MorphOS is out for MacMini G4! No cheaper Amiga available today!

[Hell Labs]

I should explain. A broken machine would be more useful to me, because that way I could throw it in the bin without feeling guilty. As it is, I can't, because there's nothing actually wrong with it. The 128MB ram limit makes it totally useless as a computer, by design.

[Karlos]

I should explain. A broken machine would be more useful to me, because that way I could throw it in the bin without feeling guilty. As it is, I can't, because there's nothing actually wrong with it. The 128MB ram limit makes it totally useless as a computer, by design.

What are you talking about? As far as I am aware, no G4 Mac mini has ever been sold with less than 256MB of ram and 32MB video RAM. It isn't as if many amiga apps even need anything like that much memory.

[dreamcast270mhz]

@karlos

He is talking about the Efika, which i think OS4 would've been perfect on btw. The Efika, however, is the only ppc machine that was affordable up until ppc macs for MOS

[zylesea]

I should explain. A broken machine would be more useful to me, because that way I could throw it in the bin without feeling guilty. As it is, I can't, because there's nothing actually wrong with it. The 128MB ram limit makes it totally useless as a computer, by design.

Try to sell the Efika and buy a key for your mini. The demand for Efikas is not the highest, but there are ppl out there who like to play around with them. If I hadn't one already, I'd be interested. It is a nice maschine for playing around and build your very custom thing from it. It is a good base for projects like this: http://via.i-networx.de/eframe/eframe.htm

Edit: Note also that the next version of MorphOS will probably provide mor available RAM, since L3D will introduce teh option to keep video data in VRAM exclusively (no RAM copy required). Dunno how well this will work though.

[amigadave]

Try to sell the Efika and buy a key for your mini. The demand for Efikas is not the highest, but ...... It is a good base for projects like this: http://via.i-networx.de/eframe/eframe.htm

I was trying to sell my Efika, as I have had a 1.5GHz G4 MacMini running a registered copy of MorphOS2.4 for several months now, but since it has not sold I think I will copy that idea to make it into a picture frame media computer.  I have an old 500MHz Celeron laptop that is literally falling to pieces (the hinges have broken the plastic laptop casing) that I could get a 14.1 inch LCD display from, if I can figure out the wiring to convert it to accept an input cable from the DVI port of the Efika's ATI 9250 video card.  The picture frame project linked to above looks very nice and it is only a 10.3 inch LCD.

I think the picture frame project will be better and probably cooler without any fans if I use the 400MHz Efika running MorphOS2.4 than trying to keep and use the 500MHz Celeron laptop motherboard running Windows98, or some flavor of Linux.

@Hell Labs,  I would agree with you that the Efika is very limited due to it's low amount of RAM capability, but it is hardly "totally useless".  There are many things that the Efika can run and run well.  Some smart programmer might even write an application that allows MorphOS to use a swap partition as virtual memory which while not a good solution, would make the Efika better at running web browsers that cache pages and/or images to RAM and cause the Efika to crash.

[runequester]

I was getting excited about MorphOS but after learning that for something designed to work on years old hardware that is only available second hand, you have to buy a new license for each machine... forget it.

Sorry guys.

[Hell Labs]

I was getting excited about MorphOS but after learning that for something designed to work on years old hardware that is only available second hand, you have to buy a new license for each machine... forget it.

Sorry guys.

Well what exactly are you expecting? Indie devs can't afford to give copies out for free, though licence transfers are something they REALLY need to do. ANd this "years old hardware" is also the best PPC hardware in existence, as well as the cheapest and the best built.

[zylesea]

I was trying to sell my Efika, as I have had a 1.5GHz G4 MacMini running a registered copy of MorphOS2.4 for several months now, but since it has not sold I think I will copy that idea to make it into a picture frame media computer.  I have an old 500MHz Celeron laptop that is literally falling to pieces (the hinges have broken the plastic laptop casing) that I could get a 14.1 inch LCD display from, if I can figure out the wiring to convert it to accept an input cable from the DVI port of the Efika's ATI 9250 video card.  The picture frame project linked to above looks very nice and it is only a 10.3 inch LCD.

Nice to hear you like the project. My next step on the to do list is to finish my simple program interface and do a rework of the LED and display control. The disk aktivity LED sucks in the dark - am thinking of moving the whole thing to get controlled by a µC (but never worked with µC yet, maybe a good task/opprtunity to start actually).
Good luck for your project - I hope you'll share your project progress once started.

[Hell Labs]

I have an old 500MHz Celeron laptop that is literally falling to pieces (the hinges have broken the plastic laptop casing) that I could get a 14.1 inch LCD display from

Take it from somebody who knows:

Laptop screen + doing anything to it = Need both a new laptop, and to buy an LCD for project anyway.

Even if you don't accidentally pull the ribbon cable off the back of the panel (permenently ruining it, as I did to an old dell someone gave me), figuring out the pinouts is pretty much impossible. It's not exactly standard vga in there.

[amigadave]

Take it from somebody who knows:

Laptop screen + doing anything to it = Need both a new laptop, and to buy an LCD for project anyway.

Even if you don't accidentally pull the ribbon cable off the back of the panel (permenently ruining it, as I did to an old dell someone gave me), figuring out the pinouts is pretty much impossible. It's not exactly standard vga in there.

Really?  I did not think it would be that difficult to figure out and why wouldn't there be some kind of standard for LCD screens?  I am sure this cheap laptop with it's PII Celeron CPU did not use some custom graphics card.  I bought it in July of 1999 and I am pretty sure it would use the cheapest off-the-shelf parts the builder could get their hands on as it is not a major brand name manufacturer.

Well, since it is literally falling apart, it won't hurt to take it the rest of the way apart and look at what is inside.

[Hell Labs]

Yep. It's not so much a custom graphics chip, as the companies who make the LCDs never standardising the connection. lcds in a laptop are really minimalist, there was only one small circuitboard you could get to in my old dell, and I think that was actually just to power the backlight. Other than that it's just a ribon cable, all the actual stuff is in the keyboard half.

I've seen loads of attempts to use laptop lcds, and I've never seen one actually succeed.

[Terminills]

@Amigadave

Do yourself a favor take a look on the DIY projector sites ... While lcd screens aren't quite standardised You can get a controller board off ebay that works with most of them(just a matter of ordering the proper cables.).  Speaking of that ... some day I'll have to finish my projector project. :-D

[zylesea]

Really?  I did not think it would be that difficult to figure out and why wouldn't there be some kind of standard for LCD screens?  

LVDS only defines standards for the electrical properties of the signal but nothing more. You need to google around to find out the signalling of your display. My frame uses a Sharp industrial panel and a display controller from Kontron.

[KatManDEW]

We use a software package at work, and if we want to transfer it to a new computer, we have to "decommision" it, and it gives us a code. We then use that code to install the software on the new computer.

I would feel better about it if MorphOS used a scheme like that.

[Firedawg]

We use a software package at work, and if we want to transfer it to a new computer, we have to "decommision" it, and it gives us a code. We then use that code to install the software on the new computer.

I would feel better about it if MorphOS used a scheme like that.

I can live with that arrangement concerning my license with MorphOS.  But, I do understand that their time an efforts making MorphOS available on the MacMini has to be compensated, so a small upgrade cost is in order.  This would be a kind gesture to all the loyal customer's who have supported the hard work over the years.    

The dawg

[tasmanian guy]

So Morphos works on a Mac Mini, does it work on a Power Mac G4 800mhz with 1 gig of memory and a ATI card, or is this just an exclusive Mac Mini thing?