Classic on Intel Macs, courtesy of SheepShaver.
I’ve gotten Mac OS 9.0.4 up and working on an Intel Mac, running off of SheepShaver. I can get out to the internet via ethernet or my workplace’s wireless network, so it looks like TCP is working fine. I can’t see the AppleTalk zones of my workplace though, though, so all printing looks like it’ll need to be set up via LPR. In terms of speed and screen redraw, it’s not that swift but it should be fine for a person who just needs to run one or two Mac OS applications.
Installing SheepShaver was fairly easy. I needed a Mac OS 9 CD (9.0, not 9.1 or 9.2.x.), a copy of a compatible Mac OS ROM (I used MacOS ROM 1.6 from MacOS ROM Update 1.0; use TomeViewer on a PPC Mac to extract the ROM from the installer,) sufficient space on my hard drive and a copy of SheepShaver (available from http://www.gibix.net/projects/sheepshaver/files/SheepShaver-2.3-0.20060514.1.MacOSX.tar.bz2.)
I started off by launching the SheepShaverGUI program, which is a graphical program used to configure SheepShaver’s settings as well as make the disk images that SheepShaver uses to boot off of. I built a one gig-sized disk image, set that as my boot volume, set my ROM’s location, then had SheepShaver boot off of my OS 9 CD by selecting “Boot From CD-ROM” on the Volumes tab in SheepShaverGUI and hitting the Start button.
From that point, it was like a normal installation of Mac OS 9. Within SheepShaver’s window, the disk image showed up mounted like a normal hard drive. I selected that and installed OS 9 onto it. After that, I applied the Mac OS 9.0.4 update normally. That’s as far as SheepShaver supported, so I shutdown OS 9 and started customizing the settings. Here’s the settings I’m using with SheepShaver:
For Ethernet, using slirp will let you share OS X’s network connection.
Notes:
1. This isn’t like Classic, where OS 9 and OS X applications co-existed on the screen. OS 9’s running in its own X11 window.
2. The OS X hard drive shows up on the Mac OS 9 desktop as a drive called “Unix”. You can copy things from the Unix drive into the Mac OS 9 environment and vice-versa.
3. There’s some weirdness with the Unix drive, where it won’t show some folders. Specifically, it doesn’t show the Mac OS 9 “Applications (Mac OS 9)” or the “System Folder” folders, which is quite bizarre. Nothing I’ve done up to this point makes either folder (even renamed!) visible on the Unix drive.
4. If you have an OS 9 Desktop Folder on your Intel Mac’s drive, SheepShaver will pick up on it while mounting the Unix drive and show whatever is in there on your Mac OS 9 desktop as generic icons. This puzzled me for a bit, before I remembered that on Mac OS, every mounted drive had its own Desktop Folder and everything in those folders from all mounted drives showed up on the desktop.
5. Looks pretty stable, though as noted before, it’s not the swiftest. When I took a peek at Apple System Profiler, the hardware it reported itself running on was a Power Mac 9500 series, with a G4 processor, running at 100MHz.
Tweet This (3)
Vanapagan on July 1st, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Why…? Thought someone would have to ask that question so I might as well be first.
Appleswitch on July 1st, 2006 at 3:35 pm
to run Forge and Anvil, Marathon series map, shapes, and physics editors. There are os X alternatives but they aren’t as good yet.
Vanapagan on July 5th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Ah yes… Marathon is a good reason for practically anything!
Wazungu on July 9th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
The only thing I can think of booting OS 9 for are some arcane type utilities, and the old Fontographer.
I was a Marathon freak back in the day. I can’t imagine playing it after playing Unreal, SOF and Doom 4. But that’s just me.
Chris Holland on July 12th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Why? because he can! heeh heh :)
this is some wild stuff i’ve gotta say. Now … i wonder if you could try running a Classic version of Softwindows, with an old version of like win95/win98 inside it :)
Chad W Smith on July 12th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
I’ve been wondering if I could do this. I need classic to run RealProducer for live Real broadcasts. I’ll have to give it a shot now.
Dr. lester M Shulman on July 24th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Does anyone know if SheepSaver will run MacDraw Pro , amplify, or DNA strider on an intel mac?
NeuroPulse on July 25th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Greetings,
I hoped and counted on someone finding a way to run OS 9 programs on Intel Macs. I have hundreds of OS 9 games! Especially Marathon and Total Annihilation. This is the first solution I came across.
Thanks
Christopher Moss on July 28th, 2006 at 8:45 am
Well done! I have been trying to get this working and the addition of the GUI app was just what I needed. I am trying to get SheepShaver to run an old Omnis 3 database that is used by a few holdout Mac medical offices in Nova Scotia to bill the government. To rewrite it is going to cost too much, we are told. Everything is fine except for the fact that when I copy the folder with the application and its associated files to the MacOS drive (I’m using 8.6 on it) the database itself and the database document don’t show up in the Finder. They don’t have strange names, and show fine in Classic or in a Mac started in OS8/9. They are called Claims Data and ClaimsPlus v4.5 I tried taking the gaps out of the names and so on. Any thoughts anyone?
Chris
Rich Trouton on July 28th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Chris,
I’d noticed similar behavior when trying to copy from my OS X Macintosh HD to my SheepShaver Macintosh HD. The only workaround I found that really worked was to make a Stuffit archive in OS X of the files, copy the Stuffit file onto my SheepShaver Macintosh HD (not to the desktop, but actually inside the Macintosh HD drive) and then unstuffing them.
