Running MacOS X Panther on a 25MHz Centris
by danamania

I'm a mac junkie. I collect the machines that I once longed for but as a k id couldn't afford, and somehow managed to accrue over fifty macs. They're my hobby and my obsession. At some stage or another I've run almost every MacOS version, appreciated them for what they are, and moved on to the next.

Now, I spend all my time in Panther, Mac OS X 10.3. I do no more than reminisce over the old days with my Quadras, Mac IIs and Performas, and that's enough to keep me amused. I'm quite simple really!. Quadras have been my favourite, and it's been a runnin g joke that I'm secretly working on compiling OSX for the 68040, only having started 4 years ago all I'll end up with is a slow version of OSX 10.0. All jokes, all fun.

First thoughts.

Having used PearPC on my Athlon, my brain got to ticking over. It's an architecture independent PPC emulator. Hmm. Any old architecture should be able to run OSX - and so on to testing that. It w as several months ago that I first thought about doing this, but it took time to find a compatible SCSI drive large enough. I have plenty of 500MB drives, but that's a long way from being able to support the host OS and a PearPC install with OSX drive ima ge.

Now, PearPC only has Windows and Linux ports so far. That means running PearPC straight from Mac OS 8 just isn't going to happen without far more work than I'm willing to put into this. Fortunately Linux also works on these 68k macs - as much as I'm Quadr a obsessed, I've also been Linux-On-Quadra obsessed, and getting a Debian GNU/Linux install onto a 68k wasn't a problem. It's a tedious install process, but it works.

The host Mac.

The victi^WMac used for this little project is a Centris 650, with 68MB RAM, a 25MHz 68040 and 4GB drive - JUST big enough to fit my existing PearPC drive image. I admit to cheating when it comes to the OSX install, I plan on using the same Panther drive image as I'd used on my Athlon. I'm only being a little masochistic here, not going completely daft and trying to sit through a 68k OSX install... The waiting while Debian crawls through its own hours-long install is bad en ough.

Installing

Debian went on with the usual small hitches, mostly revolving around trying to remember just how X should be set up on these things - I always promise myself I'll take notes and keep them but never do - this time was no different :).

After that was done, I downloaded the current PearPC source, grabbed its compile dependencies and did the ./configure && make. Do I have to mention how slow this process is too? There's no compiler output streaming up the screen, more a slow creep. Contin ents drifted as I waited. For comparison, a 40MHz 68040 in a Quadra 630 will compile a 2.2 kernel in a little over 4 hours, and counting the compile time for something like KDE or OOo is best done in weeks.

Now a small setback. The 3GB panther image from the Athlon doesn't work. More accurately, it just doesn't fit on the filesystem, 2GB file limit and failure!.

Back to the athlon to create a smaller one - 1.5GB just to keep copying times low (1.5GB across 10baseT isn't fun, it's less fun when you've just tried to copy 3GB across twice and had it fail. That's more learning to be patient). That install went smooth ly.

Then at 9pm on Monday 25th October 2004, a Mac Centris 650 started booting OS X.

About an hour and a half later, the familiar Apple logo bootsplash appeared

(Those colours are wrong, yes. It's a blue background with a yellow-green apple in the centre, the hi-colour display in X using a Centris framebuffer borks the first few colours).

What next?
I Wait. According to the developers, PearPC using generic emulation (the only option on a non-x86) runs "about 500 times slower" than the host CPU. Ouch. That makes for a 0.05MHz G3, at the best. That's around 4000 times slower than the Athlon boots, and since that takes roughly 2 and a half minutes - I'm looking at at least 6.99 days. One week to boot!

Only next Monday!.

Still, I have time. It can sit there doing its hard drive thrashing, earning its place in my home :)

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What's the point?
I wanted to see OSX powered by a 68k. That's all, it's no more complex than that :).

Don't you have better things to do with your time?
No.

How useful is it?
It's not. Indeed, where PearPC on my Athlon enables me to run OSX software in a limited sense, running it on a 68k is more disabling.

It's as useful as a C64 or Apple ][ running OSX natively. How cool is that though?

But isn't this impossible? a 68k emulating a PPC?
No. You could probably emulate a PPC with sticks in the sand if you wanted to, it just wouldn't be useful. That's not to say it mightn't be more fun than installing it on a Centris, however :).

Will there be a CherryOS for the Centris?
BWAHAHA.

So what's next?
Resurrecting my Mac II (68020 with FPU) in order to get an even slower machine booting OSX. I expect to have this done by the time longhorn ships.