jimbauwens
Member
Yes, I noticed that there are still some strings left, but the most important ones are done.
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Mac os 6.0.7 for powerbook 140/170
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coius
Well-known member
I would be willing to host the image on my server (which is actually a powerbook 540 
)
You can send the image to my email pledoux@gmail.com, and I will get it up ASAP so we can post a link to it.
Thanks!
)You can send the image to my email pledoux@gmail.com, and I will get it up ASAP so we can post a link to it.
Thanks!
basalgangster
Well-known member
Inspired by the working disk image obtained from jimbauwens, and by an old usenet post from 1992 on this subject by Jay Lieske, I did some experiments. My approach was to find the minimum set of resources from the Japanese system required to make the regular English version of System 6.0.8 work on my Powerbook 170. Here are my results:
I started by using the System 6.0.8 installer to make a System 6 floppy using the "System Software for Any Macintosh" option. When I tried to start my PB170 standard System 6 boot disk, I got the expected message saying: "This startup disk will not work on this Macintosh Model. Use the latest Installer to update this disk for this model. (System 6.0.8 does not work on this model; you need a newer version that does.)." I'll call the System file from this English installation ESystem.
I compared this system file with the system file from the KanjiTalk distribution, that I'll call JSystem.
I then made an exhaustive list of differences in resources and resource lengths, using a little MPW tool written for this job. There were a lot, so I won't include it here; it's too long. But a lot of the differences were in strings, or in itlx (international) resources that seemed likely to be part of KanjiTalk and not essential.
The best candidates for essential resources at boot time were INIT's PTCH's ptch's and lpch's. All of these are various sorts of code that execute during the boot process.
INIT: There are two INIT's in the JSystem that are not present in ESystem, with IDs 2 and 12. A couple of the others (4 & 22) had different sizes. Experimenting around with those indicated that replacing INITS was not essential to boot. However, if INIT 0 was not replaced, the screen was always dark. Really dark. No backlight at all. Using the J version of INIT 2 is strongly recommended. Replacing other INITS may be a good idea, but none are required to boot. I moved them all anyway.
PTCH: All the PTCH resources in the JSystem are there in the ESystem. All but one of them are different sizes however. I tried moving them one at a time. The JSystem version of PTCH 0 is essential. Without it you get the message saying System 6.0.8 does not boot on this system. PTCH 1660 was also necessary. Without it I get a freeze during the "Welcome to Macintosh" message. None of the other PTCH resources seemed to matter, but I moved them all anyway.
lpch: The lpch resource type was not used much before System 7. Seeing 9 of them on the Japanese system seemed significant. Leaving out all the lpch resources caused the boot to fail with the message: 'This startup disk was created with "Minimal" software and will not work on this Macintosh model. Use the installer to update this disk for this model.' I don't know which lpch resources are essential and which are not. I just copied them all in. lpch (linked patch) resources are used in System 7 for machine-specific code.
snth: The snth resources are not required to boot, but they are necessary, or you will get a system crash if you try to change the alert sound. Lots of stuff in the sound manager was changing in 1991.
The .Backlight DRVR wasn't present in my ESystem. It wasn't necessary to boot, and I couldn't see any down side of not having it on my PB170, but I thought it might be important on the 140 series, so I moved it. I don't have a 140 series Powerbook to test on.
I wanted a battery level indicator in the menubar. I found that SuperClock v4 could do that, but to get it to work I had to replace ptch resources. There was no unique ptch resource in the JSystem, but there were a couple with substantial size differences. A little impatient I was at this point, so I just copied all of the ptch resources from the JSystem, and pasted them in place. I don't know which one or ones really did the trick, but after that I could turn on the battery indicator in the menubar in superclock, and it seems to be working well.
That's it, so far as I can tell, at least for the PB170. There is no need to use the Japanese version of the Finder or Multifinder. All the control panels in System 6 work as they should, except for the Portable control panel. I suppose there may be some things that still need to be moved that I haven't encountered yet. I have been using my Powerbook 170 with this system for a while now though. It puts itself to sleep and wakes up ok, and even puts itself to sleep when the battery is too low. There isn't any message though, telling you that you are almost out of battery, etc. as there is in System 7.
I also made an E version of the Portable control panel that I got from the Kanji system by hand, just changing the strings to match the version from the English version. These control panels are substantially different in where things are placed, as well as the strings. There are also big differences in the code in the Portable control panel, so I didn't try to fix the E version. I just fixed the strings in the J version.
This system is now installed on the hard disk on my PB170, and I use it by default. It is great to have System 6 on a Powerbook. The 170 never seems to have enough memory in System 7 (I am maxed out at 8 MByte).
coius, it you are interested in the Portable control panel or the entire Sys6 image, I could send them. I don't know if you already got the image from jimbauwens.
