XPostFacto is a utility which helps to install and boot Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, and Darwin on certain unsupported systems. When Mac OS X installs successfully, its stability on unsupported systems appears to be excellent. However, there are cases in which Mac OS X is difficult to install, and there are a variety of problems you can run into. So read carefully. You should also remember to check the online version of this documentation from time to time, to see whether there have been any changes.
Here's a quick link to download the latest version.
Download XPostFacto 3.0a9
Previous versions are also available in the version history below, along with a list of changes. Note that the latest version is an alpha version of XPostFacto 3. "Alpha" means it's not finished yet, and there are likely to be some bugs.
User reports on 3.0a8 were more positive than for 3.0a6 or 3.0a7 -- a number of people are getting this to work. You can check the forums for more details. A fair number of people are finding that the Mac OS X version of XPostFacto crashes upon launch. Also, several people are reporting that the install process fails when initiated from Mac OS X, but works when initiated from Mac OS 9. And a fair number of people need to turn off the "Enable L2/L3 Cache" option to get past the OWCCacheConfig testing process.
A fair number of people are reporting that Panther does not always see their SCSI drives. There are several things that seem to help in some cases -- doing a cold boot rather than a warm boot, unplugging USB devices, powering up or down other drives, etc. It seems that anything which affects the timing of the boot process may help. The underlying cause isn't obvious yet -- I will need to look into it.
XPF now has initial support for Panther on the Wallstreet Powerbooks and the Beige G3. With the Beige G3, the main limitation at this time is that the built-in video is not working yet -- you need to use a video card. With the Wallstreet Powerbooks, there is a problem with video in some configurations, which can sometimes be solved by changing colour depth, or (one user reports) by removing the ATIRageProGA.plugin extension. Also, some users report that the Wallstreet Powerbooks aren't ejecting PC Cards properly in Panther.
I have also made a couple of changes to the Mac OS X version of XPostFacto. XPF now writes to the system log in Mac OSX, rather than its own log file. I also fixed one bug which may have contributed to the problem initiating an install from the Mac OS X version.
XPF now includes limited support for Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) on the 7300 - 9600 (and friends), as well as the Wallstreet Powerbooks and Beige G3 (with some limitations related to video). The original Powerbook G3 (Kanga) is not yet supported, but I will be working on it.
You will see a new kernel extension which handles sound support on the 7300 - 9600 -- OpenOWScreamerAudio. It is based on the AppleOWScreamerAudio that used to be included in Mac OS X, but which is no longer included in Mac OS X 10.3. Sound still has the same limitations as in pre-Panther versions (that is, for most people sound input doesn't work). Hopefully it will be possible to fix that eventually.
You will also see a new kernel extension called GossamerDeviceTreeUpdater, which makes some ... adjustments ... to the device tree on the Wallstreet Powerbooks and Beige G3, in order to make the Panther Installer feel more at home with its surroundings and willing to perform its duties without complaint. (In case you are thrown by my needlessly sinister tone, I should quickly inform you that these adjustments are entirely temporary and last only until you reboot).
One thing which is not yet working in Panther on the 7300 - 9600 or the Beige G3 is the built-in video. I need to do some more work to get this fixed. The Radeon 7000 works in Panther, as does the original Radeon Mac Edition, as well as some others. One option that you may find useful in Panther is the "Use old NDRVs" option, which sets up a boot argument which tells Panther to use the ROM-based drivers on older video cards that it would otherwise ignore.
On the 7300 - 9600, the Panther networking preferences will report that the cable is not plugged into the ethernet port, even though it is and it is working fine. It's something I need to fix, but it's just a cosmetic problem.
As a consequence of some of the changes I've made for Panther support, XPF doesn't work with Mac OS X 10.1 or 10.0 anymore. I'll fix this eventually, but for the moment XPF should only be used with 10.2 or 10.3.