Christopher Moss on July 28th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I’m afraid I couldn’t get a copy of Stuffit in the SheepShaver VM to expand an archive (sit or zip) made in OSX. So I made a CD of the folder and copied it from that to the VM and it works! Now I just have to get the extension working that is part of Omnis and I’ll be set.
Thanks!
Chris
Christopher Moss on July 28th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
I’ve also found if you make a disk image in OSX and use SheepShaver GUI to mount the .dmg in the volumes pane, files can be transferred back and forth without problems. (Classic apps being copied to the VM’s disk were not showing up on the other side as apps before; this way they do.)
Let me know if you figure out how to get printing working.
Chris
Christopher Moss on July 29th, 2006 at 7:18 am
Figured out the printing, using the Desktop Printer Utility it was easy to pick the right PPD file for my printer, and enter its IP address. Works fine. The hard part was copying the PPD file to the VM and not getting the generic icon problem.
Also before bed last night I got it to share the airport connection of the MBP to the internet (and the printer), and just for fun proved to myself I could run Forge and Marathon 1. Sound is choppy though. Will try M2 next!
Chris
Christopher Moss on July 29th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Next thing: the generic icons can be corrected by rebuilding the desktop, which used to be done by holding down Opt-Command at startup, but doesn’t work for SheepShaver on an Intel Mac. I have always liked the utility FileBuddy, and version 7 can be downloaded from http://www.skytag.com/ (time limited trial unless you have an old serial number from way back when, as I do!). Use this to find invisible files on your startup disk and trash both Desktop DB and Desktop DF. Restart and the desktop database will rebuild before the volumes mount on the dektop. Icons will be fixed and will now behave as they should.
Chris
John Doe on August 4th, 2006 at 3:09 am
Doom 4??? Where?
Pascal on August 7th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
To play Marathon, you don’t need Mac OS 9 !
Go here and download Aleph One (the open source engine), the game files (free) and the updated graphics :
http://source.bungie.org/get/
Duncan Koss on August 7th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
This would work wonderfully if I had any way of easily getting the ROM file. As it is, none of my PPC computers have OS 9 installed, but I cannot boot off of my OS 9 install discs, which I need to do in order to install OS 9. Without OS 9, I can’t extract the ROM, and without the ROM, I can’t run OS 9…
Jaap van der Veen on August 9th, 2006 at 2:38 am
Why not download TechTool Lite (http://www.micromat.com) to rebuild the Desktop DB? It’s free!
Jaap van der Veen on August 9th, 2006 at 3:02 am
Regarding extracting the MacOS ROM file (posting by Duncan Koss):
You can find a MacOS ROM file on your MacOS 9 install CD. It’s in the System Folder and it’s called: MacOS ROM! That’s the one you need . . .
Be careful though, it may not work with this version of the file. After some trial and error I ended up using a MacOS 8.6 ROM file (dated April 4, 1999) to get SheepShaver running.
Duncan Koss on August 9th, 2006 at 8:48 am
I ended up copying an OS 9 system folder off of a computer at work, then using it on an old PowerBook at home to get the ROM. I’m finding that generally, OS 9 is running quite well under SheepShaver on my MacBook Pro. Installations are about 5x as fast as the same installations run on my old PowerBook, just as an example.
Suzanne Austin on August 10th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
I’m having the same problem that Duncan Koss had, but I don’t have access to any computers that run Classic. The MacOs ROM from the MacOs 9 install CD doesn’t work with SheepShaver, and when I use the ROM from the SheepShaver website it states that it needs a different ROM in order to run the program. Any suggestions?
Jaap van der Veen on August 10th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Suzanne,
What I can do is give you access to a disk image of a MacOS 8.6 Updater CD (they used to be distributed at the time by Apple BeNeLux).
Just contact me at jaapvdv-at-gmail.com.
Jaap
Karl on August 22nd, 2006 at 5:05 pm
I got OS 9.0.4 to boot in sheepshaver but it starts up either from the install disk (even from Norton Utilities) but if I choose “any” (in startup) it can’t find the system (MacOS ROM from 8.6) I took the 9.0.4 enabler out of the system folder (as suggested on one of the german sites) but then it crashes. Any ideas?
Alex on September 7th, 2006 at 1:34 am
I’ve tried to install OS 9.0 in SheepShaver from the original disk on an MacBook Pro. The OS9 boots OK, but the installer doesn’t see any disks available to install the system. The OS9 system, booted form the CD sees my Mac disk as Unix and that’s all…
What is missing ? Should I create a partition to install OS 9 on ? What kind ?
thnx
Jaap on September 7th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Alex,
Sheepshaver needs a disk image trying to use a partition on your hard drive does not work!
Alex on September 7th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Thnx Jaap, it was a simple case of RTFM disease, easily cured. Done that and everything works now – albeit a bit slow…
I may not be using the optimal ROM – I use a OS 9.0 ROM on my 2.1 GHz macBook Pro – I wonder if things could go faster somehow ???
cheers, –alex
Alex on September 7th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Say, I manage to install and run OS9 but only the system apps SimpleText, . When I drag OS9 applications to the applications folder,they look like blank noname icons. When clicking they don’t start the applications. Even the OS 9.04 system update shows up the same – as a blank file Mac_OS_9.0.4_Update.smi
What went wrong ?
