[CUBE] PowerLogix upgrade/no sleep - other factors

[Joost van de Griek]

On 2003-07-03 12:17, Laurie A Duncan wrote:

> On 7/3/03 5:34 AM, joost at jvdg.net added a note to the human symphony, when
> this was said:
> 
>> No, it doesn't. OS X installs are entirely generic.
> 
> That's not entirely true. OS X installs are hardware dependant - but they care
> not about the processor. What they do care about are video cards and optical
> drives, primarily. An OS X 10.2.x install will install (even from and off the
> shelf retail box) different things depending on which machine it is being
> installed on.  iDVD for example will not install on an iBook or a PowerBook G4
> Titanium that doesn't have a SuperDrive. It will install on a 17" Powerbook or
> a Dual G4 Tower that has a SuperDrive.

IDVD is not part of OS X. It is a bundled application.

> The proper video drivers for a 14" iBook or 17" PowerBook will not install on
> a 12" iBook or a 12" PowerBook. To prove that theory, do a totally clean
> install of Jaguar on a 12" iBook and then clone that install to a 14" iBook
> and see the results for yourself.

I booted my Cube (DVD) and my B&W G3 (CD-ROM) from my iBook (Combo), my
iBook from my Cube and B&W, booted all three from the same external FW disk,
swapped the video card in my Cube from Rage128 to GeForce 3, swapped the
drive from my old (Rage128M) iBook to a newer one (Radeon 7500), all without
changin anything in the OS. Works fine.

Per default, the OS X installer installs all Apple-supplied drivers, but
only the ones needed will load at boot.

To wit: the folder /System/Library/Extensions contains these video drivers:

ATIRadeon.kext
ATIRadeon8500.kext
ATIRadeon8500DVDDriver.bundle
ATIRadeon8500GA.plugin
ATIRadeon8500GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeon9700.kext
ATIRadeon9700DVDDriver.bundle
ATIRadeon9700GA.plugin
ATIRadeon9700GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonDVDDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonGA.plugin
ATIRadeonGLDriver.bundle
ATIRage128.kext
ATIRage128DVDDriver.bundle
ATIRage128GA.plugin
ATIRage128GLDriver.bundle
ATIRagePro.kext
ATIRageProGA.plugin
GeForce.kext
GeForce2MXGLDriver.bundle
GeForce3GLDriver.bundle
GeForceGA.plugin

Certainly, I do not need all of these to run my iBook?

Furthermore, I can easily identify drivers for SCSI cards, PCMCIA cards,
AirPort, Bluetooth, iSight, serial ports, ADB keyboards and mice, AltiVec
support, ... All things this iBook doesn't have. Yet they were installed,
"just in case".

Here's how it works:

<http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/extensions_hell/index.ws>

> Even different optical drives (combo and cd-rw in particular)  will result in
> different OS X installs - the supporting library files are for the mechanism
> detected at the time of install. Try to clone it to a machine with a different
> mechanism whose library or .kext file isn't present and you'll find that Disc
> Burner won't detect your optical drive. The CD itself does contain a
> "universal" installation, however, the installer itself will not automatically
> place things that are not supported or required on the machine you are
> installing it on.

I haven't tried it myself, but I never heard anyone complain they needed to
reinstall OS X after installing a different optical drive, Drives are either
supported or unsupported, without the need to reinstall the OS or mucking
about with Pacifist.

,xtG
.tsooJ
-- 
You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the
best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is
accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war.
-- 
Joost van de Griek
<http://www.jvdg.net/>