E-Maculation

Do I need to do a fresh install or can I install Sheep Shaver over COI ??

COI stores things in different places than SheepShaver and has different prefs. So you'll need to find all your files and put them in the correct place for SheepShaver and then re-build your prefs.

thank you for the reply.....
can I run both COI and Sheep Shaver on the same computer ?
What is the correct place for Sheep Shaver files ??
Thank you again for your reply !!!

You cannot run COI and SheepShaver with the same user account on one computer, you need to make a choice. Each time COI is launched, it will revert all settings made in SheepShaver to its own settings and you will have to start configuring SheepShaver all over from the start.

If you want to use a regular SheepShaver setup, you need to remove all SheepShaver related files that were created by COI first, especially the hidden .sheepshaver_prefs file in your Home folder. In the SheepShaver download you will find a script that can do that. Then, after that, do not run COI again.

Follow the SheepShaver setup guide. You can place the SheepShaver files where convenient for you.

is there an advantage to running Sheepsaver over COI ??

A regular SheepShaver setup is more flexible. In a regular setup you can change settings for things like window size and RAM size, you can add any compatible disk image (not limited to the image names that COI recognizes), choose different startup volumes, install different MacOS versions. If you setup SheepShaver with .sheepvm virtual machines, you can have different setups at the same time on your Mac.

COI is easier because it is pre-installed and pre-setup, but you are stuck with the the limitations of that setup.

I had regular error messages coming out of COI setup, because of the quotes around Chubby Bunny in old style plists. These triggered a raft of error messages every time mdworker visited, which with my backup system seemed to result in 100+ errors. Attempts to fix all the plists resulted in a COI system that ceased working and I recently moved on to 64 bit SheepShaver (Mac OS9 version from Edward, that has many more tools and options than COI and an altogether bigger world view - though I did add back a few system extensions to provide pdf printing and a few other faves).
Another plus for SS ++

Emendelson's OS 9 app is essentially the modern COI with a bit more flexibility; one of the main differences though is that it contains a clean build of SheepShaver inside, so you can switch to the system-wide version easily should the single app become limiting for some reason.