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Message |
    
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12362
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 4:07 pm: |     |
In case this idle rambling piques your interest...
I now have a "hobby" system, an iMac G3, 233 Mhz.
I got this 1998 model for $75, so I couldn't resist. Don't ask what I paid in shipping, though. I'd prefer to forget.
It came with MacOS 8.6 loaded, so I blew it away. I loaded Mac OS X 10.3.
This filled up the 4GB disk almost fully. After adding updates and various miscellaneous software, the disk filled up totally, and the system locked up.
Start again, and this time, I was careful about what to add.
Ick. 4GB is just not enough.
I added a USB hard disk, which I needed to buy anyway, to do backups for the main family computer. So I thought I'd offload some duty for the boot disk onto it. Aha, I thought. Now this old computer is more than just a solution in search of a problem. It can be my backup server.
Being an old unix system administrator, I moved the /Applications and /Users directory over to the external disk. I made symbolic links in the root directory, pointing to the moved directories. It works for a while. Ick. System not happy. Every time I do updates, it blows away the symbolic link to /Applications and adds new stuff to a new directory by that name.
So I dug up a 40 GB hard disk. Disassembling this old computer is HARD! It's an all-in-one computer, so making assembly and disassembly easy is not a big design criterion. The first time I put it back together, the whole operation took almost two hours. And once I was done, it had no power.
And I didn't have another big block of time for a while, so I left it that way for a week.
I took it apart and voila, a cable had come undone when I had snapped it back together. Excellent.
Power it on and put in the install CD. I learned, from upgrading my wife's powerbook's hard disk that I have to go into "Disk Utility" for it to notice a new hard disk. So I did that, and it doesn't see the hard disk! Oh no.
I took it apart again, and now with my experience under my belt, it really only took a few minutes. This time, I was on the floor, next to my wife, who was watching TV, so the time passed easily. I found nothing wrong, but sometimes, just taking something apart and putting it back together makes it work. And that was the case. The system saw the disk. Excellent.
So I am told that this model had a limitation in the ROM and will not boot off a partition that is 8 GB or larger. So I made two partitions, one called "boot" and one called "laces". OK, not so witty, but what would you have called it?
I tried the same trick of moving /Applications but damn it. It just isn't stable.
So I guess I hope that my updates don't approach 8 GB. I'll keep add-on software on "laces" and vendor-supplied software on "boot".
The system has only 192 MB of RAM, so it's slow. Some systems of this particular version will recognize only 256 MB, and some will accept 512, and there's no way to predict. I will wait and see if I can live with this.
And it's still a system without a purpose anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter.
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monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2041
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 5:13 pm: | |
If it's a revision A Bondi it will take 384 MB of RAM, if Rev. B it will take 512 MB.
To check if it's a Rev. B, go to the System Profiler and seet if has a "Rage Pro" graphics" controller, with 6 MB VRAM. Rev. A's had the "ATI Rage llc" card and most likely 2MB of VRAM, though you can add up to 4 extra MB of VRAM.
It also has a Mezzanine slot, which you may be able to use for expansion, add a SCSI card or serial ports, http://www.theimac.com/imac_scsi/scsi_card.shtml
Add a Voodoo II card for 3d hardware acceleration, http://www.theimac.com/voodoo/voodoo.shtml
Or, while it doesn't use the mezzanine slot (but it takes up the expansion port area on the side of the iMac) you can add an iPort if you can find one, http://www.theimac.com/news/excl/58.shtml
Check out this wood iMac server, http://www.glenbo.com/imac_box/index.php
How about media server, http://www.newgeo.com/index.ws?id=1000015
You may be able to overclock it a bit, http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~t-imai/imace1.html
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Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 65
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 5:18 pm: | |
Tom,
You should be able to keep the updates under 8 gig. My System and Library folders are about 4 together. Certainly move the /User and Applications dirs to the bigger partition and symlink to them back on the smaller one. You might also consider moving the .vm file to the bigger partition. Finally, use one of the freeware apps to remove the non-English-language localizations. mac os x hints is good for info on this sort of thing.
Also, load up the RAM. 192 megs just isn't enough. I'm not sure what RAM for that baby goes for these days, but it may be cost-prohibitive to get it up to where you'll be happy (512MB?), and I'm not even sure there are 256MB DIMMs for it either. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12370
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 5:29 pm: | |
monster, those are weird projects. None of them strikes my fancy, at least not yet. But they may spark ideas.
theimac.com is where I found the article on how to take it apart. It helped a lot, but it was still hard.
Also, I see lowendmac.com is a nice resource.
Eponymous, thanks. Where is the .vm file? Is that the swap file? And can I enlarge it? With unix, you can add as many swap partitions as you like, though it's a bad idea to have more than one on a given disk, because it makes the arm swing too much.
And I know that more memory is almost always better, but I'm just not sure it's cost justified, especially since the system doesn't have a purpose yet. And the system uses a weird type of (laptop) RAM: 144-pin SODIMM's, the very same as in the old Powerbook.
Oh, I'm using a Logitech three button scroll mouse, which I really like. I like it better than the Mighty Mouse, except that the Mighty Mouse can pan left and right.
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12374
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 5:59 pm: | |
And Eponymous, note that I explained above why it does not work to symlink the /Applications directory somewhere else.
Maybe I could use a real mount in /etc/fstab to bring /Applications from another partition, but then I'd have to repartition "laces" again.
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Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 71
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 10:49 pm: | |
Tom wrote:
Eponymous, thanks. Where is the .vm file? Is that the swap file? And can I enlarge it? With unix, you can add as many swap partitions as you like, though it's a bad idea to have more than one on a given disk, because it makes the arm swing too much.
