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OS X advocates may be gratified to hear that I spent three of the five workdays this week entirely in Jaguar, which is a record for me. I'm back in OS 9.2.2 this morning, but I really am beginning to use OS X a lot more for production. The substantial improvement in scrolling speed in the latest Tex Edit Plus beta is a major factor making production work in OS X more pleasant and efficient for me, as is the new TE+ built-in spell check function. OS 9 is still a lot faster on this PowerBook -- the difference is especially dramatic after spending three days exclusively in OS X. However, reader reports this week (some below) about significant Jaguar speed improvements after installing the ATI October 2002 ATI Retail Update are very encouraging. I have downloaded both the boot ROM firmware update 4.1.8 and the the ATI October 2002 ATI Retail Update, and plan to install at least the latter soon. I'll let you know how I fare. I want to do a global update of my files to my backup UMAX S-900, which I haven't done for a couple weeks, before I install either of these items. Will try to get time for that over the weekend. Meanwhile, today we have an interesting and informative slate of readers' letters pertaining to both of the above mentioned upgrades plus OS X hard drive partitioning issues. Re: Jaguar on Pismo in OS X Re: ATI Update ATI update - definitely faster still Re: October 2002 ATI Retail Update, OpenGL, Mac OS 8.6 - 9.1 8 GB partition From David Alford I experienced a great deal of problems from installing Jaguar on my G4-350 when Jaguar first appeared. Like any good troubleshooter, I tried to isolate it down to just one cause, and fix that one cause. However, no matter what I did, I still kept getting freeze-ups under Jaguar. Mostly I experienced the freeze up during a mouse move to another window. I almost got to my wits-end, until I updated the G4 to the Firmware Update 4.1.8. I had not done this upgrade as it required version 9.x of Mac OS to install, and I took all Classic and other 9.x versions off of my G4 due to speed issues (It didn't have any ...speed..that is!) Anyway, I immediately experienced the wonderful benefit of a very rock steady Jaguar OS that did not freeze up every 8 or 10 hours. I have now had my G4 up for weeks at a time, with no further freeze ups. If you are able to upgrade without experiencing this, that is great, but it was extremely frustrating to me, as I did a completely new install, and did not try to install over my previous version of MacOS X, hoping to avoid a great deal of problems. However, a problem downstream after the install did happen, as I explained above. Good Luck, and don't be so worried about updating the system to the latest New World Rom set, if you lose power, you can start again, and do it until you get it right, as long as you have the 9.x install CD to start up from, David B. Alford
Hi David;
Glad the firmware update solved your problem. Thing is, Jaguar is already solid as a rock on my Pismo. I'm not concerned about power outages, since it's a PowerBook.
Charles From Richard H. Becker
Charles,
Hi Richard;
The 2.712 number is what comes up in Apple System Profiler in the Boot ROM category. Reader Jonathan Tyzack sent this screenshot of System Profiler on his Mac with Firmware Upgrade 4.1.9 installed, so I'm assuming that the 2.712 number that shows up in the same SP field on my Pismo refers to an earlier version of the firmware.
I am definitely using Jaguar, and it installed without any problems, and is running fine except that I can't get InkWell to work. Charles From Charles Hi Charles I just installed the ATI update after reading the article, and it really did speed up the interface, both Finder and other apps. It is very noticeably faster now. running 10.2.1 on iBook 500 dual USB. Jaguar was not slow on my iBook in my estimate, but I have nothing to compare with. This update has made my computer feel much faster. I hope this update solves the disappearing text problem which I have experienced. Charles
Hi Charles
Thanks for the report. "Slow" is a relative term. Jaguar is definitely slower on my Pismo than OS 9.x is.
Charles ATI update - definitely faster still From Jonathan Tyzack Hi Charles, For the benefit of Michael Leishman - it's been 4 days plus (well that is my current uptime anyway) since I installed the ATI update and I can confirm that the GUI speed increase wasn't just my imagination and that it is most definitely a real one. It actually does feel as though I'm experiencing OS 9's GUI responsiveness for the most part now. When it doesn't, it is generally because some other process than the action you are performing at the time is maxing CPU usage (so if you have something heavy duty going on in the background scrolling can still get quite jerky, but if not, it is pretty smooth). If your Pismo card sees the same benefits, then I imagine that you will find Jaguar much improved, especially as you seem to "mono-task" for the most part. Here's hoping!
