PearPC on Windows 10

[ARCHIVED] About PearPC, a mostly obsolete PPC Mac emulator for Windows and Linux to run MacOS X 10.1 up to 10.4. Using QEMU is now recommended.

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ClockWise
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PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

So I've been using PearPC for the first time since Windows XP, and I notice a few issues:

1. I get the "we're hanging here" error when booting from an image of a DVD that worked fine on my old system (it is the exact same image). But I only get that error SOMETIMES. I don't know what triggers it. I guess it is discussed a bit here - https://sourceforge.net/p/pearpc/mailma ... e/2003001/ (from 2003)

2. I don't get that error when booting from an image I've installed Tiger onto. Thankfully.

3. The emulated system freezes up fairly often, necessitating a reboot.

On the plus side, the emulator sure is fast on a modern computer. Wow. Such a change from my system ten years ago.

-

Anyways, I know this is a very old emulator and might not be best suited for Windows 10. But is anyone else using it on modern systems? Thoughts?
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ClockWise
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

One assumes that this is best run in a VM.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

Ooof. After two days of frigging around with this emulator I think I will postpone my plans to set it up and redo the guide. It just isn't usable in really modern systems, I think.

Would be interested in trying a build of .6 if anyone has one, though.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by Cat_7 »

For 0.6 I only found the one included in PearPC Control Box to be stable.
I haven't been able to start pearpc without the box (but also didn't put much effort in finding out how).

https://launchpad.net/pppc4win

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Last edited by Cat_7 on Mon Oct 22, 2018 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

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Hmm. I get an "unhandled exception error" when launching from the box. I don't see the PearPC files anywhere I can easily access, sadly.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

Oh, never mind. There is a quirk in the installation process which resulted in a partial installation. I think I have a complete install now. Will experiment with it a bit tomorrow.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

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Sadly, I still get the "we're hanging here" error. The thing is that I get that MOST of the time, but not ALL the time. I just don't know what triggers it. I guess there is some incompatibility with the newer operating systems or hardware that have come out since the emulator was developed.

The good news is that the error only happens when booting from an ISO, not from a hard disk image. That means it only needs to be booted from the ISO just once. But since I'm trying to write some new documentation for new users, that is less than ideal.

I'm going to try booting from an ISO of 10.3 (if I can get one) to see if it works any better.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by dadreamer »

ClockWise wrote:Sadly, I still get the "we're hanging here" error.
Maybe you could try setting the DRAM to something from 128 to 512 MB. I've had "We are hanging here" error a while ago when I was experimenting with PearPC: viewtopic.php?p=55272#p55272 But in my case PearPC was behaving very slow, so I refused its use for my needs.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

That is something I considered, as I remembered advice from a decade ago about setting the memory to 128 MB when first installing. I think it might have "fixed" the problem once, but not on subsequent boot attempts. I wonder if it is, as adespoton noted in the topic you linked to, a memory addressing issue.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

Well, the good news is that I can boot from the first 10.3 install CD without any problems. Also good news is that installation doesn't require a switch to the second disk in the middle of the install.

I'm going to try the 10.4 CD as well. I can't remember if a switch is required there.

Perhaps only DVD images experience this problem. Suppose I can try an image of the 10.3 internal DVD on Macintosh Garden for reference.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by ClockWise »

Okay, so installation of 10.4 requires CD switching (between 2 and 3). It looks like 10.3 is the way to go for modern users, though it is probably worth trying an ISO of the 10.4 DVD.
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Re: PearPC on Windows 10

Post by adespoton »

What I do is copy it onto a qcow image and boot it that way instead of as a DVD. I do the same thing for real hardware (on a 4.8GB partition) and it works great. Plus, then you have a restore partition that's easy to use in the future.
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