Best way to get software onto an iBook

[Crutch]

Hi, I’m kind of a noob with iBooks and OS 9 so excuse this very basic question …

I have OS 9 running on my 800 MHz 14” iBook. Nice.

So … what’s the best way to get software onto it? Various old websites recommend target disk mode, but I think that won’t work with modern versions of macOS. Is there a good way to get these up and running on modern Wi-Fi? Is there a better solution?

 

[Phipli]

Hi, I’m kind of a noob with iBooks and OS 9 so excuse this very basic question …

I have OS 9 running on my 800 MHz 14” iBook. Nice.

So … what’s the best way to get software onto it? Various old websites recommend target disk mode, but I think that won’t work with modern versions of macOS. Is there a good way to get these up and running on modern Wi-Fi? Is there a better solution?

For modern Wifi you would need to use Mac OS X and an appropriate Airport card, or you can get ethernet to wifi bridges. Vonets make some, although my older models are a little... cheap.

Usually I use ethernet to move things on and off something like an iBook FTP or AppleTalk or whatever.

 

[Phipli]

Of course, USB pen drives is an option, although I sometimes find that big USB transfers aren't as reliable in Mac OS 9

 

[Forrest]

CD discs work great. FireWire is very fast. USB is slow, as this computer has USB 1 ports. You may need to use an older, smaller USB thumb drive ie. 1 GB. Ethernet also works.
OSX 10.4.11 runs great on the iBook.

 

[ArmorAlley]

If I am correct, your 800MHz 14" iBook has FireWire and an ethernet port.

1. The option that I use is a Mac Mini G4 running Mac OS 9.2.2 (using the version from MTT on Macintosh Garden).
Connect both your iBook & Mac Mini G4 to a hub or connect the two machines directly with a crossover cable and use File Sharing to connect one with the other.

2. Another option, if you have another Mac running Mac OS 9 and a firewire port is to use your iBook as an external HD (or vice versa if possible) and mount one as a volume on the desktop of the other. There is a name for this and it escapes me at the moment. An external FW hard-drive can also be used by means of sneakernet.

3. A third way is to run Basilisk II or Sheepshaver on your modern machine and burn from within the software onto CDs. Transfer the software across using sneakernet. For ISOs (well, Toast images) from the Macintosh Garden or Repository, simply burn onto CDs on your modern machine (or Mac Mini G4) and run the installers on your iBook. Be warned that many installer images are not bootable even if the original CDs were.

 

[Crutch]

You guys are awesome, what’s kind of funny is that I completely forgot about USB thumb drives …

Cheers, I’ll try some of these out.

 

[ArmorAlley]

You guys are awesome, what’s kind of funny is that I completely forgot about USB thumb drives …

They are sloooow though.
You may have a problem with more modern thumb-drives or drives over 4GB.
I don't use USB thumbdrives per se, rather SD-cards and an old SD-card adapter and it may be the adapter, now that I write these words.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I’ve never had any issues with modern thumb drives besides the fact that they’re slow. Honestly though the time to set up a bridge solution using FireWire for each file is going to take the same amount of time as just waiting for USB to finish.

 

[leshazen]

I usually keep an older machine setup just as a ftp server. Easy to access by any platform that has Ethernet

 

[MacUp72]

yes you could just stick in a little USB Wifi dongle even if the max data speed is 12 MBit/s for USB 1 / 1.1
I suppose this is your machine.
as a small browser I would recommend iCab or an older Opera.-you also could upgrade your old HDD to am IDE-SD solution.

 

[Phipli]

yes you could just stick in a little USB Wifi dongle even if the max data speed is 12 MBit/s for USB 1 / 1.1

The problem isn't the speed, but that the older stuff just won't connect to a modern network because they don't support WPA2. Its a Mac OS 9 thing.

You end up needing to set up a second, badly secured network. We're talking the type that you could hack in seconds with modern hardware.

 

[MacUp72]

obviously WEP isnt modern anymore, its a pity this iBook doesnt have a PCMCIA slot to use a cheap WPA2 compatible AirPort Express card in OSX ( not OS 9)..if you install 10.4.11 on a second partition you could benefit from WPA2 support.