Pear Pc

[Garibaldi]

I was just wondering if anyone else here uses the mac emulation software pear pc? see www.pearpc.net It allows you to emulate (simulate) mac os x on a windows machine! Right now its in its beta stage, but it is still great.

[Cobra]

I have a copy of MacOS 8.1 - will PearPC let me run this as opposed to MacOS X?

[Faustus]

Great? Last I heard it took a number of hours just to install the OS and it was unusable when you were done. Has something changed?

As far as running an older OS on it, I've not heard of it being done so I'm assuming not.

[Garibaldi]

Cobra, there are a number of different free programs for emulating classic mac operating systems. I don't think Pear PC does, I mean it could by running os x and then installing classic support inside it. Check out www.emaculation.com. You could try Basilisk II.
Flaystus: You really should check back on pear pc (www.pearpc.net) because there have been major improvements recently. It only took me at most 2 hours to install. The hardest part for me was learning how to make the config file. Anyway, they just released a 0.3.0 version that supports full screen, real clock time, and faster speed. Unfortunately I haven't been able to network mine yet, I can't get my mac to recognize the new TAP ethernet port. I have 10.2 and it runs great. Before with 0.2.0 and 0.3.0 pre I could render a ken burns effect clip in imovie in about 6 minutes. With the new 0.3.0 I am able to render a clip in just over 2 minutes, a significant speed improvement. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to check it out again.

[Cobra]

Garibaldi,

How's it going?

I downloaded Basilisk II and installed MacOS 8.1 on to it this morning. I can boot 8.1 in a painstaking seven seconds (from pressing "RUN" on the emulator)!

I now have PearPC and it should hopefully work. I am working on finding a copy of MacOS X - I see a couple of second-hand ones on my university ads-board. Before I spend £20-£30, I don't suppose you know how quick it runs? I have read the 0.1 release was about 1:40 (40MHz host machine = 1MHz emulated), and figures of 1:15 for later versions. However, they all seem to quote Pentium 4 CPUs - I have a 2.42GHz AMD64 CPU.

Anyway, if anyone has any experiences to pass on I would be very grateful!

Thanks,

Cobra

[VenGeanCe]

guys i think vmware can also do the job

[Cobra]

VenGeanCe,

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked it out, and they don't seem to do a true emulator for the MacOS. It also looks like you have to pay for it - PearPC is free.

I have MacOS 8.1 working on the Internet with Internet Explorer 4 - it is horribly unreliable, looks awful and keeps freezing on the VideoHelp forum. It's emulating the MacOS properly, then (nudges tgpo)!

Now, I must download Escape Velocity. I can't seem to get a CD to mount just now - what fun.

Anyway, back to the question. How fast is PearPC under Athlon64 systems?

Thanks,

Cobra

[Garibaldi]

Garibaldi,

How's it going?

I downloaded Basilisk II and installed MacOS 8.1 on to it this morning. I can boot 8.1 in a painstaking seven seconds (from pressing "RUN" on the emulator)!

I now have PearPC and it should hopefully work. I am working on finding a copy of MacOS X - I see a couple of second-hand ones on my university ads-board. Before I spend £20-£30, I don't suppose you know how quick it runs? I have read the 0.1 release was about 1:40 (40MHz host machine = 1MHz emulated), and figures of 1:15 for later versions. However, they all seem to quote Pentium 4 CPUs - I have a 2.42GHz AMD64 CPU.

Anyway, if anyone has any experiences to pass on I would be very grateful!

Thanks,

Cobra

Hey Cobra, glad to see that your gonna try pear pc. Its a great piece of software, hopefully you'll like it. I would recommend trying the 0.4Pre version, because it will be faster than the 0.3.1. Also there is even a 0.4Pre version that supports sound emulation! I'm not sure exactly how the speed would be on an AMD64, but I do know you want to download the JIT version, because its ALOT faster. I think 1:15 is probably pretty accurate, but I would imagine that it would be even faster on an AMD 64. I have used it quite a bit on my AMD AthlonXP 3200+ and it has worked quite well. Here is a link to a thread about various users' speed results: http://forums.pearpc.net/viewtopic.php?p=8877
I was never able to get networking to work though, probably because I have 10.2 and it is difficult to get it to work in that version. Also you can increase the speed even more by running it on linux is a very small windowmanager like fluxbox if your up for that. Anyway I'd be glad to try and answer any other questions you have.

