BEGIE G3 266 WITH OS X

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
IS there anyone here who has a beige machine with OS X running?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    I have been unable to get OSX running on my beige G3. My first attempt to install in resulted in my box not booting at all, I had to reset the PRAM. I haven't I tested my theory but I think I know what the problem was. I have 2 harddrives, a CD and a Zip Drive. I was trying to install OSX on the HD that was defined as the slave. I had the same problem a few years ago trying to install MkLinux on the same box. The solution was to disconnect everything from the IDE buss except for 1 hd and the cd.
  • Reply 2 of 19
    sebseb Posts: 676member
    I've run X on a beige G3 300 w/128MB RAM and it was frustratingly slow. It worked, just slow.



    However, I'm running it on a B&W G3 400 w/640MB RAM at home and have no complaints.
  • Reply 3 of 19
    logan calelogan cale Posts: 1,281member
    wyntir had a Beige G3 (266 or 300) running OS X for a long time but he has a new iMac now.
  • Reply 4 of 19
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    I know it's not a beige G3, but for a while I had OS X running on a Tangerine iMac 266 with 160MB RAM and it ran ok sometimes, but for the most part it was slow.
  • Reply 5 of 19
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>I know it's not a beige G3, but for a while I had OS X running on a Tangerine iMac 266 with 160MB RAM and it ran ok sometimes, but for the most part it was slow.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I used to run OS X on a Beige G3 266. I posted my frustrations about speed on the MacNN boards as Guy Incognito. I got called a troll by a lot of people...I even had some heated discussions with that cocksucker jimmac that hangs around these boards (never seen such an immature 50+ year old in my life. I can see jimmac fuming right now because I've just insulted him. You can bet he's gonna throw an insult back at me.)



    Anyways...I eventually solved all my speed problems by getting myself a Dual-800 G4...but the fact remains that OS X is slow on low end G3s. And I'm not pleased.
  • Reply 6 of 19
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    I'm running OS X on a 233MHz iMac with 384MB of RAM...it's slow but usable for the most part. No crashes since October when installed...thats gotta make up for some of the lost productivity via speed. Fvck you OS 9.
  • Reply 7 of 19
    rraburrabu Posts: 264member
    I had OSX running on a beige G3 266 MT for over a year. It was way more stable running on that box than it has ever been on my new iBook 600.



    I had an ATI Orion card so graphics were accelerated which was nice. Although things didn't seem that much slower on monitor #2 connected to the internal video card.



    Speed overall isn't too bad. It was exactly what I expected. Compiling was quite pokey however.



    A few problems:

    - floppy drive isn't seen at all by the OS (no drivers it would seem)

    - A/V capture card didn't get anything at all. Had to reboot into OS9 to do video capture.
  • Reply 8 of 19
    jdbonjdbon Posts: 109member
    I have OSX running on a Beige G3 366 (OC 300) with 160mb ram, AV card, DVD, Rage Pro, and Voodoo3. It runs ok. As compared to my fastest machine, iBook 500mhz 384mb ram, it is noticeably slower. I would really like rage pro drivers so I can enjoy the nice opengl screensavers. It would also be nice if they could accelerate Aqua with Opengl as to speed up the finder, though this is unlikely. It is useable. Apps load fairly quickly. Window dragging is choppy as is window resizing. I will probably add more ram when prices reduce. A new faster HD (I am using the stock 6GB quantum drive) would probably help as well. If you are having trouble installing OSX, pull all third party PCI cards, make sure CD drive is set to master, Make sure you are installing to the first 8GB on your install partition, and I would recommend installing on a blank HD and/or partition.
  • Reply 9 of 19
    rraburrabu Posts: 264member
    jbdon, I found OSX to be alright on my 266. It wasn't really all that much slower than my iBook is.



    To bump yours up, try to find a Rage 128 video card for it. That will probably make the biggest difference.



    Next, the HD. I tried OSX on both the stock 6G and a 7200 RPM Maxtor drive. A world of difference (and a relatively cheap upgrade too). This will probably make a bigger difference than more RAM.



    I was running 384M of RAM. 192 should be alright with a faster HD.
  • Reply 10 of 19
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]Originally posted by kim kap sol:

    <strong>



    I used to run OS X on a Beige G3 266. I posted my frustrations about speed on the MacNN boards as Guy Incognito. I got called a troll by a lot of people...I even had some heated discussions with that cocksucker jimmac that hangs around these boards (never seen such an immature 50+ year old in my life. I can see jimmac fuming right now because I've just insulted him. You can bet he's gonna throw an insult back at me.)

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> It's so true
  • Reply 11 of 19
    I was running OS X on a beige G3 (233Mhz, then 400Mhz G4), but I have to say it's a bit slow. Much faster on a 350Mhz B&W machine.



