Basilisk II, Mac OS X port, HowTos

# Index

- Minimum Requirements
- Macintosh ROM image
- Creating a boot disk
- Mounting Unix Files

## Minimum Requirements

To run Basilisk II, you need both:

- A Mac ROM image. Even though there is a ROM in your OS X Mac, it is too new for a 68k Mac to make use of. Any Mac II ROM, and most of the Quadra ROMS, will work.
  (Quadra 660av and 840av ROMs are currently unusable. I don't know about Mac LC ROMs. In the near future, Mac Plus, SE or Classic ROMS may also be usable, though only for emulating a monochrome Mac).
- A copy of the MacOS, which at the moment has to either be on a CD-ROM, or on a disk image

## Macintosh ROM image

To run Basilisk II, you need a ROM image, which is a data file containing a copy of the ROM chips from a real 68k Macintosh.

The best way (i.e. most legally acceptable) to get a ROM image is to produce it from your old Mac. Take a program like CopyROM, download it onto your old Mac, and use it to produce the image file, which you then copy or upload to your OS X Mac. A good page which describes this process is here.

The easiest way to get a ROM image is to get one from someone else (e.g. another Basilisk II user, or an emulation web site). Note that this probably contravenes several copyright laws.

Once you have your ROM image, you need to tell Basilisk II to use it:

1. Open the Basilisk II application
2. Go to the 'BasiliskII' menu, then the Preferences...' menu item
3. On the Emulation tab, there is a field 'ROM file:'. Either type in the path to the ROM file, or click the Browse button and Open the ROM file
4. Click the Save button, so that Basilisk II will be able to find the ROM each time you boot it

If you want to test this, press the Run or Power button (in the top right corner of the 'BasiliskII Emulator' window). After a few moments you should see a Mac screen, with a picture of a floppy disk with a flashing question mark. That is the Mac telling you that it needs a disk to boot from.

## Creating a boot disk

Basilisk II needs a copy of the MacOS to boot from. Anything from System 7 through to MacOS 8.1 should be usable.
(Felix Eng and I have only tested System 7.0.1, 7.1, 7.5.3 and 7.6, although Felix also got System 6.0.8 to work with SE/30 Roms)

It is possible to use Basilisk II with a CD-ROM, but because most bootable CDs have a minimal System Folder, it is better if you use a disk image with the MacOS installed on it.

There are two options: either grab an image that someone else has made, or create one yourself. If you have some time, and access to a MacOS install CD, then these instructions will help you do the latter.

Note that there is currently no Install CD image on Apple's Web site - they only seem to have MacOS 7.5.3 floppy disk images (all 19 of them). If you do not have a friend with an install CD, you can possibly make one by copying the System Folder from a bootable OS 7 or 8 CD, and burning that onto a CD with the floppy disk images.
Thanks to Attilio Farina for this tip!

### Create a new BasiliskII disk

Before you can install the MacOS onto a disk volume, you need to create a disk to install onto:

1. Start up the Basilisk application.
   (If it is already running, skip this step)
2. Open the preferences.
3. Go to the Disk Volumes tab.
4. Press the 'Create...' button (go with the defaults, unless you think you will need a huge disk).

If you want to have more than one hard disk available to Basilisk II, you could create additional volumes here.

### Installing the MacOS

Insert your MacOS install CD-ROM, and wait a few moments for the Finder to mount the disk. While still in your preferences:

1. Go to the Emulation tab and check that your emulation is appropriate for your install image
   (e.g. I had to change from Quadra900 to IIci, because my generic 7.1 install CD didn't support the Quadra), and that you have the RAM size set appropriately
   (e.g. 8MB RAM may not be enough for a 7.5.3 install).
2. Click the save button.
3. In the BasiliskII Emulator window, click Run.
   (If it is already running, but showing the floppy with the question mark, press the restart button - the triangle in the bottom right hand corner)
   You should get a HappyMac, and the emulator will start to boot from the CD. You should then a dialog asking you to format a disk.
4. Click Initialize, then Erase, give the disk an appropriate name (e.g. Hard Disk), then click OK.
5. Find the OS installer (in my case the CD booted into At Ease, and one of the first buttons was 'Install System'), and go with the defaults.

After the installer finishes it may try to reboot (or you may need to force a reboot). When it reboots, BasiliskII may exit. Start it again, and you should boot into your installed OS.

## Mounting Unix Files

If Basilisk II is running MacOS 7.5.3 or newer, you can easily access some of the files from your OS X disks. Just set the 'Unix directory to mount' in the Volumes tab of the Preferences. Next time the Emulator starts up, a new disk will appear on its Desktop (called Unix).

To prevent clashes with the OS X desktop files, I suggest that the directory you select is not a whole disk (e.g. '/' or '/Volumes/disk'). Mount a sub-folder instead (like '/Applications (Mac OS 9)').

$Id: HowTo.html,v 1.3 2003/06/03 12:26:28 nigel Exp $
Written by Nigel Pearson on 26th March, 2003.