[Cobra]

Hi Garibaldi,

I am back at uni now, and picked up MacOS 10.3. Much to my relief, it worked! I used the PearPC Installer to get PearPC working. Details are here:

http://pearpc.zaxgames.com/

However, it suddenly stopped launching after I restarted Windows. I couldn't do anything with it, so I scrapped it. I will reinstall it later.

I did try a manual installation of PearPC but I could never get it to work correctly. I would love to give the PearPC Installer version more than 128MB of memory, but I can't work out how. There doesn't seem to be a config file for that version!

I am pleased that I got MacOS X to work at least once, because that proves that I can do it. Now I need to iron out all the bugs and try connecting it to the Internet. Without 'net access, it is pretty useless.

I have to say that people coming in to my room and seeing my PC happily running the MacOS are surprised to see "how damn good that Windows skin looks - how is it done?"..... Then I show them how it really is a Mac! Priceless expressions on their faces...

If you know how to solve this problem, Garibaldi, I would greatly appreciate your advice. Don't go out of your way to sort this though - it is my problem and not yours.

Thanks!

Cobra

[Cobra]

Downloaded a newer version, and I've found the memory size configuration...

[Faustus]

Hrm... might try this on my 3000+ if I get that 1gig ram upgrade I've been drooling over.

I think he should make a version that installs a minimal version of linux to run pearPC then pear PC with it auto starting so that you can dual boot and tell people. "No that REALLY is OSX on a PC. I'm THAT good!"

[Garibaldi]

Hi Garibaldi,

I am back at uni now, and picked up MacOS 10.3. Much to my relief, it worked! I used the PearPC Installer to get PearPC working. Details are here:

http://pearpc.zaxgames.com/

However, it suddenly stopped launching after I restarted Windows. I couldn't do anything with it, so I scrapped it. I will reinstall it later.

I did try a manual installation of PearPC but I could never get it to work correctly. I would love to give the PearPC Installer version more than 128MB of memory, but I can't work out how. There doesn't seem to be a config file for that version!

I am pleased that I got MacOS X to work at least once, because that proves that I can do it. Now I need to iron out all the bugs and try connecting it to the Internet. Without 'net access, it is pretty useless.

I have to say that people coming in to my room and seeing my PC happily running the MacOS are surprised to see "how damn good that Windows skin looks - how is it done?"..... Then I show them how it really is a Mac! Priceless expressions on their faces...

If you know how to solve this problem, Garibaldi, I would greatly appreciate your advice. Don't go out of your way to sort this though - it is my problem and not yours.

Thanks!

Cobra

Glad to see you got it installed Cobra! I actually had never heard of that Installer, I had the fun of doing it manually. But after you do it once its alot easier. Anyway what version are you using? If you can why don't you post your config file on here and I'll take a look. I'll also post my config on here in a little bit.

[vitualis]

Apple is in a position to take over the consumer PC industry if it really wanted to... release an x86 version of Mac OS X.

Emulation is never an answer (IMHO). If I really wanted to use both Linux/Windows AND Mac OS X that much, I'd just buy two computers (and use a KVM solution).

Regards.

[Garibaldi]

Apple is in a position to take over the consumer PC industry if it really wanted to... release an x86 version of Mac OS X.

Emulation is never an answer (IMHO). If I really wanted to use both Linux/Windows AND Mac OS X that much, I'd just buy two computers (and use a KVM solution).

Regards.

I suppose it is possible since FreeBSD is for x86 they could compile a version of Darwin for that arcitecture. I don't know if they'll go for that though since they want you to buy their hardware too.

