Virtual Machine for OS 9????

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Level 1

60 points

Virtual Machine for OS 9????

Im probably dreaming here but does anyone know of a virtual machine that will host Mac OS 9 by chance???

Since Im on a Mac Pro running Lion nowadays (replaced my G5 dual core last month), I can no longer use Apple/Emagic's Sound Diver or the editor software for my Nord Modular under OS X to edit my hardware synthesizer collection and this is something I REALLY need.. Both apps were PPC only and well, no Rosetta on here. Ive got my G5, two G4's and even a b&w G3 still, but using any of these would require me to move my mixing desk everytime, unhook the monitor AND my USB Emagic AMT8 MIDI interface, only to have to go put it all back on the Mac Pro when Im done editing sounds and going to work.. Virtual Box so far has satisified my need for my Nord Modular editor, it works perfect under Win XP, and since I have a seperate single MIDI interface just for it (the Nord has both a regular MIDI in/out and a second set specifically for communicating with the editor) it works fine.. However Sound Diver doesnt work at all and just hangs (from research I get the impression Emagic never quite updated it for XP since Apple bought them and killed development on it). I bought MIDI Quest a few years ago but MIDI Quest flat out ***** compared to Sound Diver, and only works about half the time as it is.

Worst case scenario I guess I can dig out my Win ME/98/2000 discs but that will probably break everything else I need to use XP for..

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 2x2Ghz Quad

Posted on Feb 27, 2012 1:38 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 27, 2012 4:31 PM in response to Mothra

Which Mac Pro are you using (preferably Mac Pro 3,1 designation or YEAR.) ??

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Answer 2

Mothra Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 27, 2012 5:55 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

(its in the signature below my post, there was only one 2Ghz Mac Pro if I remember) 😉

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Answer 3

Feb 27, 2012 6:07 PM in response to Mothra

The Mac Pro 1,1 shipped with 10.4.7, and can still run that system, which included "Classic" OS 9 support, as well as Rosetta.

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Answer 4

a brody

Level 10

85,366 points

Feb 28, 2012 9:00 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

False. No Mac Pro supproted Mac OS 9. PowerMac G5 was the last machine which supported Classic.

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Answer 5

a brody

Level 10

85,366 points

Feb 28, 2012 9:01 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

You may be confused by the fact that 10.4 supported Classic on PowerPC Macs, but the Mac Pro was never a PowerPC Mac.

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Answer 6

Feb 28, 2012 9:06 AM in response to a brody

Thanks, a brody. I stand corrected.

I swapped out all but one of my G4s running 10.4 and upgraded to Mac Pros running 10.5 all-at-once, which screwed up my recollection of what-runs-what.

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Answer 7

a brody

Level 10

85,366 points

Feb 28, 2012 9:04 AM in response to Mothra

Considering getting a used or refurbished PowerPC Mac that comes with its original system discs. Note, once you upgrade a machine to Leopard, no Classic support exists. But some PowerPC Macs allow dual booting of Leopard and Mac OS 9. To learn more about the distinction read this tip:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2292

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Answer 8

Feb 28, 2012 9:11 AM in response to Mothra

Your new Mac Pro will only support Windows 7. No older versions of Windows will work.

About your only real alternative if you must run that old hardware is to get and old Mac that runs what you need as A Brody suggested.

Allan

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Answer 9

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Feb 28, 2012 9:38 AM in response to Allan Eckert

That is a MacPro1,1 that doesn't give you trouble-free support for installing Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, but that is what you would need to use more than 1.9GB RAM or your dual dual-core 2GHz system.

While Apple only supplies drivers for Windows 7 unless you have access to 10.5 to 10.6 DVDs you can run XP and XP Mode as guest OS under Windows or Mac OS. And install XP on its own hard drive, though realize it really doesn't give you very good support for the hardware you have.

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Answer 10

Dec 29, 2013 11:43 AM in response to Mothra

It is very possible to do this with a VM. You will need a copy of Sheep Shaver for your edition of mac and a copy of the OS9 iso or actual CD. Then you install the OS9 disk onto SheepShaver and you will be able to run a VM of OS9 inside of OSX 🙂

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Answer 11

Dec 29, 2013 12:36 PM in response to Tomosthe1st

All of what you say is true.

But this is a developer-level setup that takes a fair amount of fiddling to get working and keep working.

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PowerPC computers are really cheap these days. I kept my last one and it sits in the corner ready to run Mac OS X 10.4. When needed, we power it up and run older software under "Classic" emulation.

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