Running OS X from Flash Memory with a CardBus
Adapter
From Leigh Morgan:
Hello Dan,
I read your article with great
interest several times, also John Muir's
experience.
I have three different PowerBooks with CardBus slots, and I don't
particularly want to replace the internal hard drive on any of
them.
From all the email you have received, could you direct me to anyone
who's actually booted their PowerBook from the CardBus slot using
OS X? Or any articles about how to do it that way? I searched for
hours without finding any specific info about booting a Mac from the
CardBus, especially on a G4 PB (I have a 15" TiBook and a 15" Aluminum)
and especially into OS X.
Perhaps booting from flash through the CardBus slot isn't either a
performance or battery-life improvement on a PowerBook, like it
supposedly is on a Windows laptop. The Windows experience is all I've
been able to find much reference to, after several hours of
link-chasing since reading your articles on LEM.
But if I can get a speed boost - or better battery life - by running
the OS off of flash memory, that would be worth pursuing. 4 and
8 GB cards are fairly cheap now (well under $100) and more widely
available. If the OS runs from Flash, wouldn't the hard drive only spin
up once in a while to save something or to launch an application into
RAM?
Thanks for your response!
Leigh
(I've enjoyed your site many times over many years)
Leigh,
CardBus is a lot faster than the old PCMCIA/PC Card
standard - up to 66 MB/sec. vs. 20 MB/sec., so you'll be a lot happier
with throughput. I know of no reason that running OS X from a high
speed Compact Flash card, although I can't point to anyone who has
actually done it.
While a 133x CF card will use all the bandwidth in a
PC Card adapter, CardBus could theoretically match a 440x card - if
such a thing existed. (The fastest I know of is 300x or 45 MB/sec. from
Lexar with UDMA support, and SanDisk Extreme IV - among others - is
266x.)
Dan
How Much Benefit from Quartz Extreme?
From Scott Cook:
Hey Dan,
You've probably pondered this question publicly before, but I missed
it. I have a 466 MHz "Digital Audio" Power
Mac with the stock ATI Rage 16 MB video card, which isn't supported
for Quartz
Extreme. I'm considering purchasing a Quartz Extreme supported
video card for my Power Mac. Would there be any benefit to getting a
video card that's better than the minimum supported?
I hardly ever play video games on my Power Mac. I'm most interested
in faster document scrolling and other "normal" work. I guess my
question is, what improvements would an average computer user see
switching from a minimal Quartz Extreme supported video card, like the
original 16 MB ATI Radeon, to a Radeon 9000? Would internet
videos/video podcasts play smoother? Would graphics applications run
any smoother when working with large images? Would I see just as much
improvement over my Rage card by switching to the original 16 MB Radeon
card instead of the Radeon 9000?
I intend to stick with Tiger permanently in my Power Mac. My video
card is running an ADC monitor, which I
also intend to stick with permanently. I'm not interested in non-ADC
video cards. Based on what I've read, enabling Quartz Extreme is a
noticeable performance improvement. It seems like Quartz Extreme would
be well worth the small expense of a supported video card.
Thanks for your help, Dan (and readers).
Scott Cook
Scott,
Quartz Extreme, which came with Mac OS X 10.2,
offloads the workings of Quartz Compositor
from the computer's CPU to the graphics processor (GPU), and it
requires an ATI Radeon or Nvidia GeForce 2 or later GPU. The problem is,
there are so many variables: a faster G4 is going to benchmark higher
than a slower one when Quartz Extreme isn't being used, and then the
bus speed (AGP 2x, 4x, 8x), GPU speed, and the GPU itself (different
generations of Radeon and GeForce) are also going to make a difference.
I haven't been able to find any in-depth comparisons that don't involve
3D gaming, but newer cards will offer better performance than older one
- we just have no way of saying by how much.
As Rob-ART Morgan of Bare Feats says,
"It uses OpenGL and the graphics card to make
system windowing functions run faster . . . such as
overlapping windows, shadows, transparency, etc.
"I'm not sure how to measure that gain, although
Apple claims they know how and produced some graphs at the bottom of
the
Quartz Extreme web page."
Here's that graph from 2002, but there's no indication
of which Mac it was run on or what video card:
Apple has a program, QuartzDebug,
that can measure frame rates and disable Quartz Extreme. I'm guessing
that's what they used to compare OS X 10.2 with and without Quartz
Extreme on the same Mac.
One interesting tidbit is that Quartz Extreme
only works when your Mac is set to millions of colors, which means
that those why try to speed up their OS X Macs by using thousands
of colors are disabling this acceleration technology.
Looking at "flashed" AGP video cards
offered by applemacanix on eBay (buy it now price plus
shipping):
- Radeon 7500, 32 MB, $37
- Radeon 7000, 64 MB, $47
- GeForce3, 64 MB, $75
- Radeon 8500, 64 MB, $92
- Radeon 9200, 128 MB, $92.50
- GeForce 6200, 256 MB, $105.50
- Radeon 9600 XT, 64 MB, $110
Plus a bunch more selling for even more than that.
If all you're looking for is Quartz Extreme support,
either the 32 MB Radeon 7500 or 64 MB Radeon 7000 should do a fine job.
I'm not sure I'd pony up $70-80 for a Radeon 9000, and I often wonder
if it would make any sense to upgrade from the Radeon 9000 in my
Mirror Drive Door to something faster,
as I don't do 3D gaming or plan on making this a Leopard machine (I
depend on Classic).