[Garibaldi]

Here is my config file:

##ppc_start_resolution = "0x01000000"
redraw_interval_msec = 60
prom_bootmethod = "select"
prom_env_machargs = "-v"
prom_driver_graphic = "video.x"
memory_size = 0x10000000
pci_ide0_master_installed = 1
pci_ide0_master_image = "macosx_3gb.img"
pci_ide0_master_type = "hd"
pci_ide0_slave_installed = 1
pci_ide0_slave_image = "macosx_6gb.img"
pci_ide0_slave_type = "hd"
pci_rtl8139_installed = 0
pci_rtl8139_mac = "de:ad:ca:fe:12:35"
#pci_3c90x_installed = 1
#pci_3c90x_mac = "de:ad:ca:fe:12:34"
pci_usb_installed = 1
nvram_file = "nvram"
key_toggle_full_screen = "Shift+F8"
key_change_cd_0 = "F2"

So as you can see I've reconfigured my memory size for RAM to I believe either 256 or 512 there. Then as you can see my main image where OS X boots from is macosx_3gb. For additional storage I added another one, macosx_6gb. I have the pci_3c90x card enabled but since I put a # in front of the line its not read anyway. I could never get networking to work for some reason.

As far as installing linux I'd recommend it for running pear pc. You could just do a base install of slackware from the 1st disk only. This would give you fluxbox for your windowmanager, a very lightweight one perfect for running pear pc.

So on either linux or windows you'll need to do a few things to get pear pc set up. First use my config as a template and create your own, name it like pearpc.cfg or something like that. Then put that and all the other folders and your images into a folder. In win open a dos prompt and cd to the directory and then run ppc.exe pearpc.cfg and it will hopefully open and boot. This is the manual way but you've got better control than with the installer. If you want to do it in linux its basically the same procedure, in an xterm or rxvt cd to the directory with all your files (on your linux partition of course) and ppc pearpc.cfg. One other note about linux, you could try topologilinux too, which doesn't require you to repartition. www.topologilinux.com.

Let me know what other questions you have and I'll be glad to help!

[vitualis]

Apple is in a position to take over the consumer PC industry if it really wanted to... release an x86 version of Mac OS X.

Emulation is never an answer (IMHO). If I really wanted to use both Linux/Windows AND Mac OS X that much, I'd just buy two computers (and use a KVM solution).

Regards.

I suppose it is possible since FreeBSD is for x86 they could compile a version of Darwin for that arcitecture. I don't know if they'll go for that though since they want you to buy their hardware too.

Which makes me wonder... Does Apple really make that much money from their hardware, considering the amount of research, and design of the platform, after all, nobody else sells/researches Mac hardware platform apart from Apple.

And what is to stop Apple from selling hardware (with their trademark design flare which makes them desirable) but with a Mac designed around the x86 platform? I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that Apple would probably make more money if their computer hardware were based on the Athlon64 or Opteron. They would also probably run faster too...

Apple could make a lot of money by focussing on software rather than hardware (ala Microsoft).

Regards.

[Garibaldi]

Apple is in a position to take over the consumer PC industry if it really wanted to... release an x86 version of Mac OS X.

Emulation is never an answer (IMHO). If I really wanted to use both Linux/Windows AND Mac OS X that much, I'd just buy two computers (and use a KVM solution).

Regards.

I suppose it is possible since FreeBSD is for x86 they could compile a version of Darwin for that arcitecture. I don't know if they'll go for that though since they want you to buy their hardware too.

Which makes me wonder... Does Apple really make that much money from their hardware, considering the amount of research, and design of the platform, after all, nobody else sells/researches Mac hardware platform apart from Apple.

And what is to stop Apple from selling hardware (with their trademark design flare which makes them desirable) but with a Mac designed around the x86 platform? I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that Apple would probably make more money if their computer hardware were based on the Athlon64 or Opteron. They would also probably run faster too...

Apple could make a lot of money by focussing on software rather than hardware (ala Microsoft).

Regards.

