either Hyperion has rights to OS 4 or the don't.  If they do then why don't they produce a version that runs on Macs.  If they don't have rights then they are sunk anyway, so why wait for the court?

They have the right to develop and release OS4 only for AmigaOnes and Blizzard/Cyberstorm PPCs. They're waiting for the court so that they can freely release OS4 for other platforms, too.

Varthall

[motorollin]

So if Hyp win, they get rights to release OS4 for other platforms? Is that right?

--
moto

[bloodline]

motorollin wrote:
So if Hyp win, they get rights to release OS4 for other platforms? Is that right?

--
moto

I think so... but three things, as I understand it;

1) They have already lost, as AInc. have apparently (and surprisingly) kept their part of the deal... the $xxxx buy back... and now Hyp are contesting it... As I understand it, I could be wrong here.

2) If they did win, they wouldn't be able to use the Name (and/or Amiga IP?)... Again I could be wrong...

3) If they did win, they have stated "NO x86 PORT"... so I have no idea what platform they plan to run it on... If I go PPC, then I'm with the EFIKA and that would be best with MOS or AROS... or SAM and I would want to run AROS there...


Apologies if any or all of this is FUD...

[persia]

What complicates matters is that there are two Amiga Incs, Amino, the original post Gateway Amiga Inc and KMOS, the company that served as a shell to erase Amino's bad debts.  

Hyperion had a deal with Amino, but they've also signed things with KMOS so I'm not sure who's got what.  What I suspect is that Bill originally planned to use Hyperion to escape the debt but Hyperion wasn't cooperative so he went to KMOS, transfered the assets and scuttled the companies president.  

Sooooooo, we don't really know what the Judge will decide.  Either way we have problems, Hyperion's stand on X86 means there will be few machines that OS4 will run on, Amiga Inc/KMOS history pretty much says that there will be no machines that OS4 will run on if they win...

[motorollin]

"Please Mister... can we have our OS back?"

--
moto

[uncharted]

I don't understand this whole thing.  Surely, by now, they lawsuit has probably cost more than the whole Amiga market is worth.

Just why is Amiga still alive?  It really doesn't make sense.  They have no products, the legacy stuff is next to worthless now.  They burned through all their VC money by 2002.  Why keep the company on semi-life-support for 6 years?  It really doesn't make any sense at all.  All it seems to have done is bled money.

Or do they really collect that many royalties off of Amiga Forever?

I wonder if there are any other employees other than McBill - are Fluffy Muff and that ex-QNX guy still there?   What about HMetal, I wonder if he is still the web master.

I reckon, Amiga's benefactor would be wise to sell the lot to BBRV or some other nutcase for 10 grand or something like that.

There is something decidedly sinister about the whole thing.

[odin]

A. Inc has to be a money laundering outfit for that Finnish investor-bloke. It's the only logical explanation why he'd put in money in something ridiculous like A. Inc.

[wolfchild]

Seeing the name Amino kind of rang a bell...

Is this set-top box company linked to the Amiga in any way? -> http://www.aminocom.com/

Their boxes are PPC based (I opened one), and if one sees the job vacancies on the site, and reading between the lines, they are after people who can develop for something other than linux.

Given that these set-top boxes are quite successful, whatever proprietary OS is running inside surely provides a fortune magnitues higher than a shrink wrapped OS4 could provide, if you get what I mean.

Maybe the Amiga OS is still being used, and a lot, but behind the scenes, in the lucrative embedded market.

[persia]

Amiga Inc's website hasn't been updated since February, the only active part of the company seems to be Amiga Development Indi, which has now added Linux to it's dotNet skills.  But what exactly does Bill do all day?  Why do they even need him or anyone else in Seattle?

[uncharted]

odin wrote:
A. Inc has to be a money laundering outfit for that Finnish investor-bloke. It's the only logical explanation why he'd put in money in something ridiculous like A. Inc.

I had considered that, but then surely, the court case is the last thing they'd pursue.  Why bring attention to it?

[persia]

Just saw the following on my favourite file sharing service site....

Does it work???

Details for Amiga OS 4.0 (w/July 2007 Updates) Install CD for Mac Mini G   
Created by krismiszcz 13 hours ago
Applications : Macintosh : English
Amiga OS 4.0 (w/July 2007 Updates) Install CD for Mac Mini G4 (Moana Loader)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This CD will allow you to boot the Amiga OS 4.0 kernel and run the Amiga OS 4.0 installer.

The knows issues with the Moana loader are:

* Displays image that USB stack has not been loaded (USB keyboards and mice work)
* Doesn't detect the Mac Mini built-in Ethernet
* Doesn't detect the Mac Mini AirPort Extreme card
* Doesn't detect the Mac Mini Bluetooth device
* Probably a lot more I've not come across yet!

Testing has been performed with a Mac Mini G4 with the following specs:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: PowerMac10,2
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Processor Speed: 1.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 1
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.9.4f0

This CD may/may not work on other Mac Mini G4 models.


Instructions for booting:
-------------------------

1) Boot into Open Firmware (Hold down "Option" "Command" "o" "f" when powering on)
2) First time users will only need to enter the following command once:
setenv boota-device cd:
3) Begin loading the OS 4.0 kernel/kickstart by typing in the following command:
boot cd:slb_v2
4) Select either option:
"1. Amiga OS 4.x: CDROM MM_Full_silent_USB" - for Mac Mini G4 1.5GHz/64MB Radeon models
"2. Amiga OS 4.x: CDROM MM_Full_silent_USB_ATI_safe" - for all other Mac Mini G4 models
5) Press "Enter" at the "Installed mem: 1024 mega bega" prompt
6) Press "Enter" at the "About to build the copy of the OF tree; Code start at 0x01800000; press any key" prompt
7) Press "Enter" at the "All init done; about to kill OF and start ExecSG; press any key" prompt

At this point, the screen should turn black and after a few seconds, the CD drive will spin up.

Eventually you'll see an AmigaDOS window displaying the message "USB stack not running.". Oddly enough, USB keyboards and mice seem to work.

7) You'll be greeted with a "Welcome to the Amiga OS 4.0 Install CD" window, click on "Proceed"
 On the next window, select your language, country and time zone and click "Use"
9) A window will pop up and will ask how the system time should be updated. Click on "System"
10) A window will pop up with the message "Your system time has been updated". Click on "OK"
11) Shortly after, a window will appear to advise you that you must select a keyboard. Click "OK"
12) Select your keyboard and click "Use"

If the start up appears to stall between steps 10 and 11, press "Ctrl C" and you should see a "WAIT: ***Break" message appear. The installer will now continue.

Good luck!

--
Peers: 25 seeders, 5 leechers, 30 total
Size: 49.97 MB