Do I really need original OS9 install discs for SS under OS?

[hanss]

Hi,
I tried installing the latest SS build on my MacBook Pro and included the Mac OS ROM. Everything worked as described in the manual until I tried to install OS9 from a CD wich is burned copy of a general OS9 installation disc. The installation started out as it should, but then I got the error message that the installer could not write to the disc and that I should try unlocking it. From there I had to force quit SS.

Is this a known behaviour? Could it be that the installer does not recognize the CD as an install disc and tries to write to that one, or is there really a problem with the disc image created in SS. The disc image is seen as a general document in OSX if it has the ".dsk" included. If this is removed it is seen as text document. The size (2G) looks right though.

[hanss]

Perhaps I should add that there was no request during the startup of the installer to format the disc image. But still, if the installer thought that it could install on the CD copy, I guess it would try that rather than format new drives.

[symbolic X]

It will take a 9.0.4 installer disc to be exact. According to the programmers, anything above 9.0.4 won't install.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

- The system must be either 9.0 or 9.0.4.
- A copy of an install CD will work if it is indeed an exact copy. (How was the copy created?)
- A disk image created in SheepShaver preferences (or with the older GUI application) will be encountered by the MacOS system while booting from the CD (just before the desktop appears) and a dialog will appear asking if the volume should be initialized. If that did not happen, the disk image is not recognized. Start again creating a disk image. Possibly the image is too large. Make it smaller then 2GB, 1GB is plenty. You can add more volumes later if you need more space.
- A file name extension for the disk image is irrelevant, it can be .dsk but it is not needed. A .dsk extension does not mean anything in MacOSX and thus the file has a generic icon. Again, this is irrelevant for its function.

[hanss]

Thanks for the clarifications. However - in the meantime i figured out a workaround. I found a working system 9.0 and was somehow able to start SS on that and then upgraded from my copied disc to 9.04.

I hve now been playing with this a bit and found that most things do work. Though printin seems to be diffcult. I installed Acrobat wich allows me to make pdfs wich is one way of solving this. However, I remeber that it was possible in OS9 to achive a simple printserver function by replasing a folder that the system used to store the printfiles in with an alias to a similar folder on another machine. One could imagine that something similar could be used to channel printfiles out through the shared folder. But I suppose this has been investigated.

Thansks again everyone for SS.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

It is possible to print directly from within SheepShaver to a PostScript network printer.
See: http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5375

[hanss]

Well, It is not obvious to me where I can fill in the IP address. I did not see any dialogs, but again I did not spend so much time on this. The desktop printer utility said that there were no appletalk printers in the zone (wich is not correct for the zpne that the host intel machin lives in). The IP number bottom was grey. In the choser the IP number bottom was grey (in contrast to the case for the file sharing). Still the Pdf idea seems to work well so this is more for my understanding

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

In the first dialog, choose to set up with LaserWriter8 a new LPR printer, not a AppleTalk printer.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

OK, here is how to setup a PostScript network printer in SheepShaver:

Start as if you are going to set up the printer with AppleTalk connection, which will fail, and then continue to set up a LPR desktop printer.

- Make sure the printer is connected to the LAN and switched on.
- Launch SheepShaver.
- Open AppleTalk control panel.
- If AppleTalk is not active, you will be asked if it should be activated when closed. Click to confirm.
- Set AppleTalk to connect through Ethernet.
- Close AppleTalk and click to confirm if asked to save changes.
- Open the Chooser.
- In the left box, select the "LaserWriter 8" printer driver.
- If connection with AppleTalk would work, you would see a list of PostScript printers. But the box will stay empty.
- Close the Chooser and if the dialog appears informing you that you chose a new printer, click OK.

- Now open on the Mac OS9 Hard-Disk the folder "Apple Extras"
- Open in Apple Extras the folder that is probably called "Apple LaserWriter Software".
- There will be an application that is probably called "Desktop Printer Utility". Launch that application.
- In the dialog should be at the top With: "LaserWriter 8". If it is a different name, choose "LaserWriter 8" from that menu.
- In the list in the box below the menu, select "Printer (LPR)" and click OK.

- There will be a new dialog with two boxes, each with a button that is probably labelled "Change" or "Modify".
- The top box will probably be called: "PostScript Printer Description File (PPD)". Click the Change button, choose in the dialog the printer description for your printer and click "Select". Your printer will now be shown in the top box.
- The bottom box will probably be called: "Selection LPR Printer". Click the Change button.
- There will be a dialog with two fields. In the top field "Printer Address" enter the IP Address of your printer (only numbers with dots between them).
- The left button will be labelled something like "Check" or "Verify". Click it.
- The setup utility will search for the printer and if it is found on the entered address, a text will appear that confirms the location of the printer.
- You can leave the second field (probably called something like "Queue") empty.
- Click OK.

- Now you have in the dialog in the top box your printer and in the bottom box its IP Address.
- Click the button that will called something like "Make..." or "Create..."

- A standard Save dialog will appear. Make sure the location for saving is the Desktop. Change the name of the file to be saved to something nicer than the IP address, for instance the model number of your printer, and click the "Save" button.

- The desktop printer will now be on the desktop. It should have a thick black border around its icon to indicate that it is the default printer.
- If it has not the black border, select the icon. A new menu "Print" will appear in the menu bar. Make the printer the default printer at the bottom item in that menu.

That's it.

[mitchhenry]

That works perfectly. Is there a way to get a printer to show up in the chooser, mostly for old adobe programs?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Printer drivers for actual hardware printers like the old Color StyleWriters will show up in the Chooser and you can select them, just like you can select the LaserWriter8 driver, but you can not access those printers. Printer extensions for printing to pdf documents (if that is what you mean) will work as expected when selected in the Chooser.