:
Sent: Sat Nov 19 22:20:12 2016
I've encountered a bug in the Macintosh II emulation on macOS Sierra. Whenever I go into fullscreen mode, Mini vMac 3.4.1 jumps back out immediately. My host screen resolution is 1280x800, and I've tried 1024x768, 800x600, 640x460, and 640x400. I've also disabled magnification to see if that was the problem, and no, it wasn't. I also used cocoa api and 64bit build.
This problem in the Cocoa port is fixed in the 3.5 branch of Mini vMac in development, I think. For some reason it was not previously listed in the changes. Thank you for reminding me.
Sent: Sun Nov 13 12:05:40 2016
hey i see your site makes these versions do you make it or do you have a tool that makes one if so is there a download?
i like to experiment on some laptops and i kinda dont want to make like 90000 reqeusts ;)
The Mini vMac Variations Service is pretty automated, but not entirely so. A few requests in a day is fine, 90000 would not be. Please only request variations that you will actually use (and report any bugs). It probably isn’t possible to really use more than a few.
If you would like to compile variations yourself, see the “Building Mini vMac” page.
Sent: Tue Nov 8 19:40:36 2016
Hey Paul thanks so much for all of the work that you're doing. I am really enjoying myself as I run older operating systems and check out my old stuff. Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that what you are doing is bringing a lot of joy to the world. -Max
I'm glad you find Mini vMac useful.
Sent: Mon Nov 7 13:33:56 2016
HI
You may have an answer - do you remember an early Macintosh application called "Desk"? It was like iWorks, but even more simple.
Do you have any idea where I might find that software and code to rewrite it for another application?
PS.. It's funny how we each are using "Gryphons".. my company is Gryphondale Education Services... www.gryphondale.org
Best, and thanks
Sorry, I'm not familiar with it. You might try asking on one of the Mini vMac related forums.
Sent: Mon Nov 7 09:25:10 2016
Yes, please do!
This is implemented with a new -gkf 0” build option in the 3.5 branch of Mini vMac in development.
Sent: Wed Nov 2 09:58:10 2016
Hi! When Mini vMac is in fullscreen mode it eats all key strokes, making it hard to quit properly when running it through our launcher we use for running it on arcade setups.
From the guy that is writing the script:
"I have everything working fine except that it doesn't seem we will be able to exit while fullscreen as the emulator on that mode seems to be configured to consume any key presses so Rocket Launcher won't see them and therefore cannot react to your exit key press.
I still want to do some more tests, but doesn't look like it will be possible unless the emulator dev corrects this..."
Is there a way to let the host computer take over the keyboard again making it possible to use a key to shutdown Mini vMac? The key could be esc and it could invoke a series of key strokes to exit Mini vMac correctly.
Yes, this is intended behavior. From the RocketLauncher Mini vMac module forum page, I gather this is about the Windows version. In the Windows version this behavior can be disabled by compiling with "#define EnableGrabSpecialKeys 0" added to "CNFGRAPI.h". If it helps, I could put support for this in the build system and Variations Service in a future version.
By the way, if you aren't already, you may want to be using AutoQuit. The Wrapped Lunar Phantom recipe illustrates using it, so that Mini vMac will automatically quit when the game is quit.
Sent: Fri Oct 21 07:48:30 2016
I guess this emulator would act perfect as a plugin for Retroarch, would you allow that? It certainly would mean that ir would get a LOT more usage!
//Johan
I would be happy if someone ported Mini vMac to be a Retroarch plugin. More ports are good. (And happy or not, it is allowed by the GPL license used by Mini vMac.)
Sent: Fri Oct 21 07:32:26 2016
Thank you so much for making custom Mini vMac versions! This removes me the hassle of using basilikII!
Is there any way i can donate to you?
I'm glad you have found the Variations Service useful.
Donations are welcome. They have been used lately to help pay for the hosting of the Gryphel Project web site.
Sent: Thu Oct 20 08:09:33 2016
This system is really weird, what if i need to test/tweak my settings?
Some command line options and an .ini file works for all other stable emulators, why not this one?
Sent: Thu Oct 20 12:12:17 2016
Uhm.. So I thought i'd try to build it for windows on windows, but how do i access the source?
I only find the mac disk image.
Please try out the Variations Service, to save time.
If you really want to compile your own version, take a look at the documentation.
Sent: Wed Oct 19 22:11:58 2016
Hi!
Is there any command line option in the windows version to launch in fullscreen mode?
If not, could it be added?
It would be useful for running it from arcade frontends etc.
//Johan
To keep Mini vMac simple, small, and reliable, it has no preference file, and mostly avoids command line options.
Instead it has compile time options. You can launch in Full Screen Mode by using the build system option -fullscreen 1. You don’t need to compile Mini vMac yourself, I can compile it for you, through the Variations Service.
Sent: Sat Apr 5 11:26:42 2014
Quick question: Since you are working hard on having Mini vMac emulating Macintosh II, do you intend doing some work around having Apple Unix working with it? Should it work by default or is trickier than that?
Thanks!
Gian
One reason that A/UX would not work in the Mini vMac emulation of the Macintosh II is that a PMMU is not emulated. This was an optional extra for the II.
Maybe someday this could be added to Mini vMac, perhaps helped by looking at code from the Shoebill emulator.
Sent: Thu Oct 6 16:01:11 2016
Hello, my name is Nikolay Aniskin. Could you give me a link to the program text to speech Voice Box, or send by mail [... email address ...]
Sorry, I never heard of it. A Google search turns up evidence such a thing existed, but no evidence that it existed prior to OS X, certainly not for 680x0.
Sent: Mon Oct 3 18:05:15 2016
For the "native nearest-neighbor scaling" I was referring to, I meant that my first attempt at 1.5x was to update #define MyWindowScale 2 in CNFGRAPI.h to be 1.5, since I noticed some variables were fixed-point. The results were not good, so I switched to experimenting with OpenGL scale modes.
--Tim
Setting MyWindowScale to a non integer was never considered. It is suprising it compiled at all.
Sent: Mon Oct 3 01:55:40 2016
Replying regarding my work on the Cocoa code and the non-integer scaling ratios.
Indeed, using Mini vMacís native nearest-neighbor scaling does result in 1.5x zoom looking very bad, but OpenGL uses smoother scaling that doesn't look too bad, especially on retina screens.
The bug I've found in the Cocoa code is that the app refuses to go into fullscreen mode. After hitting Ctrl-F the screen briefly blinks in an apparent attempt to display a fullscreen window, but it immediately reverts back to windowed mode without any error message (nor anything logged to Console.app).
