Classic, Rosetta, and 32/64 bit revisited.
In 2006, Apple migrated all their desktop and notebook computers from the Apple/IBM/Motorola CPUs known as PowerPC (PPC) to Intel CPUs.
PowerMac G5 were replaced by Mac Pro
Mac Mini G4 was replaced by Mac Mini Intel
iMac G5 was replaced by iMac Intel
iBook G4 was replaced by MacBook
eMac was replaced by iMac Intel Educational
Powerbook G4 was replaced by MacBook Pro
See also the timeline at the end of the tip.
Older software on newer machines is a frequent question on this board, which has been covered in the User Tips section before. To make it more current, the following information has been updated.
When we refer to Mac OS 9 below, we are referring to the operating system that was last prebundled on Macs in early 2006 (on PowerPC G5 and G4 Macs only), and was last bootable on 2003 Macs. We are not referring to Mac OS X 10.9, which came out in 2013. That's an entirely different beast.
Classic is an environment within Mac OS X on PowerPC (PPC) Macs running 10.4.11 and earlier that allows most Mac OS 9 applications to run. This is not to be confused with "booting into Mac OS 9." Mac OS 9 booting supports all Mac OS 9 compatible applications and drivers, where Classic does not. See questions 7 and 9 for more info.
Rosetta is a background application that integrates most PowerPC Mac OS X applications in an Intel CPU Mac running Mac OS X in such a way that both Intel Mac OS X applications and PowerPC Mac OS X applications can share the same machine. Rosetta is not to be confused with Rosetta Stone, the third party language translation and teaching software of nearly the same name.
Snow Leopard offers 64 bit computing for some applications and the operating system itself. This can affect which peripherals and applications will run. Rosetta is not available on Mac OS X 10.7 or higher.
The limitations of both are outlined below:
1. Can Snow Leopard run software written for PowerPC Macs?
Yes, if it was written for Mac OS X and does not require contextual menu plugins, PowerPC plugins, or PowerPC drivers. Rosetta is an optional install on the DVD for Snow Leopard, and is offered when PowerPC software is run for the first time on a Snow Leopard installed Mac if it wasn't installed initially.
Click on Applications that are installed once and select Get info in the File menu to checkoff Rosetta, if you believe it might work better in Rosetta, than Intel native mode.
Sometmies when 10.6 is installed, Rosetta, the application that allows PowerPC programs to run will not automatically install. In those situations, you can manually install Rosetta from the 10.6 installer disc. The following quote explains how to install it manually:
Insert the Mac OS 10.6 installation DVD When the DVD is mounted, select “Optional Installs” then “Optional Installs.mpkg”
Follow the onscreen instructions for agreeing to the software license and selecting the hard drive for installation.
In the “Installation Type” step, select the box next to Rosetta from the list of applications presented. Continue the installation process.
After successful installation, a confirmation message will appear.
These instructions appeared on http://forums.printable.com/showthread.php?t=1110 .
Note:
- If you have Rosetta applications installed during an upgrade install of 10.4 or 10.5, Snow Leopard installer will automatically include Rosetta in its installation.
Macs that shipped new after July 20, 2011 with a hardware change compared to their model counterparts can't run Snow Leopard natively, thus are stuck not being able to run PowerPC softawre without extra help from third parties.
2. Can Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8), or Mavericks (10.9) run software written for PowerPC Macs?
Normally not. Limited success has been done with virtualized software running Snow Leopard Server. To determine if this might be necessary before upgrading, the System Profiler application lets you quickly determine if you have PowerPC (PPC) applications (click on image to enlarge):
Note the triangle to the left of Software has to be pointed down for the Applications to become visible. Note the right hand side of the the Applications listing when selected says if you have PowerPC, Classic, Intel, or Universal. PowerPC & Classic indicate PowerPC only. Classic indicates it only runs on a PowerPC with Mac OS 9 running in the Classic environment or booting into Mac OS 9.