    Definitely don't use the stock HD, it's painfully slow even in OS 9. I used (and am using) a Maxtor 30GB drive I got last spring, which is at least twice as fast.



    I think the 66Mhz bus is a killer. Even with a faster processor in the beige, the B&W runs OS X better.



    In general beige G3s are less tolerant of hardware changes than blue and white G3s with OS X. My Lite-On DVD drive refused to boot OS X on the beige, but does so without a hitch on the B&W, for example. I really think Apple supports this machine just to say that they do, but they've put minimal effort into making sure it runs well. Keep the expectations low, and you'll be fine.
  • Reply 12 of 19
    mac writemac write Posts: 289member
    Mac OS X on my Beige G3 runs well (considering I put alot of stress on my computer).



    Specs:



    ?266mhz

    ?ATI Radeon Mac:Edition 32MB DDR

    ?416MB RAM

    ?60GB 7200RPM ATA100 Maxtor

    ?OrangeMicro USB/Firewire PCI

    ?Intellimouse Optical



    Now here is what slows it way down

    ?MySQL Server

    ?too many apps install/deleted



    once I do a clean install with 10.2 and leave the MySQL server off, it will run very well, as long as I only install the apps I use and nothing more.
  • Reply 13 of 19
    [quote]Originally posted by chipnut:

    <strong>IS there anyone here who has a beige machine with OS X running?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I've had it running ever since 10.0 came out - it's awfully slow, but fun to play around with. You really have to pay close attention to your IDE master-slave settings - my Public Beta install never took because I had them set up incorrectly (two HDs, CD-ROM), and it took a long call to Apple tech support when I received 10.0 to set that right. I can't remember exactly what I did, but if you monkey around with it enough it will work. Just keep trying different jumpers on the hard drives.
  • Reply 14 of 19
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    Hey Mac Write,



    You might try PostGre SQL instead of MySQL, it's supposedly quite a bit faster. In fact, i believe it beats commercial DBs like Oracle, too.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    All the web apps I use all only run on MySQL.



    It will be nice (if at all possible) to make this computer into a server when (and if) I get a new computer in Jan 2004.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    Yep. 266 with 288 MB of RAM . Its not that bad . . .App launches are a little slow . . . you need a faster processor for that.



    [quote]Originally posted by chipnut:

    <strong>IS there anyone here who has a beige machine with OS X running?</strong><hr></blockquote>
  • Reply 17 of 19
    Sorry for not responding quickly, the reason I ask is because I'm having a problem getting 10.1 to install on my machine. 10.0.4 install fine but its slow and I want to upgrade to 10.1. I had it running for a little while but then i wanted to make more room to add more stuff. The main problem is after each install and I login to the main account, the Dock doesn't come up and then the finder crashes.



    I know that my machine is a dog and I'm holding out for a possible G5 this summer/winter. I'm hoping that by then the machine will be so fast that any slowness on OS X part won't be so noticeable. Any tip on how you got it to install will be greatly appreciated.



    My set up is stock 266, 20 gig Maxtor drive, 2gig SCSI, 256 ram(2X64 and 128), and ATI rage ORION card. I tried getting the machine back to as stock as possible but that hasn't solve my problem .
  • Reply 18 of 19
    rraburrabu Posts: 264member
    Are you installing OSX on the Maxtor drive or the SCSI drive? I think both should work. I would recommend the Maxtor since that'll be faster than the slow SCSI bus they put in the Beige G3s.



    Make sure you are installing on a partition that is completely within the first 8G of the drive. Install 10.0, run the updates to get it to 10.0.4 and then install the 10.1 update on that. If you have a 10.1 install CD (which you can get if you are say a student developer -- as well as 20% off your new G5 this summer -- if you are a student ) then you should be able to just install with that.



    I've done several installs on my G3 going through the entire update process from 10.0 to 10.1 since I had some problems with my HD dying on me. Never had any problems at all.
  • Reply 19 of 19
    I have 10.1.3 running on a BG3 266/128MB/4GB. It's all stock except for a 500 MB SCSI drive that I've attached to the internal SCSI bus and the second 64MB DIMM.

    X never ran well on the box until 10.1 and even then it needed tweaking.

    The Finder kept hanging which forced me to reboot and corrupt the system files and require a Norton sweep to fix. So I did a little research and made some changes: (1) got rid of OS9. as this is my "test" box I use it to monkey about in the post-Classic world; (2) moved my swap partition of the main HD to the SCSI drive; and (3) did the little RAM hack that compresses all the window data Aqua keeps in memory.

    Of all of this it was the RAM hack that had the most effect. The machine was being unusable until it went in. After the hack: a slow but serviceable machine. It's been my main workstation for a couple of months now.
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