I used only the options -api cco and -ev 7301. I have a Macbook Pro running El Capitan 10.11.6.
Fullscreen mode does work if forced at compile time via -fullscreen 1 and -var-fullscreen 0, which is what I have used to test the OpenGL scaling.
--Tim
Thanks for the bug report. I'll look into this when I return from travel. When Mini vMac enters full screen, if there is an error opening the full screen window, it backs out and uses the previous window. (It disposes of the previous window only after the new window is succesfully opened.) Another possibility is that Mini vMac has code to exit full screen when it detects that it is no longer the active application, i.e. something else has grabbed focus. This test might be malfunctioning.
I’m not sure what you mean by “Mini vMac’s native nearest-neighbor scaling”. Mini vMac has no code for non integer scale factors, and doesn’t even use its integer scaling code for the Cocoa version, it uses OpenGL to draw and do the scaling. Do you mean there are different drawing options for OpenGL?
Sent: Mon Sep 26 14:45:07 2016
Paul,
I was just wondering if there is an update of Mini vMac coming soon.
Cheers
Bill Martens
A.P.P.L.E.
www.callapple.org
[... email address ...]
Mini vMac 3.4.1 was officially released August 28th, and there lately have been regular new Development source snapshots. (See Gryphel Project News.) I do not make promises about future work.
Sent: Tue Sep 20 15:48:25 2016
(Linux user again -- referring to http://www.gryphel.com/c/mail/v3.html#m57)
That's right. I'm using 3.4.1. I didn't realize that this was addressed in the 3.5 alpha release. I'll try building the alpha release and will let you know if that resolves the problem.
Sent: Tue Sep 20 04:25:24 2016
Also, in case it's helpful, I wanted to mention that I've found a simple workaround to resolve my earlier question http://www.gryphel.com/c/mail/v3.html#m56 about putting Mini vMac in a window that can be resized for cropping purposes. Xnest does the job perfectly.
That's good you found a solution.
Sent: Tue Sep 20 04:20:54 2016
Linux user again!
I'm having the same trouble with screen artifacts as the user who wrote in http://www.gryphel.com/c/mail/v1.html#140806b. You suggested slightly modifying the Mini vMac source code to force screen redraws. But the section of the source code to which you referred no longer seems to exist. The file MYOSGLUE.c does still exist, but there's no HaveChangedScreenBuff.
Is there still a way to implement this workaround?
Thanks again!
Is this in Mini vMac 3.4.1? This was hoped to be fixed in Mini vMac 3.5 alpha, as described in the Change Log.
Sent: Mon Sep 19 18:31:45 2016
Linux user again. (Thanks for answering my previous question!)
Is it possible for the user to resize the emulation window to crop it down to just the relevant parts of interest?
For example, if I have a little Macintosh clock application running in the upper left corner of the emulated desktop, I'd love to be able to resize the emulation window so that only that little clock is showing and the rest of the desktop is cropped. (That is, this is about cropping, not changing resolution.) That way I can keep the emulation window on top in the window manager of my main computer without blocking what I'm working on.
As a workaround, I've been looking around the web for a simple resizable "window wrapper" that I could place the Mini vMac emulation window inside of, but I've been unable to find one.
Thanks!
Somewhat close, you could compile Mini vMac to use a much smaller screen than normal, using the “-hres and -vres” options. With luck your clock application wouldn't be incompatible with this hack.
It might not be all that difficult to modify the code of Mini vMac to show only a specific part of the emulated screen, but I'm afraid that is left as an exercise to the reader. It seems a very specialized need.
What would be more generally useful is something like the Unity mode of VMware, but that seems much too complicated to implement for “Mini” vMac.
Perhaps in operating systems/window managers that support it, when Mini vMac is not the active window you could make its window transparent except for the area of the active mac window, which the emulator could figure out by inspecting data structures of the emulated mac.
Sent: Sat Sep 17 19:54:55 2016
> Meanwhile, you could always compile a 64 bit version, using something like “-t mc64 -api cco -ev 6400” in the build system. There isn't assembly language for it, so it will be slower.
This did the trick. When you're dealing with a modern 64-bit Mac, you can turn on all the bells and whistles and only use HLL code and it's still blazingly fast.
But of course, this means that it looks like 32 bit support is gone with XCode 8, which is going to cause some issues in using it as a compiling platform. Guess it's time to create a Linux cross compiler VM :\
It’s not clear yet that 32 bit support is gone, it may just be a matter of asking for it correctly. That is, fixing the Mini vMac build system to write a correct project file. I’ll look into it.
An alternative to a cross compiler is to install whatever version of XCode you like best in a VM (such as with VMware), with whatever version of OS X it needs. Then you can continue to use it regardless of your main OS X version. (Believe it or not, my main development environment uses the command line tools from XCode 2.4.1 running in OS X 10.7, in VMware.)
Sent: Sat Sep 17 05:24:52 2016
Hmm; I mistakenly upgraded to XCode 8 last night. Now when I attempt to compile Mini vMac I get fatal error "source is configured for 32 bit compiler"
Any idea what could be going on here? it seems to be hitting this because it sees an x86_64 target architecture, but refuses to compile for i386 only.
I’ll need to try XCode 8 sometime, and see if it still supports 32 bit compiles. Perhaps it just needs a different name in the project file than “i386”.
Meanwhile, you could always compile a 64 bit version, using something like “-t mc64 -api cco -ev 6400” in the build system. There isn't assembly language for it, so it will be slower.
And of course, if you just want a variation compiled, you can use the Variations Service.
Sent: Fri Sep 16 18:52:49 2016
I'm a Linux user, and Mini vMac works great. Thanks for all your amazing work!
Question: When the Mini vMac window is out of focus, the emulation always pauses, even when the window is set to "Always on Top." Is there any way to change that behavior?
Thanks again!
Yes. The ‘S’ command of the Control Mode includes a “run in Background toggle”.
It is possible to compile Mini vMac with the Run in Background initially on, using “-bg 1”. You can request this in the Variations Service.
Sent: Thu Sep 15 23:49:21 2016
Sometimes I have found the 2x magnification to be a little too much. I have a laptop with a retina screen, so I in the past I have build a custom app that gets close to a 1.5x resolution, and then change my laptop's resolution so that the app fills the screen. This can be a little cumbersome, so I did some digging into the OS X source and hacked up a way to have OpenGL take care of the scaling for me. I can send you an archive with the modified OS X source (as well as a compiled binary) if you're interested.
