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| Author | Trying out System 7.6.1 on a Mac mini (Read 846 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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wove
1024 MB  Posts: 1363 
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on: December 07, 2025, 17:36
Ross Darker's System 7.6.1 installer CD for the Mac mini works. I followed the directions and have System7.6.1 booting on my Mac mini. It is quite a sight to behold. I am having problems with some of the hardware. I ran System Profiler to see what hardware was being seen by the system. System Profiler starts with the watch cursor and the system freezes after a minute or so. Networking does not see the Ethernet port there is no networking. While my old Apple USB keyboard and mouse work just fine, I have had no luck with the USB ports seeing anything else, so I have not been able to get a thumb drive to be recognized. I inserted the installer CD into the drive, to move the drive setup from the installer over to the installed system, but found the installed system does not seem to recognize CDs. I tried the CD player that is installed in the "Apple Extras" folder on the installed system and it reports that no CD device is found. (My mini actually has a DVD drive in it and perhaps that is problem.) So as of right now, I have a booting System 7.6.1 on the mini, which is impressive all on its own. I have not been able to move beyond the basic install. Ethernet is not recognized, USB ports are not seeing any devices beyond the keyboard and mouse and my optical drive is not seen by the system. I have not tried Firewire yet. So at the moment I am stuck at trying to flesh out the install. |
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 674 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #1 on: December 07, 2025, 18:27
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I'm doing the same, so we can compare notes. USB mass storage WILL work, if it is plugged in before boot. Hot swapping doesn't work. USB working AT ALL is amazing because the entire 8.1+ infrastructure to handle it just isn't there, or is missing. I've been using HFS (non-plus) to copy stuff over to the mini. 7.6 doesn't have a clue what USB is, and its all driver level magic. Networking defaults to the "printer port"...which doesn't exist EITHER! You'll need SOME sort of driver for built in ethernet. I first set it up using a single partition, but quickly switched to have two, the second has tiger. And, of course, hardly anything other than the basics works in 7.6...but...if you think about it, we have enough trouble getting MacOS 9 working on the same machine. So 7.6 working AT ALL, is a minor miracle. If someone has ANY trouble with 9 on a mini, you are going to have FAR far worse with 7.6. Some things MIGHT be made to work, but I'm having my doubts how much. Many extensions and drivers needed for the mini will be 8.5/9.0 and getting them to work on 7.6 may or may not be possible due to all the missing other libs and managers that 8.5+ has. (For example, anything that expects even basic things like the Unicode libs being present will fail on 7.6). Then again, if you'd asked me if 7.6 was possible at ALL on a mini a year ago I would've sat and expounded, thinking I was wise, for a long time on how it wasn't possible due to all the missing drivers, etc...and look where we are! I think a triple boot with 7.6, 9, and tiger is my next step. And getting things like sound or video acceleration or networking in 9 would give clues to how to get it to work in 7.6.
Last Edit: December 07, 2025, 18:31 by lauland
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #2 on: December 07, 2025, 21:04
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Thanks for chiming in @lauland. Seeing 7.6.1 on real hardware is indeed something of a treat. It has been maybe three decades since I have seen a message about a "Printer Port"  Plugging in a thumb drive before booting, also works with CDs. 7.6.1 will come up with the CD mounted. The eject key on the old extended keyboard actually works to eject the CD. But then the entire device just disappears.The problem I am looking at right now is I have nothing to format a drive as HFS. I tried booting with a FAT format drive, thinking 7.6.1 could read FAT, but that did not work. The problem I am looking at right now is I have nothing to format a drive as HFS. I thought maybe Tiger would do it, but it does not. Normally I could do that in OS 9, however I took out the OS 9 drive to make way for a System 7.6.1 drive. I am installing hfsutils via homebrew at the moment, which for sure allows me to read and write hfs, but I am not sure it can format hfs. We will see.
