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Hold down shift key to prevent loading extensions?
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 3:53 pm
by emendelson
On a real PPC Mac, I can hold down the shift key to prevent extensions from loading. I've almost never been able to make this work correctly in SheepShaver for macOS. Extensions always load.
Does the shift key work correctly for other people running SheepShaver under macOS?
Re: Hold down shift key to prevent loading extensions?
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 5:07 pm
by Cat_7
The shift key does work, but it requires almost inhuman speed (or call it sheer luck) to get it recognized during boot. I don't know, but perhaps it would be possible to already scan the keyboard for a pressed shift key when one starts SheepShaver. As said, I have no idea whether a key can be 'injected' into the boot process to be picked up when the OS checks for it.
The BasiliskII-only pref delay will not work. But perhaps turning off the JIT improves your chances.
Best,
Cat_7
Re: Hold down shift key to prevent loading extensions?
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 7:09 pm
by Ronald P. Regensburg
It can be done, but it requires very precise timing. Press the shift key after the mac icon appears and before the Mac OS welcome screen appears.
Re: Hold down shift key to prevent loading extensions?
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 7:16 pm
by emendelson
Ronald P. Regensburg wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 7:09 pm
It can be done, but it requires very precise timing. Press the shift key after the mac icon appears and before the Mac OS welcome screen appears.
Yes! That works with Mac OS 9. Thank you!
Re: Hold down shift key to prevent loading extensions?
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 9:12 pm
by joevt
I added code to DingusPPC emulator to check all the keys being pressed during startup and post key down events for all of them (modifier keys first). It has to be early enough for the keys to register, but not too early that the guest boot code forgets them. I don't know exactly what the best time is.
https://github.com/dingusdev/dingusppc/ ... c9d5532951
Ideally, the guest should be able to see keys that are being pressed even if they began being pressed before the emulator started, as long as the keys are still being pressed.
Re: Hold down shift key to prevent loading extensions?
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2025 9:22 am
by Ronald P. Regensburg
emendelson wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 7:16 pm
Ronald P. Regensburg wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 7:09 pm
It can be done, but it requires very precise timing. Press the shift key after the mac icon appears and before the Mac OS welcome screen appears.
Yes! That works with Mac OS 9. Thank you!
It works for all startup keys, like also for option-command for rebuilding the desktop files.