It requires the Cocoa api to be enabled (-api cco), as well as -fullscreen 1 and -var-fullscreen 1 due to a bug in the incomplete Cocoa implementation.
The code modifications aren't too difficult:
The following lines are added
GLint dim[2] = {vMacScreenWidth, vMacScreenHeight};
CGLSetParameter([MyNSOpnGLCntxt CGLContextObj], kCGLCPSurfaceBackingSize, dim);
CGLEnable ([MyNSOpnGLCntxt CGLContextObj], kCGLCESurfaceBackingSize);
Right above the [MyNSOpnGLCntxt setView: MyNSview]; line.
I also needed to modify the view hierarchy in CreateMainWindow:
NSView *wrapperView = [[NSView alloc] init];
CGFloat aspectRatio = (CGFloat) vMacScreenWidth / (CGFloat) vMacScreenHeight;
CGFloat scaledHeight = NewWinRect.size.height;
CGFloat scaledWidth = aspectRatio*NewWinRect.size.height;
[MyNSview setFrame:NSRectFromCGRect(
CGRectMake((NewWinRect.size.width - scaledWidth) / 2.0,
(NewWinRect.size.height - scaledHeight) / 2.0,
scaledWidth, scaledHeight))];
[wrapperView addSubview:MyNSview];
[MyWindow setContentView: wrapperView];
This code is admittedly a little hacky but it seems to get the job done, and I thought you may be interested in it. Thanks for all your hard work in maintaining this project.
Tim
I have not generally been very interested in non integer scaling factors, because it would look very bad. But a retina screen might be an exception.
What bug did you find in the Cocoa implementation? What have you found that is incomplete? (I would’t expect a different scaling factor would work completely correctly without other changes, and this would be more noticable when not in fullscreen.)
Sent: Thu Sep 15 21:14:38 2016
Sent: Thu Sep 15 21:15:50 2016
Will the new version work on os x power PC and os 9 Power PC ?
It should. But I haven't tested these much myself. Let me know if you notice problems.
Sent: Fri Sep 9 10:17:08 2016
Regarding Localtalk, I'm still testing the Mac II code :)
Latest tests were done using Variation mnvm5956-3.4.1
Thanks. I've reproduced that turning on AppleTalk crashes in System 6.0.8 crashes with that variation.
Sent: Thu Sep 8 20:14:08 2016
I've been trying to fiddle with Localtalk, but I'm getting immediate crashes under System 6 when attempting to enable AppleTalk, eventual crashes under 7.0.1 with no network devices found, and under 7.1.2 AppleTalk just refuses to enable.
Also, I was considering using a LocalTalk bridge via Basilisk II or SheepShaver, but the bridge software states:
"NOTE: The LocalTalk bridge will not function if a router is detected on the LocalTalk network. The LocalTalk Bridge can only be used on a LocalTalk segment that does not already have an active AppleTalk Internet Router, LaserWriter Bridge, hardware based router, or another LocalTalk Bridge."
Which kind of nixes its use in a modern network topography.
Any ideas how I should go forward from here? I'd really prefer to replace lt with a PPP virtual null-modem on the serial port, as modern hardware can still share a network over PPP, and MacPPP works back as far as 7.0 anyway.
I also noticed that http://retroweb.maclab.org/?emulator=pce-macplus appears to be doing localtalk over the Internet just fine. Not sure how though, as PCE by default doesn't support AppleTalk. Thoughts?
Sent: Thu Sep 8 20:28:06 2016
You can roll this in to my previous one about LocalTalk...
Seems that serial and SLIP got added in the PCE.js version:
https://github.com/jsdf/pce/tree/pcejs/src/devices
There we've got code for serial and SLIP -- both which work.
Maybe those of us with a bit more time than Paul (who read his feedback page) should get together to create a fork on github where we can add the proposed changes (this and sparsebundle support for starters, Vasi) and do a proper code review/massage to make things easier for Paul to import back into the main trunk?
Sent: Thu Sep 8 20:33:51 2016
And a quick addition: Mac specific serial is related here:
https://github.com/jsdf/pce/blob/pcejs/src/arch/macplus/serial.c and
https://github.com/jsdf/pce/blob/pcejs/src/arch/macplus/serial.h
What model Macintosh were you emulating when AppleTalk didn't work? It was developed in Macintosh Plus emulation, and I haven’t really tested it myself on other models. Actually, I haven't look at this in long while. I just tried turning on AppleTalk with variation 3649 in System 6 and it didn't seem to crash. Did you build Mini vMac yourself, or is this a variation that I compiled, and if so, which one?
You are certainly welcome to make a fork of Mini vMac on GitHub.
update - follow-up message
Sent: Wed Sep 7 17:27:52 2016
Potential Mac II bug
For Systems 5.0 and 5.1 using Mac II, the systems appear to hang at the Welcome screen. I've tested multiple configurations, and the Mac II flag seems to be the defining factor; changing anything else has no effect one way or the other.
Interestingly, if I boot from System 2.01b and then bootstrap 5.0 or 5.1 from the Finder, they work fine. I'll start looking at init conflicts to see if the problem lies there.
Sent: Wed Sep 7 17:27:52 2016
Potential Mac II bug part 2
I stripped System 5.0 right down to the System 4.2 with Finder 5.5 (known bootable version), nothing else in the System folder -- still hangs at Welcome screen. The incompatibility appears to be between MVM II and Systems 4.2 and 4.3, but only during the hardware initialization process (as a pre-initialized hardware set seems to boot both just fine).
Thanks for the report. As the Macintosh II port gets more complete we can see if this bug gets fixed. (In particular, I've noticed that the Macintosh II emulation, even when it works, sometimes pauses upon boot in what seems to be SCSI code. Mini vMac has poor emulation of SCSI (with nothing attached), so improving that would be a next step.)
Sent: Wed Sep 7 16:39:53 2016
Hi! Today is september 7th 2016. At the bottom of the Variations Service to build a new vMac .exe file, it's written "copyright (c) 2016 Paul C. Pratt - last update 10/28/2016" so, am I seeing the future through my web browser?! That's really cool! :D
Thanks for spotting this, and letting me know! I've changed it to the intended “8/28/2016”
Sent: Fri Sep 2 20:33:26 2016
Thanks for the amazing work on getting a stable Mac II emulation going. Anyhow, I just wanted to provide a quick bug report: I installed Fullwrite 2.0.6 on System 7.1 Update 3 on Minivmac 3.4.1 and while the install goes fine, upon starting the program, the "welcome" screen appears and then the watch starts spinning for what seems like a near eternity before the program finally crashes with "Error 25". Given that Fullwrite probably ran quite nicely on many 68020 Macs with 8 MB of RAM, this could be a sign of some as-yet undetected bug. Is there any other info that might be helpful?
