setting up a G4 Tower Quicksilver 933 MHz

[MBongo]

Q: Where does one find Drive Setup 2.0.7?

Drive Setup 2.1 is available from https://www.macintoshrepository.org/689-drive-setup-2-1-2002-

And I believe that it was the last version made available with OS 9.2. (?)

This is my go-to OS 9 installer: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1657.0.html For those not registered there, it’s definitely worth the time and keystrokes to get this installer. Details: Very optimized version of Mac OS 9.2.2 for all Mac G3 and G4 Systems. This has Drive Setup 2.1.

I’ve tested various approaches extensively and found Drive Setup 2.1 to be the BEST for OS 9. And especially better than simply box-checking and installing OS 9 Drivers via Tiger. Believe me, that method yields slower performance compared to using Drive Setup 2.1.

Having just gone through all of this here again recently, testing various SSDs and mSATAs for comparisons in the G4 Mac Minis, I rushed to format everything using Tiger’s Disk Utility with “Install OS 9 Drivers” checked, thinking I would be saving time and forgetting my own guideline of always using Drive Setup 2.1. Benchmarks then rather quickly reminded me of the difference and everything was reformatted again using 2.1.

And the more common (earlier) Drive Setup 1.9.2 - is preferred for formatting FireWire drives for use with OS 9 booting machines… but it also yields less than optimum performance results when used to format primary boot drives. (Best for Firewire drives.) I keep both Drive Setup 1.9.2 and Drive Setup 2.1 in my Utilities folder on all OS 9 partitions / installations here.

As for the Adaptec SCSI card and any other added-in PCI card… all come out when installing / building “from scratch”. That’s a pain I know - but best practice.

 

[bigmessowires]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I've already finished the install after partitioning and formatting with 2.0.7 rather than 2.1. Hopefully the difference isn't major. I'm more interested in OSX performance than OS9 performance.

The second attempt at OSX 10.4 install succeeded. It requires my address and telephone number before I can start using the computer? I don't remember this, but it has been almost 20 years.

 

[Phipli]

The second attempt at OSX 10.4 install succeeded. It requires my address and telephone number before I can start using the computer? I don't remember this, but it has been almost 20 years.

Just press Cmd-Q and it backs down and lets you not enter it. It is quite deceiving.

 

[bigmessowires]

I told the registration nanny that I live at 123 Fake Street. The OSX performance with my SSD and IDE-to-SD adapter is fantastic! Boot times dropped from 1:35 to 0:25. Now to finish setting up this PCI SATA card...

 

[treellama]

The second attempt at OSX 10.4 install succeeded. It requires my address and telephone number before I can start using the computer? I don't remember this, but it has been almost 20 years.

Just press command Q when it gets there. It’ll complain and offer to skip registration so you can finish setting up an account.

 

[LaPorta]

Glad you got it going! Mine is the DVD, and it is just straight 10.4.

 

[MBongo]

Congrats on your success. When I swap mobos and SSDs here I’ll run QB 2.0 and 4.0 on an OS 9 partition and provide those results - if you’re interested. In the meantime, enjoy that Quicksilver.

*I use similar bogus info with the Registration Nanny (when I don’t opt out completely) and I use 867-5309 as my phone number. (area code 666)

 

[bigmessowires]

OMG, this is amazing. The SATA card is working and the SSD reaches about 97 MB/sec. Even a basic Western Digital Green SATA drive was nearly as fast. More detailed disk benchmarks soon.

I'm surfing the web on a G4! And Apple's 10.4 update servers are still alive?!? Yes I will install three items, thank you sir!

Holy cow.

 

[bigmessowires]

When I swap mobos and SSDs here I’ll run QB 2.0 and 4.0 on an OS 9 partition and provide those results - if you’re interested.

Yes, would definitely be interested!

 

[LaPorta]

Oh it updates 10.4…you’ll probably have to restart 4 times and get 5 Java updates before you are done!

 

[bigmessowires]

I'm surfing the web on a G4!

*For sites that don't use https or javascript, apparently. There's no vintage-friendly interface for 68kMLA?

 

[Phipli]

*For sites that don't use https or javascript, apparently. There's no vintage-friendly interface for 68kMLA?

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/interwebppc-browser-a-rebrand-of-tenfourfox-the-future

 

[LaPorta]

Also Macintosh Garden is easily available

 

[bigmessowires]

Posting from the G4 Quicksilver!

