G3 Mainstreet

[Innes]

Hello

I resurrected a 233mhz Mainstreet Powerbook (borked power cable and non-booting clicky HD) and was just wondering what MacOS you guys would recommend putting on it. I have plenty of machines running 9 (which is what it's donor drive has on it too) but as this is an older 'limited' mac, i was thinking 8. I don't know a great deal about the pros of one version of 8 over another so it would be great to hear some thoughts.

New drive is 30GB, the computer's low end mac entry is telling me to partition it so it boots off an 8GB volume due to system resources not being recognised if they go over that. Fair enough

Cheers!

 

[AlpineRaven]

You mean Wallstreet?

If it is - the minimum OS is Mac OS 8.0 and maximum is OSX10.2.8 

Depend what you're comfortable with, if it was me I'd install Mac OS 8.6 on it.
Cheers

AP

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Mainstreet is correct.  The article on Wikipedia mentions the 233MHz model was nicknamed that because it lacked L2 cache.

I'd imagine there isn't much of a speed difference between 8.6 and 9.x.  How much RAM is in the machine?

 

[Unknown_K]

I never really used 8.6 much, either 8.1 or 9.1/9.22 depending on the CPU and RAM.

The 233 model without the cache also tended to have that shitty dual scan passive matrix 800x600 display.

 

[Cory5412]

If you have enough RAM, you can go all the way to 9. If you want something other than 9, then the factory preload of 8.0 or 8.1 if you can find it would be good.

I would not bother with Mac OS X on this system. It will be a bad experience.

 

[AlpineRaven]

Mainstreet is correct.  The article on Wikipedia mentions the 233MHz model was nicknamed that because it lacked L2 cache.

I'd imagine there isn't much of a speed difference between 8.6 and 9.x.  How much RAM is in the machine?

Ah oversighted that - new thing I learnt today!

Cheers

AP

 

[Innes]

RAM is 100MB, so not that much, but it boots 9.2 ok. If there's not so much that is different between MacOS 8.6 and 9 then I think I'll go older.

This is indeed the L2 lacking, crappy screen model, which is why it caught my attention, it does have VGA out so the screen wont be a major inconveniance (for sure though, it is awful ).

Quick question regarding fans, does anyone know if these are supposed to boot and run without one? When I plug the power Supply in, the fan will spin up for a second but when I actually boot the machine, there is no fan.

 

[Byrd]

The fan rarely fires up on PowerBook G3s (all models), unless is used in a particularly hot environment.

I'd stick with OS 9.1, it flies on anything G3 cacheless or not, and I find it to perform that bit better with greater stability than 8.6.

 

[galgot]

Yes , the fan spin when plugin the power brick, then boot without running the fan is normal on all Wallstreet/Mainstreet .

I have one of these :

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/25205-galgots-new-stuff/?p=324753

Got it with 8.6 installed, but then restored it to 8.1 later.

 

[Innes]

Ah thats good to know, Pismo's seems to run all the time so I guess I wasn;t expecting this.

Got me an install CD, its 'C' to boot from disk isn't it? Doesn't seem to be doing the trick here :-/

 

[Unknown_K]

The fan rarely fires up on PowerBook G3s (all models), unless is used in a particularly hot environment.

I'd stick with OS 9.1, it flies on anything G3 cacheless or not, and I find it to perform that bit better with greater stability than 8.6.

If the PRAM battery is dead and there is no charged battery installed then the Wallstreet will fire up the fan every time you boot it.

 

[jack]

If you're looking for something particularly exotic, Mac OS X Server 1.0 will run on that model I think (you have to fool the installer by going into the configuration menu). Plus, you can run 8.5 on there as well using Mac OS.app.