Christopher Moss on September 7th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
If you look above you will see I had this problem. I found rebuilding the desktop would help in some cases (you can’t do it by starting up holding opt-cmd in Sheepshaver, you have to delete the invisible desktop database files, and someone rightly suggested TechTool Lite for this), but the best way was to create a disk image in OSX and specify it as a volume in the SheepShaver GUI volumes pane. Then copy your files to that disk image, then from there into the Sheepshaver disk. Oddly this works for a while and then the problem recurs. Creating another .dmg and mounting it in Sheepshaver will make it work again – don’t ask me why.
Just for fun I have the Windows version of Sheepshaver working both in Parallels Desktop, and in WinXP via Boot Camp. Looks like the one legacy application I need will be available for a long time!
Chris
BBH on September 10th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
To run WordPerfect 3.5. The perfect WP program.
Pam on September 19th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
I installed system 8.6 on my disk image and everything seemed to install with no problems, but I keep getting the flashing ? What did I do wrong?
Karl on September 19th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
I have a similar problem. I can start up from CD (OS9.0.4) and install or even Norton, but even though I specified to start up from the hard disk which seems to have a system folder I get also the blinking ? indicating that it doesm’t find a startup system on the designated disk image
Dan on September 21st, 2006 at 8:53 pm
The problem with using the “Unix” drive in SheepShaver for file transfer from the Mac OS X side is that with an Intel Mac, the file type and creator are interpreted _backwards_ in SheepSaver, so the Mac OS 9 application one wants to use doesn’t recognize them and can’t open them. When I used FileBuddy inside SheepShaver to reverse the sequence, the files were then properly recognized and opened.
This bug should be straightforward to fix. Does anyone know of a simple workaround? In my case, burning CDs or creating disk images of every file that needs to be transferred would be too much trouble.
I don’t now how to get Gwenole Beauchesne’s (the SheepShaver developer’s) attention on this so I’m posting this on various places on the web.
Marc on September 28th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Help. Can someone tell me the steps involved to get networking working? How do I configure TCP/IP?
Christopher Moss on September 28th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Marc, I don’t know if this will work for all, but here is my setup. My MBP connects by Airport to a DSL connection. TCP/IP in SheepShaver is set to connect by ethernet, and to get an IP by DHCP. I didn’t have to enter anything else; it just worked. Curiously the router address isn’t the same as my basestation, but since it works I shall change nothing!
Chris
Dan Oblak on October 30th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Anybody know if it will run the HP LaserJet Utility (which I would like to use to access JetDirect boxes over AppleTalk that have ‘lost their way’)?
I’m unclear on how much AppleTalk-friendliness this tool provides…
Andrew on October 31st, 2006 at 5:39 pm
I’ve been having the same problem as Pam and Karl. I can install onto a Disk Image that I’ve created but when I try to boot off that image I get the flashing qn mark floppy disk icon. I’ve tryed setting the DMG as the startup disk. I’ve even tried blessing the System Folder. Any help you give me would be appreciated.
Joe le Pete on November 5th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Great thing the sheepsaver and thanks for the install help here on this site. I am looking forward to get it installed since my old OS9 iMac died suddenly. Does anyone know about the Classic (OS7) capabilities?
Patrick Sneyers on November 14th, 2006 at 3:05 am
Andrew, Pam & Karl: Flashing ? fix.
Had the same issue. I then created a new image with SS GUI, not OSX Disk Utility. Now it works fine. Running OS 8.5 (only thing at hand).
I have my accounting program running (Omnis 7 Runtime)!
Up to AppleTalk and printing with LaserWriter 8….
Jay on November 22nd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
So far I have not been able to get it to work. I have followed the instructions, but it is just not functioning. I pulled the Mac ROM file from the system folder on the 8.5 install disk.
I click start after setting everything up and
Sheepsaver just quits no explanation – nothing.
Help?
David on December 7th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
For those who are able to install SheepShaver (heraffter SS) but can’t get SS to boot off the disk image this is what I did to get around it.
The only way I could get SS to recognise a HD image was to boot in OS9 on an older PowerBook, create the disk image with Disk Utility in OS9. I transferred this image to OSX Intel and I then was able to launch SS, install OS9 on this OS9-created disk image from the OS9.04 boot CD. Curiously, when I tried looking at the HD image using Drive Setup on the OS9 boot CD, it did not see it.
I read Dan’s problem with transferring OS9 applications to the SS boot disk image and I had the same problem. He said in #32 above that:
“The problem with using the “Unix” drive in SheepShaver for file transfer from the Mac OS X side is that with an Intel Mac, the file type and creator are interpreted _backwards_ in SheepSaver, so the Mac OS 9 application one wants to use doesn’t recognize them and can’t open them. When I used FileBuddy inside SheepShaver to reverse the sequence, the files were then properly recognized and opened.
This bug should be straightforward to fix. Does anyone know of a simple workaround? In my case, burning CDs or creating disk images of every file that needs to be transferred would be too much trouble.
I don’t now how to get Gwenole Beauchesne’s (the SheepShaver developer’s) attention on this so I’m posting this on various places on the web.”
If this sequence is reversed using Filebuddy, will it stay the same from thereon in? I do not know much about these matters.
