Trying to install Rhapsody Medusa 1.2v3 on a G4 Cube

Hi,

I'm trying to install Rhapsody Medusa 1.2v3 on a G4 Cube.

I know the machine's not officially supported, but through the configuration options in the (MacOS based) installer, I am able to get as far as "Sorry, couldn't set your machine to boot from the installation CD."

Then, I just reboot the machine myself, holding option, and select the part of the installation CD that is OS X based, which boots up the Rhapsody installer.

Then, it asks for a root device. I enter hd0, which brings up the following error message:

rootdev 300, howto 40001
cannot mount root, errno = 22

Also, before prompting me for the root device, it says the following about my hard disk:

hd0: IBM-DTLA-305020 TW2FA6AA
hd0: using DMA transfers.
registering: hd0
hd0: No Valid Disk Label
hd0: Device Block Size: 512 bytes
hd0: Device Capacity: 19623 MB

So, it recognizes the drive and it's capacity, but complains about a Disk Label. Is this part of the problem or an unrelated warning? I've tried to set a label using parted on a Ubuntu PPC live CD but frankly I'm not sure which label it expects.

If it's not related to the Disk Label: how do I get it to use the hard drive which it clearly does recognize? What am I supposed to format it as?

Drive Setup on the OS 9 portion of the installation CD, lets me select Mac OS X Server UFS, but fails to initialize the drive when I select it.

Has anyone ever run Rhapsody on a G4 Cube to begin with? Am I on a futile pursuit?

I have it running on one of my G4 Cubes.  It would not initially install and I almost gave up but with a few tricks it is possible.  I did the installation perhaps 7 years ago and my memory is a bit fuzzy but I remember the following:

• Rhapsody USB implementation is extremely fragile and it will only work with the keyboard plugged into one of the USB ports on the bottom of the Cube and with the mouse plugged into the keyboard.  I also do not recall if it works with the "Pro" keyboard or if you need to use one of the older style keyboards.
• I followed the standard installation instructions and I was getting an error message early during the installation.  From memory it was related to the hardware and/or storage.  If I recall correctly there was an option in the Rhapsody installer to allow an alternate installation means.  It worked for me.
• Make sure your Cube has standard hardware configuration - no CPU upgrades, etc.

I wish I remembered more, but unfortunately I do not.and I do not really have any time for experimentation at the moment.

It would be super cool if we could get a working disk image. I tried and gave up on mine.

Thanks t-rexky.

Good to know that it is at least possible. I had pretty much given up seeing as the above error message regarding the root device wouldn't go away, no matter what I tried in Disk Utility.

Your part about allowing additional configurations I did use: it's part of the Mac OS 9 based installer which initially says it's the wrong kind of hardware. I think I got a stock G4 Cube with no upgrades.

Would you happen to remember at all if you're running 1.2v3 or some other version?

Also, would anyone happen to know if the root device error message is related at all to the "No valid disk label" warning? Is that something I need to worry about at all?

I will see if I can get some time together before the end of the year to retrace my installation steps and, if successful, I will image the drive.

That would be awesome, of course.

Time is still in short supply here, but I was able to fire-up one of my stock Cubes with the Rhapsody 5.6 drive in it.  Good news is that it still works perfectly!  For now, I made a short video of the setup, startup and shutdown: G4 Cube Rhapsody.mp4 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/50awpxbcbg87ilo/G4%20Cube%20Rhapsody.mp4?dl=0)

A few notes:

• I recall that I had to buy older Apple USB keyboard for it to work, Model M2452.  I did not check again with the USB Pro Keyboard but will try later if time allows.
• You cannot use the monitor USB hub - the keyboard has to be plugged into USB port 2 on the Cube.  The boot will hang with the keyboard plugged into USB Port 1.
• I had the mouse plugged into the keyboard.  The USB Pro Mouse works fine.
• The Cube is in complete stock configuration with ATI video card (I think it's Rage 128).

I need to find a small EIDE drive to attempt a clean re-install of Rhapsody.

Hi, I'm interested too, is there any chance that you share your HDD image with us ?

Wow, that is pretty awesome.  Makes me wish I still had my G4 Cube.

No worries, I will definitely image the drive once I do a clean install.  I just need time...

wonderfull ! Thanks a lot.

Bravo - watching with interest!

