Run Classic from a disk image in 10.2

Sep 01, '02 08:32:20AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

I recently posted this hint in the MacNN OS X General Forum and thought the macosxhints' readers may also find it useful. It explains exactly how to set up a disk image from which you can run Classic.

With Classic on a disk image, one can keep a "clean" root directory (OS X only) and use the Classic environment a la Virtual PC and XDarwin, essentially. However, you can't, as far as I know, autonomously *boot* the computer from an OS 9 System Folder on a disk image ... which seems exactly to be what Apple will prevent in new Macs starting in 2003! So Classic on a disk image is only useful as long as all your Mac OS 9 apps actually work well in the Classic environment (most of them should do, anyway).

Read the rest of the article for the how-to...

Here are some quick instructions for installing/copying Mac OS 9 onto a Classic disk image:

  1. Launch Disk Copy (in the Utilities folder).

  2. Select "New Image" from the File or Dock menu.

  3. In the new dialogue that pops up, select a suitable location for the new disk image (I put it on a separate partition together with the VPC disk images, for coherence), give it a suitable name (I chose "Classic" - without quotes! - in both fields); then select a suitable size (also depending on if you already have an existing installation to copy over to the image; I selected the 500 MB option), choose the "Mac OS Extended" format (default), and the "No Encryption" (default) option. Once the image is created (it should, as far as I can tell, be uncompressed - and *writable*, of course), it will mount on the desktop.

  4. Install Mac OS 9 (and update it, if you have an older version than 9.2.2) onto the mounted disk image or drag your existing Mac OS 9 System Folder, etc. onto the image.

  5. Open Terminal (in Utilities) and type:sudo bless -folder "path to the system folder on the disk image" -folder9 "path to the system folder on the disk image" -bootBlocks. In practice, just type sudo bless -folder, add a space, double-click your new Classic disk image, and drag the System Folder onto the Terminal window: this will automatically create the "path to the system folder on the disk image" entry; of course, repeat the same after the -folder9 entry.

    When the command has been typed OK, hit the return key and give your administrator password; the System Folder on the disk image will be blessed and ready for use with Classic.

  6. Open System Preferences. Here, it is best to first launch the Startup Disk pane and select the disk image as a startup disk the first time (choose to modify the startup disk when prompted to); then, re-select the previous (10.2) startup disk and save the change to return to the previous state.

  7. Finally, open the Classic preference pane and wait for the scanning of the volumes to complete; then select the mounted disk image (with its blessed System Folder) as the Classic startup volume, and start Classic: you will probably be prompted to update some components in the System Folder (choose to update them, of course) - and, voila, Mac OS 9 loads from the mounted disk image (with optional happy Mac)!

  8. Shut down Classic, optionally rebuild the Desktop file (second tab in the Classic pane), and unmount (eject) the disk image from the OS X desktop. Then, start Classic again: surprise (an *excellent* surprise!) - Classic *automatically* mounts the disk image and launches the environment.
P.S.: BTW, having done a clean install of Jaguar, I used Classic on a disk image to re-install AppleWorks 6 (a Classic-only installer for 6.0.1; the 6.2.4 updater is OS X native, and worked correctly, even installing some elements - which, of course, can be removed afterwards if you don't use AW in Classic - onto the disk image) - it worked perfectly!

[Editor's note: I have not tested this myself yet...]

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