It Won't Get Better If You Mess With It

T

trebizond

Registered
Afternoon,

Short time reader, first time poster, unusual skin condition.

That aside, I was wondering if you could help me with something. I wouldn't call myself a 'switcher' to be honest, as I've got my Windows machine running next to me, but that's by the by.

My friend has quite kindly given me his old Mac, which is

Powermac G4 1.0GHz
768MB RAM (3x256)
1x60GB HDD
1x40GB HDD
Geforce4 MX

Now, I know that there are certain things on a PC and Mac that never the twain shall meet (my Canon MP150 for one - no GIMP driver) However, a joy of mine is basically fiddling with my PC as much as possible. I'm thinking about overclocking, optimisation, general tinkering.

The Mac doesn't seem to let me want to do any of that. I'm not worried about breaking it particularly, because I know how difficult it is to really really break modern computers (although my PC has been dragged back from the brink a couple of times - thanks RIVAtuner)

I get the sense that OSX is a little like an elderly housekeeper at a stately home - 'no, dear, you're not allowed down there'

I want to go down there, and squeeze this sucker for all it's worth. And I don't want to have to pay anything, either. I know I'm going to get some replies along the lines of 'you don't have to' - maybe so, but like I mentioned, it's really for the pleasure of it as well.

(Perversely, I quite like breaking my PC, so I have to find out how to fix it. I also like to stand in my garden shed and touch my own buttocks on the venal equinox)

Any suggestions?

cheers
R :)
 
On the software side, OSX is anything but housekeeper-like. Just go to Applications>Utilites>Terminal and you have a bash shell that will let you do all the scary things you could ever want to, as long as you are happy on a *nix shell that is. There are also _endless_ tweaks and customisation systems for the UI etc, just go look at macupdate.com .

Hardware wise, its not so easy to fiddle i guess. I know there was overclocking going on on some iBooks, but its not common. The folks over at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ would probably be able to help with that though. Also, assuming that your machine is a tower (which it appears to be) there are many cards, upgrades etc to keep you happily tweaking, though of course they do cost a bit.

Anyway, enjoy you mac (and your PC), and feel free to come ask us questions, its a friendly crowd round here.
 
Check out this site (one of many that popped up on Google by just searching "macmod".)

http://www.macmod.com/

As for OS X, you can do as much as you want if you use the Terminal. While the GUI prevent you from doing stuff, the command line won't.

You could also install Linux on that Power Mac if you want or have it dual boot with OS X. Here are some of the most popular PPC distros out there.

1. Ubuntu/Kubuntu
2. Debian
3. Fedora Core
4. Yellow Dog Linux
5. Gentoo
6. Slackintosh (a port of Slackware to the PowerPC Mac)
 
Cheers fellas - I'll have a look at terminal, surely I can break things much better via command line :) It's like pickpocketing the master key from the housekeeper's brassiere.
 
TinkerTool lets you get a little deeper than what the Finder and System Preferences have to offer. There certainly are some ways of hacking the hardware, too (as mentioned). Googling for "overclock G4" might even give you a starting point for doing just that (overclocking the g4, not googling for it, i meant, of course...).

I guess it's easier to help you if you pose _actual_ questions. :)
 
You might just strike lucky and come across an unwanted Sonnet CPU upgrade. (They are a tad expensive to buy, new). I have one in my G4 tower and it certainly kicks Rs.
 
If you really like breaking things, I hear bricks do wonders.


You can also expose yourself to all kinds of nasties by activating the Root User and just deleting a whole bunch of important files (anything in /bin is good for kicks, but it's all good).


If you start up holding Cmd+Option+O+F it should start up in Open Firmware (the programmable equivalent to a BIOS), which you can really break computers playing with.


Have fun with your destruction.
 
Ooh, the BIOS. My favourite tool. 'Hmmmm, I wonder what happens when I set the multiplier to x17 instead of x12'


Psssfffzzt.

Oh dear.
 
As its semi relevant, i remember the time me and my friend tried to change the "welcome to mac OS" image on the OS9 startup sequence of my long-dead bondi imac. We had it open in resedit, made the change, then got excited and restarted without saving the file. DoH!
Worse still, when i put the original 8.x disk in to strt form that, it woudln't work, as i had done a firmware update to put OS9 on the machine. My OS9 disks were at my fathers house, so i had a nervous few days before i got them back wondering if i had 'bricked' my, for the time, very snazzy machine.

Lesson: don't alter vital system files at 3am! :)
 
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