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 674 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #3 on: December 08, 2025, 15:34
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I noticed the same thing with FAT drives. Unsure why it doesn't work, but probably ancient PC Exchange doesn't work with the USB shim magic in the enabler/rom. I can't remember how I formatted by my thumb drive HFS (non plus). I thought I DID actually use tiger. Be sure you totally reformat it, and are using the Master Boot Record format for the drive. I'm pretty sure hfsutils can handle non-plus hfs, but if not, and you have access to a windows machine, this works very well: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/hfvexplorer (Don't remember if it can format, but it can definitely read...maybe write?) I copied stuffit files to the HFS disk, unstuffed them in Tiger, because I didn't even have stuffit for 7.6, but was then able to run things in 7.6. Or you might be able to use drive formatters in 7.6.1. I'm thinking a possible way to get some stuff to work might be to copy some extensions from the 8.1 that came with the first imac. (Which was a "modern" new world machine with usb, etc, and maybe sound and networking hardware closer to the mini).
Last Edit: December 08, 2025, 15:38 by lauland
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #4 on: December 08, 2025, 16:32
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You can format a drive HFS or HFS+ using parted/gparted in Linux. The drive can then be read and written to in Tiger. From what I can tell nothing after Snow Leopard can really work with an HFS drive and when I stuck an HFS thumb drive in El Capitan, El Capitan just corrupted the drive and it no longer worked on anything until being reformatted. I am amazed at how much I have forgotten over the years. I had completely forgotten that HFS is only good for drives up to 2GB. I put an old IDE 30GB drive in the mini to install 7.6.1 and sure enough when I got info on the drive in 7.6.1 it only sees 2GB. I went through my whole pile of drives and 30GB is as small as I still have. 16GB is the smallest working thumb drive I have. System 7.6.1 is either going to waste a lot of space or have lots and lots of partitions. However I think I am going to go back and see about doing a dual boot of MacOS 9 and System7.6.1 and see how that goes. Then I might could do some experimenting with extensions and such to see if I might get more stuff up and running. Ethernet would be a real boost. I enjoyed the speed, simplicity and stability of System 7.6.1, however what I do use and want the most is the software. Software from the System 7 era typically has great longevity over all the upgrades, so for me whether the software is running in System 7, or 9 or even Classic on Tiger is mostly irrelevant.
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bash
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1 MB Posts: 1 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #5 on: December 29, 2025, 23:07
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Dual booting System 7 and OS9 work, I'm doing that with my Mini. OS9 is surprisingly smooth and functional but I had the exact same issues with networking and System Profiler. Saving screenshots also hangs Finder. I dropped a 7.6.1 install from a SheepShaver VM and then dropped in the patched System Enabler and MacOS ROM and it booted right up. My customer startup screen and StickyClick (a ~30 year System 7 staple) worked without issue.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #6 on: December 30, 2025, 09:01
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Day by day I’m getting closer to setting up a partition to boot 7.6.1 and welcome to System 7 Today Bash, and Happy New Year! 
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #7 on: December 30, 2025, 13:27
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Welcome to S7T @bash, it is always nice to see the community growing. Computing has changed a great deal since System7 was the current operating system. Modems were the way to go for being online, and "if" you had a home network it was probably based on AppleTalk. It always has been fortunate that most of the applications that work on System 7 also work on 8 and 9. As you note productivity, utility and games work across a wide spectrum of Mac OSes. My brief look at System 7 on the mini mirror your experiences. I have Tiger installed on my Mini, and use "Classic" to run the older applications I enjoy. I use Basilisk to run an emulated System 7.6 on newer hardware. It is always interesting and exciting to see System 7 up and running on real hardware, but for those times I just have to visit here on Cyberdog, emulation and "Classic" serve my needs well.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #8 on: December 31, 2025, 13:08
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Welcome to our friendly little forum, @bash! :-) Very interesting to read about your System 7 on Mac Mini adventures! How ready is this for actually using it in your opinion? (vs. tinkering around)
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gfinder
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2 MB Posts: 3 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #9 on: January 01, 2026, 19:42
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I really appreciate the shared perspectives and examples of what works and what doesn't! I still can't believe it and have not tried it on my mini, but from the sounds of things I need to experience it with my own eyes!
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