Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

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

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rlesperance
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Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

Hi,

Yesterday, I installed El Capitan and ... gosh, a few important apps were not working anymore. Sheepshaver was one of them. I didn't have much time to figure out the workarounds, so I reverted back to Yosemite.

Reading the only thread on El Capitan, I figured that it was speaking about many things other than El Capitan ... and that were mostly chinese to me.

So here is my big question ... how can I have Sheepshaver work with El Capitan ?

Thanks in advance .. and thanks alot for all the support Emaculation gives for a the 9.0.4 legacy OS.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

The other thread is mostly about a specific and unusual setup. Apparently SheepShaver as such works fine there in El Capitan. Note that, in Yosemite and later, SheepShaver will only work when set to run in 32 bit mode. From which OSX version did you upgrade to El Capitan?
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Sat Oct 03, 2015 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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rlesperance
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

I upgraded from Yosemite ... and I am running Sheepshaver's 2.3.20091025 build.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

From what I heard so far, SheepShaver should still work in OSX 10.11.

- Did you do the upgrade to 10.11 by installing over the existing 10.10, or did you use a different method (like clean install plus migration)?

- You went back to Yosemite. How? By cloning back a backup clone?

- Does SheepShaver now work again with 10.10?

- I remember from our discussion about printing (which was mostly a prolonged misunderstanding on both sides) that you had a complicated setup in your 'Unix' shared folder involving folders in other user accounts. Is that still so?

- Earlier you migrated from a "COI Chubby Bunny" setup to a regular SheepShaver setup.

- With this history, it may be a good idea to show us the content of your prefs file here, so we can get a better idea about your setup:

Open Terminal (in Applications/Utilities)
Type at the prompt

Code: Select all

open ~/.sheepshaver_prefs
followed by a return.
The prefs file will op in your default text editor. Copy all content and paste it here.
rlesperance
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

Hi Ronald.

I upgraded from the App store update option.

I went back to Yosemite by restoring a backup that I made with CCC just before the El Capital update. Sheepshaver works as great as usual. I am running version 2.3.20091025 and would like to stick to this version thus avoiding a few glitches in the last version (like the background color). I checked to see if I was in 32 or 64 bits, but the Get info does not display that in Yosemite (see this link).

You have a very good memory ... Chubby Bunny is dead. I did a complete Emaculation install and setup that has been working flawlessly ever since.

See below the content of the pref file.

Thanks again for your help.




Robert Lespérance





SheepShaver pref file content:

disk /Users/Nous/Library/Application Support/SheepShaver/Mac OS 9 HD.dmg
cdrom /dev/poll/cdrom
extfs /Users/Nous/Documents/SheepShaver
screen win/1280/800
windowmodes 0
screenmodes 0
seriala /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem
serialb /dev/null
rom /Users/Nous/Library/Application Support/SheepShaver/Mac OS ROM
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 536870912
frameskip 1
gfxaccel true
nocdrom false
nonet false
nosound false
nogui false
noclipconversion false
ignoresegv true
jit true
jit68k false
keyboardtype 5
ether slirp
keycodes true
keycodefile /Users/Nous/Library/Application Support/SheepShaver/keycodes
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 1
dsp /dev/dsp
mixer /dev/mixer
ignoresegv true
idlewait true
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

First, I like to make a general remark about upgrading to new OS versions. I do not know why so may people are eager to upgrade to El Capitan within days after its first .0 release. Maybe it's because it is free and so easy to do. But I see no compelling reason to upgrade right away, unless you like adventure. It has always been good practice to wait for a .2 or even a .3 release. I myself will wait and maybe not upgrade till next spring.

Now about your SheepShaver issue.

The settings look OK to me. Most people will keep all files together in one folder somewhere in their Home folder. But with full paths defined in prefs, the files can be anywhere in your Home folder.

I do not know where you have your SheepShaver application. I suppose it is in the /Applications folder. It will also run fine from anywhere in your Home folder.

The 2009 build is 32-bit only. That is why there is no checkbox for it in Finder Info. I do not know how El Cap will handle an old application like that. It also misses info about how to run it in which OSX versions, info that is usual in newer applications and that is available in newer SheepShaver builds.

The latest SheepShaver build does indeed have a few quirks, but also has some nice new features. If SheepShaver again will not run when you upgrade to El Cap later, you could try the newer build. Newly installed, it will run in 32-bit mode by default.

Wait and see what experiences others have. We have at least one report of the latest SheepShaver build running fine in El Cap. When I will upgrade to OSX 10.11, I will gladly test various SheepShaver setups in El Cap, but that will not be soon.
rlesperance
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

Hello Ronald,

I have to admit that you are perfectly right regarding the upgrade to El Capitan. I am usually more cautious ... but with Apple, I have released precautions because I never hit a wall. It is so simple. It's like an habit of letting it just happen.

