New (July 15, 2012) SheepShaver MacOSX build for testing

In the past months improvements were made by several contributors. Here is the current result in a new build for testing. To make sure that SheepShaver will continue to work on future OSX versions, efforts are gradually moving towards improvements in 64-bit on Intel.

This build should work on any MacOSX version on PPC or Intel, from 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.8 (Mountain Lion). It has not yet been extensively tested on all possible configurations. Observations are welcome.

This build now carries a 2.4 version number.


Download: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ronaldpr/sheepsha ... 5_test.zip


Some of the improvements since the February 11, 2012 build:

- Gamma fix that allows running Ferazel's Wand and some other games.

- When SheepShaver is not using CD-ROMs (CD-ROM driver disabled in preferences), SheepShaver will no longer prevent ejecting CD-ROMs in the OSX host.

- Accidental mounting of disk images at the same time in SheepShaver and OSX is prevented.

- Copy and paste text both ways between guest MacOS and host OSX is now also possible in 64-bit mode. More: In 64-bit mode you can copy and paste formatted text both ways. This is tested with SimpleText and Tex-Edit Plus in MacOS and with TextEdit in OSX. It may work with more applications.


Some of the improvements since the July 1, 2012 test build:

- Copy and paste images is now possible in 64-bit mode between guest MacOS and host OSX both ways.


Some remaining issues:

- On Intel: Disturbing partial color shifts after clicking anywhere in SheepShaver window after the window has been minimized or hidden and brought back in view. (The discoloration can be solved by changing and changing back the color depth in Monitors control panel or from the color depth control strip tile.)

- Only when running SheepShaver in full-screen mode in 64-bit mode in Snow Leopard: Serious cursor problems that necessitate a force-quit of SheepShaver.


Note:

Because of the issue with full-screen mode in 64-bit mode in Snow Leopard, this version is still set to run by default in 32-bit mode. To profit from the improvements in 64-bit mode it needs to be set to run in 64-bit mode (uncheck "Open in 32-bit mode" in Finder Get Info panel).

Works fine for me. Thanks!

Perfect. It rightfully deserves the version number 2.4 (or maybe higher)
It almost flies in 64 bit mode, even with my AMD oddbox.
Thank you for sharing this build.

Exchanged this build for the previous one on my ThinkPad T60 (10.6.8, 32bit).
Works like a charm, even faster than the old build.

Works beautifully, Ronald. Thank you. To illustrate the new clipboard features, the attached image shows an image pasted from this page into the WordPerfect graphic editor running under the new build.

Hello,

I am running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on a new Mid-2012 15-inch MacBook Pro. It was recently updated from 10.7 Lion. Under Lion, the issue below did not occur. (I have used SheepShaver since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.)

In both the February 11 2012 build and this July 15 2012 test build, I have full-screen problems. I have the resolution set to 1024x768, fullscreen, but instead of stretching and maintaining aspect ratio, the screen is placed in the lower-left (not stretched). Above and to the right is all black. Once booted in to Mac OS 9, a double cursor appears (hardware/software cursors?), and some items such as Special > Shutdown are not clickable, so SheepShaver must be force-quit. The issue occurs in both 32- and 64-bit mode.

Hi there.

I am running 10.8 on a late 2009 MB (2.4 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD) and dl both the latest stable build as well as the most recent beta build of Sheepshaver. Both builds close immediatly upon opening them. Tried both 32 and 64 bit settings, cleared chaches always before any attempt.

Is there something I am missing? Have all Quadra and Mac Plus ROM files ready.

Any help appreciated. Maybe I am not seeing the forrest due to all those trees standing around

Thx
Thom

This is expected behavior when no compatible ROM file is available. SheepShaver is a PPC Mac emulator Your ROM files are from 68k Macs. You need a different ROM file. See the setup manual for more information. http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/she ... os_x_setup

If you want to emulate a 68k Mac, try BasiliskII or Mini vMac.

I do not see this problem in Mountain Lion on my Mac. Full-screen works fine with any resolution. I can't think of what could cause this problem on your Mac.

Is the host system set to use the native resolution of your MacBook Pro screen? (System Preferences > Displays > Resolution: "Best for built-in display")

Edit: Is your new MacBook Pro one with a Retina display?

Hello Ronald,

It is not a retina display. The highest resolution is 1680x1050. The display setting was indeed on "Best for built-in display." I tried selecting "Scaled" on 1680x1050, and even with a lower resolution, but the issue persisted.

I then did some tinkering and discovered the following. In Mac OS 9, in the "Monitors" control panel, when the color scheme is set to anything less than "Millions", the issue occurs only briefly when SheepShaver starts up. What happens is SheepShaver begins with the screen in the lower-left of the screen, not stretched, up to and throughout the period of time when there is small text that reads "Welcome to Mac OS". After that text changes to "Starting Up...", SheepShaver then becomes properly stretched. Only when colors are set back to "Millions" in OS 9 does the issue re-occur the next time SheepShaver starts up.

In fact, you can see that your Monitors settings is briefly ignored until after "Starting Up..." appears. For example, you could set OS 9 to 16 colors, shut down and re-open SheepShaver, and the screen would look as it does when set to "Millions", and then change to 16 colors. I assume this is the OS starting up with the native color scheme by default, then changing to your settings once they are loaded.

Another somewhat amusing test I did was install SheepShaver in a Mac OS X 10.7.4 Lion virtual machine in Parallels Desktop 7. Believe it or not, it works pretty well, and the issue did not occur, just as it did not occur until I upgraded my host OS to 10.8 Mountain Lion. Although there are differences between the host and the virtualized graphics drivers, I think it is safe to say this issue is caused by Mountain Lion.

