Haiku on Early Intel Macs

[B S Magnet]

Haiku on Early Intel Macs
A BeOS-derived modern OS
First assembled: 25 February 2023
Latest update: 25 February 2023


PURPOSE

This is a placeholder WikiPost and thread for installing, running, and discussing Haiku on Early Intel Macs.

It’ll be up to everyone else here to enrich and improve on this thread for running Haiku.

Haiku is, in short, an open-source project to carry through key UI elements of the short-lived, pre-OS X PowerPC operating system BeOS, which quietly came to an end sometime in 2001. OpenBeOS, the initial and original name for Haiku, got underway at this time.


WHY?

I blame Action Retro (in the best possible way) for wanting to entice MR forum members to try testing and running Haiku on their Early Intel Macs — especially those model which lack a 64-bit EFI and/or cannot easily boot into versions of OS X beyond either Snow Leopard or Lion (at least, not without a lot of problems).

[Or if you’re really up for a challenge a masochist, you could try running BeOS on a pre-G3 Power Mac.]

Along with flavours of Linux and OpenBSD, Haiku may offer a viable way to keep using (or at least tinkering with) your old MacBooks and MacBook Pros, Mac minis, and Mac Pros.


THIS IS SILLY.

Probably! And even more silly is as of the striking of this WikiPost, I haven’t even tried Haiku myself. But maybe you have, and you might be able to share some useful resources and links to communities and repositories online to run software written for Haiku.

For now, I’ll leave things here.

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GETTING STARTED

Haiku Release 1/Beta 4 (23 December 2022)

 

[theMarble]

especially those model which lack a 64-bit EFI

So is it native EFI32 then? Might be a good project for my A1212 then.

 

[rampancy]

My main concern would be compatibility with drivers. Networking drivers are apparently covered under Haiku's FreeBSD Compatibility layer, but I'm not sure how that would cover WiFi hardware needing proprietary drivers, or the drivers/firmware needed to get the iSight camera working on the A1181.

 

[B S Magnet]

So is it native EFI32 then? Might be a good project for my A1212 then.

From the above-linked Action Retro clip (on which he’s running it on an A1181 MacBook) and the documentation from Haiku OS’s download page:

Current version information:

• Version: R1/beta4
• Release date: December 23, 2022
• Release notes
• Supported platforms: x86, 32-bit and 64-bit

Signs would point to “yes”. Action Retro, with tongue-in-cheek hyperbole, remarks how one could run Haiku OS on a potato (and added he’s run it on a lot of old ThinkPads).

 

[Nermal]

Nitpick: It's called Haiku, not Haiku OS

General FAQ

www.haiku-os.org

Since it's a WikiPost, I've edited it. Hope you don't think that was me stepping on your toes.

 

[B S Magnet]

Nitpick: It's called Haiku, not Haiku OS

General FAQ

www.haiku-os.org

Since it's a WikiPost, I've edited it. Hope you don't think that was me stepping on your toes.

Not at all! Thanks for the fix!

I thought it was “Haiku OS” given the domain name they use for the project.

 

[Nermal]

I thought it was “Haiku OS” given the domain name they use for the project.

You're not the first and you won't be the last. I've even had to correct it on Wikipedia!

 

[mortlocli]

I find it's best to use the name 'haiku os' to avoid confusion with Haiku poetry. Their documentation some times uses Haiku_os.

Using a USB stick:
My first surprise in setting it up, was how easy it got wifi working. I'm using a iMac 10,1 but would also like to get it working on my 17 inch iMac 5,1.

The first problem I encountered was with the graphics. It's something that occurs with every Linux distribution too. Instead of a single desktop displayed, I get four in a 2x2 formation. Which is small - so tricky to use.

I found getting into pre boot settings (space bar for macs) doesn't work but Tis possible to edit a configure file so graphics are in safe mode.

Haiku is fun to use..almost like a new toy. They have a full time developer working on it now and they're adding lots of Linu software. But there are limitations..which I hope will be sorted...

 

[mortlocli]

..I have yet to get sound working.

Duke Nuken works though

 

[B S Magnet]

..I have yet to get sound working.

Duke Nuken works though

It’s important to make sure the shoot-em-ups work, straight out of the starting gate.

 

[mortlocli]

Erm...wot else is there?

 

[B S Magnet]

Erm...wot else is there?