XPF will now automatically detect and configure L2 and L3 cache when you boot into Mac OS X, including when you boot from the CD to install. This is courtesy of the newly-included OWCCacheConfig extension. I have not written a user-interface for it yet, but you can control its behaviour using the "Enable L2/L3 Cache" option in XPostFacto. If OWCCacheConfig is causing problems for you, you can turn it off by de-selecting this option.
Unfortunately, OWCCacheConfig is causing problems for a fair number of users so far, so it would not be particularly unusual if you need to turn it off.
You can now use XPF to choose whether to boot from Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X (via the options in the main XPF window). If you choose Mac OS 9, you'll boot from whichever Mac OS 9 disk you last booted from. I need to add the ability to select a specific Mac OS 9 volume -- I just haven't gotten that far.
I have completely redesigned the way that XPF deals with synchronizing files between the root disk and the helper disk. The XPF startup item launches a background process which periodically checks to see whether synchronization is required (for instance, whether you've installed a software update or a new kernel extension). However, the startup item no longer tries to actually perform the synchronization (because it turned out to be tricky to stay out of the installer's way). Instead, it pops up a message telling you that synchronization is required, and that you can use XPostFacto to perform the synchronization, once the installation is complete. When you launch XPostFacto, you'll see that you're now setup to boot in Mac OS 9 instead of Mac OS X. The purposes of this is to make sure that you don't reboot in Mac OS X without synchronizing first. So, all you need to do at this point is use XPF to switch back to booting from Mac OS X, and XPF will take care of the required synchronization.
Depending on what you're installing, there are cases in which you can't launch applications after installing (until you restart). In that case, you'll restart in Mac OS 9, and you can use XPostFacto to get back to Mac OS X (it will do the required synchronization along the way).
The helper mechanism appears to be working well when you don't really need it (for instance, when I test it with two SCSI drives). It is still problematic, though, when booting from Firewire drives. It appears that there is often (but not always) a problem reading from Firewire drives when they are used as the root disk. One user reports that 10.2.8 is better than 10.2 in this respect. I am very curious to see whether 10.3 fixes this problem, since it (infamously) makes some significant changes in the way that Firewire drives are accessed.
The XPF version of Mac OS X should be working now, and should be able to do everything that it can do in Mac OS 9. There are a fair number of people who report that the Mac OS X version of XPF crashes upon launch -- I will be following up on that. Also, some people report that the install process does not work if initiated from Mac OS X, but does work if initiated from Mac OS 9. Again, something I need to follow up on.
XPF now behaves very differently when quitting than in previous versions. In previous versions, XPF would automatically save your preferences in its own preference file, but would not write any settings to NVRAM, or make any changes to your drives, unless you clicked on the "Restart" or "Install" buttons.
Now, XPF will do two things when you quit:
The general idea is to mimic the behaviour of Apple's Startup Disk application. I think you'll find that it mostly makes sense -- let me know if what XPF is doing feels unexpected to you.
We are now returning the regularly scheduled portion of this document. If you are a seasoned XPF user who has read this stuff many times before, you can pretty much stop now.
Here is a checklist of things to consider before attempting to install Mac OS X with XPostFacto.
XPostFacto works with some unsupported machines, but not all of them. Here are the machines that XPostFacto can work with:
These are the 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, and 9600, as well as the clones that were based on one of these systems (the Umax S900 and J700, the PowerComputing PowerWave and PowerTower Pro, and the Daystar Genesis and Millennium, among others).
The Beige G3s are working. However, some additional work is required to get the built-in video to work with Panther.
The Wallstreet Powerbooks are working, with some video-related issues in some configurations.
These are the original Powerbook G3, the 2400 and the 3400. However, there are significant limitations in the support for these machines. The most serious limitation is that sleep does not work. On some models, the built-in ethernet connection also does not work. There are additional details below. I should warn potential users that Mac OS X is pretty slow on the 2400 and 3400. But an XPostFacto user was kind enough to bring his 2400 running Mac OS X to show me at MacWorld NY, and it was pretty cool to see.
