Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

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

Moderators: Cat_7, Ronald P. Regensburg, ClockWise

Post Reply
dryer
Student Driver
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:28 am
Location: Buffalo, NY

Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by dryer »

Sheepshaver crashes on startup

I use Sheepshaver all the time, using System 7.5.3, and today I tried creating a larger RAM. I must have done something wrong in setting this up since it immediately crashed on startup. However, I can’t even start up the one that I have been using for years. I even had a copy of the entire Sheepshaver folder from two weeks ago but when I try starting that one, the same problem. I don’t understand how using a completely different folder that worked fine two weeks ago won’t work now.

I have been using Sheepshaver from 2012 and I downloaded the latest version to see if that helped. It didn’t, though with the latest version a black screen appears for two seconds before it crashes, while with the older version, it crashes immediately.

I am using System 10.10.5. I have tried restarting, but that doesn’t help.

As with others, I suspect that there is something fairly basic I’m overlooking but I am stumped.
User avatar
Ronald P. Regensburg
Expert User
Posts: 7821
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

You probably did something wrong while changing the preferences settings. Post here the content of your preferences file so we can see what could be wrong:

Launch Terminal (in /Application/Utilities/) and type at the prompt

Code: Select all

open ~/.sheepshaver_prefs
followed by a return.
The file will open in your default text editor. Select all content and copy and paste it here in your reply.
User avatar
adespoton
Forum All-Star
Posts: 4227
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:11 am
Location: Emaculation.com
Contact:

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by adespoton »

It could also be a case of the nvram file getting corrupted when something changed; zapping PRAM (deleting the nvram file) should quickly fix things if this is the problem.

Note that by default, all your OS configurations use the same preferences file and nvram file. This is why I prefer .sheepvm files that keep all the configs separate for each OS I'm launching.
dryer
Student Driver
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:28 am
Location: Buffalo, NY

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by dryer »

Here it is:

disk mac_os7
cdrom /dev/poll/cdrom
extfs /Users/dryer/Documents/SheepshaverShare
screen win/1250/750
windowmodes 0
screenmodes 0
seriala /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem
serialb /dev/null
rom Mac OS ROM
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 2097152000
frameskip 0
gfxaccel true
nocdrom false
nonet false
nosound false
nogui false
noclipconversion false
ignoresegv false
ignoreillegal false
jit true
jit68k false
keyboardtype 5
ether slirp
keycodes true
keycodefile keycodes
mousewheelmode 0
mousewheellines 1
dsp /dev/dsp
mixer /dev/mixer
ignoresegv false
idlewait true
User avatar
Ronald P. Regensburg
Expert User
Posts: 7821
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Well, you set RAM size to 2000 MB, which is way too much. I would set it to or 256 or 512 MB.

Also, better enable the option "Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses" (in Miscellaneous tab in preferences).

As SheepShaver now crashes on launch, you cannot use its build-in prefs editor. You can use the old stand-alone SheepShaverPrefs application to correct the settings. It can be downloaded here: http://ronaldpr.home.xs4all.nl/sheepsha ... rPrefs.zip
dryer
Student Driver
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:28 am
Location: Buffalo, NY

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by dryer »

Thanks. Problem solved. The mistake I have been making is putting all my uses of Sheepshaver into a single instance of the application. That's why I needed more RAM. Since I use Sheepshaver for different purposes, I think that this means I should have separate Sheepshavers for different purposes and each of them can be smaller.

But I have one small question. I have programs that use large data files that I have been storing in the same folder as the program. But I'm wondering if there is a way in System 7.5.3 to refer to files that are in a different folder, especially the shared folder. If I am in folder called X using a datafile Y, my programs just access the file in that same folder. Is there a way to refer to datafile Y if it is in my shared folder by specifying a path? That would solve my memory issues immensely. But as far as I can tell, there is no root node that includes both the files on the MAC OS 7 drive and the shared folder. And I'm not sure if there is a way to refer to paths in System 7 (or whether there is a way in Think Pascal, which I am using, to access files via a path).
User avatar
Ronald P. Regensburg
Expert User
Posts: 7821
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

dryer wrote:Thanks. Problem solved. The mistake I have been making is putting all my uses of Sheepshaver into a single instance of the application. That's why I needed more RAM. Since I use Sheepshaver for different purposes, I think that this means I should have separate Sheepshaver's for different purposes and each of them can be smaller.
I do not think "putting all my uses of Sheepshaver into a single instance of the application" should be a problem and I do not think you should normally need more RAM than 512MB. Unless, of course, you run an unusually large number of memory intensive applications (programs) in SheepShaver at the same time. On a Mac, certainly in classic MacOS, you need to quit applications when you do not use them to free up memory. Closing all its windows does not stop an application.

(As a reference: In the 7.5.3 era, I was the proud owner of a Macintosh Performa 5300CD with PowerPC 603e processor. The machine came in default configuration with 8MB (eight!) of RAM. I paid extra for an additional 4MB of RAM. The maximum amount of RAM the machine could be equipped with was 64MB.)
But I have one small question. I have programs that use large data files that I have been storing in the same folder as the program. But I'm wondering if there is a way in System 7.5.3 to refer to files that are in a different folder, especially the shared folder. If I am in folder called X using a datafile Y, my programs just access the file in that same folder. Is there a way to refer to datafile Y if it is in my shared folder by specifying a path? That would solve my memory issues immensely. But as far as I can tell, there is no root node that includes both the files on the MAC OS 7 drive and the shared folder. And I'm not sure if there is a way to refer to paths in System 7 (or whether there is a way in Think Pascal, which I am using, to access files via a path).
I do not understand your question, exactly what kind of applications and what kind of data files are you talking about? Data files belonging to a certain application do not need to be in the application's folder. They can be located anywhere, in a different folder or on a different disk/volume. Double-clicking a data file should open it in the application it belongs to, or you can open a file from the File menu in the application, or you can drop the data file icon onto the application icon to open the file in that application.

If you need more storage, you can add multiple disk images in SheepShaver preferences as additional volumes for SheepShaver. The shared folder is best used only for transferring files between host and guest system.

Did you check the setting for where to save documents in the General control panel in 7.5.3?
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:10 am, edited 4 times in total.
Reason:  
User avatar
adespoton
Forum All-Star
Posts: 4227
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:11 am
Location: Emaculation.com
Contact:

Re: Another case of crashing at start-up (System 7.5.3)

Post by adespoton »

Regarding your question about file locations:
But I have one small question. I have programs that use large data files that I have been storing in the same folder as the program. But I'm wondering if there is a way in System 7.5.3 to refer to files that are in a different folder, especially the shared folder. If I am in folder called X using a datafile Y, my programs just access the file in that same folder. Is there a way to refer to datafile Y if it is in my shared folder by specifying a path? That would solve my memory issues immensely. But as far as I can tell, there is no root node that includes both the files on the MAC OS 7 drive and the shared folder. And I'm not sure if there is a way to refer to paths in System 7 (or whether there is a way in Think Pascal, which I am using, to access files via a path).
There are a number of options if you're using Think Pascal; you can create a file type and associate those files with that type for your application, you can hard-code a file path (using colons : as folder separators) into your application (not really a good idea), you can use a preferences file stored in the System folder to store the file path, or (my favourite) you can store it wherever you want and put an alias of the file/folder in the same folder as the application.
Post Reply