Moana Loader (Amiga OS4) on Mac Mini G4 - WORKING!!!

[dahDougieBoy]

I really don't see the excitement in "new" Amiga OS. Either keep it retro or make it a competitiv OS. This is neither. Amiga was great (well, it was incredible in fact) back in the days, but this is like a 60 year old trying too hard to be a youth.

[CoolDudeClem]

Pretty cool, but do we have to put up with the terrible music? what's wrong with just using the sound from the video and having some commentary about how it's done? Seriously why do people use music from their favorite CD/MP3 and use that instead f the videos original audio?

[MrKnightbeat]

2011 and we're still waiting for a legal way to run Amiga OS4 on Mac Mini

[flossenzosse]

@MrKnightbeat

I doubt it will ever be available legally. Even using our copies from other systems does not make sense as important drivers are still lacking ... and I assume they ever will. It doesn't look like anybody is interested in writing proper drivers although there is not much left.

[flossenzosse]

Using the MOS drivers for OS4 would be great if it worked. THere is OS4Emu for MOS and I think there also exist the other way round a MOS emulator for OS4. so it should be possible. Maybe not necessary when the source is available and be compiled for OS4. But can it be compiled that easily from Solaris?

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse Have we any idea what the source was written in? Is it C, assembly, or what?

[flossenzosse]

@1billthekid

I don't know exactly but as this is modern hardware I expect it to be C source. The Sungem driver should be C source, too. you can have a look when you search for it on the Internet.

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse Sun Studio contains a C compiler for both x86 and Sparc platforms.

[flossenzosse]

@1billthekid

So you want to try to compile the drivers for Audio and Ethernet? Good idea! I wish you luck. Tell us if it works.

[Hiraghm]

if only I could get it to load on a G3 iMac, I'd get my old "snowball" fixed.

[flossenzosse]

For Poseidon the 68k version might be useful or even better the AROS sources. But what is definitely needed is Ethernet. Without that the system is useless while without USB it can be used (mice and keyboards alreday work and that is most important). So please try to get Ethernet to work!

[1billthekid]

I think we must first find a way to make the OS boot straight from hd and then look after the various components. If you can't have the OS booting "normally", you don't really have an OS :-) I hope you understand what i mean by that. There's no way ANY OS will boot on the mini unless it resides on an HFS partition, or at least utilizes one. We should get in to a chat somehow to discuss this...

[flossenzosse]

@1billthekid

HD install shouldn't be a big hurdle and even if it was OS$ already runs off CD, so booting once with CD isn't that much of a problem.

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse

Wouldn't that be a problem if you wanted to change CD's (insert some software) because there's no other way of importing data to the Mini? Plus, would any future drivers be utilized if booting is from the CD, although they can be saved to the hard disk? Someone wrote some time ago that mouse and keyboard can not work simultaneously, let me just indicate that they have to be plugged to separate USB sockets in order to work, don't use the keybord's hub for the mouse folks! :-)

[flossenzosse]

Did not try if it works but maybe you can add another CD drive via USB. Maybe USB thumbdrives work already. I did not try. You can also format your harddrive and export it to another computer once to fill it with data. Not that comfortable but it works. Of course HD install is wanted but I'm talking about what is possible already without it.

Mouse and keyboard both work, there is no problem about that.

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse The CD can be ejected by using MediaToolbox. You select the device and click on the eject button. Every CD disc you insert after that, is readable on the desktop!

[flossenzosse]

@1billthekid

That's fine but it still lacks some other drivers for network and sound to make it usable. If there were at least these two ...

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse I know, it's such a shame they don't wanna do anything about this! Comparing it to the Morph on the Mini, and it really flies there! It goes to prove nothing's impossible... There's also another interesting approach to sound through AHI on Morph, which i believe we could take advantage of if we had the knowledge.. :-(

[flossenzosse]

@1billthekid

sound through AHI on MOS? How shall this work? MOS and OS4 cannot run at the same time. And MOS has a crypted binary format which is not executable by OS4, so you cannot use it.