Support for other models is in development. Some users have recently had success with some of the "Catalyst" machines (in particular, the PowerCenter and PowerCenter Pro). At least on some of these machines, the onboard video is not working, so a video card is required. Also, some progress has been made with the Alchemy and Gazelle (the 6400 and 6500), but they are not working reliably yet.
The basic requirement for Mac OS X to ever work on a machine is that it have a PowerPC processor, a PCI bus, and Open Firmware. So the earliest PowerPC computers from Apple (e.g. the 6100, 7100, and 8100) are not likely to ever work with Mac OS X.
XPostFacto does not run in Mac OS 8, so you need to have at least Mac OS 9.0 installed to use it. XPostFacto will run in Mac OS 9.0, 9.1 or 9.2. (It requires Mac OS 9.x in order to be able to copy files with long filenames from the Mac OS X Install CD to your hard drive).
If you do not already have Mac OS 9.x installed, the problem is that Mac OS 9.2 does not ordinarily work on older machines, and it is not so easy to buy Mac OS 9.0 or 9.1 anymore. There are some procedures available for installing 9.2 if you need to do that.
Version 3.0 of XPostFacto will also run in Mac OS X.
Apple recommends a minimum of 128 MB of RAM to run Mac OS X. But more is better, especially if you are planning to make use of the Classic environment to run Mac OS 9. I would suggest at least 256 MB.
If RAM is tight, and you still want to install Mac OS X, I have heard of cases where people have done so in as little as 64 MB. But that is not recommended.
The bare minimum space required for installing Mac OS X is about 1.5 GB. However, a more realistic minimum is 2 GB. And more is better, depending on how much space your applications and data are likely to need.
You need a disk that was formatted with Apple's Drive Setup or Intech's Hard Disk SpeedTools
In order to boot Mac OS X on older machines, the disk you are using to boot from must have been formatted with Apple's Drive Setup or Intech's Hard Disk SpeedTools. Disks formatted with other formatting utilities generally are not bootable on older machines with Mac OS X. (The symptom is that when you try to reboot, you will end up back in Mac OS 9 instead of Mac OS X). If you are using Intech's Hard Disk SpeedTools, make sure that you have upgraded to the most recent version, as previous versions had some difficulty with the Mac OS X Installer.
Once you have Mac OS X installed, it is possible to use the Mac OS X Disk Utility to format disks. However, those disks do not appear to be bootable on older machines, even if you check the "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" checkbox. So it seems best to use the Mac OS 9.x version of Drive Setup to format drives instead.
One exception is Firewire drives, which can be formatted in Mac OS X. (The reason is that XPostFacto uses a "helper" drive for the first part of the boot process when booting from Firewire drives).
The ideal strategy for installing Mac OS X is to have three separate partitions: one for Mac OS X, one for Mac OS 9.1, and one for Classic. These partitions can be on the same disk or on separate disks--it does not matter.
The advantage of having Mac OS X on a separate partition from Mac OS 9.1 is that you can install Mac OS X without touching your current installation. This provides some peace of mind, in case anything should go wrong when installing Mac OS X.
It is possible to install Mac OS X on the same partition as Mac OS 9. However, the Mac OS X Installer will "bless" the Mac OS X installation, which "de-blesses" the Mac OS 9 System Folder. The Mac OS 9 System Folder can be re-blessed (most easily with the Startup Disk preference panel in the Mac OS X System Preferences application), but that process can become tricky in situations where Mac OS X does not boot correctly after the first install. (There are some troubleshooting suggestions below if you find yourself in this situation).
The advantage of having Mac OS 9.1 on a separate partition from Classic is that certain extensions and control panels are problematic in Classic (or simply not needed). Having a separate partition permits you to do a bare-bones install with only the things actually needed for Classic, and still have another partition to use when you want to reboot into Mac OS 9.x. The other advantage is that it is possible to install and use Mac OS 9.2 for Classic, even though it will not be bootable apart from Classic.