There are no easy answers here. Maybe once I get my
dual G4/450 up and running (it's going
to be my "test mule" for various upgrades and memory configurations,
and also let me benchmark OS X 10.2 and higher), I can try to
acquire some of these cards and run some tests, but that is a ways off
yet.
Dan
Waking Up from an iMac Nightmare?
From Chris Richardson in response to iMac Rev. B Nightmares:
I had the same Mac years ago, a Rev. B. Great machine. Tell the guy
to pull out one of the RAM chips and see if all these problems
disappear. Oh, and press the cuda button
on the logic board for 10 seconds while your at it. If that doesn't
work, then he should boot with Open Firmware and reset all parameters
followed up by the most recent
firmware update from Apple do this: Instead of typing
mac-boot at the Open Firmware prompt, type
reset-nvram and press Return.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type reset-all and press
Return.
Example
0 > reset-nvram
Press Return
0 > reset-all
Press Return
The reset-all command should restart your Mac. If so, you
have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings. If that doesn't
cure it, then use Apple's Disk Utility program to find out if there's a
problem with the hard drive.
If all this hasn't helped then goto this iMac
repair page.
Good luck from Chris Richardson
Chris,
Thanks for sharing these tips. I've forwarded your
email to Seann.
Dan
Fix or Sell an Old Performa 550?
From Jewel King:
Dear Mr. Dan Knight,
I have a Mac Performa 550 that
still runs but needs some work. I don't know how to work on the
computer myself and have considered selling it and all the extras that
go with it. I am wondering how much it would be worth. I have a shelf
full of software still in the boxes such as MacWrite, MacDraw and
MacPaint, Dabbler Snooper, I Like Ike (icon), and much more. Some of
the versions date back as a far as 1.0.
Plus a Summa Graphics drawing tablet (lots of fun) with software,
Lots of extra cables, CD disks and diskettes (some never even opened),
and two printers, an ImageWriter (the better one) and an HP inkjet,
just to mention some off the top of my head.
I'd like to get the computer up and running again (I think it needs
new memory), but I can't find any one individual in my area who is
acknowledged with Mac. To take it in a shop to fix is costly, and they
look at me like I am crazy when I want to fix the old dinosaur when
there are newer ones out there today.
I do have newer Mac now but hate to let the old one go. I actually
think some of the drawing programs are more practical to use -
especially when it comes to the lasso tool. I've noticed that on the
newer graphic and art programs that the lasso tool does not constrain
completely around what you want to cut and paste like the old
ClarisWorks did. The newer ones you have to be real precise around the
edges of what you are lassoing, otherwise it leaves unwanted edges in
your paste up.
Do you have any suggestions? About what price range I should ask for
everything? Or should I consider fixing it?
Thank you,
Jewel King
Jewel,
Without knowing what's wrong with your Performa, it's
hard to say anything. If it doesn't boot, it could be as simple as a
dead battery or as nasty as a failed hard drive (see Solving Mac Startup
Problems for more). Start by replacing the PRAM battery, as it's
the most likely culprit and the cheapest thing to do. (It's not likely
to be the RAM.)
As to value, you might get $20-30 from a veteran Mac
user.
Dan
Finding an ADB Keyboard
From Peter LaChance:
Do you know where I can get a key board for a Mac Performa 460 4-pin keyboard?
Peter,
The Performa, like all Macs from 1986 through 1998,
uses an ADB keyboard. I don't usually recommend a specific vendor, but
Shreve Systems is selling used ADB keyboards
for just $3 (style and condition may vary), an incredible deal. Another
good deal: We Love
Macs is selling what looks like a MacAlly ADB keyboard for just
$9.95.
Dan
Where to Get Old Versions of BBEdit Lite
From V Lewis:
Hi Dan,
The following item appeared in the 2007.10.17 The Low End Mac
Mailbag:
Finding BBEdit Lite
From Melissa Seibert :
Dear Dan-
I would love to try the older version of BBEdit Lite
but cannot find a source anywhere. Can you help?
Thanks Melissa
Melissa,
It's not easy to find. The links at MacUpdate and
VersionTracker no longer work, but I found BBEdit Lite v6.1.2 available
for download on the System 7 Today website.
Dan
BBEdit Lite versions 4.1, 4.6, 6.1.2 can be downloaded here:
<ftp://ftp.barebones.com/pub/freeware/>
V Lewis
Ligature Problem Solved
From Norman Danner:
Regarding your article titled Inexplicable Cocoa Ligature Problem Solved:
you rock!
This problem has been bugging me for a couple of years, especially
as I write a lot of code and always have lines like
#include <OpenGL/gl.h>
I get ligatured to a Polish L with a slash through it (Ł)
instead of "L/".
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
There is one difference on at least my machine from your article.
You indicate that you should disable the older version of the font,
which is marked with a dot. On my machine, the older version is in fact
the version the system uses; disabling the other (non-dotted) version
did the trick for me.
Many thanks again!
Norman Danner
Ass't Prof. of Computer Science
Dep't of Mathematics and Computer Science
Wesleyan University
Norman,
Thanks for sharing your findings. With the end of
Classic support in Leopard and a new font management scheme, maybe
problems like this will finally be a thing of the past.
Another tool that might help is Linotype FontExplorer X,
which is free and a lot easier to work with than Apple's FontBook. I've
used it with Tiger, and I really like it.
Dan
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