My main frustration at this stage is that applications if successfully transferred to the SS boot disk image are sometimes just documents or if they come across OK, revert later to just documents. The complexity of moving applications across to SS is a problem. I found that I could use the OSX-created disk image disk to store the OS9 applications on (in fact I used the disk image I couldn’t designate as the SS boot disk earlier). This disk image can be seen on the OSX side and I used it as the disk to drag the OS9 applns to, within OSX. While in OSX, I could not drag anything on to the OS9-created disk image which is now the SS boot disk, not even open it. However when I boot SheepShaver the OS9 desktop has 2 disk images. The OSX-created disk image has the OS9 application in it and they boot fine. I have ClarisCAD, PowerCADD2000, LANDesign all working fine and at very acceptable speeds, but I have no printing or networking.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone could provide detailed instructions on how to install, and configure printing and networking in language which fools like me can understand!
David
Jay on December 8th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
I keep getting a black screen. I have my 8.5 System CD in my system. But it won’t initiate to begin installation.
1. I followed directions above.
2. I used the ROM file from my 8.5 System disc.
3. I insert my 8.5 CD
4. I am getting a black screen
5. What am I missing here?
David on December 9th, 2006 at 2:51 am
Jay,
Why don’t you download the Mac OS Rom Update 1.0 listed at the top of this page. It might be the problem. Do you have a Mac OS 9 CD?
David
David on December 9th, 2006 at 3:43 am
Dan,
You said:
‘”When I used FileBuddy inside SheepShaver to reverse the sequence, the files were then properly recognized and opened.”
How do you go about reversing the sequence? Nice simple instructions for someone who doesn’t know the ropes.
David
David on December 9th, 2006 at 5:11 am
Dan,
I have downloaded FileBuddy 7.6.3 plus the extras for OS9. However, I now got back the problem where all OS9 apps are doc not apps in SheepShaver. I assume I have got to get FileBuddy to be an app before I can do the “reversing the sequence” bit?
Has anybody been able to contact Gwenole Beauchesne about this problem and when a new update might be available? The current version of SS is dated 14May06 so hopefully a new version must be getting close!
David
David on December 9th, 2006 at 5:42 am
Dan,
Where in the world are you located? I am in Australia where the time now is 20 minutes before midnight Saturday 9th December.
David
Jay on December 10th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
David,
I had tried the ROM 1.0 to no avail. As for OS I only have the 8.5 and then an updater for 8.6..
jumbeliah on December 14th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
re: #37 Joe le Pete
Great thing the sheepsaver and thanks for the install help here on this site. I am looking forward to get it installed since my old OS9 iMac died suddenly. Does anyone know about the Classic (OS7) capabilities?
I can’t find MAE (MacintoshApplicationEnvironment) . Otherwise I’d try to install Sun’s Solaris for PC in Parallels and run Mac OS 7.1 applications from there.
Jerry on December 15th, 2006 at 11:45 am
I installed OS8.5 from a G3 tower system disk and got the flashing question mark problem when trying to boot from the disk image.
I think the problem is that the installed system is machine specific and is incompatible with the SheepShaver “machine.”
I then tried doing a Software Restore from the same disk, and, VOILA!, it works fine.
I have also found that the Unix drive does not seem to work for transferrring files back and forth to the OSX system. However, when SS is not running, you can mount the drive image and copy any files you want into it (and eject it) and they will be there when when you launch SS again.
Jerry on December 19th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
I am running OS 8.5 and can print using IP addressing, though no printers show up in the Chooser. I am now trying to connect with AppleShare to an old Mac (a 7200), also running OS 8.5. When I try connecting via TCP/IP (because, again, nothing shows up in the Chooser), SheepShaver crashes, though if I put in the wrong IP address, the connection fails gracefully.
Has anyone had any luck with file sharing? Thanks for any tips.
Jim Carwardine on December 19th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
I needed to install a printer driver for my printer (Canon I860 USB inkjet),
so I downloaded the OS 9 driver from the Canon web site using Explorer from
inside SheepShaver. After I installed it, I could see it in the Chooser but
when I selected it, it couldn’t find a port. Nothing showed on the right
hand side of the Chooser window. When I select Page Setup, it shows the
i860 dialogue but when I close the dialogue box, it tells me that I need to
choose a printer from the Chooser.
When I installed OS 9 in SheepShaver, I used OS 9.0 but it still can handle
USB. Is there something special I need to do to allow USB access?
I also have a Brother MFC 7820N laser printer that is networked to my
computer. Would that be a better choice because I might then use one of the
already installed Apple printer drivers to run it?
Nick on January 9th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I tried to create an image with the SS GUI as shown in #38. When I do this, the “image” shows up as a blank page icon. When clicked on, I get a message: “There is no defult application specified to open the document.”. I then added the extension “.dmg” I get a message: “The following disk images failed to mount because there are no mountable file systems.” Then I tried with “.img” and everything else, with the same results. I changed the “image” back to its original state (with no extension). What am I doing wrong???
David Garcia on January 29th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I m trying to install mac os 9.2 in Sheepshaver, but the problem is that i start my macbook from a cd rom that have system 9.2, the macbook start, but when i tried to install software, give me an error, will be the wrong version? what can i do? help me please
thanks a lot!