It is possible to use the same partition for your bootable Mac OS 9.1 and for Classic. If you do that, then you will need to remove any problematic extensions or control panels. Alternatively, you can use the Classic preferences in Mac OS X to disable some extensions or control panels when using Classic.
So if you have three partitions available, it is ideal to use one for Mac OS X, one for Mac OS 9.x, and one for Classic. If you have two partitions, then Classic and Mac OS X can coexist on the same partition. And if you have only one partition, then everything can coexist together, with some disadvantages. (Of course, the size of the partitions available to you will also influence your strategy).
If you are installing onto an ATA drive, there are some cases in which you must install onto a partition that is entirely within the first 8 GB of the drive. The Mac OS X Installer enforces this limit, so if you are unable to select your desired partition, that may be the reason.
It is a good idea to backup your data before attempting a major installation, and doubly so before attempting something that Apple does not support! So you should consider whether you have a good backup system in place at the moment. (You could also consider what backup system you will use once Mac OS X is installed. One option is to copy drives with a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner--using a Firewire drive for this purpose can be handy. And Retrospect now has a Mac OS X compatible version, for more sophisticated backups).
You need to review your PCI cards and other peripherals for compatibility
Compatibility is a large subject--you can consult my compatibility page for a longer (though still incomplete) discussion. Here I will briefly discuss a few issues that sometimes prevent a successful install.
If you are installing Mac OS X 10.0, then you may need to remove Firewire/USB cards, until you have completed the install and upgraded to Mac OS X 10.1. Mac OS X 10.0 had some trouble with Firewire and USB, but Mac OS X 10.1 is much improved.
Some video cards are problematic in Mac OS X. Check the compatibility page for details.
The Mac OS X 10.1 Install CD has a more complete set of drivers for SCSI and ATA cards than does the Mac OS X 10.0 CD (and the 10.2 CD is even better). Check the compatibility page for details.
Some older CD-ROM devices do not work with Mac OS X. The symptom that you will get in this case is the message "still waiting for root device" when booting in verbose mode (with command-v held down at startup).
I almost forgot to mention this one! You can use XPostFacto to install Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, or Darwin. But you do need the Install CD. XPostFacto should work with Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2, as well as their Mac OS X Server and Darwin equivalents. There is also some support for Mac OS X 10.3 now (see above).
Here is a quick survey of what works and what doesn't work on the machines that XPostFacto supports. For information about the compatibility of peripheral devices, check the compatibility page.
Mac OS X does not work with a 601 CPU. Therefore, if you have a 7500 with the original 601 processor, you will need to install a CPU upgrade before installing Mac OS X.
Mac OS X 10.2 does not work with a 603 or 604 CPU either. I have done some work to try to fix this, but it seems unlikely that this problem will be solved soon. The workaround is to install a G3 or G4 upgrade card.
If you install a G3 or a G4 upgrade, you will need some software to enable the L2 cache in Mac OS X. You can use my L2CacheConfig software, or the PowerLogix cache control software, which is also free. Your computer will work without enabling the L2 cache--it will just be slower. L2CacheConfig required some changes to work with Mac OS X 10.2, so you should upgrade to version 3.3 of L2CacheConfig before installing Mac OS 10.2.
The 9500MP and 9600MP work, but only one processor is active at this time. I have been working on MP support from time to time, but have not made much progress lately.
Mac OS X does not come with support for the floppy drive. Some work has been done (by others) on an open-source driver, but it hasn't been updated for a while and I'm told that it's not working well at this point. Your best bet if you really need a floppy drive is to look at a USB-based drive.
Sound out works. However, it is not possible to change the volume globally (you can change the volume in applications such as iTunes). There are some cases in which users report trouble with sound out after intensive disk access. The exact cause has been difficult to track down, but is probably related to the PCI bus in some way.
