Mac mini G4 OS 9 reports

[Mk.558]

Hey folks.

Considering swapping my two iMac G4s for a Mac mini G4 to run OS 9 and Tiger. I heard that the macos9lives forum got some nerds together and figured out how to run OS9 on Mac mini G4s. They have put together an installer set up that works right out of the box, it seems pretty neat.

Has anybody here tried it? Any issues? Things to know? Stuff that doesn't work? I'm aware that sleep doesn't work, but it's hard to see what else.

 

[archer174]

It’s working well for me with the exception of my mouse. The new version was supposed to have fixed it, but I still have issues where I have to unplug/replug it. Other than that once you install an ssd the mini is the perfect os 9 machine and is small enough to live on my desk full time. 

 

[rplacd]

Stuff that doesn't work – AirPort doesn't work, the sound's stuck on one volume. I've also had issues where I haven't been able to use a mouse plugged into a keyboard hub without installing USB Overdrive.

But other than that, yes, it's a pretty goddamn bonkers machine to run OS 9 on!

 

[Cory5412]

Yeah, someone benched one, it's faster than most upgraded PowerMac G4s. By all accounts, it's better as an OS 9 machine than as an OS X machine, just due to not having CoreImage support and having a RAM ceiling of one gig, vs. 1.5-2 for a lot of PowerMacs. (It's probably "fine" but you can stuff a newer GPU and more RAM into a QS'02 or an MDD and get better OS X performance and it's my experience that for the most part 9 performance basically stops scaling up after a stock blue-white G3.)

I kind of want to get one, mostly so I can still run a low power ASIP6 server when vtools flips over to being run with OS X. My daily puttering Mac OS 9 machines will probably continue being G3s of various sorts.

 

[NJRoadfan]

I find running OS 9 on New World machines kinda boring. They lack all the legacy features that I normally use classic Mac OS for! That being said, I had one program (Bernie ][ the Rescue) that required OS 8 or 9 to run correctly. Classic would screw up the video and audio.

 

[cheesestraws]

As someone who isn't really very interested in MacOS 9 but for whom it's pragmatically useful occasionally, I've found the mini to be an ideal OS 9 machine.  It's quick, stableish—as stable as 9 gets, anyway—and easy to get out of the way when I don't need it.

 

[Mk.558]

I mostly intend it to be a Tiger machine, so as my iMac G4 has 512MB of RAM, the Mac mini would help it stretch its legs a bit more with its 1GB capacity. I only occasionally use OS 9 on the iMac G4 for vintage stuff, it's a cool machine but it suffers from the usual iMac G4 issues: Power supply woes, display necks getting weak on the bushings, clunky and has a large foot print.

Wouldn't it have been cool if they took the Apple Studio Display, put the iMac logic board on the back of it, used a laptop CD drive and hard drive? Probably would have sold well: the articulating arm of the 'G4 is neat but ... I dunno.

I have used it for 10.2.8 before, but I hardly use it anymore for that. It's really hard to find stuff for Jaguar these days that Tiger doesn't do better. Tiger is a great OS.

 

[CC_333]

Wouldn't it have been cool if they took the Apple Studio Display, put the iMac logic board on the back of it, used a laptop CD drive and hard drive? Probably would have sold well: the articulating arm of the 'G4 is neat but ... I dunno.

Apple actually did make such a machine, so to speak.  It's called the iMac G5

c

 

[jimjimx]

@Mk.558

My G4 mini is great! 

1.42GHz, 1GB RAM, 128MB mSATA SSD..

Use a Apple or Kensington mouse for less problems, Bluetooth doesn’t work, and even the Logitech unifying mouse wont work...

currently my Kensington mouse is better...

Audio output is about 60% - 80% up, at all times, but I use an external mixer....

No wireless, WiFi, or Bluetooth, there’s no OS9 drivers for the “modern” hardware, that came out 4 years after OS9 was killed.

I don’t use sleep, so I don’t have a problem there... But it comes with a program called “Sleeper” that is supposed to be 100% compatible, and I think they even removed the ability to use the built in Apple sleep function. 

@archer174

@rplacd

Are you using an Apple or Kensington mouse, or other?

I only have a problem about every 15 startups..

If I use a HP or other Microsoft type mouse, it’s about 1 in 5, or sometimes not at all!!!

 

[Mk.558]

Arise from the grave...

I bought a 1.25GHz mac mini G4 about a week ago. Problems -- well, getting OS 9 set up on it was difficult, because Disk Utility doesn't always present you with the option to Install Mac OS 9 Drivers. I had some POS 1080p monitor that ran fine with a DVI -> HDMI cable under OS X, but not under OS 9. No resolution was compatible under OS 9, so I had to use DVI -> VGA. However I acquired a 1440p 144Hz monitor recently and that works just fine under both system versions, no issues. The only thing I don't like about the 1440p monitor is that it is more difficult to swap between display inputs (i.e. my main machine runs on DisplayPort, the mini uses one of the HDMI ports, but it's a OSD menu dance to toggle between them).

As others have mentioned, yes Bluetooth and WiFi won't work. A number of people over at MacOS9Lives have indicated issues with 1.5GHz mac minis. For some reason mine doesn't even have AirPort installed -- I was told they come with it by default. You have to load up OS 9 from the Option boot menu, as OS X won't detect Mac OS 9. When you reboot, you'll end up in OS X, unless you make some NVRAM changes. Sound -- it's fixed volume, you'll need a mixer or some kind of volume booster if it's too low or high for you unless you use a USB audio device. I also noticed my Corsair K55 RGB keyboard, which normally worked fine for pulling up OpenFirmware on my iMac G4, doesn't work to pull up the Option boot menu on the mini.

At the end of the day these minor issues aren't too big of a deal: I rarely use OS 9, and when I do it's for old stuff that works best natively, such as AppleTalk stuff. The bigger deal was to save space on my desk, as 1440p monitors (mine's a 27"/ 69cm) can take up a lot of space.

A bigger issue for y'all to worry about is the price of these things. I found 1 of 2 on eBay for $100, there were a handful pushing $300-400, which is ridiculous. They're not worth that much: they're so far behind in modern utility (as the browsers aren't compatible, you can forget about YouTube and stuff) and performance there's very little use case for them. The same can be said of the early Core Duo mac minis -- their GPUs are rubbish.

 

[cheesestraws]

Do you have the fun issue where every time you mount an AppleShare volume the DVD player tries to play it?

I've only had it on that machine and it's hilarious but inconvenient

 

[Mk.558]

I can't say I have. I have yet to finish setting it up. But sounds hilarious yes and annoying.

 

[ArmorAlley]

I use a 1,5Ghz Mac Mini G4 as my LAN server. I have ASIP 6.x on it and it makes a great bridge machine between the rest of the LAN (all older Macs) and the Internet (mostly Macintosh Garden).
I also (used to) play Deus Ex on it and it's good for that. I have attached to a 1600x1200 LCD monitor via a KVM.
The usual problems are the imperfect sound ( I have a bluetooth box attached via the headphone sound), DVI shenanigans (I use VGA), the occasional freezing of the mouse in the upper left-hand corner on startup and the odd system freeze.

 

[pfuentes69]

For me a cheap USB sound adapter did the trick to have proper sound again in games and so on

 

[ArmorAlley]

For me a cheap USB sound adapter did the trick to have proper sound again in games and so on

I plan to try this with a rev. A model. All 1.5GHz models are rev. B.

 

[pfuentes69]

I plan to try this with a rev. A model. All 1.5GHz models are rev. B.

Mine is 1.5 but AFAIK both problems:
- No internal audio
- Bad quality external audio
Happen with all models.