Nitehawk on January 31st, 2007 at 4:57 pm
It’s too bad this doesn’t work for system 9.2.2, as this is the one that came with my iMac years ago. I will only need to install two games using classic (Baldur’s Gate and The Sims) but The Sims should now run under rosetta and there is a workaround I thought of for BG I’m going to try out when I finally get my MacIntel.
Fritz on February 1st, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I got it going on a dual 2G Xeon. But alas, the app I want to run on it, Rosetta Power Pac language learner keeps coming up with script errors. Perhaps Rosetta needs a later version of OS9. Darn the Luck ! ! !
Chad on February 3rd, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I am having an install problem. It states installer not compatible. This is an extremely common problem for many, but the developer will not respond to anyone’s repeated requests for help on this issue. Who has the solution here?
John Rethorst on February 5th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I’ve made a 500 mb Macintosh disk image for SheepShaver, including _everything_ needed to run, as well as an installation of the last version of WordPerfect for the Mac, and several useful utilities. The printing issue with USB has been solved: this configuration prints to any OSX printer as fast as regular printing, or makes a PDF file.
The download link is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wordperfectmac, in the Links section, in the “SheepShaver and Basilisk” folder, as “SheepShaver-WordPerfect Install (2)”.
Runs on both Intel and PPC Macs. Several people on the WP group are using it, and it’s working well for them.
Enjoy,
John
IDArgyll on October 30th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I don’t see that available as a download any longer. Where can a person get it now?
David D. on February 6th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I need some help. I’ve been able to get Sheepshaver running in OS 8.6 with my old iMac’s restore disc, and I’ve been able to ‘restore’ the software from the CD onto the disk image, but I cannot select the disk image as the startup disk, as Sheepshaver crashes everytime I try to do it. Do you know of anything I’m doing wrong?
Ken Gruberman on February 7th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I’m having the same problems as referenced in both #38 and #51 — when I create an image using OS X’s Disk Utility, then install OS 9.0.4 on it from within SS and restart, I get the “blinking question mark” which indicates the system folder is not blessed. I even ran DiskWarrior on the volume, which told me it HAD fixed that problem and the system folder was now blessed — but I still get a blinking question mark. Deleting the invisible desktop files doesn’t apply here because it’s not getting far enough into the boot process for that to matter, as it’s not booting at all.
So I tried #38’s idea of creating an image within the SS GUI itself. But when the OS 9 installer disk starts in SS, it doesn’t see anything viable to install on; I also get that same “there are no installable file systems” message when trying to open the image file after appending “.dmg” to the name.
This means I’m SOL no matter what method I try. I feel I’m SO CLOSE — I hope someone can figure this out?
PS: Although my copy of SS says 2.3 and was downloaded from the link provided on this page, my JIT tab only shows one box (“experimental”); the “Enable JIT Compiler” checkbox as shown in the screenshot above does not appear in my copy. Is this important?
Ken Gruberman on February 7th, 2007 at 11:40 am
As Emily Litella used to say “Never mind!” On my QuadCore G5 I launched Classic, then OS 9’s “Disk Copy” utility. I used that to create a 1GB disk image and was able to not only install OS 9.0.4 on it, but have it start up afterward! So that seems to be the answer: find a machine that can either run Classic or boot into 9 itself, and create the disk image there.
gabriel lee on February 14th, 2007 at 11:59 am
A quick hack for transfering files with sheep shaver:
go to chooser and select appleshare. enter the ip address of your computer and log in. now you can easily switch files back and forth.
it’s a bit spotty and crashes often, but generally you can copy what you need before the network crashes.
cheers
Darcy on February 18th, 2007 at 8:57 am
I did as the author suggested, and got OS 9 working just fine using an original retail CD, ROM from the rom updater package, and the ‘create image’ function of SheepShaver.
The image created by SS is mountable from OS X and I do file sharing through that. It can be mounted while OS 9 and SS are running.
You can rebuild the desktop while OS 9 is booting in SS by holding down the Option + Apple keys (I’m on a PowerPC G5 dual core Apple computer).
Everything works wonderfully except slirp, which doesn’t like most of the web servers out there and keeps dropping connections. E-mail on port 25 works great though. It’s only web surfing that’s giving me problems. Don’t use IE 5, as it will just freeze. Use Netscape Communicator as it will prompt you when there are network issues, without crashing.
Get rid of the default “when a new window is opened” web page settings that are in the browser, or you risk hanging any of the OS 9 web browsers.
Darcy on February 18th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Oops, I take that back, mounting the SS hard drive image in OS X doesn’t automatically update what OS 9 sees when you change drive contents. Sorry about that confusion.
Kevin on February 18th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I have SheepShaver up and running with system 9.0.4 installed. I also have IE 4.5 running and hookin up through my Airport on my MacBook Pro. However, I’m having no luck having the Sheepshaver recognize any System 9 programs to install. I tried burning the files to a DVD and installing – no luck. The sharing folder only allows icons that say they can’t be opened. How do I install programs into the Sheepshaver window? I need to have several files running for class soon. When I put the CD or DVD in the Mac drive, it shows up on the OS X desktop but I can’t get it into Sheepshaver. Any help? Thanks.
Marcel on February 19th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Ihave a iMac DV with Mac OS9.04 clean installation. As second computer I have a Macmini. I have tried the following without any success:
1. Copy the OS9 ROM from the installation disk on to the macmini.
2.Copy the OS9 ROM from the Systemfolder to the Macmini.