Sound in does not work yet (at least, for most people -- there are cases where it does).
Video in and out does not work yet (on those models that have it--the 7600 and 8600, I believe).
ADB keyboards and mice generally work. If you are tempted to replace them with a USB keyboard and mouse, it is useful to keep your ADB keyboard and mouse around. This is because the boot-time key combinations only work on ADB keyboards, and the built-in support for ADB comes in handy sometimes if you run into trouble.
The internal and external SCSI bus both work. However, there are some users who have trouble with the internal SCSI bus. One thing that you need to double-check is that your SCSI termination is correct, because Mac OS X is picky about that. In general, Mac OS X is sensitive to timing issues on the SCSI bus. Sometimes removing unnecessary devices helps. Also, you will sometimes need to adjust the jumper settings on drives connected to the internal bus, to make sure that they spin up automatically at boot time (the "Disable Unit Attention" jumper is one that sometimes needs to be changed).
The serial ports generally work, though not all serial devices are supported. Some modems work, but serial printers are not supported. Localtalk does not work in Mac OS X (i.e. Appletalk over the printer port). However, you can get localtalk-to-ethernet adapters.
The built-in ethernet connection works, with the exception of the Powerbooks that have an Ethernet-only connection. Those do not work, but the combo Ethernet-Modem connections do work (at least for ethernet).
I have not tested the internal modem in the Powerbooks--I suppose I should!
Display sleep works, and is safe. Disk sleep works and seems safe in Mac OS X 10.1 and later. In Mac OS X 10.0, there were some reports of data corruption upon waking for sleep.
System sleep is not working yet. On the desktop models, it fails gracefully (or at least reasonably gracefully--I seem to lose my Internet connection sometimes). On the Powerbooks, however, sleep crashes the system. So it is important to turn sleep off in the Energy Saver preference panel in the System Preferences application.
PCMCIA cards appear not to work in the Powerbooks. However, some CardBus cards do seem to work.
So, you have reviewed the checklist of things you need before using XPostFacto, and you have some idea of what works and what doesn't. Now, you ask, how do I actually go about using XPostFacto?
Let me emphasize one last time that you need to be cautious when doing a major installation of this kind. Installing Mac OS X has worked very easily and reliably for some, while others have had significant problems that have not always been readily explained. There have been cases in which installing Mac OS X has been unsuccessful, and the computer has failed to boot at all--it appears to be "dead." If you read the tech forum, you will see that there has been some vigorous debate about whether the computer is ever "really" dead--in almost all cases, it has been possible to get it to boot again (until recently, I would have said "all cases"). But there are a handful of users who have either given up or come very close to it.
So you should ask yourself two final questions:
Then take a deep breath, and follow the following procedure:
XPostFacto will copy some kernel extensions to the target volume. Then it installs a modified version of BootX that will use these kernel extensions (along with the standard extensions on the CD). Then it will restart the computer.
The Mac OS X Installer runs in Mac OS X, so you will be booting into Mac OS X at this stage. It can take a few minutes, so you need to be a little patient. It is possible for the installation to fail at this point, either with an explicit error message, or a rainbow cursor that spins forever, or by rebooting into Mac OS 9, or just a blank screen. See the troubleshooting tips below if this happens to you.
When you reach the Mac OS X Installer, select the target volume again (make sure to select the same one). Do not reformat the target volume at this point, as we need to keep the files that we have already copied there. Follow the rest of the Installer's instructions as usual.
Once you have finished installing Mac OS X, the installer will reboot your system. Once you have successfully rebooted, remember to go to the "Energy Savers" panel in "System Preferences" and set your computer and hard drive to never sleep. System sleep does not work well on unsupported systems. However, display sleep is OK, and drive sleep is OK in Mac OS X 10.1.