This time I should have paid more attention and should have waited a little bit longer. Since many software are affected by El Capitan .. I will give it more time and maybe wait for your comments.

So I understand that you suggest I use the latest version of Sheepshaver. Is it possible that the 2009 version could also work with El Capitan ?

Thanks again.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by emendelson »

The 2013 and 2014 builds of SheepShaver run in El Capitan. I've now updated my SheepShaver Wrapper (described in the post below) to include the 2014 build, and it runs perfectly well in El Capitan:

http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewto ... =33&t=7363
rlesperance
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

Hello Ronald,

After running the terminal command, my OS 9 app was unable to launch. Using the SheepShaverPrefs app I found that all prefs were now empty.

I made the «.sheepshaver_prefs» file visible in the Finder and found that I had 2 copies. One in the Desktop folder and one at the root level of my user folder. The Desktop one had complete preferences and the user one was empty. I replaced the user one by a copy of the Desktop one ... and I was able to launch my OS 9 app as usual.

What is going on ? What is the expected «.sheepshaver_prefs» file location ?

Regards.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Don't know what happened, never heard of the file being moved from its default location without user intervention, but the .sheepshaver_prefs file (hidden in the Finder because of the leading ".") should be at root level in the user's Home directory. Maybe the file was saved in Desktop after you opened it with the terminal command?

I do not know if the 2009 build will run in El Capitan. But it is easy to replace SheepShaver builds, from older to newer and back again, nothing needs to be changed to the rest of the setup.
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:36 am, edited 2 times in total.
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rlesperance
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

Good morning Ronald,
Maybe the file was saved in Desktop after you opened it with the terminal command ?
Yes, that's what I did ... but did not realize that I was saving a invisible file and forgot it. But why was the original file of my user folder emptied of it's content ?

You also asked about the Sheepshaver app location ... it is in the Applications folder.

Everything is back to normal. I am left with the El Capitan Migration. Since it works for you, I will later later try to migrate from a 2013 or 2014 version ... then, I will swap in the 2009 version to see.

With the 2014 version, I had a few problem other the desktop color change .. but cannot recall what it was. Does the 2013 version have the same glitches that the 2014 version ?

Thanks again.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Old-School-BBSer »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:First, I like to make a general remark about upgrading to new OS versions. I do not know why so may people are eager to upgrade to El Capitan within days after its first .0 release. Maybe it's because it is free and so easy to do. But I see no compelling reason to upgrade right away, unless you like adventure. It has always been good practice to wait for a .2 or even a .3 release. I myself will wait and maybe not upgrade till next spring.
ouch, Ouch, OUCH, DOUBLE OUCH! . . . Ronald gives the guilty parties a slap on the wrist! :)

Now, raise your hands if you are guilty, kids.

See . . . There's my hand going up, even though I am trying to keep it down. :mrgreen:

As you (Ronald), Cat_7 and Despoton already know, yes, I am indeed guilty in this case. Similar to "rlesperance", even though I knew better than to do so -- after all, I run a web server which hosts multiple domain names -- some evil, unrelenting, manipulative, overpowering, intimidating force resulted in my registering with the El Capitan beta program. I guess foolish me just wanted to play with fire and live on the edge a bit. :smile:

Well, we sailed along fine, enjoying El Capitan's solid nature until DP8 came along . . . drum roll please . . . and then all of my websites were totally offline for the next three weeks due to a bug and incompatibility between El Capitan DP8, the Golden Master, and Little Snitch. Thankfully, the bug was finally fixed, but oh me oh my!!! What did I do? Crazy nut!

So, are you going to ask me the big question? That is, do I still have the beta seed option enabled in my App Store prefs?

MOST CERTAINLY NOT!!!
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rlesperance
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by rlesperance »

Hi emendelson ... Can you check for me if the 2.3.20091025 build works in El Capitan ? Thanks in advance.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by emendelson »

rlesperance wrote:Hi emendelson ... Can you check for me if the 2.3.20091025 build works in El Capitan ? Thanks in advance.
Not on my system, anyway. The earliest version that runs on my El Capitan system is 2012-07-15.

The ones I have from 2010 and 2011 don't work, and nothing from 2009 works.

But that doesn't mean they won't work anywhere.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by adespoton »

We're into an interesting period where the hardware has changed enough since 2009 that your underlying hardware may play as big a part in getting things to run as the OS you're using. This is beginning to bring me back to the days of "Which Apple ][ hardware configuration and which ProDOS version are needed to run this software?"
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Downbeat »

I just got SheepShaver_UB_20140201 OS 9.0.4 up and running on a MacBook Air under El Capitan. It works great!! :smile:

I'm new to emulation but it looks like someone did a good job getting it together. All my apps that used to run on a Macbook G4 running Classic OS 9 seem to be working great except for one I need to get working correctly called FM.