Ok, another update:

Once you use connect the keyboard model that I have as shown in the video and connect it as shown therein, there is nothing else specific about installing Rhapsody on the Cube.  It will tell you that the system is unsupported, you have to then select the option to install on an unsupported system, and then it installs to completion without any issues.

I will complete the installation with developer tools and then make a downloadable image. 

Soon...

Downloadable image with some instructions is now available from my DropBox: Rhapsody_5.6_Medusa1E3_G4_Cube.zip (https://www.dropbox.com/s/bonb41nglgebx22/Rhapsody_5.6_Medusa1E3_G4_Cube.zip?dl=0).

I hope Rob or Nitro throw it into the file archives here, since I'm running out of space on my DropBox...

Enjoy!

Holy crap! I never thought I'd see a cube running a Rhapsody incarnation! Bravo!  ;D

Nice! I'll give it a shot. What size hard drive?

Never mind, it's in your readme: 4.3GB

Quote from: t-rexky on January 19, 2020, 11:07:08 AMDownloadable image with some instructions is now available from my DropBox: Rhapsody_5.6_Medusa1E3_G4_Cube.zip (https://www.dropbox.com/s/bonb41nglgebx22/Rhapsody_5.6_Medusa1E3_G4_Cube.zip?dl=0).

I hope Rob or Nitro throw it into the file archives here, since I'm running out of space on my DropBox...

Enjoy!

The image is available in the archives. Thanks t-rexky for putting this together.  8)

http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/Rhapsody/Rhapsody_5.6_G4_Cube/ (http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/Rhapsody/Rhapsody_5.6_G4_Cube/)

Quote from: Nitro on January 19, 2020, 03:57:42 PMThe image is available in the archives. Thanks t-rexky for putting this together.  8)

http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/Rhapsody/Rhapsody_5.6_G4_Cube/ (http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/Rhapsody/Rhapsody_5.6_G4_Cube/)

Awesome, thank you!  I will remove it from my DropBox later in the coming week...

Thank you very much ! I give a try.

I meanwhile tried to install Rhapsody myself on the cube, my problem was that the Cube refused to boot on the Rhapsody CD. In fact, I tried another MacOS 9 cdrom, the cube did the same. I only had more luck with a 9.2 cd. This is strange. Let's see if it's able to boot on your image :-)

Hi t-rexky
I tried your image on my cube, this worked flawelessly, thank you very much !
https://imgur.com/tJ1khPj

Quote from: guibrush on January 27, 2020, 12:00:44 PMHi t-rexky
I tried your image on my cube, this worked flawelessly, thank you very much !
https://imgur.com/tJ1khPj

Awesome!  Really happy to hear that!  You're welcome and enjoy.

Edit: does it work with the white USB keyboard!?  If it does then we need to edit the README file.  It definitely does not work with the original Pro keyboard that shipped with the Cube...

Yes, this white keyboard is working. I was surprised too ! Even the mouse connected on this keyboard is working.
Even stranger : I tested the black pro keyboard too (model M7803), and this one works too on my setup.
https://imgur.com/uf0dD5m
Is this the same model as your's ?

Another silly question : as I don't have the usb speaker module (I have only the speakers themself), I have no sound. Do you know if the USB module is recognised by Rhapsody ? I assume not, but who know :-)

I have some good news.  Keyboard model M7803 works on my installation as well.  I even tried reinstalling with the Pro Keyboard and it worked fine.  I am very confused now about what happened 10 years ago, since the very reason that I bought the older keyboard model was to allow installation of Rhapsody on the Cube. 

I wanted to amend my earlier posts in this thread, but it seems that they are too old to modify.  I have instead revised the notes that I included with the original image that you can download from my DropBox: Rhapsody_5.6_Medusa1E3_G4_Cube_v2.rtf (https://www.dropbox.com/s/waxnfsqjd0zwizh/Rhapsody_5.6_Medusa1E3_G4_Cube_v2.rtf?dl=0)

I did not have time to test the USB audio, but I am 99.9% certain that it does not work.

ok, strange. Well, it's good that it is working anyways :-)

For the audio, yeah, I think the same. This is not a big deal, it was only to know if it's worth to hunt some sound adapter on the web or not.

Hi @t-rexky do you still have that image? I have been struggling for 1 week trying to get it installed.  So far DR2 will not boot from CD Rom, and OSX server stays at the first screen after reboot

Hi.  It's in the software archives here - see post #17.