One thing to note is that if you are using a "helper" disk (for instance, where your target is a Firewire drive), you will probably reboot into Mac OS 9 after the install is completed, rather than Mac OS X. At this point, you simply need to run XPostFacto again, select your target volume, and click on "Restart". That will set up the special boot process correctly again.
After you reboot into Mac OS 9, you can use XPostFacto to return to Mac OS X. Simply select the desired startup volume and press the restart button. XPF will write the required settings to non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), and restart the computer. (Restarting from the Finder is not affected by your selection here.
XPF will only startup Mac OS X. To choose a different Mac OS 9 volume, use the Startup Disk control panel instead. However, do not use Startup Disk to choose a Mac OS X volume on unsupported machines, as it will not work, and may require you to zap your parameter RAM.
Version 3 of XPostFacto also runs in Mac OS X, so you can use it to switch your startup volume as well.
Version 2.0 of XPostFacto will install Mac OS X 10.1, and version 2.2 will install Mac OS X 10.2. To do the install, you follow the same steps listed above. The procedure is the same whether you are upgrading or doing a fresh install--in both cases, you need to boot from the Mac OS X Install CD, so you need to use XPostFacto's special install procedure.
For the minor Mac OS X upgrades (e.g. from 10.1 to 10.1.5), you can use the 'Software Updates' mechanism or the downloadable installers as usual--they have, so far, worked without XPostFacto's help.
XPostFacto now has some support for Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) -- see above for details.
Here are some tips you can use if you run into trouble.
If you have installed Mac OS X on the same partition as Mac OS 9, rebooting with the option-key down may not work, because the Mac OS X installation process "de-blesses" the Mac OS 9 System Folder. In those cases, you can reboot from the Mac OS 9 CD with the "c" key held down, and take steps to "re-bless" the Mac OS 9 System Folder. The simplest method is to drag the System or Finder file to the desktop and then back into the System Folder. If that doesn't work, one user suggests command-option-double-clicking on the Finder file (I have not tried that yet). Also, you could check to see whether the /System/Library/CoreServices folder has been blessed by the Mac OS X Installer. In that case, you could de-bless that folder by dragging out the fake System file located there. You should then be able to re-bless your Mac OS 9 System Folder.
Here are some steps you can take to diagnose problems.
If you cannot successfully boot, then the most important thing is to try booting in verbose mode. Hold down command-v as the computer restarts, and note any error messages which appear.
If you do not get any text in verbose mode, you can use the 'Open Firmware' settings in the "Options" dialog to diagnose the earliest part of the boot process. The items in that dialog have the following meanings:
auto-boot?
- When this is selected (the default setting), your computer will boot in the ordinary way. When it is unselected, the computer will stop at the Open Firmware prompt when you boot. If you have no idea what the Open Firmware prompt is, you should leave this checked. If you do uncheck it, make sure that you set up the input-device and output-device. (XPF 3 now enforces this).
input-device
- This is the device that will provide input at the Open Firmware prompt (should you stop there). Generally, you will want this to be the keyboard, but you can choose the modem or printer port as well.
output-device
- This is the device that will receive output at the Open Firmware prompt. Generally, you will want this to be the built-in monitor, or a video card. You can also choose the modem or printer port.
By selecting an input-device and output-device, and then holding down command-v as the computer restarts, you will get additional diagnostic messages earlier in the boot process.
If you still get no text in verbose mode, then there are a couple of things you can try.
If you have a G3 or G4 upgrade card, you can try adjusting the "Throttle" setting (again, in the "Options" dialog). The "throttle" menu allows you to adjust the speed of your G3 or G4 upgrade card during the earliest part of the boot process. For some users, this solves a problem booting from certain SCSI devices. Once the earliest part of the boot process is complete, the processor will be reset to its full speed.
The higher the throttle setting, the slower the processor is during the early boot process. Several users have reported that a setting of 4 or higher allows them to boot on certain problematic drives, while 3 or less fails.
You can also try adjusting the clock speed or bus speed of your CPU upgrade.