FM had no problems under Classic, but, even though it launches in SS, is now giving a fatal memory allocation error when it creates a file. I don't know what's different about the environments that could cause it.

Any ideas?
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by adespoton »

Was FM written/updated post-2000? If so, it could depend on features only present in 9.1+, and/or fail because SheepShaver isn't emulating the memory management unit. This is also why Classic won't run in PearPC or QEmu.

Is it possible to use an older version of FM? Also, what *is* FM? I used to refer to FrameMaker by that name.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Downbeat »

Yes, the lack of an MMU must be the problem. FM is an app made by a friend to help create video. I could use a pre-9.1 version, but it won't be able to open FM files made with the later version.

I'm also trying to get the tilde key working. It shows a plus-minus character instead.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by emendelson »

Downbeat
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Downbeat »

Thanks. I should have done a search first!
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by thecloud »

Just another data point: I'm running SheepShaver_UB_20140201 under El Capitan on a MacBook Pro with no issues. (I have .sheepvm configs for running 7.5.5, 8.1, 8.5, and 9.0.4 -- all are working fine.)
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Old-School-BBSer »

Although it has already been established as fact here in this thread, I just wanted to add my voice, and likewise confirm that since March of this current year, SheepShaver_02-01-2014_OSX.zip has run like a champ for me directly under El Capitan 10.11, as well as indirectly under El Capitan via VirtualBox and my Mountain Lion VM.

Other than the blue screen problem -- which is resolvable to a degree using VirtualBox, or by placing a simple AppleScript on your Mac Classic desktop -- I have had no serious issues with it . . . well, unless it was something of my own foolish doing. :mrgreen:

Both my Hermes II BBS and Hotline server run just fine in this environment. Please note, however, that I do not use resource-heavy apps such as music, photo and movie producing/editing apps under SheepShaver. Neither am I a gamer. So, there is that to consider as well.

Update: Actually, I should clarify. I began using SheepShaver with Yosemite in March, and LATER graduated to El Capitan in July, or thereafter. I can't remember exactly when now, but other threads on this forum will reveal that precise bit of information.
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by sentient06 »

Guys, is it possible to re-compile the 2014 version of Sheepshaver? Do we know how the code looked like, what are the components, etc?

I am asking because I finally got to try and update my applications for Yosemite. Bloody hell I hate this system, nothing seems to work. Sheepshaver, when executed from the command line, yields a "Killed: 9" status. When I try to execute from Cocoa, the NSTask fails with "Couldn't posix_spawn: error 88".

This is irritating, I think Sheepshaver should gracefully fail instead of render cryptic messages. I thought maybe it is possible to re-compile the best version we got with some extra functionality like allowing users to use command line params and rendering a message for failures like Basilisk:

Code: Select all

Basilisk II V1.0 by Christian Bauer et al.
ERROR: Cannot open ROM file.
or old 2009 build:

Code: Select all

SheepShaver V2.3 by Christian Bauer and Mar"c" Hellwig
ERROR: Cannot open ROM file.
Any chances I can get the 2014 code?

Thanks!
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

SheepShaver cannot be compiled on 10.11, but my latest build (February 2014) runs fine on OSX 10.11, when the application is set to run in 32-bit mode.
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sentient06
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Re: Sheepshaver and El Capitan ...

Post by sentient06 »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:SheepShaver cannot be compiled on 10.11, but my latest build (February 2014) runs fine on OSX 10.11, when the application is set to run in 32-bit mode.
Hey Ronald,

Not a problem, I have two Snow Leopard and a Mountain Lion machine available, XCode 3.2.1 running in one of them. I am just wondering if we know exactly which codebase was used for the 2014 build we have in this forum. So for example, if I go to cebix's sheepshaver github repository, clone his repo on my Snow Leopard, rollback to the first commit before February 2014 (which happens to be from January 2014), and compile as it is, will I get a similar binary?

I am not aware of what are the specific changes that make the 2014 version similar or dissimilar to the 2012 and the 2009 versions and I am not sure which version of Sheepshaver's code was used as well. Then there is vasi's repository and dsumorok's and tycho's (which I assume focuses on Windows compilation, so I am skipping it), do you know which was used for that 2014 binary? Maybe none of these?

I'd like to try re-compiling the 2014's version because I am aware some changes were done later that could be related to networking and GTK, but I never dived deep into what was done, so I prefer to stick to a binary I know might work and if some change is needed, just branch from it's original code, make a quick alteration and try to get the result as close as possible to the original. Any thoughts?

Cheers!
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