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Running Mac OS X Natively on Pegasos
Peter writes "The Pegasos is an interesting new platform, being one of the very few affordable non-Apple PowerPC systems. But to be a real alternative for me, I want it to run Mac OS X directly (without the need to use Mac-on-Linux or such). Have any of you Slashdot readers done this, and how much hacking did it take?" The Pegasos currently uses a G3/600, and ships with Debian Linux for PowerPC and MorphOS.
That there's more to the "proprietary"/"closed" nature of the Mac platform than just the processor, right?
Well, technical issues aside, it's forbidden in the OS X licence agreement to run the OS on non-Apple hardware. (disclaimer: not a Mac user, can't be 100% on the wording of the licence)
;)
Whether or not it's technically possible to find a workaround to boot it without an Apple BIOS is another matter. I'm sure it will be possible though somehow
"Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
Mac OS X doesn't rely on the toolbox ROM, though. What it probably _does_ rely on is a version of OpenFirmware compatible enough with the version implemented on Apple's motherboards.
- There is no "dual" 1.6GHz G5; only a single processor model exists.
- Even if you were mistaken about dual, and it's really a single 1.6GHz G5, the 1.6GHz model does not have PCI-X. Only the 1.8GHz and dual-2.0GHz models feature PCI-X.
- "Trying to install Star Control 2"? You mean, the 11 year old game? How, exactly, are you "trying to install" it? Nice one.
- The rest of your post is laughable, especially the part where you forget you said "dual 1.6GHz" and then say "this G5 dual 2GHz"
- Nice troll, anyway
For those of you who don't know, the company behind Pegasos is focused on creating the ultimate "geek" machine. A number of Pegasos machines have been provided to various alternative OS developments, and it seems that the alternative OS market is a good niche that should allow this company to thrive.
from www.pegasosppc.com/operating_systems.php
"The following Operating Systems are in final stages of being ported to the Pegasos Platform and should be completed soon: AROS, Gentoo, Knoppix, NewOS, OpenBSD, QNX
The following Operating Systems are in the early stages of being ported to the Pegasos Platform: AmigaDE, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBeOS, OpenDarwin, Zynot
The following Operating Systems can be run on the Pegasos through emulation: Amiga OS 3.x, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X"
Personally speaking, as a fan of silent machines and a user of a PC that exclusively runs Linux, I am very tempted by this machine. I don't have to worry about the company going bust because by running Linux, I can easily switch hardware platforms should I need to, and I can play with Morphos and all this Mac stuff too.
Not only does the Apple ROM need to be in place (or a substitute for it, such as MOL) OSX also needs to have drivers for the particular chipset the pegasos uses. drivers for the audio that the pegasos uses. drivers for the type of usb, ata, firewire, parallel and floppy controllers that the pegasos uses
None of which are in OSX
I am not sure what the obsession with people prepared to spend an unlimited amount to avoid buying from Apple
s .html
From the UK Pegasos site [1] the bare motherboard appears to be $500 which seems somewhat high for a 600MHz G3 - adding disc/memory/peripherals + operating system this doesnt look like a very good deal given that I can by an 800MHz G4 eMac complete with OS-X for $799.
[1] http://www.pegasos-uk.com/english/products_pegaso
New macs still come with NS 4.77
Wow... let's get up to date.
Apple's New World ROM based machines which have been shipping for quite some time now (think B&W G3 and the original iMac) are closer to CHRP type systems. A basic OpenFirmware ROM is what is on the motherboard. The rest of the old "Macintosh ROM" is loaded from disk for Mac OS
For more information, see: Apple Technical Note TN1167, The Mac ROM Enters a New World.
Darwin is roughly equivalent to the Mac OS X CoreOS and one would have to write a new platform support code and relevant drivers. One could copy over the parts from a Mac OS X CD after getting Darwin to work. However, to be legal, one would have to obtain a license from Apple that is different from the license that is on the current retail product. But it's not the ROM.
Apple's Darwin *is* open source... if you could somehow hack the Darwin kernel to recognize and boot on that hardware, then it should be able to work. The problem is, that would probably take a serious amount of work, not to mention the possible legal snares with Apple
:-)
Frankly, I don't see such possibility. APSL allows you to modify Darwin code in a manner quite similar to the GPL - you can modify all you want, provided that you will distribute the modified code with all due copyright notices and disclamiers and will clearly mark all your amendments.
The important parts of the APSL are:
You may modify Covered Code and use, reproduce, display, perform, internally distribute within Your organization, and Externally Deploy Your Modifications and Covered Code, for commercial or non-commercial purposes, provided that in each instance. You also meet all of these conditions: (...) cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that You changed the files and the date of any change (...) You must make Source Code of all Your Externally Deployed Modifications either available to those to whom You have Externally Deployed Your Modifications, or publicly available.
Please don't confuse Darwin with MacOS X. Darwin is free (as in beer and actually as in GPL) but Darwin itself is nothing but Yet Another Un*x Clone. MacOS X is proprietary and that's the one with all that eye-candy and iApps
Disregarding the Apple ROM NewWorld or OldWorld, the support can be added to OS X for the various chipsets found on a pegasos board. There is a widely used project XPostFacto which includes specifically developed kernel modules to support OldWorld hardware will allow one to install and run OS X on an OldWorld machine. So I'm sure similar methods could be used to support the chipsets on the pegasos boards.
Moderating to further my personal world domination agenda... and to get chicks.
Not the cpu in this case. A newer iBook will certainly have a Quartz Extreme compatible gpu, while the older G4 macs may not. Quartz Extreme support makes the difference in feel between the systems - it really is a big speed boost for drawing stuff on the screen. Check the model and amount of memory in the graphics cards before you assume the performance difference is due to the cpu.
You also neglect to pay attention to other aspects of that site.
While yes, Apple's implimentation of Open Firmware is Apple's and Apple's alone, other versions of Open Firmware do exist, and following the OF spec, an OS that runs on OF runs on all flavors pretty much the same.
The Pegasos comes with it's own OF, called SmartFirmware, and it runs quite nicely.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
It is a made-up, childish word along the lines of idiot or moron.
There's a difference between "there's a list of strings in the kernel that bears a startling resemblance to the list of processors that NeXT and Apple have ever ported to" and "Apple has Mac OS X ready for that list of processors".
Let's look at the list:
The only surprise to me in that list is i860.
(Yes, I know, that posting, especially with the "Apple have OSX ready for FAR more than just the PPC boxes they're shooting with now." statement - right, Apple's got Mac OS X ready to run on shiny new Motorola 88K workstations - is so silly it was probably a troll, and I bit. Oh, well....)
The old pegasos computer isn't produced longer and probably out of stock everythere. But the pegasos2 is supposed to get released during september and will future a much better price/performance ratio since it will be sold for the same price ($499) but are very likely to have three gigabit ethernet ports, PCI-X, 1-1.4GHz G4 and so on. G4 card for the old pegasos costs $200, aswell as to replace your pegasos with a pegasos2, which is a very nice price since you can/could get the pegasos for 299, pay 200 later and then have a pegasos 2.