Saturday 27 December 2008

Install OS 4 on to a Mac mini How to

This might work it might not it worked for me.


This method should let you install on any PPC mac mini 


What you need


1 PPC mac mini any spec

2 Blank CD's

A copy of the Amiga OS 4.0 Install CD for Mac Mini G4

A copy of amiga os 4.1 (for the ATI Radeon driver)

1 CD drive from a laptop with an emergency eject button/hole

A bit of time and some tools


Part 1


Write the Amiga OS 4.0 install CD for mac mini to a CD

Copy the contents from the CD to a folder called OS4 on your hard disk

Copy the ATI Radeon drive from the OS 4.1 system\kickstart\ATIRadeon.chip to the folder on your hard disk in to the OS4\kickstart

Write the contents of the folder to a CD


Take the CD  to your mac mini.


Go in to the open firmware (ALT-CMD-O-F)


at the prompt type  


Setenv boota-device cd:


boot cd:\slb_v2


select the option 1


Press "Enter" at the "Installed mem: 1024 mega bega" prompt

Press "Enter" at the "About to build the copy of the OF tree; Code start at 0x01800000; press any key" prompt

Press "Enter" at the "All init done; about to kill OF and start ExecSG; press any key" prompt


If its works after a short while you should see the disk going in the drive.


restart the computer go in to the open firmware and eject the CD


Type at the prompt


eject cd:



Part 2


You now need to take your mac mini apart and install the laptop CD-Rom


http://www.applefritter.com/Mac_Mini_Take_Apart_Guide


Start the computer up in to the open firmware put the modified OS 4 CD in


Setenv boota-device cd:


boot cd:\slb_v2


Press "Enter" at the "Installed mem: 1024 mega bega" prompt

Press "Enter" at the "About to build the copy of the OF tree; Code start at 0x01800000; press any key" prompt


When it says  "All init done; about to kill OF and start ExecSG; press any key"

Take out the modified OS 4 CD and replace it with the  Amiga os 4.0 install CD for mac mini then press enter

After a while it will show you the workbench screen


it'll then ask you to pick you locals, closed the window

It'll then ask you to pick a keyboard layout, click use


after a little bit longer it will show you the OS4 Install Screen


Read the install instruction on the  Amiga os 4.0 install CD for mac mini and follow them to install it 

when it's install reboot the computer go in to the open firmware swap the CD's (the modified CD will now become the boot CD)


Setenv boota-device cd:


boot cd:\slb_v2


press enter 3 times at the 3 stop points (you'll just do it if you got this far)


OS4 will now load.


take the CD out (you can eject it using the media toolbox) put in your OS 4.1


Copy the Radeon file from cd:\system\dev\monitor to hd:\system\dev\monitor\


Reboot the computer and it should be all done


What still needs doing is booting off the hard disk, a network driver, a sound driver, and a USB driver


it should be possible to copy the hard disk using DD to any type of PPC mac and then it should boot if it has an OS 4.1 supported Video card


If you can improve this let me know it would be good if it could be done without taking the mac mini apart. 

Which could be done if you can modified the  Amiga OS 4.0 Install CD for Mac Mini G4 to include ATI Radeon driver.


If try this good luck. I had a bit of fun messing with the amiga os.

2 comments:

  1. It's much easier to modify an OS4.x CD using an ISO editor to include necessary files for booting off that CD first to get the slb loading and then in the Kickstart part to boot the OS4.x Installer disk...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Any chance of this working on a G5?

    ReplyDelete