Booting Mac OS 8.1 from PCMCIA CF-reader.

[teroyk]

So far:

- I managed 128 MB Compact Flash card with HFS format to work with Powerbook 540 and CF-reader in PCMCIA-slot.

- I copied Mac OS 8.1 system folder from that powerbook's internal SCSI to that CF card.

- I change start up disk to that CF.

- Restart

- Boot start nicely from CF and extension icons loading 3 times faster than before.

- Swatch-icon spinning forever just after Finder menu-bar appear.

- Restart with extensions off

- shift-button to rebuilt desktop and rebuilding desktop window appear with working progress-bar.

- And then swatch-icon spinning forever just after rebuilt desktop window gone.

Any hints what try to next or did I forget to do something?

 

[Elfen]

Everything looks fine from this point, as I have several CFs to boot PCMCIA Mac Laptops with. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Next steps is to trim the System Control Panels and Extensions. You don't need Novell Networking and IBM TokenRing (as examples.)

I recommend getting PowerPC Checker and trim the Pow2erPC Code from System and Finder Files. This will shrink the files, free up more RAM and make them boot faster. Only issue with that is that it will only run 68K Mac Laptops (520, 540, 550, and 190 PowerBooks).

Again, enjoy.

 

[teroyk]

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. My problem is that Finder menubar comes, but no any icons to desktop and swatch mouse cursor spinning forever. Restart doesn't help. I have to zap PRAM and boot from internal SCSI to get working Finder again.

What is actually minimum files in System Folder that I can boot from CF to Finder?

Thanks for that file trimming advise.

 

[rsolberg]

I wonder if it could be a partitioning/formatting issue. Did you initialise the CF card on the PowerBook in Mac OS 8.1 using Drive Setup, or by other means? I have a little suspicion it might have something to do with a lack of the Mac OS disk drivers being installed on the disk.

 

[teroyk]

I have to first Initialize it in Mac OS 9 at PPC machine, before OS 8.1 see that card and when I first time put card to to 68k Powerbook it asks to initialize or give card. And it was Initialize with that. Is there any software to check how it is initilialized?

 

[marmanold]

I was able to get this working by booting into Max OS X 10.0 on an old iBook.  It allowed me to use a USB reader to format the drive.  From there, I booted back into Mac OS 9 and copied the contents of a working boot image and an ISO of the 8.6 installation CD.  I was able to get a clean, bootable install from there.

Full Post - http://www.marmanold.com/retro/booting-a-powerbook-1400-from-compact-flash/

 

[ArmorAlley]

A few thoughts - is it possible to boot from the PCMCIA slot on the 500 series? It seems so, but it would be good if someone could confirm it. The PCMCIA slot is IDE, to the best of my knowledge, and I thought that the first Macs to be able to boot from IDE were the PB190/5300 and the LC/P/Q630.

Secondly, you booted with extensions off. I wonder if there is an extension that is necessary for PCMCIA support?

Thirdly, could it be that the ATA level of the card is too high? My 1998 Wallstreet didn't like the 2009 Transcend IDE SSD that I put into and I presume still that it has to do with ATA level mismatches.

Finally, maybe the driver installed on the CF card is too new or just incompatible with Mac OS 8.1? Do you have a Mac OS 8.1 installer CD and a CD-ROM drive? When you boot from the installer, is the CF card shown as an available volume? If not, the answer may be modified version of Apple Disk Setup which will recognise the drive that you've added as an official drive.

I have seen the PB1400 boot up from a CF card and that is only 2 years' older than the PB540.

 

[bibilit]

The PCMCIA slot is IDE, to the best of my knowledge, and I thought that the first Macs to be able to boot from IDE were the PB190/5300 and the LC/P/Q630.

IIRC the very first to boot from an IDE disk was the Powerbook 150 (the one without ADB also)