Well, I aim to be boring. Across my seven working computers, the total number of shoot-em-ups amongst them: goose egg, bupkus, nada, zilch, nil…

 

[mortlocli]

COD2 was my last played all the way thru..that kinda cured me of playing any others
Duke is kinda bazaar though..and only the demo so provides a short boredom fix.

Guess you've moved on from shoot em ups, but was there any you got hooked on??

 

[B S Magnet]

COD2 was my last played all the way thru..that kinda cured me of playing any others
Duke is kinda bazaar though..and only the demo so provides a short boredom fix.

Guess you've moved on from shoot em ups, but was there any you got hooked on??

I have never played a shoot-em-up, unless one counts the sit-down vector graphics Star Wars game once found in video arcades.

 

[mortlocli]

I have never played a shoot-em-up, unless one counts the sit-down vector graphics Star Wars game once found in video arcades.

wow!!
Im kinda impressed with your immunity to such things!!!

..but if ever you care to venture that way..take a look see at EDuke32.
Its kinda weird as well as problem solving.

(ya know the (Star Wars) saying: Come over to the dark side..we've got cookies.)

 

[B S Magnet]

wow!!
Im kinda impressed with your immunity to such things!!!

I mean, I don’t play many video games at all, and those I have were basically when I was living with people who had their own consoles (on which I’d play stuff like Zelda’s Ocarina of Time, Sonic the Hedgehog, and so on). I guess because I’ve played one of the Grand Theft Auto games (again twenty years ago), that could count toward the first-person-shooter game, though not exactly.

Mowing down enemies in quasi-real, 3D-perspective settings just doesn’t do it for me.

..but if ever you care to venture that way..take a look see at EDuke32.
Its kinda weird as well as problem solving.

I’ll bookmark that in my mind.

(ya know the (Star Wars) saying: Come over to the dark side..we've got cookies.)

I’LL NEVER JOIN YOU! YOU’RE NOT MY FATHER! JUST LET ME DRINK THE GREEN MILK!

 

[lepidotós]

remarks how one could run Haiku ... on a potato

I ran it on a 1.6GHz Pentium M 725-based laptop with integrated chipset graphics and a gig and a quarter of DDR2 or whatever (256MB onboard, 1GB DIMM), and it ran pretty much perfectly. So much so that I could even try to use webapps like Discord and yapms from within Otter Browser, and it was my daily driver right up from ~2020 to June 2021 when I got Cloud Nine, which was just about as fast. And still had reliable power delivery. But Haiku is still one I really want to come back to some day, maybe if I fix that laptop back up and recell the battery so I don't need to keep it on the charger, because it had input latency as low as Mac OS 9 did and just felt smooth and solid, with a unique experience... and didn't know the panel on that laptop was locked to 60 Hz so it let me OC it to 85 Hz.
I might throw it on my Athlon when I get it up and running just to see how the experience is, I feel like that's about where it'll start getting kinda choppy. At least, if it uses any SSE. If I go for a second attempt to repair Kennedy, I'll probably dual boot with it and PureDarwin just to have more powerful, and this time 64-bit, hardware to run it on.​

Haiku is, in short, an open-source project to carry through key UI elements of the short-lived, pre-OS X PowerPC operating system BeOS, which quietly came to an end sometime in 2001. OpenBeOS, the initial and original name for Haiku, got underway at this time.

On x86, and probably PowerPC too if anyone wants to try building it, it's also binary compatible (and most of the software you'll find out there is BeOS software) and similar philosophically in its underpinnings, with full re-implementations of libraries and APIs and a smaller (and less POSIX-compatible) kernel than, say, Linux or OpenBSD. The reason it isn't backwards compatible for amd64 and ARM is just because they use a newer GCC toolchain that breaks compatibility, but I'm sure someone could come along and build something conceptually similar to WINE for restoring compatibility until a native software ecosystem develops.

Personally, I really like Haiku in general, I think it's a fantastic home user OS because it isn't trying to also be a server OS or a HPC OS or anything else, unlike most of the big-name OSes (Windows, macOS, other Unix-likes). I'll probably run it on it if I ever get a new MacBook, in a smaller side partition.​

 

[mortlocli]

I mean, I don’t play many video games at all, and those I have were basically when I was living with people who had their own consoles (on which I’d play stuff like Zelda’s Ocarina of Time, Sonic the Hedgehog, and so on). I guess because I’ve played one of the Grand Theft Auto games (again twenty years ago), that could count toward the first-person-shooter game, though not exactly.