3. Can Snow Leopard run on Lion prebundled Macs?
In some rare cases, such as has been documented in this link:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3209335?answerId=16247806022#16247806022
and the bottom of this link:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2455
To guarantee such the compatibility of Rosetta, get a used or refurbished Mac that was released prior to July 20, 2011, with the original installer discs. If it is older than March 29, 2010, and an Intel chip with 1 GB of RAM you can use the most recent Snow Leopard retail installer to install Snow Leopard, instead of trying to find the harder to get prebundled discs, if the Mac doesn't come with prebundled discs.
4. Can Intel Macs run PowerPC software?
Yes, if Rosetta is installed. It is preinstalled in 10.4.4 through 10.5.8.
Snow Leopard installation is described in question 1.
5. Can Intel Macs run Classic?
No.
6. Can Snow Leopard run Classic?
No.
7. Can PowerPC Macs run Snow Leopard?
No. If buying an Intel Mac to run Snow Leopard or higher and you have a PowerPC Mac with data you want to migrate, read this tip on migrating in addition to the info you are reading here.
8. Can Leopard run Classic?
No. However, PowerPC Macs with a Firewire external bootable hard drive running 10.4.11 or earlier, or a second partition with 10.4.11 or earlier can have the Classic environment installed on them. A second internal hard drive with 10.4.11 or earlier is yet a third way to approach this problem. Classic is not the same as booting into Mac OS 9. Like Rosetta, it has limitation for running older plugins and drivers. Partitioning is described here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1600
9. Are there Macs that can run Leopard and boot into Mac OS 9?
Yes, see this user tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1757
10. How do you install Mac OS 9 on a Mac released post-July 2002, with a PowerPC chip?
These directions help both in enabling Classic, and booting into Mac OS 9 with the Macs that support it (if they have Mac OS X 10.4.11 or earlier installed, or no operating installed on a partition or external Firewire hard drive). Follow the restore directions with the discs prebundled with that Mac here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1561
Unless your Mac is prebundled with 9.2.0 or earlier, there is no retail Mac OS 9 installer disc that will install Mac OS 9 on your machine. This article tells you what is prebundled with which Mac:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2191
July 2002 and earlier Macs come with their unique Mac model specific 9 installer disc if they came with 9.2.1 or 9.2.2.
11. How do I boot into Mac OS 9?
Go to Apple menu - System Preferences - Startup Disk and select the Mac OS 9 System Folder. This is only available to Macs made pre-2003, except the pre-Firewire 800 PowerMac G4 MDD and G3 iBooks. To tell if your PowerMac G4 can boot into 9, look at the back panel, and see if there is a Firewire 800 port, such as is shown on this image:
If there is none, then you have a machine capable of booting into 9.
Also if Mac OS X was initially installed on the machine without Mac OS 9, you may have to erase the Mac, and install Mac OS 9 drivers to enable Mac OS 9 booting when you install Mac OS 9 on it, by following these directions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26834
12. How do I boot into Mac OS X?
If it is on the same partition as Mac OS 9, hold the "X" key upon boot. Otherwise use a 9.1 or later Startup Control Panel from Apple menu - Control Panels folder to select the Mac OS X folder if it is installed. This article explains how to get it on earlier Mac OS 9 installs:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20415
13. How do I run Classic?
As long as you have 10.4.11 or earlier on a PowerPC Mac, you can do the following:
Go to Apple menu - System Preferences - Classic. Unlike Rosetta, Classic will show its status in its own window. Additionally if an Application's File Type in the Finder shows as Classic Application, then it will run in Classic. Some applications will allow you to force run themselves in Classic, by clicking on themselves once in the Finder, and selecting Get Info in the File menu, and checking "Open in Classic Environment."
