macOS 9.2.1 system error type 1 (iMac G3)

[hglr24]

Hardware: iMac G3 tray-loader, macOS 9.2.1, 333MHz PPC, 288MB phys. memory Connected devices: stock keyboard/mouse, wifi -> ethernet bridge adapter dongle powered over USB

Steps taken:

• Expanded ZIP archive
• mounted .dsk file in Toast
• ran application (no serial interface connected, is this a strict requirement for the app to run?)
• type 1 error dialog (bus error), app quits before opening

[CamHenlin]

Thanks for reporting this! I don’t have any PPC hardware so I’ll have to figure out which emulator supports OS9 + serial port emulation. And yes serial port is required at the moment so we’ll need to overcome that on the iMac as well

[meddlenz]

Hardware: PoweBook G4 Pismo, 400Mhz, 1GB RAM

Mac OS 9 and maybe OS 8 seem to have problems with applications that have preferred memory requirements set too low. This is around the 500k mark. Messages For Macintosh is set to 100k, which does not play nice with OS9. Often you will receive an error type 1 and the application will refuse to open.

The solution for the user is to increase the memory allocations to the application:

• Single click on the application
• Click File > Get Info, or command + i
• Click Show > Memory
• Increase the Preferred memory allocation

Increasing to 500k lets the application launch, but it's not enough memory to complete the Loading coprocessor services step. This then results in an error type 3. Increasing to 700k launches and loads the application successfully. I suggest increasing it a couple of megabytes for stability and this amount of memory usage isn't really an issue on G3/G4 systems (most likely to be running OS9).

The solution for the developer: It might be useful to include these instructions in a readme or release another version for OS9 that has higher default memory allocations.

[CamHenlin]

After a bit more research, I also found that buying a "keyspan USA 28x b" off of ebay or elsewhere, might provide working serial ports on a USB-only iMac.

I am thinking of buying a G3 iMac and doing some testing with it. I see no reason why we can't have it close to fully functional with a little work

[meddlenz]

@CamHenlin I wasn't sure how else to contact you but I made a Mac OS Icon for the application which I needed for a post on my website. Feel free to use it for the app but there's no obligation to do so, I won't be offended :). Example here but obviously it is displayed better on the older Mac OS systems. Thanks for making a great app!