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Is there a way to preserve the network selection (Ethernet) without a PRAM battery?

Scribe

Active member
But, it sounds like you've been accidentally stripping resource forks by transferring the files already decompressed. Sorting that and you'll be able to do exactly what you set out to do :)
So I sorted out the decompressing-before-transfering issue, aaaaaand... it didn't make a difference.
"PRAM Auto-Restore" still crashes when I try to select it in Control Panel (in System 6), as does everything else I try -- except for the ones that don't seem to do anything at all.
If I could get something to actually work, the most promising one would probably be "ForcePRAM" -- it looks like it is designed to check the current PRAM setting against the preferred settings and if they don't match it changes them and reboots. At least I think that's what it does.
Anyway, It looks like I'm out of luck on the software front.
 

Scribe

Active member
one idea is an external battery holder, or a coin cell adapter(they almost never fail).
Some poking around the forums turned up the coin-cell adapters. I did not see any posts about an external battery holder -- at least not any that didn't require soldering.
Soldering is out of my comfort zone. If there are any non-soldering external-battery solutions I'd love to hear about them.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation.
 

Crutch

Well-known member
I don’t have an SE, does it have a removable 1/2 AA battery like an SE/30?

If so, as a I have posted elsewhere … buy an appropriate-diameter piece of doweling from your local hardware store. Have them cut it for you to the appropriate length so it is the size and shape of the battery, with a little extra room on either end for screws. Screw a wood screw into each end. Buy a coin battery holder from Amazon, find one with very long leads. Mount it on the rear of your case with a Velcro dot. Strip the two leads and thread them into the security slot. Wrap one around the screw on each end of your piece of wood. Shove the piece of wood into the battery holder. Close up your Mac. Put a coin battery into your new external battery compartment. It should last for years.
 

rjkucia

Well-known member
But, it sounds like you've been accidentally stripping resource forks by transferring the files already decompressed. Sorting that and you'll be able to do exactly what you set out to do :)
I *believe* that modern macOS still preserves resource forks, and they will continue to be preserved if transferring over AFP. However, it's still probably a good habit to just wait to decompress on the older machine.
 

rjkucia

Well-known member
Some poking around the forums turned up the coin-cell adapters. I did not see any posts about an external battery holder -- at least not any that didn't require soldering.
Soldering is out of my comfort zone. If there are any non-soldering external-battery solutions I'd love to hear about them.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation.
Here is a coin-cell adapter that I've seen recommended, although I haven't used it myself: https://www.etsy.com/listing/111984...allery-1-1&cns=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1
 

Phipli

Well-known member
I *believe* that modern macOS still preserves resource forks, and they will continue to be preserved if transferring over AFP. However, it's still probably a good habit to just wait to decompress on the older machine.
:)

Assuming they used AFP?

Given every program they downloaded was broken, it is likely that they're not being transfered without damage. I'm not going to start from the assumption that everything is fine because that wouldn't leave many issues to find.
 

Paralel

Well-known member
I don’t have an SE, does it have a removable 1/2 AA battery like an SE/30?

If so, as a I have posted elsewhere … buy an appropriate-diameter piece of doweling from your local hardware store. Have them cut it for you to the appropriate length so it is the size and shape of the battery, with a little extra room on either end for screws. Screw a wood screw into each end. Buy a coin battery holder from Amazon, find one with very long leads. Mount it on the rear of your case with a Velcro dot. Strip the two leads and thread them into the security slot. Wrap one around the screw on each end of your piece of wood. Shove the piece of wood into the battery holder. Close up your Mac. Put a coin battery into your new external battery compartment. It should last for years.

Makes sense to me.
 

Scribe

Active member
I don’t have an SE, does it have a removable 1/2 AA battery like an SE/30?

If so, as a I have posted elsewhere … buy an appropriate-diameter piece of doweling from your local hardware store. Have them cut it for you to the appropriate length so it is the size and shape of the battery, with a little extra room on either end for screws. Screw a wood screw into each end. Buy a coin battery holder from Amazon, find one with very long leads. Mount it on the rear of your case with a Velcro dot. Strip the two leads and thread them into the security slot. Wrap one around the screw on each end of your piece of wood. Shove the piece of wood into the battery holder. Close up your Mac. Put a coin battery into your new external battery compartment. It should last for years.
Sounds like a plan. Thanks!
 

Scribe

Active member
:)

Assuming they used AFP?

Given every program they downloaded was broken, it is likely that they're not being transfered without damage. I'm not going to start from the assumption that everything is fine because that wouldn't leave many issues to find.
I did the transfers using a MacIPpi -- I think that means I used AFP.
I've been able to download other files to the SE with no problem. The issue was only with the PRAM-related stuff. Given that most of the PRAM-saving utilities which come with documentation say that they were designed for System 7, it makes sense to me that they wouldn't work on System 6.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
I did the transfers using a MacIPpi -- I think that means I used AFP.
I've been able to download other files to the SE with no problem. The issue was only with the PRAM-related stuff. Given that most of the PRAM-saving utilities which come with documentation say that they were designed for System 7, it makes sense to me that they wouldn't work on System 6.
Ah, that's a shame.

It's probably easiest to get a coincell adapter. If the software doesn't exist for your OS.
 

Paralel

Well-known member
There is an old piece of Apple software that was intended for the Powerbook series, but I think it can do what you want, and there is no reason it shouldn't work with any given Mac. It's called Location Manager. There are two versions, one is for MacOS 7.6, and one for MacOS 8.1. I took a look at the one for for MacOS 7.6, and I don't see any reason it wouldn't work on 7.5.x series of MacOS, it seems like an artificial limitation on the installer. Earlier than 7.5.x, I have no idea, someone that can look at what it requires would know better than I. If one wanted to change the limitation on the installer it seems as though it should at least work with earlier version of the 7.5.x MacOS.

The description file for it says: "...to maintain settings such as default printer, Extensions Manager sets, file sharing, networking, sound, and time zone for particular locations." It seems to have been intended if you needed one set of settings for Work and then a different one for Home, or if you were Away in another country and wanted an easy way to switch all the settings easily. From what I can tell it saves the settings into a file on the hard drive.

Here is the text file for it:


This is the software itself:

 

Scribe

Active member
There is an old piece of Apple software that was intended for the Powerbook series, but I think it can do what you want, and there is no reason it shouldn't work with any given Mac. It's called Location Manager. There are two versions, one is for MacOS 7.6, and one for MacOS 8.1. I took a look at the one for for MacOS 7.6, and I don't see any reason it wouldn't work on 7.5.x series of MacOS, it seems like an artificial limitation on the installer. Earlier than 7.5.x, I have no idea, someone that can look at what it requires would know better than I. If one wanted to change the limitation on the installer it seems as though it should at least work with earlier version of the 7.5.x MacOS.
Thanks for the reply.
I'm looking for a solution that will work for System *6*. I might consider System 7.1, but 7.5 runs waaaaay too slow on a Mac SE for me to consider it.
 

Scribe

Active member
I was wondering how you would deal with opening the case with the wires threaded through the security slot battery. Now I see that you put in a little connector doohickey. I assume it's to unplug the battery in order to take apart the Mac.
I assume I can find that kind of connector on Amazon. What is it called?
 

Phipli

Well-known member
I was wondering how you would deal with opening the case with the wires threaded through the security slot battery. Now I see that you put in a little connector doohickey. I assume it's to unplug the battery in order to take apart the Mac.
I assume I can find that kind of connector on Amazon. What is it called?
This isn't identical, but is similar. They're both commonly used as leads for batteries in small drones. They're generically called "JST" I think, but that is a brand, not type so it is unhelpful.

 
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