PearPC Tour
From PearPC
Contents |
What is PearPC?
PearPC is a PowerPC emulator for x86 computers. You can emulate a PPC system so that you can run GNU/Linux for PPC, Mac OS X, and other OSes for PPC on x86. PearPC can be run under Windows, Linux and BeOS (only 0.2.0 generic version). Read more here or at the official site.
Can PearPC Replace my real Mac??
Not yet. Although you can run Mac OS X on a cheap PC using PearPC it is quite slow compared to a real machine.
Which Mac OS X Versions does PearPC Support?
It's possible to run Mac OS X 10.1 - 10.4 under PearPC. Note that to use Mac OS X 10.1 under PearPC, you have to use PearPC 0.4, and to run Mac OS X 10.4, you have to follow a special guide.
PearPC Configuration and Installation Guide
This guide will help you through the installation and configuration of PearPC and the basic steps before installing a guest OS on PearPC.
Before we begin, you should get all the necessary things...
Getting the PearPC emulator
To set up a PearPC enviroment you should first create a directory for PearPC. It will contain all your PearPC files.
UNIX/Linux
Get the PearPC source from CVS and compile it. After you have finished compiling, copy the video.x file from your PearPC source directory to the directory you created in the first step.
Windows
Download the archive containing PearPC from the official site and unpack it to the directory you created. Later you may want to download fresh CVS builds from Richard Goodwin or epsilon15. Or you may want to try Prasys' and Alex's Builds.
Creating the HD image file
UNIX/Linux
On UNIX(-like) operating systems you can create a HD image (or virtual harddrive) file very easily using the dd command. Just enter one of the following:
3 GiB:
dd if=/dev/zero of=myharddisk.img bs=516096 seek=6241 count=0
6 GiB:
dd if=/dev/zero of=myharddisk.img bs=516096 seek=12482 count=0
Option if describes the input file, which in this case gives back "zero" bytes. of is the image file to be created. bs is the block size in bytes. The size of a disk image must be a multiple of 516096. Then it seeks the given number of blocks which represents the end of the file. Please note that the faster seeking method just reserves the diskspace for that file, without zeroing out the image file content. If you would like to have an image file containing "null" bytes instead, use the count option, like this:
6 GiB (zeroed out file):
dd if=/dev/zero of=myharddisk.img bs=516096 count=12482
If you want to create an HD image of different size, you can calculate the seek value yourself. Simply use the formular:
[Size in MiB] * 2
Windows
If you use Windows XP, there is a DOS program capable of creating empty HD files. First calculate the proposed size of the file in gigabytes:
[Size in GB] * 2 * 528482304
Open a command prompt, navigate to your PearPC directory, and type:
fsutil file createnew myharddisk.img [Calculated Size]
There is also a downloadable tool to create an HD image in our The Moron's Guide to Tiger on PearPC. The PearPC.net package also includes such a function.
If you create a secondary drive using these methods and then format it using 'Initialize' and 'Erase', there is a bug where the reformatting/erasing will change the size of the mounted image. If you try to use the image again, PearPC will not boot due to failure of the image to be a multiple of 528482304. (OSX Tiger 10.4)
Performance Tip: After creating the hard disk and CD/DVD images defragment your hard drive, in most cases this will help with the speed of the installation.
Expanding/Resizing an Image
There are some tools on the net that say they can expand images but they dont take into account the 'multiple of 528482304' restriction. PearPC will not boot if the size is wrong.
The best method is to create a new drive image and mount it as a secondary drive in PearPC. Next, use OSX itself to 'Restore' the main drive onto the secondary drive. Restore is the same as ghosting or making a real image of the drive. This can be found in the 'Disk Utility', which conveniently comes up when you add an uninitialized drive. Once copied over, change the image that PearPC boots from in the config file.
Creating the CD/DVD image
Now we have to create the CD/DVD image. Using this image you can later install the OS in PearPC. It is recommended to place the CD image in the PearPC directory.
UNIX/Linux
On Unix (-like) operating systems you can create a CD/DVD image very easily. Type this command in a console window (needs root account password):
sudo dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cd.iso
This command does not show any progress and takes a few minutes. It automatically quits when finished.