Damn son, this is mighty impressive. Here I am using current web sites, running a 1600 x 1200 monitor, with an OS that feels comfortably modern. And when I need additional software, I just go to the Garden and download it - no faffng about with images and disk emulators. I could almost forget this is a vintage computer from 2002.

Thanks for the pointer to InterWebPPC. 68kMLA renders fine. Typing text into this edit box feels a small bit laggy - maybe there's some Javascript processing happening on each keystroke, looking for things like @ references or other special sequences.

Network speeds feel a bit slow. It took about two minutes to download IntrWebPPC even though it's only about 70 MB. I tried visiting speedtest.net, but gave up after five minutes of waiting for it to load all its ads. It must have hit over 100 different ad sites before I killed it.

Built-in ethernet is 10 Mbps? Or 100? Fast.com rated me 26 Mbps. Maybe that's not the bottleneck anyway.

OK, I see that running more than a couple tabs at once will bring everything to a grinding halt. Need more than 768MB RAM?

Outside of web browsing, OSX feels extremely quick and responsive. I could easily mistake this for my current desktop computer. 10.4 really doesn't look and feel that much different than Ventura.

 

[LaPorta]

Believe it or not, QuickSilver is blessed with 1000 Base-T, so I’d check your connections and router, etc.

For questions like that, I’d recommend getting a MacOS and iOS based application called MacTracker. Absolutely chock full of all the stats on all of our macs. AppStore is where it is now.

I’m glad you are having fun with it! I didn’t know about that browser, I’ll have to check it out. Mine has 1 GB RAM and it’s pretty happy, your 768 should be ok.

 

[LaPorta]

Here’s what I was just doing with my QuickSilver: emulating the 80s arcade game U.N. Squadron and playing the game with my son:

 

[bigmessowires]

Gigabit Ethernet! Such luxury. I was using a Cat 5 cable, so maybe that was part of my network speed problem, or maybe it's upstream somewhere else. I'll check it again tomorrow.

It's funny to see you're using an old computer to emulate and even older video game! I hope your son had fun with it.

I see you already have an Apple Studio Display, so what interests you about the one I'm trying to give away? Do you need a second one?

You were right about those Java updates. I think there were eight total rounds of updates, with the last four simply being more and more Java. I could have done without those, but I'm glad Apple still maintains the servers so I could get the .11 update for 10.4.

 

[LaPorta]

I just love the displays of that era. At that age, I was stuck in the "Performa and iMac forever" due to price loop and always wanted a Power Mac/G3, then G4 tower. I just figured if you were offering, and no one else bit, a dual display setup might be cool!

What have you started doing with yours now that you got it connected and can download more software?

 

[LaPorta]

…oh, and how could I forget my other earlier G4s that don’t have monitor!

 

[bigmessowires]

Yeah I can definitely see the appeal of the G3 and G4 towers if you were in an upgrade loop. Especially if you were coming from something like a beige G3, the towers were infinitely more cool. Personally I missed this whole era, essentially checking out of the Macintosh world after the first-gen PowerPCs and not returning until much later.

For the Quicksilver, I've got a USB 2.0 PCI card to install, then I plan to benchmark some USB drives against internal drives for curiosity's sake.

I also have an alternative AGP video card with DVI output that I can experiment with. I'd thought it would be valuable to have digital video output, but frankly the VGA output looks fine even at high resolutions. I wish there were a video card with dual DVI or dual VGA though. Both of the cards I have now are ADC plus a second connector (VGA or DVI). Although the Apple Studio Display has some historical interest to me, I don't really want to keep around a single-use 17-inch LCD. If I want to play with a dual-monitor setup, it would be more convenient to use two normal LCDs from the large fleet I have. But the ADC-to-DVI adapter is selling for silly prices now. There's no earthly reason I actually need dual monitors, though.

After that... play Tetris Max? Honestly I don't really use my vintage Macs for anything, I just enjoying repairing them and tinkering with their hardware setups. They're also useful platforms for compatibility testing when I'm designing a new hardware gizmo. But I could see this G4 Quicksilver earning a special position in my collection. It's an excellent bridge machine, and with the way I've configured it, has support for IDE, SCSI, USB, and SATA drives! It occupies a very interesting spot in the Macintosh timeline - it's old enough to directly boot OS9 and run ancient software, or directly mount old drives, but also new enough to actually use on the web and easily interoperate with a 2023 Mac via file sharing or disk images. The only other things I could ask for would be ADB and a real floppy drive with 400K/800K disk capability.