I'd be more than happy to do more testing.

I tried, but cannot reproduce this on my Mountain Lion machine which happens to have the same 1680x1050 screen resolution.

It is normal that SheepShaver starts with the resolution as set in SheepShaver preferences and switches to the settings in Monitors control panel during startup. You will see a resolution switch during startup if the two resolution settings do not match. Similarly, you will see a switch in color depth when Monitors control panel is set to less than millions of colors. This is also apparent when running SheepShaver in window mode. In the first stage of the startup process, SheepShaver is unaware of the control panel settings in MacOS.

But I do not see the emulator's screen appear in the corner of the host screen, no matter which color depth settings I use in OS9. So what could be different in your configuration? It is not Mountain Lion per se, as it does not happen on my machine.

The issue does not occur if the screen resolution in SheepShaver's preferences is set greater than the resolution setting in Mac OS 9, or if both are set to the monitor's greatest resolution. Therefore, a workaround is to set the SheepShaver preferences resolution to "Maximum" and set the desired resolution in OS 9.

Another issue I've come across seems to relate to one of the "improvements" in this test build:

"- Accidental mounting of disk images at the same time in SheepShaver and OSX is prevented."

But now disc images, as well as physical discs, mounted in OS X cannot be used in SheepShaver. There is one particular gem, Star Wars: DroidWorks, that requires this functionality. Everything else in the disc image bag of tricks doesn't work: mounting a disc image via SheepShaver's Volumes list, making a Toast 5 disc image in OS 9, and locking the disc image in either OS X or OS 9 all result in DroidWorks saying to insert the disc. The only way I've gotten it to work (before this build) is to mount the physical disc or a Toast 10/11 disc image in OS X, then run SheepShaver. (In fact, the game is so peculiar that only a disc image made with Toast's "Mac & PC" mode, then mounted with Toast, works.)

For what reasons is this change being added? Or is there some way to facilitate an "intentional" mounting of disc images at the same time in OS X and SheepShaver?

Disk images, at least writable images, should never be mounted at the same time in OSX and in SheepShaver. This can cause file system corruption and loss of data on the image volume. This change was added to prevent this. The feature does not affect mounting of CD-ROMs. In fact, mounting CDs was improved in recent builds. CD-ROMs could be inserted and mounted reliably while SheepShaver was running.

But... It appears that I cannot mount CD-ROMs in SheepShaver now either, not only in this latest test build but also in this year's previous builds. When the CD is mounted in OSX and SheepShaver starts, SheepShaver sees the disk but wants to initialize it. When the CD is not yet mounted and is inserted while SheepShaver is running, nothing happens in SheepShaver. As said, the issue affects older builds also. I do not know what happened. It must be something that changed in Mountain Lion. That would be a real setback.

Have you tried using Disk Utility in OSX to make a "DVD/CD master" disk image from the CD? (Lock the file and add it to SheepShaver's volumes list.)

Another option would be to use the Virtual CD/DVD-ROM Utility in SheepShaver:
http://www.emaculation.com/basilisk/Vir ... v1.0d0.sit
It can mount a .toast image of a CD as if it were the real CD, usually recognized by software as the original physical CD.


Edit: The same problem affects BasiliskII in Mountain Lion. I started a new topic about this issue here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7708

Brilliant, Ronald! That Virtual CD/DVD-ROM Utility did the trick. I mounted my .toast image via SheepShaver's Volumes list, and made an image using that utility. I then used the utility to mount the resulting image, and DroidWorks recongnized it!

(Disk Utility's DVD/CD Master image did not work.)

Thanks for the tip!

I finally figured out what was causing my screen problems: the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics card. My MacBook Pro has that graphics card as well as a much-better NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M. As you might know, the Intel one is for saving energy, and you can set in System Preferences' Energy Saver pane whether you want the NVIDIA card used at all times or only when high graphics performance is required. So I unchecked "Automatic graphics switching," and the SheepShaver and Basilisk II screens both stretched properly.

I figured this out soon after the screen randomly stretched properly (before I realized what was going on), and I noticed in the OS X "Display" preferences pane that there were three color "Display profiles" available in addition to the default "Color LCD." Then, today, when I booted the computer, SheepShaver and Basilisk II no longer stretched properly. I went to look at that "Display profiles" list again, and saw that the other three weren't available. Finally it hit me, and I unchecked "Automatic graphics switching," and it worked. (So apparently, yesterday, the NVIDIA card was switched on under automatic switching, and when you reboot, the Intel card is used by default.)

To clarify, I still use the "Color LCD" setting. I was just saying that the other three profiles' being there was the clue that made me realize the NVIDIA card was previously not being used.

Interesting finding. Thanks for sharing.

Hi,

Downloaded the 2.4 version yesterday, and today ran into the strange partial color shift issue after putting the computer to sleep (no hiding of window) - so I switched back to 2.3. I'm using an old Core Duo (MacBook1,1) with the GMA 950. I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

Is it known what causes it? I noticed that the problem goes away temporarily if you force a redraw (drag a OS9 window)

Jim

Please refer to builds by date, not by version number. The version number does not identify the build. I suppose you tried the July 15, 20122 build, discussed in this topic for testing and later posted as recommended build.

The color shift is probably the same as the one that occurs after hiding or minimizing the window. It is an issue in the currently used SDL version and there is nothing we can do about it. I never saw it after sleep, though, but I hardly ever put my iMac to sleep with SheepShaver running. Also, MacBooks often use a different kind of 'deep sleep' (I forgot the proper term) that may influence the behavior.