3. I used Tomviewer to copy the ROM but I cannot find or open teh ROM with the program.
4. I used Mac OS ROM Update 1.0 to update the ROM. It said nothing to do.
5. I used copyROM to copy the ROM. It did copy a ROM of 4Mb but it did not work in Sheepshaver.
6. I tried to boot from the Mac OS9 installation disk with sheepsaver. No success.
All of the above gave the error: Unsupported ROM type.
Help!!!!!!!!!!
SKR on February 20th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I followed pretty much all that Rick Trouton instructed, but so far no luck in getting the SheepShaver to install Mac OS 9 in my new intel MacPro desktop. I got this error message every time I tried, “SheepShaver error: Cannot map first kernel data area: Permission denied.” Can anyone help me overcoming this hurdle?
Gaijin on March 1st, 2007 at 4:50 am
Why ask why? I love this program! If you don’t see why someone wants to use it, then it isn’t for you. But no point in making derogatory remarks.
Gary Williams on March 10th, 2007 at 5:58 am
I have a bunch of documents written with Fullwrite professional in os9 Classic. So I need to get Classsic up and running on my Intel MacBook Pro. Has anyone ever used Fullwrite Professional for documents would throw rocks at Microsoft word. I’ve got about 10 years of Business files and documents running on Fullwrite so I have to go forward.
WHAT IF……I took my older 17 inch Macbook start-up software and did a clean install on the new intel Macbok Pro? I’d have to wipe the drive clean before starting. I’m so new to this stuff you guys might be laughing but I’ll do anything to get CLASSIC running on my new Macbook Pro. Comments?
Thanks
Gary glwbear@netmagic.net
Marco on March 26th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Hi,
I wondered whether one can install SheepSaver on an Intel-Mac which already has boot-camp windows partition on it, without messing up it all. This is because I didn’t quite understand if Sheep Saver creates another partition.
Thanks
Marco
Marco on March 26th, 2007 at 4:42 am
could you please also tell me how to create the disk image for the OS9, or does sheepshaver creates it automatically. Under the volume tab there is a create… button, and an add… one, which one should I use to create the disk image? and where should I create it? The last thing, does sheepshaver automatically install the OS in the volume that I created and do I have to format it during the installation?
thank you very much for the help
Marco
Henrik on March 29th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Hi,
I wonder if someone can help me. I have a MacBook Intel 2GB int.
OS9 runs fine but not a single sound is heard, 512 int. is all SS manage my programs needs more. Is there a way arond this problems?
bruckwine on April 16th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I also have the disk image problem…nothing I try seems tog et Sheepsaver to recognize apps whether read/write or sparsed. Damn frustrating!! So I have a working OS 7.5 9thanks John) but I can’t install anything! Aaargh!
Karl on April 21st, 2007 at 10:06 pm
finally got around to “play” some more. Creating an img on a PowerbookG3 and putting the system on it and using that file to boot, started MacOS 9 under SS (on MacBook 10.4.9)
Reason on May 15th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Bruckwine, don’t copy applications directly through the “Unix” file system in Sheepshaver. This seems to lose resource forks meaning the applications won’t work.
Instead, use Appletalk networking or mount the Sheepshaver image directly in OS X (shut down sheepshaver first) and copy the applications into Sheepshaver using OS X.
Another approach is using stuffit, which will preserve resource forks correctly.
Hoss on Hon on May 30th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
FYI, there’s a one-click “Classic-On-Intel” installler going around some of the torrent sites. It that puts a preconfigured SheepShaver install (fully functioning with the roms etc) along with a Classic disk image in a folder named “MacOS9″ in the applications folder of your startup disk. It has networking and a shared (OSX) volume with ZERO config. (it also gets around the problems with the basilisk/sheepshaver settings files being hidden in the top of the user home directory). It’s got three versions, a minimal “pico” version (24meg download), mini (79meg) and full (250?). All but the pico have networking, quicktime, and support for almost all applications (except for some qd games).
Andrew Williams on June 4th, 2007 at 11:30 am
I have got Sheep Saver working quite well on an intel based apple. It seems to be OK on ethernet with other OS9 macs too but the links to volumes seem very fragile. You can see files for a time but then the link is broken when you try to access them.
Any one got any answers to this?
David Mousley on June 6th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
“There’s some weirdness with the Unix drive, where it won’t show some folders. Specifically, it doesn’t show the Mac OS 9 “Applications (Mac OS 9)” or the “System Folder” folders, which is quite bizarre”
Replace the folders with new ones. This behaviour is erratic, I had differrent results even with reinstalling. Rebuilding the desktop might work too, I didn’t try that, To rebuild the Desktop hold down Option and Command while OS 9 is booting.
There are no dtaes on the page, so I don’t know if this old news or good news.
DWM
David Mousley on June 6th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
“There’s some weirdness with the Unix drive, where it won’t show some folders. Specifically, it doesn’t show the Mac OS 9 “Applications (Mac OS 9)” or the “System Folder” folders, which is quite bizarre”
Replace the folders with new ones. This behavior is erratic, I had different results even with reinstalling. Rebuilding the desktop might work too, I didn’t try that, To rebuild the Desktop hold down Option and Command while OS 9 is booting.
