OS X on a PowerBook 1400c 400 Mhz G3

[Sawtoothdude]

I was hoping to put a version of Mac OS X, Preferably 10.2 or 10.0, on my PowerBook. Is this possible?

It has a 400Mhz G3 processor,64MB of RAM and a 10GB Drive.

Thanks, and if it's impossible, let me know.

 

[alk]

No.

Not possible.

OS X cannot run on NuBus systems or systems with a PowerPC 601. This precludes its use on 6100, 7100, 8100, 7200, 7500, PowerBook 5300 series, PowerBook 1400 series, 6200, 6300 (except 6360), 5200, and 5300 Macs and all associated clones.

Peace,

Drew

 

[Sawtoothdude]

I'm guessing it's because of the NameregistryLib?

Anyways thanks. The machine is screaming fast in 9 though.

 

[equill]

Perhaps beddereven in OS 8.6? For me, the overheads of OS 9.1 are not worth the space or the RAM in a similarly tricked-out 1400: (Sonnet) G3/400MHz, 64MB (single 48MB RAM card), IBM 4GB HDD, VIEWpowr video-out card and Farallon EtherMac PC card. Keep in mind that Target Disk mode, if it concerns you, is 'off, dear', for HDDs of greater than 4GB. It's a ROM feature, and therefore irremediable.

de

 

[Metalchic]

on the subject of the PB1400c/cs computers, idk if this is standard but mine was build with a 166MHz 603e CPU, with a Cresendo G3 upgrade and a little bit of spiceing a Laptop DVD drive into a dead PB1400 CDROM module i dont see any reason that OSX.1 (mabye a little later??) should not work.

 

[iMac600]

Because the motherboard itself is based on an architecture called NuBus. OS X is just not capable of booting on a NuBus system and will only boot on a PCI architecture board.

Therefore OS X will never boot on a 1400, regardless of how upgraded it is.

It would be like trying to run Windows NT PPC on a Mac, the CPUs are the same, but the way the system pretty much handles everything else isn't the same and in turn isn't compatible. It just doesn't work.

 

[alk]

And there's also the problem of OS X needing 96 MB of RAM and the 1400 maxing out at 64 MB.

Peace,

Drew

 

[Temetka]

Will it run on a 3400c?

 

[Metalchic]

Supported MacOS: 7.6-8.6, 9.0

i would say you would have to test that out.

 

[alk]

Yes, it will run on a 3400c. There is no sleep support or battery monitoring, and PC card support is limited to CardBus (no 16-bit cards, it would seem). I think I read that the backlight control is non-functional and that the backlight is on full, as well.

144 MB RAM is probably helpful.

I just installed it on my 2400c/240 via XPostFacto on a 9500 is SCSI Disk Mode, but I can't boot it. I'm not done playing around, yet, though.

Peace,

Drew

 

[Quadraman]

No.
Not possible.

OS X cannot run on NuBus systems or systems with a PowerPC 601. This precludes its use on 6100, 7100, 8100, 7200, 7500, PowerBook 5300 series, PowerBook 1400 series, 6200, 6300 (except 6360), 5200, and 5300 Macs and all associated clones.

Peace,

Drew

OS X can run on a 7200 or 7500 with a CPU upgrade.

 

[tomlee59]

Yes, a PCI-bus mac is a candidate for OSX, so a 7200 with a CPU upgrade could work. But a stock 7200 won't.

Edit: See rest of thread below. A 7200 isn't a good candidate, after all.

 

[SiliconValleyPirate]

OS X cannot run on NuBus systems or systems with a PowerPC 601. This precludes its use on 6100, 7100, 8100, 7200, 7500, PowerBook 5300 series, PowerBook 1400 series, 6200, 6300 (except 6360), 5200, and 5300 Macs

First non-NewWorld machine I ran OS X on was a 7500 with a 604e/200 in. It ran OS X 10.1 for about 8 months as a server, and was oddly usable as long as you didn't try and do too much at the same time.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

It is my understanding that OS X cannot be made to run on a 7200, no matter what; because the 7200's 601 is soldered to the motherboard, and 7200 CPU upgrades are really just 'computers on a PCI card' that don't actually kick in until their driver is active. Wow, was that ever a run-on sentence. (Sorry equill.)

Since XPostFacto can't use the PCI-card-based CPU upgrade, it can't boot OS X.

The lowest-end machine OS X can be forced to run on is the 7500 with a CPU upgrade to at least a 604. (I have run 10.1. on a G3-upgraded 7500, and on a non-upgraded 8500.)

 

[Temetka]

When I first got into OS X my box was a 200MHz 8500.

I still have that box, and although it has been way heavily upgraded, it will always be my first mac, and thus my first love. I will own that box until I can longer find parts for it.

First X I ran on it was 10.1.5. The OS ran kinda alright as long as I didn't run more than 2 or 3 programs at once. Once I slapped a G3 in, the machine was faster. Toss in 512MB of RAM, ATA/133 Controller, Rage Nexus 32MB and my new G4 ZIF and man that sucker flies. Currently running 10.2 Jaguar, soon to try Tiger.

 

[alk]

OS X can run on a 7200 or 7500 with a CPU upgrade.

OS X cannot run on a 7200.

OS X can run on a 7500 with a CPU upgrade, yes, but the 7500-as-shipped has a PowerPC 601 which cannot run OS X.

Peace,

Drew

 

[bmacsys]

And there's also the problem of OS X needing 96 MB of RAM and the 1400 maxing out at 64 MB.
Peace,

Drew

One time I got four 168 pin dimms from somewhere. I put them in my smurf G3. Took a long, long time to boot. When it finally dropped into the Finder I found out why. They were only 16 meg dimms. OSX and 64 megs of ram don't mix! From personal experience anything under 512 megs is insufficient. Bumping up even to 768 megs is much better than 512. Less disk thrashing.

 

[alk]

Did they even make 16 MB capacity PC100 DIMMs? I'm surprised!

Peace,

Drew

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I know there were 8 MB PC-66 DIMMs. I don't recall the smallest capacity PC-100 I have ever seen, though. I know I've seen a 32 MB, but not sure about smaller than that.