Yep, it's the swap file, but I misremembered this. There's a directory for the swapfiles (so named) at /private/var/vm/. You can change this so that the dir is on the other partition. I think the latest OS X versions have improved usage of it, but with the smaller old partitions, it makes sense to move it elsewhere. I did that when I had a smaller drive. I think you can change its location with NetInfo, but check that website I mentioned to be sure.
And I know that more memory is almost always better, but I'm just not sure it's cost justified, especially since the system doesn't have a purpose yet. And the system uses a weird type of (laptop) RAM: 144-pin SODIMM's, the very same as in the old Powerbook.
Right, that was my point really. I'm not sure it's worth the money. You could buy a newer iMac on eBay for less perhaps and save yourself the trouble.
And Eponymous, note that I explained above why it does not work to symlink the /Applications directory somewhere else.
Yes, I saw that, but I'm a bit surprised. I kept our User files on another partition (still do) with no problems. Let it trash the Applications link, and just re-make it after the upgrade. Or leave it...empty; just move the new versions onto the working apps directory.
I actually enjoyed tearing apart one of these babies, but now that I think of it, it wasn't mine. :-)
It may be that this just isn't worthwhile economically |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2043
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - 1:17 am: | |
Some applications will have to reside in the Apple Application folder, but most can reside wherever you decide to put them, just create another directory on "laces", Application 2, and start dragging and dropping to see if the app will launch from there, then delete it from boot/applications.
Apple doesn't want you to remove Apple apps from the application folder, which I haven't, but I Have launched iTunes from other locations, so it may be possible with other iApps.
Apple doesn't like you to move any of their installed directories, or apps.
If you are installing apps for only yourself (you being the only user on the computer), you can keep the apps in the Applications folder in your user name directory and move your user folder as in the tip at the link below.
You can move the Users folder in Netinfo,
heck you can even store it on a thumbdrive if it's big enough.
The article here at MacZealots explains how to move the User folder in Tiger.
Links of interest,
http://www.robservatory.com/archives/2005/05/24/should-apple-applications-be-mov able/
http://www.macosxhints.com/search.php?query=symlink+application+folder&type=stor ies&mode=search&keyType=all
For memory try OWC, they have 128 MB so-dimm for $18.99, and 256 MB for $33.99 & $43.99.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac-G3-G4-G5/G3-266MHz-333MHz/
For more Mac help try OWC's relativly new forum, http://forums.macresource.com/list/1
tell them Monster sent ya'...
or http://www.macosxhints.com/
and http://www.osxfaq.com/index.ws
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12389
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - 3:27 pm: | |
Wow, guys. You amaze me.
I forgot one step I am very proud of. I did some googling and found that while many USB adaptors that provide wireless ethernet support only Windows, many are made by Ralink, and they provide a driver for Mac OS. I bought a D-Link DWL-G122 adaptor from ebay for $14. It took a bunch of tweaking to get it to work, but I'm really glad I did. The computer network is on the first floor and the G3 system is on the third floor. I find after I power the system on, I have to unplug and plug the adaptor to get it to work, but other than that, it works fine.
I just found http://www.bombich.com/mactips/index.html which is full of wonderful tips, well written. It tells me how to move my swap files to another partition, which seems like a good idea.
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monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2052
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - 6:23 pm: | |
Mike Bombich is a pillar in the Cult Of Mac, there are praises for Mike in just about every, if not every, Mac forum there is, particularly for his Carbon Copy Cloner application that has helped so many.
I believe it was the first application available for OS X in the cloning department.
He was so good in what he does that Apple hired him away from himself several years ago. His wife, Saleen, has stated that a new version of CCC is forthcoming for Tiger, Apple just keeps him too busy.
Another App along the lines of CCC is SuperDuper, which a lot of people have started using while waiting for CCC to be updated.
Some also like Lacies free SilverKeeper |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12435
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006 - 2:34 pm: | |
Oops. I broke it.
I decided to move my swap area to a separate partition for performance and to save space on the boot partition.
So the hard had two partitions, boot and laces. I left boot alone and marked it "locked". I split laces into swap and laces.
Apparently, it partitioned the whole hard disk. I guess when you repartition, it does that. This is not the case with other types of systems.
So now I have to start over. Darn.
So I see Apple (and perhaps most of FreeBSD, upon which Mac OS is based) does dynamic swapping. It creates (and deletes) swap files in a particular directory, as needed. This is space-efficient, but it seems it's got to be slow, compared with using a raw disk partition (i.e. not a filesystem).
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monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2080
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006 - 2:52 pm: | |
Yep, for some reason Apple won't let you do that, it wipes the whole thing.
I've heard VolumeWorks is a good utility for rearranging partitions.
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12439
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006 - 3:01 pm: | |
That's nice, but it's 50 bucks.
I've used Partition Magic and Acronis for Intel systems. They're good, but the prices are really high, considering how infrequently I use them. I remember when Partition Magic came on a single floppy disk, and a cow-orker realized this is the most expensive software, per byte.
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monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2081
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006 - 3:31 pm: | |
Tom!
Forget about Volumeworks, I just found this, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89960
Boot up from a Ubuntu disk and resize your HFS+ partitions, well, the next time you need to do this that is.
I'm thinking of giving this a shot this weekend just to see how it goes, I'm due for a full backup anyway. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12443
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006 - 3:34 pm: | |
Cool!
Hmm, maybe I should think about running Ubuntu on this Mac. Well, not really, but it's tempting, because I am sure it will be more memory-efficient. I didn't even know there is an Ubuntu for Mac, but I shouldn't be so surprised.
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