Additional clues you are running Classic include (some of these may be modified by third party addon software:
You won't have rebooted, but your Apple menu is rainbow colored (on the upper left)
When you click on the Apple menu it will reveal a Chooser, and Control Panels instead of Startup and Shut Down.
The application will not only say Classic Application in the Finder File type, but also show a way of increasing its allocated memory in the Finder, as shown here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61528 (links to webarchive version of the article)
Apple menu - System Preferences - Classic will show that Classic is runnning.
A Mac OS 9 logo will appear in the Dock when you launch a Classic application
Classic menu in the System Preferences can show if Mac OS 9 is running in the menubar with a Mac OS 9 logo.
If you have 10.5 or later on a PowerPC Mac, scroll up and read tip limitation #9.
14. How do I disable 64 bit computing, and use only 32 bit?
Some third party drivers will misbehave if System Preferences in Snow Leopard (10.6) is set for 64 bit. Similarly, some applications behave better if they are not running in 64 bit. To toggle these settings:
Click once on System Preferences in your Applications folder, and click on Get Info in the File menu. Check the checkbox Open in 32 bit mode, to disable 64 bit computing on System Preferences. You can do the same for any other application that has 64 bit and 32 bit capability built-in, by clicking once on the application, and selecting Get Info.
15. These Macs support 64 bit natively on Windows Boot Camp:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846
Just because your Mac doesn't have 64 bit Windows support through Boot Camp does not mean your Mac doesn't support 64 bit addressing. IBM G5s, Intel Core2Duo, Core i3, i5, i7 and Xeon processors all have 64 bit support built-in. Some Macs because of their age will not address more than 3 GB of RAM, or 2 GB of RAM, but still support 64 bit based applications that support their processor. Motorola G4 processors have limited 64 bit support with Altivec vector processing. G3 and older, and Intel CoreDuo, CoreSolo have no 64 bit support.
Timeline:
March 21, 2001 - Mac OS X introduced.
August 21, 2001 - Mac OS 9.2.1 released, new Macs on and after this date could not use Mac OS 9 retail installer discs.
July 2002 - Last prebundled Mac OS 9 installer CD, Macs that supported Mac OS 9 could only use the restore instructions to reinstall Mac OS 9.
January 7, 2003 - First Aluminum Powerbook G4s (did not support booting into Mac OS 9, but could use Classic) January 28, 2003 - First Firewire 800 Powermac G4s (did not support booting into Mac OS 9, but could use Classic). The earlier PowerMac G4s were available well into 2004 from Apple.
February 4, 2003 - First iMac G4s that couldn't boot Mac OS 9
May 6, 2003 - Superdrive eMacs couldn't boot Mac OS 9
October 22, 2003 - First iBook G4s, and all eMacs on or after this date couldn't boot Mac OS 9.
January 10, 2006 - iMacs went Intel, MacBook Pro introduced. Mac OS X 10.4 retail installer discs could not be used on Intel Macs. The first retail installer discs that could be used were Mac OS X 10.5 which came out in 2007. Only the pre bundled 10.4 installer discs could be used on Intel Macs when it came to 10.4.
February 28, 2006 - Mac Mini went Intel
May 16, 2006 - MacBook introduced. The Intel replacement for the iBook.
August 7, 2006 Mac Pro introduced. The Intel replacement for the PowerMac G5.
October 26, 2007 Mac OS X 10.5 introduced.
August 28, 2009 Mac OS X 10.6 introduced.
July 20, 2011 Mac OS X 10.7 introduced. Rosetta discontinued. Mac Mini 5,x MacBook Air 4,x introduced. Neither could boot any version of 10.6 (link expands on solution for these and later Macs needing to run 10.6).
August 8, 2011 iMac 12,1 EMC#2496 released. It and 13,1 and later models could not boot any version of 10.6.
October 22, 2011 MacBook Pro 8,1 EMC#2555; EMC# 2563 8,2;EMC#2564 8,3 (9,1 later any EMC) could not boot any version of 10.6.