There are no dates on the page, so I don’t know if this is old news or good news.
DWM
David Mousley on June 6th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
“There’s some weirdness with the Unix drive, where it won’t show some folders. Specifically, it doesn’t show the Mac OS 9 “Applications (Mac OS 9)” or the “System Folder” folders, which is quite bizarre”
Replace the folders with new ones. This behavior is erratic, I had different results even with reinstalling. Rebuilding the desktop might work too, I didn’t try that. To rebuild the Desktop hold down Option and Command while OS 9 is booting.
There are no dates on the page, so I don’t know if this is old news or good news.
DWM
Duncan Barr on June 9th, 2007 at 2:35 am
I’ve got SheepShaver (SS) up and running on my Intel MacBook, and can start up Mac OS 9.0.4 from an iMac installation disk, but can’t run my OS 9 app because I can’t see how to install Mac OS 9.0.4 onto the hard disk (I get an error telling me I can’t install onto this computer). Mac OS 9.0.4 runs off the CD, so as soon as I try to eject the CD I get a message telling me I can’t do this because the files needed to run the OS are on the CD.
I visited another site that said I had to have a generic Mac OS 9 CD (could it be my iMac disk is machine-specific and not generic?). I also see that in Rich Trouton’s article at the top of this page he used a disk image (macos9.dmg) for his volume in SS-GUI. I tried the same, but SS still wanted to run OS9 from the CD (even though I specified “any” under “Boot from”). Am I wasting my time? Should I hunt down a truly generic Mac OS 9 CD, or is there something I’m doing wrong (I’m a geologist after all, not a programmer)?
I think all you folk are doing a great job sharing your ideas and experience over the ‘net. The app I want to run is an excellent geological logging program (AppleCore) which is only available for MacOS9. Any suggestions you might have to help me get OS9 up and running in SS will be very gratefully accepted – and shared widely amongst the geological community. Many thanks!
M-RES on June 25th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Finally… I can now use the best ever Mac OS again… SYSTEM 6.5.3
Oh, glory days are here again :D
Dan Barowy on July 30th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Anyone who is getting the “Cannot map first kernel data area” problem– it has to do with permissions. Adding the user to various superuser groups did not solve the problem, but making the SheepShaverGUI application setuid root did. Standard disclaimers about doing setuid root apply here.
sudo chmod u+s /Applications/SheepShaver-2.3/SheepShaverGUI.app/Contents/MacOS/SheepShaverGUI
FYI, the command above should all be on one line.
Dan Barowy on July 30th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Oh, also– the instructions above assume that your SheepShaver binary is owned by root. If it is not, chown the owner to root.
David Southall on July 31st, 2007 at 4:00 am
I used this site while getting SS going so you may be interested in a contribution in return.
I have two long posts at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wordperfectmac/messages
see messages 4039 and 4040 which describe how to use SS networking to access remote and local disks. You don’t need the Unix folder.
Regards David
dan84 on August 5th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Check this out. Its sheepshaver pre-pakaged with os 9.0.4. It’ll save you a lot of rooting around.
http://www.macclubindonesia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5715
erik on August 25th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
so i am really confused as how to use this software. i open up the program and the mac os 9 is in its own window…but how do i get my classic programs to show up on the desktop of the mac os 9..? how do i get them to open?
Marc on August 27th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I have tested this software fairly extensively and have concluded that it is not very stable and is unsuitable for use for anything that is mission critical. Interesting to dicker with, but that’s about it.
killercatfish on September 8th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I am doing this on my intel mac because i dont have a ppc, how can i get the rom??? am i missing something because i cant get tomeviewer to work on this system..
dan84 on September 8th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Check this out. Its sheepshaver pre-pakaged with os 9.0.4. It’ll save you a lot of rooting around.
http://www.macclubindonesia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5715
Josh on September 9th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Hey thanks!So im just trying to play a couple old favoritie games that could never be made for any other platform quite the same: the original risk, space station pheta and perhaps a coupe others.
I cant get them into the os9 environment, only way i have been able to even see thm in there is putting them into my osx applications folder… and then it says they cants be opened…
any links on how to get internet to work as well?
Thanks!
elf_gaffer on September 13th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Thanks! Very useful. Does anyone know if there is a Kiosk version of Sheepshaver available? I need to be able to let students use the Mac OS 9 aps I am running without getting into rest of my system.
mark on November 8th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
hey does anyone know where i can find a mac os 9 rom that will work with sheep shaver?
I can’t use the rom from the os 9 Install any help please please i want to play marathon on os 9 and use other os 9 apps
karen on November 29th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Why? To run the original CRICKET GRAPH, of which I have over 20,000 files from the past 20 years of research!!!!
Tom on December 17th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Hi, Im running OS 9 on Sheepshaver, Was wondering if anyone has figured out how to maybe change the gestalt number via a Resource editor- in the sheepshaver app to maybe run faster then a 9500 G4 @100MHz? Let me know anyone thanks.
George on December 31st, 2007 at 6:12 pm
I have managed to install and run Sheepsaver on an Intel MacBook Pro. Can someone help me with HOW to run my 9 applications (which are saved on a firewire drive). I can see them in Leopard, but of course they don’t open. If I copy them onto the Sheepsaver desktop from the “Unix” drive, they copy as documents and not applications! How can I bring my 9 apps into Sheepsaver and run them?! THANK YOU TO WHOEVER ANSWERS THIS!