Sometimes, problems booting have to do with RAM. It is sometimes best to de-interleave RAM, especially with CPU upgrades. You do this by making sure that matching DIMM slots do not have matching memory modules. Also, there are occasions where a particular DIMM which works in Mac OS 9 is problematic in Mac OS X. So you can try swapping out DIMMs to see if you can isolate a problematic one.
If you do get text in verbose mode, then note any error messages, and note what the last messages are before the process grinds to a halt. If the last messages are a repeated "Still waiting for root device", then it means that Mac OS X is having some trouble with your CD-ROM device.
If you get a kernel panic, then the best thing is to take a picture of your screen with a digital camera, post the picture on the web somewhere, and then post a link the tech forum (or send me an e-mail, but the tech forum is faster). If you don't have a digital camera, then copy down all the information and type it up. (It is tedious, but there is no better way yet--I do have some ideas for how to save the panic information automatically).
One useful troubleshooting measure, especially for kernel panics, is to remove any unnecessary PCI cards and try again. If that works, you can add cards back in until you have figured out which one is causing trouble.
If you get as far as the Mac OS X Installer and then have problems, there are a couple of possibilities.
If you get random freezes (that is, the cursor stops moving and you get no error message of any kind), then the most common reason is trouble with your RAM. You can try swapping out DIMMs and see whether you can isolate a problematic one. (There are cases where DIMMs which are fine in Mac OS 9 are problematic in Mac OS X).
If you get an error message about not being able to write a file, or read a file, then I am not entirely sure what the problem is. In some cases, using a different install CD helps. In some cases, reformatting the target volume helps. But there are cases where this problem goes unsolved.
If you are getting kernel panics with the multilingual text screen that tells you that you need to reboot, you might want to turn on the "See panic text" option. This will show you the traditional panic text instead, which can be helpful for figuring out what is causing the panic.
XPF makes use of the zlib compression library, for which I wish to thank Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
El-Gato Software contributed a bug fix that helps support additional SCSI CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW devices.
Joshua Thorpe suggested the new name.
Michel Lanners wrote the Forth code to permit processor throttling in Open Firmware, and Matt Schechtman passed it along to me.
Pierre d'Herbemont has done some terrific work on 6400 support.
Joe van Tunen figured out how to solve the issue with the Radeon 7000 card becoming active only late in the boot process.
I would also like to thank Other World Computing (Larry O'Connor in particular) for their generous support.
XPostFacto itself is subject to the following license:
Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, Other World Computing. All rights reserved.Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer as the first lines of each file.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Redistributions in binary form must retain the link to Other World Computing's web site in the application's "About Box."
This software is provided by Other World Computing ``as is'' and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall Ryan Rempel or Other World Computing be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.
XPostFacto was written with the MacApp Application Framework. (c) 1983-2001 Apple Computer, Inc. MacApp is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and certain other countries.
I have also made a couple of changes to the Mac OS X version of XPostFacto. XPF now writes to the system log in Mac OSX, rather than its own log file. I also fixed one bug which may have contributed to the problem initiating an install from the Mac OS X version.
I've also fixed a problem which occurred if you launched XPF in Mac OS 9 and there was no Install CD around, and no existing Mac OS X volume. XPF should now do the expected thing when you quit in these circumstances (i.e., nothing).
I've also removed the AppleMaceEthernetPreJaguar kernel extension. One user reported that removing it solves a kernel panic which several users had reported.
Support for 10.3 on the Beige G3 and Wallstreet is still coming.
Should be working (but possibly with bugs):
Not implemented yet:
One other limitation is that it is not possible to do an Install from the Mac OS X version of XPostFacto yet--you will need to reboot into Mac OS 9 first.
The changes since version 2.2b17 are as follows:
And here is a summary of the changes since version 2.11 (the last non-beta version):
Fixes a problem which prevented some of the kernel extensions from loading properly in 2.2b15, which could cause a kernel panic early in the boot process.