It would probably run faster, since the CISC processor has been proven to be faster than RISC. I will say that mac hardware does have a sleek design, obviously this has nothing to do with performance but it does give them control over what there product looks like. Of course that doesn't matter as far as their market share. I agree with you, they should definitely consider a x86 port.

[rallynavvie]

You know, I just had to work with Basilisk II to create HFS files and convert old Marathon scenarios for use with Aleph One. I was very impressed that this was written into a freeware application:



Does PearPC also have native SMP support? If so it may not be so unbearably slow. So far I've used Basilisk to install several variants of Marathon to my HFS partition and even played with Forge, the Marathon level editor that I knew so well so many years ago. Sadly I have to admit I was forced to pirate a Performa ROM. I still have my Performa 640CD in very good condition but none of the ROM extractors I tried worked on it since it is one of the few "freaks". It has a Cyrix DX2 processor in it, along with the required x86 hardware board to run it, and I think somewhere the ROM grabber gets confused between the 68k and the Cyrix. Emulation is kinda neat

[vitualis]

The old CISC vs RISC divisions are no longer clear. Modern P4 and Athlon processors contain many elements of RISC.

Regards.

[ViRaL1]

What's the advantage of CISC over RISC, or is it just cost?

[Cobra]

I am using 0.4pre. The installer is easy to use, and gets you all set up nice and quickly.

This is my "config" file, although it is called "boot" in the installer version:

#Congratulations on Installing PearPC. 
#Replace the letter F below the arrow 
#with your CD drive letter and save this
#document.
#                       __
#                       ||
#                       ||
#                       \/
pci_ide0_slave_image = "E:\" ##this is the location of your CD drive.
#
#To Install OS X on your computer, insert 
#your OS X System Installation CD in the 
#drive and start PearPC from your desktop.
#Once you have installed OS X, take the 
#CD out and start PearPC up again to run
#OS X.
#
#
#
#
#
#Only change the rest of this document
#if you know what you are doing.
#
#
pci_ide0_slave_type = "nativecdrom" ##cdrom to use an iso as cd drive.
pci_usb_installed = 1 ##0 to deactivate usb.
nvram_file = "nvram" ##specifies 
ppc_start_resolution = "1024x768x32" ##changes default resolution.
ppc_start_full_screen = 1 ##0 deactivates auto-fullscreen.
redraw_interval_msec = 10 ##do not change.
key_toggle_mouse_grab = "F1" ##changes the mouse-release key.
key_toggle_full_screen = "F12" ##changes the fullscreen key.
prom_bootmethod = "select" ##select lets you choose boot.
prom_env_machargs = "" ##-v starts up in verbose mode.
prom_driver_graphic = "C:\PearPC\video.x" ##do not change.
cpu_pvr = 0x00088302 ##do not change.
pci_ide0_master_installed = 1 ##0 deactivates HD.
pci_ide0_master_image = "C:\PearPC\PearHD.img" ##location of hd image.
pci_ide0_master_type = "hd" #do not change.
pci_ide0_slave_installed = 1 ##0 deactivates CD.
memory_size = 0x20000000 ##0x20000000 for 512RAM.

It is ticking along fine now, although I would love to get the networking going on it. I haven't got time now, but maybe on the weekend! As you can see, I've given it 512MB of RAM.

Cobra

[Garibaldi]

Looks good! so your able to boot OS X fine and everything? Your config looks fine to me, you'll have to add a line for your modem, this is a good site to look at:
http://pearpc.zaxgames.com/networking.htm
also I thought this was pretty cool:
http://pearpc.zaxgames.com/macosxlogin.htm
Anyway I'm sure you've probably already been there. You'll have to add this to your config file: (boot.txt)

pci_rtl8139_installed = 1

Also feel free to play around with this line:

redraw_interval_msec = 10 ##do not change.

This changes how responsive it feels verses how fast it runs. Just plug in numbers and see if you notice a difference, probably going up by 10 or 20.

Once you get a chance you'll have to post a screenshot! Good luck networking, I have had no luck in that area.