Mike
It seemed to work for me. Are you using the version of FullWrite Professional that I provide? Is it a fresh install of System 7.1 Update 3 (I'm using a “Universal” install)? Are you using a Macintosh II variation of Mini vMac that I compiled, and if so which one?
Sent: Thu Sep 1 14:17:40 2016
I have been unable to get RAM Charger 8.1 to work in Mini vMac (standard Mac Plus version) with System 7.0.1. After installing it, any attempt to do anything in the Finder including shutting down results in a trap error sometimes with an abnormal situation error from Mini vMac. Also, the MercutioHUnlockPatch will result in similar abnormal situation errors and will prevent the finder from even loading. It works fine in System 7.5.5
http://www.ramcharger.com/download/info/
ftp://ftp.ramcharger.com/RC/extras/MercutioHUnlockPatch.ReadMe.txt
Do you know for sure this would work on a real Macintosh Plus?
Sent: Fri Aug 26 04:40:12 2016
mini vMac 3.5.0
great going Paul,
mac 128k ROM i got from a real Mac Plus,
now works on mini vMac II, an SE and Mac 128k,
not just a Mini vMac Plus
Sorry, that would not work. Perhaps Mini vMac is not using the ROM image that you think it is. The ROM section in the Emulated Hardware Reference describes the multiple locations that Mini vMac will look for a ROM image. A quick way to check this is to move that Mac Plus ROM image somewhere else, and see if launching these variations still work.
(I think the Mac Plus ROM would work in a Mac 512K (that is basically what a Mac 512Ke is) and might work in a Mac 128K, but if Mini vMac isn’t modified to know it is using a Mac Plus ROM, it will patch in its replacement disk driver in the wrong place.)
Sent: Thu Aug 25 16:32:51 2016
help me
You will need to be more specific.
Sent: Mon Aug 22 22:41:59 2016
Hey Paul,
Just wondering if there's a chance of adding any of the missing hardware from https://github.com/pruten/shoebill to Mini vMac now that Peter has discontinued work on Mac II A/UX compatibility.
He's implemented PMMU support and emulated the EtherTalk/DP8390, enabling A/UX functionality and networking support for Mac II hardware.
It would be nice to have opportunity to do this. Maybe some day.
Sent: Sun Aug 14 18:08:23 2016
Any chance of getting HyperCard working on it?
Yes, as far as I know, HyperCard works fine in Mini vMac.
Sent: Wed Jul 13 15:20:10 2016
your Mac II seems to be working better, better sound. no "errors" but all your emulated macs is non-colored other than Mac II
That's good if the new Mini vMac 3.4.1 Beta is working well for you.
It is true that of all the Macintosh models emulated by Mini vMac, only the Macintosh II has color quickdraw. Is that what you mean?
Sent: Fri Jul 1 18:32:30 2016
When using Mini vMac to run HyperCard are HC externals supported? Thanks!
If software works on a real Macintosh Plus, then it will usually work on the emulated Macintosh Plus of Mini vMac. Mini vMac is just emulating the hardware of the Macintosh Plus, it doesn't care what particular software you are trying to run on it. (Mini vMac can be compiled to emulate some other Macintosh computers besides the Plus, but that doesn't change the point.)
Sent: Thu Jun 30 02:06:56 2016
Hello Mr Pratt,
I have noticed that when using Mini vMac to emulate the Macintosh II, the sounds seem "clipped" or distorted in some manner. Is there a fix available for this?
Try the Mini vMac 3.4.1 Beta, which has better sound emulation for the Macintosh II. You can request a Macintosh II version through the Beta variation service.
Sent: Wed Jun 29 23:00:26 2016
Hi -
So I want to use CopyRoms to get a ROM image off my Mac Classic so that I can get Mini vMac working. My ultimate goal is to load some games onto the Mac Classic.
But I seem to be in a Catch-22. I can't use Mini VMac to put CopyRoms onto a disk because Mini vMac first needs a ROM image.
How do I get out of this loop? Any ideas or advice are appreciated.
Best,
Dave
[... email address ...]
If you have a working Mac Classic with a System Disk, and a modern Macintosh with an external floppy drive (that can't write to HFS disks), one way to communicate is with DOS formatted floppies (format them on the Mac Classic). Assuming you have the optional system software that supports DOS installed on the Mac Classic.
Otherwise, the methods available to communicate between an old Macintosh and modern computers depends on exactly what hardware and software is available.
For further hints, see the FAQ section about ROM images.
Sent: Sun Jun 26 06:44:25 2016
Trying to run the NextThing.co CHiP and errors that it cannot find the binary I'm trying to launch. It should be reporting it cannot find the firmware.
NOTE: the CHiP's main filesystem is not ext4, it's UBI due to the NAND Flash storage. And it's using a safe/degraded mode as the NAND has 2 pages (that total 8GB) but UBI is currently only supporting writing to the first page (4GB). They are working with the manufacture on resolving this.
chip@chip4:~/rare/minivmac$ tar -zxf minivmac-3.4.1-larm.bin.tgz chip@chip4:~/rare/minivmac$ ll total 1012 drwxr-xr-x 3 chip chip 608 Jun 26 06:39 ./ drwxr-xr-x 3 chip chip 232 Jun 26 05:18 ../ -rwxr-xr-x 1 chip chip 96384 Jun 12 20:46 Mini vMac* drwxr-xr-x 3 chip chip 408 Jun 26 06:18 archive/ -rwxr-xr-x 1 chip chip 96384 Nov 28 2013 minivmac-3.3.3* -rwxr-xr-x 1 chip chip 96384 Jun 12 20:46 minivmac-3.4.1* -rw-r--r-- 1 chip chip 49563 Jun 26 06:23 minivmac-3.4.1-larm.bin.tgz -rw-r--r-- 1 chip chip 684934 Jun 26 06:24 minivmac-3.4.1.src.zip chip@chip4:~/rare/minivmac$ ./Mini\ vMac -bash: ./Mini vMac: No such file or directory chip@chip4:~/rare/minivmac$ strace ./Mini\ vMac [ ... ]
You might try removing the space character in “Mini vMac”. This sounds like a bug in the operating system before it ever gets to Mini vMac.
