SheepShaver 2.5 & macOS 12.3.1 quitting immediately

[claudiop]

Hi
I was using SheepShaver a few years ago on older Mac OS X and Intel Macs without probs and worked fine. I've been using an Intel Mac running macOS 12.3.1 Monterey for last year OK. I upgraded the SheepShaver application to 2.5 build 2022-12-22 and keycode files and used my existing setup with its SheepShaver folder incl. Mac ROM and OS 9. The SheepShaver icon bounces for a couple of secs then immediately quits. Both the SheepShaver app and folder are in Applications. I've read the installation guides etc but no good so far.

Any ideas welcome, cheers Claudio

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

If you kept everything the same except replacing the SheepShaver application and the keycodes file, you may have been bitten by a security feature in macOS.

Try this:
Make a copy of the SheepShaver application to a different location, for instance your desktop.
Trash the original.
Move the copy back to where the original was.

[claudiop]

Hi Ronald

took ur advice but no good...I had the SheepShaver folder in the Applications folder. The app was inside the SheepShaver folder along with ROMs.

I tried the new app in the SheepShaver folder. Also tried the app at root level of the Applications folder but no good.

Check System>Prefs>Security & Privacy>General and radio button ON for App Store and identified developers.

Tried to opt-Open app but no good

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Moving the application or other files will break paths. Everything should be kept in the same location as when you originally set up SheepShaver. When you update a file with a newer version it should replace the previous version with the same name and in the same location.

If you post here the content of your prefs file, we can see your settings:

Launch Terminal (in /Application/Utilities/) and type at the prompt

Code: Select all

open ~/.sheepshaver_prefs

followed by a return.
The file will open in your default text editor. Select all content and copy and paste it here in your reply.

[claudiop]

extfs /
windowmodes 0
screenmodes 0
serialb /dev/null
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 16777216
frameskip 8
gfxaccel true
nocdrom false
nonet false
nosound false
nogui false
noclipconversion false
ignoresegv true
ignoreillegal true
jit true
jit68k false
keyboardtype 5
hardcursor false
hotkey 0
scale_nearest false
scale_integer false
cpuclock 0
yearofs 0
dayofs 0
mag_rate 0
swap_opt_cmd false
sound_buffer 0
name_encoding 0
keycodes false
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 3
dsp /dev/dsp
mixer /dev/mixer
idlewait true

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

You really need to set up SheepShaver properly. It will not run like this. Your prefs file is like the file you will get without configuring SheepShaver.

Immediately obvious:
There is no disk in the volumes list
No ROM file is defined
(Do you have a compatible ROM file with the name Mac OS ROM in the SheepShaver folder together with the SheepShaver application?)
No shared folder is defined
RAM size is way to small
Window refresh rate is too small

Did you try to configure SheepShaver at all after you installed it on this machine?

Follow our setup guide exactly from the start without skipping any part.
https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sh ... os_x_setup

[claudiop]

OK thanks for info....will let you know, cheers

[error1]

I have this same problem on macOS 13.3, the strange thing is that it works fine if I show package contents on SheepShaver.app and launch the binary from Contents/MacOS/SheepShaver

It also works if I try launching it from a terminal. I had a look at the console messages but don't see any obvious reason why MacOS would quit it silently when starting it normally from Finder, but I bet it is some security thing in the latest MacOS updates.

I unfortunately don't know when it broke because this is the first time I try SheepShaver on my new m1 mac.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

The symptom may be similar, but your issue is probably different from the one in this thread.

I unfortunately don't know when it broke because this is the first time I try SheepShaver on my new m1 mac.

Did you use SheepShaver successfully on a previous Mac?
Did you migrate (including the user and SheepShaver) from the old Mac to the new one? If not, did you copy SheepShaver from the old Mac to the new one or did you do a fresh install of SheepShaver? Which SheepShaver build (not version but build date!) do you use?

You note that you can run the executable itself. Did you configure SheepShaver while running the executable itself? If you did, SheepShaver.app may not run because the configured paths will be different.

Please post here the content of your prefs file:
Launch Terminal (in /Application/Utilities/) and type at the prompt

Code: Select all

open ~/.sheepshaver_prefs

followed by a return.
The file will open in your default text editor. Select all content and copy and paste it here in your reply.

[claudiop]

I'm still experimenting and had to stop a lttle

Got rid of the invis prefs file and used AppCleaner for old installation.

I followed installation instructions first putting new SheepShaver folder in Applcations. Then copied SheepShaver app to inside SheepShaver folder. Then copied Mac ROM with proper name as per instructions. Then ran app and quit immediately. Did a few times but no good.

using Terminal checked for invisibe prefs file and now missing...

had to stop...will keep reading/trying next few days

[error1]

The symptom may be similar, but your issue is probably different from the one in this thread.

Yes, I think my issue is a bit different. I was able to open the preferences window after launching SheepShaver from a terminal and have a valid prefs file that boots my harddisk file just fine.

I did copy the macos rom and harddisk files from my old intel mac but did not migrate the entire user account, so I had to make a new .sheepshaver_prefs on the new mac.

Code: Select all

disk MacOS 8_6.dsk
cdrom /dev/poll/cdrom
extfs /Users/error1/Emulation/Classic Mac/Shared
screen win/640/480
windowmodes 0
screenmodes 0
seriala /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port
serialb /dev/null
rom Mac OS ROM
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 67108864
frameskip 1
gfxaccel true
nocdrom false
nonet false
nosound false
nogui false
noclipconversion false
ignoresegv true
ignoreillegal false
jit false
jit68k false
keyboardtype 5
hardcursor false
hotkey 0
scale_nearest false
scale_integer false
cpuclock 0
yearofs 0
dayofs 0
mag_rate 0
swap_opt_cmd false
sound_buffer 0
name_encoding 0
ether 
keycodes false
keycodefile 
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 3
dsp /dev/dsp
mixer /dev/mixer
idlewait true

I had a look at the old prefs file on my intel mac and it the rom and disk file is specified without a path there too since they are located in the same folder as the SheepShaver app.
Just out of curiosity I tried to add the full path to the prefs file and now it works when launching sheepshaver from the finder. Maybe that is what claudiop has to do too.

The lines I changed were

Code: Select all

disk /Users/error1/Emulation/Classic Mac/SheepShaver/MacOS 8_6.dsk
rom /Users/error1/Emulation/Classic Mac/SheepShaver/Mac OS ROM

Thanks for the hints!

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Interesting.
Only the file names (without path) work fine here for files in the same folder as SheepShaver.app (like disk image files, rom file, keycodes file). This is on my M1 iMac with macOS 13.3 (Ventura). Not sure why it is different in your setup.

[claudiop]

hmmmm...

by deleting old prefs file and starting afresh I would have thought that a new default invis prefs file would be created by SheepShaveer...I must be doing something wrong

in meantime, .is there a link for a fresh prefs file that I could use..otherwise I'll have to resort to Time Machine backup

cheers

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Yes, apparently SheepShaver will sometimes not create a new one if the old prefs file was deleted. I will ask the developer if that can be solved for future builds.
Creating an empty plain text file with the name .sheepshaver_prefs (with leading dot and no extension) in your Home folder will do.

[claudiop]

good advice...i'll try tomorrow

[claudiop]

OK finally got it workiing!!

Went back to archive of 2017 that was working. Went to user home folder and found two invis files Prefs/NVRAM. Checked the Prefs files and pathnames looked like they should!! Copied the archive Prefs to current home folder. Put SheepShaver folder in Applications with new SheepShaver app inside folder. Hey Presto everything worked as it should have done!

Thank you Ronald and others for ur help

cheers