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[PARTIAL SUCCESS!] 7.6 on 32-bit dirty Macs

Y

youjuoufudtgd

6502
I just noticed (by accident) that the Disk Tools Floppy included with 7.6 will boot on a 68000/020/030-24bit. As far as I know, it is actually a 7.6 System file, and not 7.5.5 renamed. So I tried to get the Install Me First disk to work.

I replaced (based on previous "OS 8 on 030" hacks) the following from the Disk Tools system file:

'boot' ID 3 , 'gbly' id -16385

And the installer booted! (It needs 8 MB RAM to start the install, so this excludes Plus/SE/Classic)

PROBLEM 1: I can't add "Wish I were" to the Install Me First disk, because there is no System folder. Attempting to move the System file into a folder and adding Wish I Were to it results in a Sad Mac, probably because the disk has oddball boot blocks that make it boot without a System Folder, and start the installer.

I worked around this by booting from Disk Tools with WIW added and then using a 2nd drive for the Install Me First. It installs perfectly.

PROBLEM 2: Once installed, the system does not boot even if 'boot' ID 3 , 'gbly' id -16385 are changed. It freezes on Welcome to Mac OS (and also tends to crash Mini vMac). 

Does anyone have any ideas? To help, the attached image is a copy of Disk tools with Wish I Were already set to Classic II.

helper_bw_76.image.zip

 

Attachments

There is a software called "Reborn" to run MacOS 8 (or 8.1?) on a 68030 Mac. Might this be related to the problem discussed here?

 
Has there been any more progress on this?

I was thinking if it would be worth going through the 7.6 installed system file and adding in resources one at a time into the Disk Tools system file to determine when and what breaks the boot up.

 
reukiodo said:
Has there been any more progress on this?

I was thinking if it would be worth going through the 7.6 installed system file and adding in resources one at a time into the Disk Tools system file to determine when and what breaks the boot up.
Click to expand...
There hasn't. I forgot I even tried this. I'm amused someone else finds it worthwhile. 

 
Haha! I guess that depends on your definition of 'worthwhile'... Similar to XPostFacto, OS9Helper, and Born Again, I was just curious how far I could push the older macs that Apple dropped with 7.6. I did some extensive searching before coming across this thread and was happily surprised that someone else had already started.

In between dissertation writing assistance, I'm playing between Basilisk and vMac to see what I can get.

 
I have Mac OS 8.1 running on my IIfx and it runs well. I have access to HFS+ and that is super.

Now, it does have 32MB RAM. I see no reason why Mac OS 7.6 shouldn't run well on, say, an SE/30 or a Mac IIcx with 8MB RAM. My memories of System 7.5.5 on a Mac Plus were that it ran but it was a bit sluggish.

Would one of the ROMinator SIMMs from BMOW make your life easier or would that be cheating?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would love to play around with a Macintosh SE/30 and max it out (including ROMinator II), but all I have with m68k is a Macintosh Classic and PowerBook 520c.

At least I've gotten the Control Strip to play well on 68000 (vMac Classic), but I think this will likely not surprise anyone.

Screen Shot 2018-06-17 at 00.50.40.png

 
Maybe also no surprise that Finder from 7.6 works in vMac Classic (still bare 68000 cpu), but seems to be using more precious RAM.

Screen Shot 2018-06-17 at 02.03.56.png

 
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