Sent: Thu Jun 23 19:58:29 2016
Hello it's Classic Mac Nut again. I was able to get minivmac to run. However I am having graphic troubles with minivmac. Do you have any way to fix this?
I suspect drawing images with one bit per pixel to the screen isn't properly implemented, in some versions of Linux with at least some hardware. I've received similar reports before.
Update - June 27, 2016 - The new Mini vMac 3.5 development version might fix this.
Sent: Wed Jun 22 22:37:37 2016
Could you explain how to install minivmac on Ubuntu 16.04? I am new to Linux,and have no idea how to go about doing this.
From,
A Classic Mac Nut
Mini vMac doesn't really need to be installed, you just extract the application from the archive, and execute it.
Exactly how this is done depends on the version of Linux you are using. In Ubuntu 14.04 (the closest I have set up in VMware), if you have downloaded the file “minivmac-3.4.1-lx64.bin.tgz”, you can right click on its icon, and choose "Extract Here" from the menu, which creates the application file “Mini vMac”. Double click on this application to launch it. It may complain “Unable to locate ROM image” - put the file “vMac.ROM” in the same folder. (Unlike in OS X or Windows, the case of this file name matters).
Update - This seems to work the same in Ubuntu 16.04, which I've just tried out in VMware.
Sent: Wed Jun 8 02:53:33 2016
it seems that soundmaster and findersounds in 6.08 don't work, otherwise seems ok eg with jamsession. maybe something to do with no startup beep...just a guess.
Thanks for the report. I would guess this is in the recent Mac II emulation in Mini vMac 3.4? When I try it, in System 6.0.8, I do get sound, but also an Abnormal Report, so I can look into that at least. (I also get a startup sound, though it might be quieter than it should be.)
Sent: Sat Jun 4 01:08:24 2016
oooh it's so close, talking moose works in mac2 7.53, but still no sound in mac2 6.08. good job! keep it up :)
Thanks for the report.
Sent: Sat May 28 23:15:41 2016
Hmm. Other than Quicktime, I actually couldn't say, and I don't have access to a working machine to actually test.
--bmd
(received)
Sent: Thu May 26 02:35:17 2016
I used CopyRoms on a 512kE successfully, used it on the Mini vMac successfully as well.
A few days later I used it on a SE/30,and it gave me a output of IIx.ROM, which I changed to "vMac.ROM", and it loaded into the vMac as corrupted..
Again, and again I tried, and with different disks, and etc...
What could the problem be?
--jim
[... email address ...]
A Macintosh 512Ke uses the same ROM as a Macintosh Plus, so the ROM image from one can be used for the Macintosh Plus emulation of Mini vMac.
An SE/30 has an entirely different ROM, which will not work for Macintosh Plus emulation. But it does happen to work for Macintosh II emulation, which Mini vMac can sort of do (it’s not finished). So instead rename it to “MacII.ROM”, and request a Macintosh II variation from the Variations Service. (Or download a previously made variation, such as “mnvm5284-3.3.3”)
Sent: Sun May 22 21:46:37 2016
I know Mac II issues are low-priority because of the somewhat unfinished nature of the emulation (admittedly, it runs quite a bit of software, it's nice to be able to run Infini-D on it in particular), but I've a couple small issues to mention just in case.
The appearance changing extensions "Aaron" and "Kaleidoscope" (both by the same author) work fine with one major flaw: scrollbars seem to break: the arrow buttons on both sides work, but the inner scrollbar section is stuck at the top/left. Clicking on it will immediately move the the scroll position to the top or left.
The two desktop picture utilities I've tried, "BackSplash II" and "Decor" (former is kind of hard to find, latter is available at System 7 Today) work, except windows will often leave "droppings" on the desktop when dragged. BackSplash II works perfectly under the Mac Plus emulation, and was written with Color QuickDraw in mind.
I've never seen these problems happen elsewhere with any of these utilities.
Additionally, Quicktime video seems to eventually get stuck in playback (tried using Quicktime 2.5 and 3) until I play a Cinepak encoded video I got from the old Space Jam website. It's really weird. They'll play for a while, and then all videos until I play the Space Jam one will flicker between two frames when I try to play them.
It may have something to do with the other videos I've played back not having sound, but I dunno how I'd go about putting sound on one to check (the videos I've been using been exported from Infini-D, and re-converted with the QuickTime MoviePlayer with Apple's authoring extensions in the emulation, so they should be in a standard QuickTime spec format).
This is on Windows 7, using variation 5162, running System 7.5.3 in emulation.
Cheers!
--bmd
Thanks for the report. Would you know if all this software works properly on a real Mac II specifically (as opposed to a later Macintosh model)?
update - follow-up message
Sent: Sat May 21 06:49:06 2016
I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit. Nothing too odd, no multiple screens, just an ordinary MacBook Air running Windows in Boot Camp.
Compiled versions from the site work just fine.
I haven't added anything to my VS2013 install at all (mostly just used it for C# development, so I've had no reason to muck around with the C/C++ compiler too much).
Building the stable version of Mini vMac (using the vs2010 build output and it auto-converting the solution in vs2013) has the same result, cursor still shifts in position on click.
I was able to reproduce this in VMware. It turns out that Mini vMac was passing an invalid Window Style to CreateWindowEx (when not in full screen mode). Oops, that bug has been there a very long time. Thank you for finding this.
Before finding and fixing this, I also made Mini vMac more robust in adjusting for window border sizes by using AdjustWindowRectEx and MapWindowPoints, rather than various results from GetSystemMetrics.
I've updated the development version.
Sent: Thu May 19 21:53:05 2016
Hi there, just a bug report.
I just built the minivmac alpha (from minivmac160412-3.4.src.zip), and the mouse jumps a few pixels diagonally whenever I click in the emulator. Happens whether in System 6/7 or just clicking around at the flashing question mark.
No issue when in fullscreen mode.
I used Visual Studio Express 2013 to build.
Here's the build settings I'd passed to MnvM_b34:
-t wx86 -ev 12000
Cheers.
Thanks for the report. Perhaps for some reason the result from GetCursorPos is not matching the values found in event records. I see a possible improvement to the code that would mostly avoid this problem, but I'd like to understand what is going on first.
What version of Windows are you using? Would you know if the compiled versions of Mini vMac that I provide have the same problem? Also does Mini vMac 3.3.3 have the same problem? Is there anything odd about your system, like using multiple screens?
update - follow-up message
Sent: Thu May 19 16:57:10 2016
Can i play this game on pc, windows 10
Probably, but which game? The Mini vMac feedback form does not record which page you came from. Mini vMac should run fine in Windows 10, and all the software listed and hosted in www.gryphel.com/c/sw should work in Mini vMac.
