E-Maculation

For various reasons I have to run some Power PC based programs, so that means I have to run them in OS 10.6. I have a 10.6.8 boot disk for that purpose. Recently i upgraded my installed OS from 10.9.5 to 10.12.6. This mostly went smoothly except for trouble getting my keyboard to work for which I found the solution quickly.

The problem came when I tried to change the startup disk. The first time I tried to go from 10.12 to the 10.6 disk there was no problem, but when I tried to go back, the 10.6 version of Startup Disk couldn't see the 10.12 disk. I didn't know what to do so I shut down the computer with the power switch, disconnected the 10.6 disk, and started the computer. However, when I then tried to go to the 10.6 disk again I got an error message saying "You can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed."

Does anyone know of either a short term or long term fix to these problems?

Install VirtualBox on your computer and install 10.6 as a Virtual Machine. This also provides the benefit of being able to run your PPC software at the same time you're running your main OS.

Alternatively, you can install the QEMU-ppc emulator and run OS X 10.4, which will allow you to run most software ever written for the Mac, right back to software written for the 128k.

Or, as fitting since you're posting in the SheepShaver forum, you can install OS 9 on SheepShaver, assuming the software you need to run will run on OS 9 (carbon software, not cocoa software).

adespoton wrote:Install VirtualBox on your computer and install 10.6 as a Virtual Machine. This also provides the benefit of being able to run your PPC software at the same time you're running your main OS.

Alternatively, you can install the QEMU-ppc emulator and run OS X 10.4, which will allow you to run most software ever written for the Mac, right back to software written for the 128k.

Or, as fitting since you're posting in the SheepShaver forum, you can install OS 9 on SheepShaver, assuming the software you need to run will run on OS 9 (carbon software, not cocoa software).

Thanks for your suggestions. I do have the 10.6 disk backed up. Can I restore from that onto Virtual Box?

To switch between startup disks, I would not use the Startup disk preferences, but I would boot with option key pressed, which gives a choice of available startup disks. I do not know if that works with system versions so far apart as 10.6 and 10.12.

I usually use VDI files, but VBox can read peripheral devices, so if you let it capture your external drive, I don't see why it couldn't boot directly.

https://www.howtogeek.com/187721/how-to ... irtualbox/

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:To switch between startup disks, I would not use the Startup disk preferences, but I would boot with option key pressed, which gives a choice of available startup disks. I do not know if that works with system versions so far apart as 10.6 and 10.12.

I tried your suggestion and it worked. Thank you very much.

adespoton wrote:I usually use VDI files, but VBox can read peripheral devices, so if you let it capture your external drive, I don't see why it couldn't boot directly.

https://www.howtogeek.com/187721/how-to ... irtualbox/

Thank you for your help.