Thread
USB support impossible with System 7?
I got a few things that some people here might be interested in:
Comm Slot II Modem - This is an Apple-branded modem that pops into the CSII of your Mac if it is so equiped. Name a price.
Rio Carbon 5 gig mp3 player - This little guy lasted me a good while before I got my iPod. Battery still holds a good charge. Name a price.
Sony CLÍE PEG-SJ22 PDA - Bright color screen, Palm OS, lots of games and other apps. Google if you like for the nitty-gritty. Power cord and USB adapter included. Name a price.
If you have any interest in anything here, name a price and we'll work from there. Thanks!
Note: I will be posting this in the 68kMLA when it comes back up.
_________________
PPC Macs:
Comm Slot II Modem - This is an Apple-branded modem that pops into the CSII of your Mac if it is so equiped. Name a price.
Rio Carbon 5 gig mp3 player - This little guy lasted me a good while before I got my iPod. Battery still holds a good charge. Name a price.
Sony CLÍE PEG-SJ22 PDA - Bright color screen, Palm OS, lots of games and other apps. Google if you like for the nitty-gritty. Power cord and USB adapter included. Name a price.
If you have any interest in anything here, name a price and we'll work from there. Thanks!
Note: I will be posting this in the 68kMLA when it comes back up.
_________________
PPC Macs:
- Power Macintosh G4
- B&W Power Macintosh G4
- Power Macintosh 6500/225
I had my TAM running with a USB card using System 7.6.1. The HDD corrupted recently, so I installed a CF card for quick and reliable booting. I now can't get USB working on System 7, although I know for certain that I had it working.
I asked for advice on this last month, but wasn't able to get the info I needed. I tried manually copying the files from 8.6 to 7.6.1, but no dice. Stuffed if I can remember how I did it, but it was not through hackery. I plug and play to get things working, so I must have done it relatively easy - just need to remember the steps!
I asked for advice on this last month, but wasn't able to get the info I needed. I tried manually copying the files from 8.6 to 7.6.1, but no dice. Stuffed if I can remember how I did it, but it was not through hackery. I plug and play to get things working, so I must have done it relatively easy - just need to remember the steps!
No, I have a USB 1.1 card with two slots, one of those Opti cards that seem to work so well in the TAM. Never had anything FireWire.
And before anyone says it, I know it sounds very unlikely, but I am OCD on using System 7 on the TAM and definitely had this working.
And before anyone says it, I know it sounds very unlikely, but I am OCD on using System 7 on the TAM and definitely had this working.
Hi jsarchibald and Syntho,
A thought has come to mind: if ye can get your hands on a development installer ISO of Mac OS 8.0, it might very well have proto-versions of the USB extensions. If my Mac history is correct, what became Mac OS 8.0 was in development as Mac OS 7.7 or 7.8 (which is still System 7 and therefore might be usable in Mac OS 7.6). The extensions are not in the Mac OS 8.0 release, so they may been still buggy at the time. They were released with the Bondi blue iMac and 8.1, so the drivers were around in 1998.
When I thought of proto-USB-drivers, i also wondered whether haplain has any lying in his wonderful collection. He might be a good person to ask.
A thought has come to mind: if ye can get your hands on a development installer ISO of Mac OS 8.0, it might very well have proto-versions of the USB extensions. If my Mac history is correct, what became Mac OS 8.0 was in development as Mac OS 7.7 or 7.8 (which is still System 7 and therefore might be usable in Mac OS 7.6). The extensions are not in the Mac OS 8.0 release, so they may been still buggy at the time. They were released with the Bondi blue iMac and 8.1, so the drivers were around in 1998.
When I thought of proto-USB-drivers, i also wondered whether haplain has any lying in his wonderful collection. He might be a good person to ask.
Another idea, especially for those with old magazines: what was the first USB possibility for the Mac? I had thought that it was the iMac. But now that I think of it, there may have been a third party card *with their own drivers* that came out in 1997 or 1998. I was a diehard SCSI/ADB man at the time and I had learnt about FireWire in the reviews for Mac OS 7.6.
If there was a very early USB card with mac drivers, then eBay et al is the place to scour. Also, it might be worth looking out for the PowerMacs of the day (e.g. PM 7300 | PM 9600 | Beige G3 etc) that may have been equiped with them when they were bought. You would need to find a buyer that bought the machine to be sure.
If there was a very early USB card with mac drivers, then eBay et al is the place to scour. Also, it might be worth looking out for the PowerMacs of the day (e.g. PM 7300 | PM 9600 | Beige G3 etc) that may have been equiped with them when they were bought. You would need to find a buyer that bought the machine to be sure.
jrsarchibald had it running but lost files, is trying to get it working again too
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/13600-usb-pci-card-into-tam-running-system-761/
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/13600-usb-pci-card-into-tam-running-system-761/
There's gotta be some third party USB drivers for System 7. I don't know how they wouldn't have tried to capitalize on USB. Microsoft had it implemented in Windows 95 versions early as 8/1996.
I'm really thinking there's gotta be something, since the first PCI Macs debuted around (earlier) than this time too.
I'm really thinking there's gotta be something, since the first PCI Macs debuted around (earlier) than this time too.
I'm determined to get this working...
Admittedly, from what I test, I didn't test with a USB thumb drive. I think you've got to have those USB Mass Storage drivers in order to get thumb drives to show up but correct me if I'm wrong. I only tried with a USB mouse, so maybe I should try again but this time with a USB drive.
Admittedly, from what I test, I didn't test with a USB thumb drive. I think you've got to have those USB Mass Storage drivers in order to get thumb drives to show up but correct me if I'm wrong. I only tried with a USB mouse, so maybe I should try again but this time with a USB drive.
After doing some searching on this topic it appears that back around the turn of the millennium there were certain extensions, when edited using ResEdit, that could provide USB on System 7. However, I was unable to locate any detailed information, such as which extensions, what edits were needed, etc...
I feel the answers lie in the archives of various Mac specific newsgroups with posts from that peri-millenial period.
I feel the answers lie in the archives of various Mac specific newsgroups with posts from that peri-millenial period.
As a random aside, color me not getting why you wouldn't want to run OS 8+ on a machine capable of it. You *really* should be using HFS+ on modern-size disk drives, and that includes USB thumb drives. Plain HFS has the same limit as DOS FAT16 on the number of allocatable blocks so you start wasting a *lot* of space (assuming you're storing small files) once your disk sizes get into the gigabyte range.
Here you go:
http://www.silentway.com/mac-tips-better-os-9-settings
That combined with the greater amount of PPC native code in the post 8.0 OS versions will probably negate any speed advantage of 7.6...
http://www.silentway.com/mac-tips-better-os-9-settings
That combined with the greater amount of PPC native code in the post 8.0 OS versions will probably negate any speed advantage of 7.6...
It's too bad that the xlr8yourmac discussion forums are gone. Is there an archive anywhere? I bet that if that was discussed anywhere it was probably discussed there. That was the hot spot for that kind of stuff back then.After doing some searching on this topic it appears that back around the turn of the millennium there were certain extensions, when edited using ResEdit, that could provide USB on System 7. However, I was unable to locate any detailed information, such as which extensions, what edits were needed, etc...
I feel the answers lie in the archives of various Mac specific newsgroups with posts from that peri-millenial period.
You might also try a search through the Macgurus forums and possibly the LEM List archives for the appropriate machines -- PCI PowerMacs, back before they moved to Google Groups.
Wasn't there some kind of resedit group or email list or newsletter way back when? Something about that is tickling my memory.