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse What i'm saying is that maybe an AHI approach similar to what works for Morph could work. There's people out there building drivers based on AHI for various cards, and for various Amiga OS versions...

[1billthekid]

@flossenzosse Isn't there any way to utilize the MOS drivers in Moana? I feel the folks who wrote the audio and ethernet drivers "borrowed" details from linuxoid OSes like Ubuntu etc. Plus there's similarities in OpenSolaris. Try googling for macmini.audio and sungem_eth.device

[flossenzosse]

@1billthekid

As I said before, MOS uses a crypted binary format that cannot be run under OS4. Moana is just the name of OS4 port to Mac mini with a modified startup procedure. So there is no way to utilize MOS drivers in Moana.

Sure MOS borrowed driver sources from these OSes but you have to do the same first, compile OS4 binaries and then see and debug.

[amimachack]

My next project is to start modifying the USB,audio and Ethernet drivers to use the native Amimac hardware. Anyone have a Poseidon usb driver?

[amimachack]

The Moana loader bypasses the Apple system ROM and then allows you to use the Amiga OS. I have tried all possible ways to boot directly off the hard drive to no avail. Besides,this method reminds me of my A1000 with a Kickstart floppy to load the OS. It loads rather quickly and is quite stable.

Hyperion made the AmigaOne when they made the Moana loader so I am going to use that machince as a template to work on the Amimac/Mac Mini.

[amimachack]

Using the steps below to load the OS4 CD, install OS4 to the freshly formatted harddrive. Copy slb_v2 in the L and root directory. Shutdown or reboot. Use the same steps to load the Moana CD and when you get to the "All init done; about to kill OF and start ExecSG; press any key" stage,hit enter. It boots to the hard drive from there and you have a new "Amiga".

[amimachack]

Here is the solution. First copy the directories Devs, Kickstart, L and Libs from the Moana CD to the root of your MacOS hard disk, ignore the other files in the root of the CD.

Eject the CD, go back to OF and enter devalias. This will print all devices from your Mac mini. Locate the entries hd: and cd:. Now make cd: to look like hd: with devalias cd /pci@f4000000/ata-6@d/disk0 (your Mac mini setup it may differ from mine so change appropriately). Now boot Kickstart with boot hd:\L\slb

[1billthekid]

@amimachack : would you mind telling us if you personally did this? This "solution" has been floating around various sites for some time, but i never managed to have success. Care to be more detailed? We'd all appreciate it!

[amimachack]

Sorry it took so long to reply,I was trying to get MorphOS and Amiga OS 4 to dual boot,to no avail. Ignore the 3 months ago post:)

[alex76gr]

The video is real.

I tested Moana on my Mac Mini and i reached at the stage where the installation program copies the system files on the HD.

Sadly after that stage i couldn't find a way to boot from the HD. :-(

[1billthekid]

Video is definitely not a fake!

[68040E]

ah ok you already said no - shame, lets figure this out guys, id love to have a ppc mac mini as my amiga, right now i eumulate os3.9 on osx.

[68040E]

can it run not from cd? i mean ordinarily like it was a sam?

[68040E]

is this for real?

[daSamo123]

yes, it is! this vid is no fake.

[BulldogPO]

Any install istructions?

[daSamo123]

Installation is like on any normal amiga. The only part i dont know how to get it to boot from the internal harddrive.

[JSchannels]

this video claiming booting amiga os off CD seems 2 be a fake ?

any comments from other's ?

[amigaflame]

Have you also try 4.1?

[Meganeo5]

There doesn't exist any Loade for Amiga 4.1

[amigaflame]

Meganeo5

I mean to copy the new files of 4.1 to the moana iso

[angelheart2k7]

very nice.

what model is model number for your Power Mac ?

cheers

[daSamo123]

The detailed model you can see at the bginning of the video in the open firmware screen.

[pricey3000]

This is excellent. The Mac mini G4s are much cheaper to buy than the AmigaOnes too!

[webeagle1]

Hohohoho....sehr gut !