Mowing down enemies in quasi-real, 3D-perspective settings just doesn’t do it for me.




I’ll bookmark that in my mind.



I’LL NEVER JOIN YOU! YOU’RE NOT MY FATHER! JUST LET ME DRINK THE GREEN MILK!

Yes...but...we are talking Cookies here?!
COOKIES!!

 

[mortlocli]

I ran it on a 1.6GHz Pentium M 725-based laptop with integrated chipset graphics and a gig and a quarter of DDR2 or whatever (256MB onboard, 1GB DIMM), and it ran pretty much perfectly. So much so that I could even try to use webapps like Discord and yapms from within Otter Browser, and it was my daily driver right up from ~2020 to June 2021 when I got Cloud Nine, which was just about as fast. And still had reliable power delivery. But Haiku is still one I really want to come back to some day, maybe if I fix that laptop back up and recell the battery so I don't need to keep it on the charger, because it had input latency as low as Mac OS 9 did and just felt smooth and solid, with a unique experience... and didn't know the panel on that laptop was locked to 60 Hz so it let me OC it to 85 Hz.
I might throw it on my Athlon when I get it up and running just to see how the experience is, I feel like that's about where it'll start getting kinda choppy. At least, if it uses any SSE. If I go for a second attempt to repair Kennedy, I'll probably dual boot with it and PureDarwin just to have more powerful, and this time 64-bit, hardware to run it on.

On x86, and probably PowerPC too if anyone wants to try building it, it's also binary compatible (and most of the software you'll find out there is BeOS software) and similar philosophically in its underpinnings, with full re-implementations of libraries and APIs and a smaller (and less POSIX-compatible) kernel than, say, Linux or OpenBSD. The reason it isn't backwards compatible for amd64 and ARM is just because they use a newer GCC toolchain that breaks compatibility, but I'm sure someone could come along and build something conceptually similar to WINE for restoring compatibility until a native software ecosystem develops.

Personally, I really like Haiku in general, I think it's a fantastic home user OS because it isn't trying to also be a server OS or a HPC OS or anything else, unlike most of the big-name OSes (Windows, macOS, other Unix-likes). I'll probably run it on it if I ever get a new MacBook, in a smaller side partition.​

I know this sounds rather fickle..but I do like their icon design.
Their page on icon design shows graphic design well defined:

Icon Guidelines

www.haiku-os.org

 

[B S Magnet]

Yes...but...we are talking Cookies here?!
COOKIES!!

I know this sounds rather fickle..but I do like their icon design.
Their page on icon design shows graphic design well defined:

Icon Guidelines

www.haiku-os.org

It has a nice, late-aughts feel to it — sort of that period between the garish palette of Windows XP and the flat affect to follow with a lot of post-skeuromorphist design.

 

[lepidotós]

Speaking of video games, I had a series back when that laptop was still in good shape of showcasing Haiku games... and Blender. The performance is somewhat pedestrian, but it is a then 15-year old laptop and it was all running with software accelerated graphics.
Playlist​

 

[mortlocli]

Speaking of video games, I had a series back when that laptop was still in good shape of showcasing Haiku games... and Blender. The performance is somewhat pedestrian, but it is a then 15-year old laptop and it was all running with software accelerated graphics.
Playlist​

thats looking fairly slick!!
..envious you had sound working.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

I wonder how it will run on MacBook A1342.

 

[mortlocli]

I wonder how it will run on MacBook A1342.

you could try it live on a usb stick.. the beta 4 is a recent update. The old thing I found was using balena etcher as they suggest the OS is on a small partition that fills up quite quickly with not way within the system to enlarge it. I tried booting it on one usb stick to use their included usb installer that apparently will make the whole usb available... but I couldn't get it to boot.

I must try again and see if etcher has a setting for the os partition size.

 

[TheLion01]

I love Haiku! It is one of my favourite open-source projects. I have it running in a VM on my laptop.
2 days ago I was gifted a 2006 Mac mini in unknown technical state. I hope it works (or that I can make it working again), and turn it into a dedicated 32-bits Haiku machine. Like a Mac with OS X that is based on BeOS in a alternate universe! Try to find some time next week to try it. Will report back on how easy or difficult it is to run on this machine.