Chris Moss on January 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I know it is a long thread now, but above somewhere you will see I had the same problem and the answer is to rebuild the OS9 desktop. You can’t do it the old way, pressing Opt-Cmd as you start up, so you have to delete the invisible files Desktop DB and Desktop DF. TechTool Lite will let you do this (check micromat.com),
Chris
George on January 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Chris Moss, thank you for your reply (#95)! I will try that!
George (#94)
George on January 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Chris, I can’t run Techtool Lite (or any classic applications that I bring in) in Sheepsave. Even if there’s a classic application in the “Unix” drive, it still doesn’t run in Sheepsaver.
It reads as document (not app) in the “get info” window and not application and the error message says that “The document Techtool Lite cannot be opened because the application that created it cannot be found.” Any suggestions? Thanks again! How did you do it?! For the life of me I can’t figure this out…
Chris Moss on January 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 am
Try creating a shared disk image with Disk Utility. Set it up in Sheepshaver GUI.app to be mounted by SheepShaver, and put Tech tool Lite onto that disk. Either run it from that disk or copy from it to your OS9 disk image whilst in Sheepshaver.
Chris
Ron on February 8th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I know this is a little late in coming, but this is for others finding this blog entry via google.
If you are having trouble booting from a disc image created with MacOS X disc utility, it is because the drivers needed to boot in classic are not installed on the image by default.
To solve this, after you create the disc image, use the MacOS X utility to “partition” the image and make sure you check the box that says “Install Mac OS 9 Disk Drivers”. Then I just copied the files from the non-working image to the new one… then I blessed the system folder while it was mounted in SheepShaver (at this time running off the CD). OR you can just reinstall MacOS 9 on the new image from the CD.
Hope this helps.
Julian on February 18th, 2008 at 3:18 am
I’m not sure if this was asked before, and I apologize if it has, but after installing Sheepshaver (which worked fine, btw), i keep getting a message that says that the computer (in this case, the emulator) doesn’t recognize the “disk,” and the “disk’s” icon is the classic hard drive icon (this is after booting from the 8.5 cd). It asks me if I would like to initialize it. Should I? or would that be a mistake? I know it’ll erase whatever is on that disk, but it’s called “untitled” and I don’t know what it actually is or what it has.
Anthony on March 25th, 2008 at 12:18 am
I want to buy a new Apple but I have been using MACMONEY for years. How can I use this with the new INTEL machines?? Help and thanks
Steph on May 26th, 2008 at 12:26 am
I really wanted to share it somewhere so people could see it as I had to take all my skin off to find it.
If you search for a 4MB PowerMac ROM, this torrent may contain what you want
http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/28215388/powermac+rom?tab=summary
Macsweep on October 14th, 2008 at 6:21 am
It’s been almost two years since I started looking for a way to run Folio Views for Mac on an Intel Mac. I’ve tried Mac-on-Mac, Basilisk II without success. Mostly I’ve been using SheepShaver since the beginning of this quest.
With SheepShaver I’ve managed to install Mac OS 7.6.1, 8.6 and 9.0.4. I’ve played with the extensions and control panels and I don’t know what else. But, still Folio Views causes the OSs to hang “forever”.
If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to send them to me: macsweep_at_myrealbox.com
Mac os 9 en intel mac on December 7th, 2008 at 10:49 am
[... este manual para poder instalar mac os 9 en intel mac ..]
EVAN APPELMAN on December 8th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Well, maybe I’m stupid, but when I click “Start” on SheepShaverGUI I always get the message “SheepShaver error: Cannot map ROM; File exists.” I have tried a New World ROM, a ROM extracted from Mac OS ROM Update 1.0, and the ROM from the system folder of an OS 8.6 installation disk. Always the same result. Can anyone help?
Kevin Shiner on December 26th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
YAY!! I can finally play Caesar III on my new MacBook. This is fantastic.
Jane on December 30th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Since misery loves company, I am happy to see that someone else is using MacMoney, a nice, straightforward financial program. Good to know, Anthony #101. I have kept my Imac on OS 10.3.9 so I can still use this program that I have had since, I think, 1988. I have tried, Quicken and Quickbooks, neither of which I cared for, but even if I did like one of them, I would still like to have my 20 years of data easily available. So I will wait to buy a new computer.
scott on February 19th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
So, i have tryed all the basic steps, as I have little knowledge in this area; however whenever i double click install i get “This program cannot run on your computer. See the documentation for more information.”
help?
Lazarus on March 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 am
why don´t you try COI (Classic-On-Intel) V4.0.1 “Chubby Bunny “?
it´s simple and usefull :-)
Mike on August 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I’ve been searching the web for a workaround to this: I want to run things faster than 100 mHz in my Classic emulator. I’ve installed all the emulators there are and can’t get any to move faster than that. If anyone knows a way, however technical, let me know cuz I’d love to implement it. Thanks!
Jeff on August 29th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Loved the idea behind this emulator, and installed COI V4.0.1. No issues on install and launch. However… I tried to run two of my favorite games – “Star Wars Episode 1 Racer” and “Star Wars Dark Forces”. Both seem to hang OS 9 (within SheepShaver – SheepShaver itself continues to run).
Any thoughts would be very much appreciated!