Sent: Tue May 10 00:04:11 2016
Guess what I finaly got Mario teaches typing on my Mac emulator yay. I Did It. Now I Can Play It AnyTime
Good, I'm glad you figured out how to do this.
Sent: Sun May 8 22:56:13 2016
I am trying to run Mini vMac v3.3.3 under Yosemite but the OS reports that it can't open the application. Any ideas?
The exact wording of that report may be useful.
The problem might be Gatekeeper, discussed in this previous message.
Sent: Sun Apr 24 00:03:16 2016
Well its [... email address ...] agien the reason why I can't put Mario teaches typing on a dsk or img. Because I don't have a computer. I only have and android so that's why I need you to make one and add it to the game list
Sorry, because of trying to follow the letter of copyright law, I have nothing to add to the previous reply.
Sent: Fri Apr 22 21:07:37 2016
I have a problem while trying to compile Mini vMac using Xcode 7. It keeps showing up an error saying that it cant save it to my Mac or something like that. What do I do?
See the reply to this similar previous message.
Sent: Thu Apr 21 22:02:42 2016
I Want You to make a dsk image of Mario Teaches Typing And here is a link to the Mario teaches typing sit file. [ ... url ... ]
From [... email address ...]
Sorry, the policy of gryphel.com is to not link to or host abandonware.
Sent: Wed Apr 20 20:26:31 2016
Hey Paul,
Now that we've been able to compile and deploy iOS apps for almost a year, any chance that we can get an iOS target direct from you?
I've been deploying Provenance to my non-jailbroken phone since last summer, and it works great! Seems to me Mini vMac should be of similar or simpler complexity to deploy this way.
- [... email address ...]
I might eventually learn something about programming for Android and iOS for paid work, which could lead to including ports to them in my version of Mini vMac. But not likely anytime soon.
Sent: Mon Apr 18 16:04:11 2016
Hello,
I've been struggling a bit to use mini vMac on ubuntu 15.10 for the past few days.
I'd like to let you know that I had graphic troubles on two different computers (screen is only partially refreshing) when using default builds for linux (both 32 and 64 bits versions).
However, when I rebuild using the sdl api option, everything works perfectly.
It might come handy for future users to let a sdl pre-compiled version available in the downloads section.
By the way, I had troubles with my keyboard layout with sdl2 but I don't think it has anything to do with mini vMac...
Anyway, thanks a lot for your work, it was really fun to be able to play with my children to Lode Runner in all its glory!
Have a good day
GrÈgoire
This sort of thing has been reported before. “I suspect the problem is that Mini vMac is drawing single bit images to the screen, which is apparently rare these days, and so buggy on some systems. [...] I'm considering having an option to always draw color images, though that would be less efficient.”
The original SDL port was made as a stepping stone to other ports. It wasn't intended to be used because it lacked certain features. Recently though there is the port to SDL 2, thanks to Manuel Alfayate, which is less lacking. So it might be worth considering making available builds using it.
Sent: Sat Apr 16 19:48:31 2016
I am on android and I was wondering how to import . sit archives with an android phone without a computer. If there is a way please reply. Thank you.
Sorry, I'm not involved in the Android port of Mini vMac.
Sent: Sat Apr 16 05:42:22 2016
how to use this project because I'm not engineer and I'm not computer worker
You could start with Getting Started with Mini vMac. If you then have any more specific questions, ask me, so that I can try to improve the documentation.
Sent: Fri Apr 15 20:12:12 2016
I want to play Mario Teaches Typing
That's good. I found a report that it works in Mini vMac (and also SheepShaver and Basilisk II). You could first learn to use Mini vMac (starting with Getting Started with Mini vMac), and then try getting Mario Teaches Typing to work in it.
Sent: Wed Apr 13 20:22:30 2016
Hi Paul,
I can't seem to compile either Mini vMac 3.3.3 or the 3.4 Alpha under Xcode 7.3. It gives an error with the My Mac destination but I can't find any obvious way to adjust it (control-clicking it didn't let me change the build type or anything).
I'd rather compile my variations myself rather than load you with more requests.
Appreciate any reply, my email is [... email address ...]
Thanks again.
Did you use the “Development Environment Version” option in the build system, and use “-ev 6400” for Xcode 6.4, for the last version I checked this with? It won't compile with the default for this option in recent versions of Xcode.
Not requesting a variation from the Mini vMac Variations Service won't save me time. It's pretty automated, and each additional variation can take me as little as a few additional seconds. Responding to feedback takes way, way longer.
On the other hand, it is good to get feedback on issues like this.
Sent: Wed Apr 6 02:48:49 2016
Hi, I’ve been a user of Mini vMac for about 9-10 years now, and enjoyed every moment of using it. I do have a possible bug report though. The ClipIn Desk Accessory extra does not work in System 6 with MultiFinder turned on, the standard non-multitasking Finder must be enabled for it to work. I have tried System Software versions 6.0.3, 6.0.5 & 6.0.8, using a freshly installed copy of each, with a fresh copy of Mini vMac and ROM, with the same results. I primarily use a custom variation of Mini vMac, but for these quick tests, I downloaded the standard x86 Mac one.
The ClipOut Desk Accessory does work without issue as far as I can tell, however.
Thank you for this bug report. I have reproduced this issue. It seems to have to do with the “DA Handler” application used by Multifinder in System 6 to contain Desk Accessories.
So a work around for now that seems to work is to hold down the option key before running ClipIn. This causes the Desk Accessory to be run in the heap of the current application, instead of in DA Handler.
Actually, without the option key it doesn't work correctly for another reason. If another Desk Accessory is already running in DA Handler, then after ClipIn quits the DA Handler remains the active application. (If no other Desk Accessory is running, then DA Handler quits after ClipIn does, and the original application is reactivated, as desired.)
Sent: Fri Apr 1 00:18:21 2016
Paul,
Your minimac stuff looks to be awesome. Please help me with the following request. I have to use a bunch of old MacPlus software (I have all the original disks) and get information off of floppy disks and old Mac Hard Drives.
The MacPlus CRT screens are failing, but I would like to run a bunch of my old software and files (I even have a version of Mathematica that ran on my 4MB of ram MacPlus that I want to use).
Can you compile a version of the MacPlus emulator that will work on Jessie Raspian Linux? In particular, I want to use it on the Raspberry Pi 3. I currently have DOSBOX for the raspberry Pi 3, and can run my original disks version of Win 3.11 and associated software, including an old DOS version of Lotus 123.
