Folks, Ryan Rempel is a genius. But you knew that anyway. I have access to several TNT based systems (that's 7500s and the like) which I am using for OS X experiments. Previously, I have only been able to get OS X Public Beta going on one of them, using a Sonnet G3 card. However, this week, I have rebuilt that system into an ATX tower case, and reconfigured it with OS X 10.0, using Ryan's Unsupported UtilityX to smooth the install. Miraculously, everything seems to work, including the sound. This is my recipe: 1. Use an original Apple internal CD-ROM (okay it's only 4X but I can live with that). 2. Format all disks with Apple's Drive Setup, v1.4 or later. This sets the correct partitions for drivers, patches and other sneaky things that Apple like to keep on the disks. (DSU v 1.4 is the earliest version able to set up MacOS Extended Format partitions.) 3. Have separate disks for OS 9 and OS X. Some people like three partitions or disks (OS 9, Classic, OS X), but for me that's overkill. But I think physically separating the base OS 9 from the OS X world is a Very Good Idea. On my test systems I use a half-gig to two-gig drive for OS 9, set up as (Internal) SCSI bus 0, drive 0, and a two-gig drive for OS X, set up as drive 1 on the same bus. At the moment I find Quantum Fireballs fine for OS 9, and I use Seagate Barracudas for OS X. (It's what was in the parts box.) 4. Stick to built-in graphics. I want a result, not to be able to play Doom. 5. Interleave the RAM. Every little helps. 6. Install OS 9.1 on base disk. 7. Load up Ryan's UtilityX. 8. Install OS X on second disk. Seems to work a treat. Now to patch to 10.0.4... Other things I have found: a. Belkin USB PCI card seems to work fine under OS X. Apple's long USB keyboard then works very happily with a multi-button Microsoft (!) Optical Mouse. b. All Fast Ethernet cards based on DEC/Intel Tulip chip seem to work fine. So far I have used cards from Znyx, Kingston and DEC themselves. Doesn't seem to matter which version of Tulip (21140, 21143, various letter revisions) - they all just work for me. c. My old 150 MHz cpu (that's a 604, not even a 604e!) also works fine. But with the original 100 MHz 601s, OS X halts at some stage early in the boot process. I think they will never work. d. Many TNTs are highly sensitive to RAM and cache settings. Some people think that the models designated VAL4 are rubbish. Not so - I have VAL4s which work perfectly, and later boards which simply will not run at 50 MHz bus with L2 cache (but are quite happy without). The only practical approach is to test what you've got. Pair up the RAM to perfection (for interleaving) and experiment with L2 cache if you want to use it. You can do these experiments using an original 100 MHz 601 cpu (since it still drives the bus at 50 MHz). Once you've got a stable rig, it should be stable in any version of Mac OS, including OS X. You may find better stability if both RAM and VRAM are 60 ns speed. At 50 MHz, the spec demands only 70 ns, but experience has taught us that the timings get very tight. Remember that these boards can still deliver the goods. Interleaved RAM makes a helpful boost to memory bandwidth; while the RAM timings are such that the boards only have the same number of wait-states as Pentium boards clocked at 66 MHz. So TNTs are far from being rubbish. And Ryan deserves a Nobel Prize. Gerald. -- Unsupported OS X is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Unsupported OS X list info <http://lowendmac.com/lists/unsupported.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/unsupportedosx%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
