System 7 on a 6500

[MultiFinder]

I've been kicking around the idea of installing System 7.6 on my 6500. However, when I pop my 7.6 CD in it (which booted and installed fine on my 540c btw), and boot it off it, it tells me that the system is not supported. And when I try and run the installer after it's booted into OS 9, it tells me "This program does not run on this computer model." and quits. Any ideas? I'd really like to try out 7.6 on here.

 

[The Macster]

In MacTracker it says that OS 7.5.5 was the original OS for the 6500 and it needed a System Enabler, so it may be that 7.6 also needs an Enabler (though I always thought System Enablers went by the wayside with 7.5, it was only 7.0/7.1 that needed them). Mac OS 7.x was never really meant for PowerMacs though, it is mainly 68k code and was hacked on to the PPC, so it could well be that it needs weird enablers etc - I wouldn't bother with it myself as it's not what I see as a PPC OS, though it should be possible if you really want to try it. The disc isn't a machine-specific disc by any chance is it?

 

[MacJunky]

I had 7.6.1 on my 6500/225 w/ 32MB Radeon 7000 and 64MB RAM and it ran nice and fast. Not as fast however as my 7300/200 w/ 32MB Radeon 7000 and 160+MB RAM.

Personally I would dual boot 7.6.1 and 9.1 on that 6500. That way if you need more compatibility you can drop into OS 9 and if you can use something in 7.6.1 it is fast.

A while back I was making a custom installer&diagnostic CD for 7.6.1 and 9.1 but while the installers ran on System 7 through OS X the CDs were never bootable no matter how I burned them. I was using a zip 100 disk for all the setup then I would burn a copy of that directly to CD. The zip disk was bootable but not the CD. :/

 

[MultiFinder]

No, it wasn't a machine-specific disk. It's really odd. I know that it should work, but it just refuses to :-/

 

[alk]

The 6500/275 and 6500/300 shipped with 7.6.1 and likely won't support 7.5.5 or 7.6. It doesn't seem strange to me at all that the 6500 won't boot 7.6.

Several Macs are in this category including the Mach5 8600 & 9600 and the 2400c.

Peace,

Drew

 

[MultiFinder]

The 6500/275 and 6500/300 shipped with 7.6.1 and likely won't support 7.5.5 or 7.6. It doesn't seem strange to me at all that the 6500 won't boot 7.6.
Several Macs are in this category including the Mach5 8600 & 9600 and the 2400c.

Peace,

Drew

That's understandable for a /275+, but mine's a pretty much stock (RAM upgrade and USB PCI card) /225.

 

[MacJunky]

USB card eh? Won't be able to use that with 7.6.1. Do you need it? If so use 8.6 or something I suppose.

 

[madmax_2069]

If someone got firewire support in system 7 (which they did), then USB support should not be so hard to add, but might not work since its software controlled.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=358452