Stuck in Setting up SheepShear - twice in the same place.

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

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mrnoonan
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 12:06 am

Stuck in Setting up SheepShear - twice in the same place.

Post by mrnoonan »

Where to start after all the tech that’s passed 30 some years ago. I’m not a newbie to Mac or Windows but OS 9 is now a distant memory. I recall that I once had a Macintosh IIcs as my 1st Mac.

I’ve gotten partially through the SheepShear (SS) setup twice but the "Mac OS Install” instruction does not show up.
? I not sure what “installer”in teh instructions is meant here.
? Is there an installer icon or named object I should see.

I do get an Apple Menu bar at the top, three disk icons and the Unix and Trash icons on the right side, and a collapsible bar on the left side (not sure what these icons do when it is expanded). The background is dark blue with a checkerboard of repeating Mac Lisa(?) images.

An odd situation happens at the initialization of the hard drive volume. The HD initialization comes up with as an “Untitled" named disk rather than MacOS9HD I used in the Preference setup. I changed Untitled to MacOS9HD. And then, this initialization came up again. (the odd part.) I ended up with two identically named hard drives (maybe I should have used A and B and changed the hard drive's names later).
? This is weird. What happened?

- am using these instructions http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/she ... os_x_setup
- retrieved the ROM (newworld86.rom) and OS image (OS9.img) from http://www.redundantrobot.com/#/sheepshaver
- renamed newworld86.rom to MAC OS ROM
- OS9.img (512MB) is a bit vague as to content but no clue whether it is 9.0.x or what. I locked it.
- I have update image files for 9.0.4 (12MB), 9.1. 9.2.1, and 9.2.2 but I think there are incremental updates and I’d need the 9.0.0 base OS. Hard to find. Apple was no help.

- I’ve setup a rebuild folder for SS with the above files within.
- The operational SS will be in the Sierra Applications folder.
- The shared folder on the Sierra desktop is named "Shared OS 9 xfer” (note spaces used). I guess this is OK; it worked.

? I assume that if I Option+drag or Copy/Paste this SS folder to old SS Applications it effectively “delete” the old SS setup image.
? do I still have to run Terminal rm .sheepshaver_prefs rm .sheepshaver_nvram to delete them or will the first run of the refreshed SS overwrite them?

- I have used the separate Preferences.app to change Volumes but there is no save button. I used Close. I may or may not have closed SS when I did this.
? If SS is closed, can I make changes to the Volumes or other parameters without having to delete and refresh the SS setup?

- The Delete Prefs file.app in the scripts folder disappears after running once (not sure what it did and where it went).
? Is this app equivalent to running Terminal as above?

? Did Unix ever run under Mac OS 9? I think not. I think 9.1 did.

I’m trying to restore the a MYM app and its data files app and recover some 10 years of financial data to install on Quicken app running in the vm Parallels on macOS X. Even though the OS 9 install didn’t complete, I tried to manipulate the MYM file.
- I did get the Unix shared folder to work and transfer a Sierra repository folder with MYM 7.2 and data files through it. The Sierra folder contains the MYM 7.2 program and a folder called Floppies containing 11 data files.
- I have no idea how I created these 11 files but without a suffix I identify MYM data with TextEdit. With a .dmg suffix I can mount the data file on Sierra and open the contents therein with TextEdit with no change in the data image.
- The MYM program without a suffix, when opened on Sierra, shows an error that this is a Classic program and cannot be run.
- With an .img suffix the program again won't open but says the legacy image should be converted.
- With a .dmg suffix the error is that the image is not recognized.
? I assume the .dmg image will be used on SS as a floppy proxy? ?

- On SS, I dbl-clicked MYM to see what would happen. The error was that I needed Disk Copy to convert it.
? Perhaps .smi will work? or what?
? how do I install the MYM program in SS? drag and drop to the SS Desktop?
? how do I mount the data files? Through the SS Preferences Volumes list or what?

On a closing note, I found a cheat sheet of OS 9 commands. HTH.

Please advise, Thank you. Mike Noonan
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Cat_7
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Posts: 6145
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 8:59 am
Location: Sittard, The Netherlands

Re: Stuck in Setting up SheepShear - twice in the same place

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

To set up sheepshaver you need (1) a rom, (2) a file in your OSX folder to contain the hard disk onto which Mac OS 9 is installed, (3) an installation medium, (optionally 4) a folder designated to exchange files between OSX and Mac OS9. And of course SheepShaver itself.

Installation follows a normal installation procedure: you start Mac OS from a CD, initialize a hard disk, and install Mac OS from the CD onto the hard disk. After installation is done, you start your computer from the hard disk, not the CD.

I'm assuming you start the installation all over again. Use the script "Delete prefs file" to remove your previous settings. If this doesn't work, open a terminal and type "rm .sheepshaver_prefs" (no quotes and mind the dot (.) in front of the name.) Close the terminal.

You got (1) from the redundant robot site: OK, but rename it to "Mac OS ROM" (without extension)
You got (2) from redundant robot (OS9.img): not OK. This small hard disk image file contains only a stripped down version of Mac OS 9. You can only use it to see whether SheepShaver works OK.
You haven't got (3): not OK. You need to preferably create a CD image from your Mac OS installation CD. You can also find a CD image on the macintosh garden site. Search for "Mac OS 9" and find the Mac OS Install CD library. Pick the MacOS_904.toast_.sit file for download. Unpack the file into your SheepShaver folder, and rename the result to MacOS9InstallCD.iso so you keep track of what that file is for. Lock the file through the finder (get info, tick "locked").

Next, start SheepShaver. You get a screen with a question mark. Open the preferences editor from the SheepShaver/Preferences menu.

1. Click add and browse for the MacOS9InstallCD.iso file.
2. Create a new hard disk file. Click create: give a name: MacOS9HD.img, and enter at volume size 2000. This will create an empty hard disk of 2Gb.

You should now see two disks under Volumes in the preferences editor.

3. Click Browse at ROM file and select you Mac OS ROM file.
4. Click Browse at Unix Root and select the folder you want to share between Mac OS 9 and OSX. You already have one, so select that.
5. At RAM size, enter 64.

Go to the tab Audio/Video

6. At refresh rate, select Dynamic
7. At Width, select 800, at Height, select 600

Now go to the tab Miscellaneous.
8. Tick both "ignore..." options

Click Save.
You need to force quit SheepShaver and start it again.
This time SheepShaver boots the CD and shows yellowish background with images of CD's on it.

9. Mac OS finds the hard disk file you create earlier (MacOS9HD.img) and asks for a name. This name is what the hard disk will be known as for Mac OS 9, so it differs from the name of the file in OSX. Name it MacOS9HD, and at format select Mac OS Extended 1.9 GB, Click Initialise and Continue.

You should get to the desktop, with three disks and a trash can.

10. Open the topmost disk and find the Mac OS Install program.
11. Double click the install program and follow the prompts. Installation takes some minutes.

12. After installation has finished, reopen the preferences editor (SheepShaver/preferences), select the MacOS9.iso entry under Volumes, and click Remove. Click Save.

13. Use the menu Special to shut down Mac OS.
14. Restart SheepShaver.

This should give you a fresh and complete installation of Mac OS 9.0.4.
Once booted, close the Mac OS Setup Assistant.

Please get to this point first before we go into your other questions.

Best,
Cat_7
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