Cheers,
Re: October 2002 ATI Retail Update, OpenGL, Mac OS 8.6 - 9.1 From Martin A. Totusek Dear Charles, I read your online question asking if the new October 2002 ATI Retail Update could also be made to work under OS 9.1, given the OpenGL 1.2.2 or higher requirements? The OpenGL 1.2.4 (or higher) extensions work fine under at least Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS 9.1, as well as under Mac OS 9.2.x via extracting them with TomeViewer 1.3d3, as long as you also have the complete QuickDraw 3D extensions (which I believe the older OpenGL 1.2.1 installer also provides) installed, as OpenGL under Mac OS 8.1 though Mac OS 9.2.2 basically works in the same fashion (quite unlike the OpenGL in OS X, which is quite different from the word go as OS X doesn't use Mac OS extensions, apart from the "Classic" Emulation Environment). After first adding the OpenGL 1.2.4 (or higher), QuickDraw 3D, just to be safe, backup anything/everything then of your current ATI, OpenGL and QuickDraw Extensions (and anything else you've added graphic Extension-wise), and Control Panel first, before you apply the update. You do get a warning message from the new ATI installer (this newer "October 2002 ATI Retail Update" replaces the bad one from a week before it) that you are not running OS 9.2.x or X, but also get a "continue" option button. If anything conflicts let me know, as I hope to make sure that this combination works in general on most machines to date (I seem to recall that there are/were a couple models that APPLE stated have problems with certain APPLE and/or ATI updates, which is why their old APPLE OpenGL/QD 1.2.1 installer was made to give a message stating that and then quit, so as to not install on those models...). See related links for some background information:
Yahoo! Groups : macdrivers Messages : Message 334 of 392 [Summary] OpenGL 1.2.4 or higher & ATI Radeon Mac Edition PCI under OS 8.x
(Note: The following techsurvivors.net link doesn't always work, and I've emailed them an inquiry about it)
[Summary] OpenGL 1.2.4 or higher & ATI Radeon Mac Edition PCI under OS 8.x
Other World Computing- Product Reviews:
APPLE simply has never updated it's downloadable OpenGL 1.2.1 installer for Mac OS 8.1 through Mac OS 9.x.x, probably again in an attempt to try to force users to only use OS X. The October 2002 ATI Retail Update is working fine under Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS 9.1 on my 7600/400 MHz Newer Technology G4 CPU upgrade/ATI Radeon Mac Edition PCI. So far all the users who have followed my advice and information have reported back that everything is working under Mac OS 8.6 through 9.1, even on some of the G3 or G4 CPU upgraded (originally 604 or 604e CPU) Mac clones from Daystar, Power Computing and Umax. I also know (and help out) a number of seniors here in Seattle, who have older Mac machines and cannot afford to buy new machines at this time, especially under what has happened economically here in the USA under the past couple years of Bush, Jr.. Therefore, getting things to work under versions of OS 8.x.x and 9.x is also quite helpful to them (mentioning this in cause some people fail to understand why everyone can't just rush out and buy all new machines, even if everything did work booted under OS X, and everything of course does not...). -Martin PS:
Techsurvivors: OpenGL 1.2.4 or higher & ATI Radeon Mac Edition PCI under OS 8.x <http://www.techsurvivors.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=007966>
Thanks for the research and info Martin. I'll let you know how I make out.
Charles From Anonymous Charles, The 8 GB partition requirement is for 350 Mhz and slower machines. A friend just installed on a Blue and White G3 350 Mhz machine without partitioning the first 8 GB, and it installed fine. It may be required only of old-world ROM machines (those that can't option boot). Here is the kbase about it: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106235 Also it may not affect Jaguar directly. However, I've found that putting Mac OS X on a relatively smaller partition on my Flat Panel iMac made it spiffier. I have 60 GB, and partitioned my Mac OS X partition to 20 GB, and it made a difference. Part of that has to do with the fact the swap file seeking is constraigned in space. Of course you also want enough space for the swapfile which is based on how much RAM is installed. Thus I recommend that after your Mac OS X installation is complete, and you can custom install how much of Mac OS X you want to install during the installation process, you should have 2.5 GB free of hard disk space, but installed on no more than 20 GB on faster machines, and 8 GB on 350 Mhz or slower machines.
Sincerely,
Hi A.
Thanks again for more helpful information. Interesting point about limiting OS x partition size to 20 GB or less. My 4 GB partition is too small, but if I go to a bigger HD I was thinking of 8 GB - 10 GB for OS X.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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