I started by using the System 6.0.8 installer to make a System 6 floppy using the "System Software for Any Macintosh" option. When I tried to start my PB170 standard System 6 boot disk, I got the expected message saying: "This startup disk will not work on this Macintosh Model. Use the latest Installer to update this disk for this model. (System 6.0.8 does not work on this model; you need a newer version that does.)." I'll call the System file from this English installation ESystem.
I compared this system file with the system file from the KanjiTalk distribution, that I'll call JSystem.
I then made an exhaustive list of differences in resources and resource lengths, using a little MPW tool written for this job. There were a lot, so I won't include it here; it's too long. But a lot of the differences were in strings, or in itlx (international) resources that seemed likely to be part of KanjiTalk and not essential.
The best candidates for essential resources at boot time were INIT's PTCH's ptch's and lpch's. All of these are various sorts of code that execute during the boot process.
INIT: There are two INIT's in the JSystem that are not present in ESystem, with IDs 2 and 12. A couple of the others (4 & 22) had different sizes. Experimenting around with those indicated that replacing INITS was not essential to boot. However, if INIT 0 was not replaced, the screen was always dark. Really dark. No backlight at all. Using the J version of INIT 2 is strongly recommended. Replacing other INITS may be a good idea, but none are required to boot. I moved them all anyway.
PTCH: All the PTCH resources in the JSystem are there in the ESystem. All but one of them are different sizes however. I tried moving them one at a time. The JSystem version of PTCH 0 is essential. Without it you get the message saying System 6.0.8 does not boot on this system. PTCH 1660 was also necessary. Without it I get a freeze during the "Welcome to Macintosh" message. None of the other PTCH resources seemed to matter, but I moved them all anyway.
lpch: The lpch resource type was not used much before System 7. Seeing 9 of them on the Japanese system seemed significant. Leaving out all the lpch resources caused the boot to fail with the message: 'This startup disk was created with "Minimal" software and will not work on this Macintosh model. Use the installer to update this disk for this model.' I don't know which lpch resources are essential and which are not. I just copied them all in. lpch (linked patch) resources are used in System 7 for machine-specific code.
snth: The snth resources are not required to boot, but they are necessary, or you will get a system crash if you try to change the alert sound. Lots of stuff in the sound manager was changing in 1991.
The .Backlight DRVR wasn't present in my ESystem. It wasn't necessary to boot, and I couldn't see any down side of not having it on my PB170, but I thought it might be important on the 140 series, so I moved it. I don't have a 140 series Powerbook to test on.
I wanted a battery level indicator in the menubar. I found that SuperClock v4 could do that, but to get it to work I had to replace ptch resources. There was no unique ptch resource in the JSystem, but there were a couple with substantial size differences. A little impatient I was at this point, so I just copied all of the ptch resources from the JSystem, and pasted them in place. I don't know which one or ones really did the trick, but after that I could turn on the battery indicator in the menubar in superclock, and it seems to be working well.
That's it, so far as I can tell, at least for the PB170. There is no need to use the Japanese version of the Finder or Multifinder. All the control panels in System 6 work as they should, except for the Portable control panel. I suppose there may be some things that still need to be moved that I haven't encountered yet. I have been using my Powerbook 170 with this system for a while now though. It puts itself to sleep and wakes up ok, and even puts itself to sleep when the battery is too low. There isn't any message though, telling you that you are almost out of battery, etc. as there is in System 7.
I also made an E version of the Portable control panel that I got from the Kanji system by hand, just changing the strings to match the version from the English version. These control panels are substantially different in where things are placed, as well as the strings. There are also big differences in the code in the Portable control panel, so I didn't try to fix the E version. I just fixed the strings in the J version.
This system is now installed on the hard disk on my PB170, and I use it by default. It is great to have System 6 on a Powerbook. The 170 never seems to have enough memory in System 7 (I am maxed out at 8 MByte).
coius, it you are interested in the Portable control panel or the entire Sys6 image, I could send them. I don't know if you already got the image from jimbauwens.
Trash80toHP_Mini
NIGHT STALKER
IIRC, there was a special European (English?) release of 6.0.8 for the PowerBook 100.
I wound up with an image of it something like ten years ago, the capability of running it was one of the things that convinced me to buy BabyPB in the early-mid Nineties.
edit: Yup, it was 6.0.8L and difficult to get in the States until it was basically of no practical use anymore. :
giolicious
Well-known member
Can you also send me a copy please?
Hey everybody.
Just because the forum rules page isn't pretty right now doesn't mean they don't apply.
Just because the forum rules page isn't pretty right now doesn't mean they don't apply.
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