I would like to be able to do the same with my Mac Stuff. I think the last system with Motorola 68000 that worked decent was system 6.0 or 6.2 if I recall correctly. When they went to System 7, again if I recall correctly, you had to buy new versions of all the software, or else there was some other problem running system 7 on the Plus (like it was too big and a memory hog and slow, I don't remember.
Anyway, would you compile a version of your program for the MacPlus emulation to run on the Raspberry Pi3 running the Jessie Raspian Linux operating system? This will make a lot of good Mac software available to a lot of people. I still have my old Mac Plus, but alas, the external SCSI hard drives have failed (I'm hoping I can still get them to run or recover the information on both of them, they were big for the time, like 200 and 300MB drives with lots of stuff on them.
The RPI's are really catching on like wildfire and especially with the younger generation. This would really be a service, not only to us old guys, but also the next generation who have never seen a MacPlus and how good they were with a memory upgrade and fast and large hard drives.
I also would like to be able to print to my original Apple Laser Writer (postscript) from the emulator. I can not toss it, since I paid 4,000 back in 1986-87 or so for it, and used it with PC's but it does not have enough memory for the lastest generation of printing software drivers. I would like to be able to print from the MacEmulator on the RPI3 to the Apple Laser Writer (Yes, i have spent money to replace the gum rubber rollers and other components that turn to goo after about 15-20 years and fixed my Laser Writer Plus. Now I would like to use it, it has a giant toner cartridge (prints like 7k pages with one toner cartridge) and also has a nice RS232 serial input that one can print postcript to, without having to use the appletalk.
Sincerely,
Keith [... last name, email address, position ...]
Mini vMac for Linux on ARM, available from the Download page, should work on Raspbian as far as I know. I haven't tried it out recently myself, to make sure it still works on recent versions. Hopefully someone would have told me if it didn't.
Transferring information from your old floppies and hard drives to a modern machine is tricky. You could use a machine of intermediate age to translate - the exact details depend on the exact hardware you have. Or you could hire a Disk Conversion Service. Or, for as long as your Mac Plus still functions, you could use the Floppy Emu Disk Emulator by BMOW to transfer files to an SD card.
If you have a way to send a postscript file to your Laser Writer, then there is a way to print from Mini vMac. See the "How can I print from Mini vMac?" question in the FAQ.
Sent: Thu Mar 31 13:56:45 2016
Hi Paul,
I'm trying to get vMac to work so I can use Macintalk for a music project. I've done everything except extract the floppy image (that is going to be tricky), so I should be able to see the startup screen asking for the disc but instead all I get is a black screen. I suspect it's a graphics issues as I can hear a Mac beep at the beginning.
I'm runnning windows 10.
Any ideas?
Thanks, Joe.
It does sound like it could be a graphics issue. I've seen a few similar reports of issues on Linux systems, where I suspect drawing images with one bit per pixel to the screen isn't properly implemented. This is the first I've heard that Windows could have the same problem.
I'm contemplating modifying Mini vMac to avoid drawing one bit per pixel images by default, converting the emulated black and white screen bitmap to at least 8 bits before drawing. This would be less efficient, but more likely to work on modern systems. I'd make a compile time option to allow the current more efficient one bit drawing.
Sent: Wed Mar 30 11:59:10 2016
Hi Paul, great job so far on your work with Mini vMac. I do have a question for you though: wouldn't it have been easier to have worked on emulation for the 68000 Color Classic system first then start adding in the Mac II systems?
Sorry if it has been asked before and I missed your reply or posts about it.
Joel
Not really. A Macintosh Color Classic is not a Macintosh Classic with color added. It is basically a descendent of the Macintosh II (with a 68030 CPU, not 68000) in approximately the shape of a Macintosh Classic.
Sent: Fri Mar 18 02:05:43 2016
do you have mini vMac for 2001 palm pilot
i have Sony clie Palm OS PDF
No. But it seems someone did at least start a Palm SDL port, which could at least be used as a start of a Mini vMac for Palm port, if anyone wanted to work on it. See the “-api sdl” build option. And this previous message regarding porting to DOS.
Sent: Fri Mar 18 18:01:56 2016
Hiya!
I'm working on a port for the Nintendo 3DS and I have a question.
I did the DS port ages ago and I would like to try again and hopefully do a waaaay better job and not make another bad hackjob like the last one was.
What is the best way to determine how well the emulator is performing?
I'm running into a situation in RunEmulatedTicksToTrueTime where EmVideoDisabled is being set to true, yet it's also not showing that the emulation isn't fast enough.
I'm not going to try optimizing any further at the moment since I still need to get a working user interface but I thought it was strange.
Email: [... email address ...]
One possibility is that the whatever timer you are using doesn't have high enough resolution (not enough to give 60 distinct ticks a second).
One way to getting a sense of what is going on is by adding calls to log debug information.
Mini vMac has infrastructure for doing logging fast enough to not interfere with the operation of the program too much. This is enabled in the build system with the "-log" option, which turns on the "dbglog_HAVE" flag in CNFGGLOB.h. You have to implement dbglog_open0, dbglog_write0, and dbglog_close0 in your MYOSGLUE code.
See the "dbglog_HAVE" section of MYOSGLUE.h for available debug log routines.
You could, for example, call dbglog_writeln at the start and end of RunEmulatedTicksToTrueTime, also at the places in it where EmVideoDisable is turned on and off. And then you could call dbglog_writelnNum in your ExtraTimeNotOver routine to report the current time.
Sent: Mon Mar 7 14:27:18 2016
Hi,
Iíve been playing with macOSX Server 1.2 Rhapsody and was wondering if Mini vMac could be build for this platform . It as a BSD base, and seeing Free/net/Open BSDs are supported (but X86 only), maybe it could be done ? Note Iím really not a coder , and Rhapsody is really a dead OS now, but if you have any lead to do that, would appreciate.
Regards
GaÎl ElegoÎt
According to Wikipedia, Rhapsody has a "Blue Box environment" for running classic Macintosh applications, though only on PowerPC. So Mini vMac for Macintosh OS 9 and earlier should work, if you are using the PowerPC version.
Otherwise, the Yellow Box environment is said to have later evolved into Cocoa. So the Cocoa port of Mini vMac (compiling it with -api cco), may work, or more likely, could be made to work.
The Free/net/Open BSDs ports of Mini vMac use the X Window System, which perhaps could be adapted for Rhapsody if it has an X Server like modern OS X does (The X11.app utility.)