Windows
On Windows you can use image programs like Transmac, ISOBuster, WinImage, Ahead Nero or Alcohol 120% to get a proper image of your install CD/DVD.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X has a UNIX subsystem and you can use dd just like in UNIX/Linux, but there are some different device names. In most Macs the CD/DVD drive is named /dev/disk1. Type this command in Terminal (needs admin account password):
sudo dd if=/dev/disk1 of=cd.iso
This command does not show any progress and takes a few minutes. It automatically quits when finished.
Editing the Configuration File
Now it's time to edit the configuration file. First, copy all the text from this Basic Configuration File to a file called ppc.cfg. Place it in your PearPC directory. Open the file again and edit the line beginning with pci_ide0_master_image to point to your HD image, and the line pci_ide0_slave_image to point to your CD-ROM/DVD image (ISO file). If you are running UNIX, then this line can also point to the device for your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive, like /dev/cdrom. That makes you able to install Mac OS X or any other PowerPC operating system directly from your CD/DVD drive without the need of making an image
If your CD/DVD image isn't located on the same partition as PearPC you may experience a system panic within PearPC.
Installing Mac OS X
See also The Moron's Guide to Tiger on PearPC
This guide is the Mac OS X Installation Guide. You should read the PearPC FAQ and the general configuration guide before installing Mac OS X.
Preparation
This guide will you guide through the installation of Mac OS X on PearPC. You can also use this guide for every other guest OS by simply ignoring the Mac OS X specific tips.
If you haven't installed and configured PearPC yet, then please read this guide first: PearPC installation guide
Note: PearPC can not run Mac OS X 10.0 or below.
Starting PearPC
In Windows: Click the start button, open a run dialog, type cmd and press OK. Now navigate to the directory where your <ppl>ppc.exe</ppl> file is, by typing cd directory (for example cd c:\pearpc) and pressing enter. When you have done that, type ppc.exe nameof.configfile (for example ppc.exe ppc.cfg) and press enter. If everything goes like it should, a window will pop up where you can select between booting the HD image and the CD-ROM ISO image. Select the CD-ROM ISO image.
In Linux: Open a terminal, then navigate to the directory where your configuration file is stored, by typing cd directory (for example <pop>cd /home/bill/pearpc</code>) and pressing enter. When you have done that, type ppc nameof.configfile (for example ppc ppc.cfg) and press enter. If everything goes like it should, a window will pop up where you can select between booting the HD image and the CD-ROM ISO image. Select the CD-ROM ISO image.
Installation Process
Let the installation begin
Shortly after starting PearPC a grey screen showing the Apple logo should be displayed. It should only take a few minutes.
Creating and formatting partition
Before you can install Mac OS X on a hard disk, you have to create a parition first. Open the Disk Utility to begin.
Select the HDD symbol and click on Erase.
Now enter a nice name for your partition and click on erase. We suggest leaving the file system to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Now press the Erase button at the bottom and watch the partition being formatted. You should now see your new partition.
Close the window again and quit the installer.
The system will now shut down and PearPC will quit. Start PearPC again and begin the installation of Mac OS X by following the instructions on the screen, but skip the formatting part.
Going on with installation
When you can select the packages that should be installed it is recommended to only choose the base system. This way, it won't take so long and you won't have to change the CD image file. You can also install more software later. After you have entered all the needed information, wait untill the installation has finished. This may take some time, depending on your PC specs. After that PearPC will quit again.
Open your configuration file and disable the CD now with pci_ide0_slave_installed = 0 or set prom_bootmethod = "select" to choose the boot medium yourself.
Start PearPC again and have fun! :D
Installing Software on MacOS 10.3 (Panther)
There is also more Apple software that can be installed on the MacOS X HDD image. On MacOS 10.3 (Panther) it can get installed the following software without any major issues.
- MacOS 10.3.9 Combo Update works fine updating the OS.
- Quicktime 7.1.6
- iTunes 7.2
- Java 1.4.2 Update 2 (Java 1.5 only works on MacOS 10.4)
The only turns downs are that every of those patches requires reboot and that sometimes the "Optimizing System Performace" process is very slow.
Setting up Networking
For all networking guides, please see the Networking Guide.