By the way, Mini vMac could probably be compiled without problems for BSDs for other architectures besides x86 and x64. I just haven't tried it myself.
Sent: Mon Jan 4 23:24:43 2016
Hello :)
I have a few bugs that could probably be squashed.
First one has existed for a while, I understand this game doesn't work in 7.5.3+ so I am using System 6.0.8 to run it.
Whenever I start Phrase Craze plus the audio works fine then after you spin the wheel the first second of the sound loops and doesn't stop even when you exit the app. Demonstrated here [ ... link ... ]
Second issue is annoying and affects OSX Clients, if you go full screen with more than one display in Mini VMac both screens are blank.
Cheers
According to clockwise, for Phrase Craze Plus “you must slow down Mini vMac to 1x speed for the sound to work properly.”
As mentioned in the Mini vMac Emulated Hardware Reference, “Also a few programs may break in other ways at faster than 1x. When running faster, the emulated computer thinks time is running normally for each sixtieth of a second, but at the end of each sixtieth, a lot of instructions get executed instantaneously. This gives quite good, but not perfect, compatibility.”
For Full Screen Mode, it is intended behavior to cover all screens. In Full Screen Mode, Mini vMac will use a more accurate emulation of the Macintosh mouse, that looks at motion of the mouse on the host computer, rather than its absolute position. So you can, for example, scroll to the right for as long as you want, and still be generating mouse motion in the emulated machine, rather than getting stuck at the edge of the screen. Which is important for some games.
For the method Mini vMac uses to get mouse motion, there is a small chance of undesirable behavior if all screens were not covered. I think there is a better way on OS X to get mouse motion which doesn't have this problem, but even then I'm not sure it would be desirable to have other programs on other screens, but no way to move the mouse over to them. That would likely result in confusion and bug reports.
An alternative would be to not use the more accurate mouse emulation. There is already a compile time option for this, “-emm 0”. So perhaps when this option is chosen, then Mini vMac could not cover all screens in Full screen mode, and the mouse could be moved off the screen containing Mini vMac as normal. Unfortunately, I'm unlikely to have time to implement this in the foreseeable future. (see this earlier question)
Sent: Thu Nov 19 21:08:43 2015
[ ... domain name issue ... ]
As far as I can tell, you are complaining that a page on www.gryphel.com is near the top of search engine results for the name of a domain you own. This is because it is the name of an old Macintosh game that www.gryphel.com hosts a copy of, and the name is not being used else on the web. If you create a website on your domain, it should quickly get to the top of search engine results for that name.
If you want legal protection for your name, I think Trademark is what applies. Trademarks have limitations - for one thing you have to be actively doing business with your trademarked name. So again, you should put up a website on your domain.
Sent: Tue Nov 3 19:57:47 2015
Hello
I own a Macintosh SE and have been using copyroms-1.1.0 to extract the ROM from it. When I tried the MacSE build of Mini vMac with my ROM file the checksum was wrong. According to this page the checksum should be 0xB2E362A8: http://gryphel.com/c/mac68k/index.html
Looking into my ROM file, it looks like it contains some kind of file header:
$ od MacSE.ROM -tx1 -tc| head -c 1024
[... hex data ...]
In the last row, the correct checksum is found:0000200 b2 e3 62 a8
With the following command, I was able to skip the first 128 bytes of the file. After this the ROM works and minivMac calculates the correct checksum for it:
$ tail -c +129 MacSE.ROM > MacSE_working.ROM
Best regards
Daniel Gullberg, Sweden
[... email address ...]
It sounds like you are using some sort of Unix like system, such as Linux. My guess is that somewhere in transferring the ROM file from a Macintosh style disk to a native disk on your system, a header got added to preserve Macintosh specific information, such as the file type and creator fields. The exact details of what happened and how to prevent it would depend on what operating system and other software you are using.
Sent: Sun Oct 25 22:27:30 2015
are you going to include color to mini vmac for ios
I'm not involved in the iOS port of Mini vMac.
Sent: Sun Oct 25 18:06:20 2015
its not working
See the reply to this similar previous message.
Sent: Sun Oct 25 16:33:33 2015
Hello
I would like to add an experience of transferring files to Mini vMac using Linux. On the page http://www.gryphel.com/c/image/ there is some information about how to create a hfs disk image and open it directly with Mini vMac. I used the following command:
genisoimage -hfs -hfs-unlock -probe -V "My stuff" -o mystuff.hfs MyStuff/
Then it was possible to open the mystuff.hfs image in MinivMac using System 7.1 (which I found here: [... a URL ...]) But, and here is what I have been struggling with: The image won't open with System 6.0.8! The error message is "The disk "My stuff" is so full that the desktop file can't be created" when mystuff.hfs is dragged to Mini vMac. The workaround is thus: Open mystuff.hfs with a System 7.1. Then transfer all the files (inside Mini vMac) to a System 6.0.8 image. This image will then work with System 6.0.8!
Thanks for your report. I have added this information to the working with disk images page.
Sent: Sat Oct 24 20:56:22 2015
Dear Paul, thank you very much for your work. Could there be an option in the variations service for 3.4.0 to have Display Size of 1280 x 720? That would be in combination with magnify 2 great at the current iMac 27 inch Retina Display. Thanks, Robert
Sorry for the delay due to travel.
Sure, I have added that option to the Variations Service.
Sent: Fri Oct 23 15:18:19 2015
Hi! A couple of years ago, I added support for sparsebundle disk images to Basilisk II and SheepShaver. I'd like to be able to share those images with Mini vMacówould you have any objection to me adding that feature? Also, what's the best way to contribute back changes? (patch files, some sort of version control...)
-vasi
[... email address ...]
Sorry for the delay due to travel.
Sure, you are quite welcome to add this feature to Mini vMac. Whether I'd include it in the version I maintain is a bit more of a question. The biggest issue is that I currently have very limited time to work on Mini vMac. I don't tend to merge in code unless I understand it thoroughly, and have edited it to follow the source code conventions of Mini vMac, which takes time. It depends a lot on how complex the code is. (It wouldn't help that much for you to try to make your code follow Mini vMac conventions exactly, because that editing pass is part of my way of understanding code.)
As to how to get changes to me, the easiest may be to just post it on the web somewhere, in the form of the complete source code that compiles for you. (Or you could just email me your source archive.) I have my own preferred tools for finding the differences.
Even if I didn't merge your changes immediately to my version, I would still publicize it to make it available to others.