How I use Haiku 64bit every day on a 2007 iMac (Core 2 duo, 20'')

My $0.02 is that users should be able to self-help. If they have a log, a log viewer application, even a mail UI that gives them a hint of what’s going on, then all the better.

Mail has always been a black box in Haiku.

Think about it - if there’s an app named ‘Log Viewer’ in the Applications directory, and a user open it, and sees a log titled ‘Mail’, and it states “username error”, “password error”, etc, then said user may have a fighting chance of solving an issue themselves.

Even macOS has the Console, and that sells itself on being user-friendly… :slight_smile:

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Can you please give some info on how to do that? I would like to see what’s happening in my case.

It would be very bad ux if you had to dig a console for user solvable problems. If the username or password is wrong, this should be reported to the user clearly and immediately. In fact it should be checked straight from the mail account setup window.

The syslog messages should be relevant only when dealing with bugs, that is, when you need a developer or at least a power user involved. That doesn’t mean a system console is a bad idea, just that this isn’t the first thing I would think about making user friendly.

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Thank you to the OP for this very useful and informative post. I tinkered with Haiku a couple of years ago, but it couldn’t (and still can’t) do what I wanted it to do (feed a DAC), but the arrival of LibreOffice and better web-browsing means that it can still be useful. It will be going on a spare Thinkpad shortly.

Just built it locally. Was very easy. I use that version fot the time being…thanks :slight_smile:

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Well, that’s lovely, but I see that you are still booting up from the install DVD: and for me not being able to boot-up from the computer itself is a bit of a pain in the bum.

Buy an old Thinkpad on Ebay and devote it to Haiku. The T61 is still a capable computer, and can be had for £30 to £60 (I am assuming you are in the Uk).

If by “you” you mean me you are quite wrong:

  1. I am in Bulgaria.

  2. As I believe the so-called “Act of Union” was a non-Democratic act, as well as the expulsion
    of our legitimate monarch, I do not regard the “UK” as a legitimate political entity.

I agree. Also, unfortunately, at some point audio support broke. So I don’t have correct sound on that iMac…
I have another old Compaq laptop where sound never worked. All other work OK but I need sound. And this is an old machine with only 2 GB memory.

My biggest hope was when I managed to make my Lenovo Yoga2 Pro 13" (my main computer) work mostly OK. But I was unlucky because it has a strange hardware problem that prevents CPUs go over 30% frequency. Accelerometer got faulty, caused temperature problems and affected motherboard. But Haiku was running fast on the machine! I only realized it when I was unable to see 1080p video smoothly. And then I verified the hardware problem with other means. That prevented me to test a couple of tickets I had reported based on that ultrabook’s behavior (I owe one test to @waddlesplash related to USB-ethernet…).

Now I am thinking of buying a used Thinkpad probably and I am checking the hardware compatibility list.

Hi there, I know its a very old post but I’m struggling to boot R1/beta3 within exactly the same specs as yours. In the past I was ever able to boot beta 1. I already burnt the dvd and by pressing the C: ended up in the screen

Select CD-ROM Boot type :

Even by pressing #1 once getting the black screen Im able to show I blinking #1 but cant go any further nor boot.
With refind I was 1/5 times able to the HAIKU boot loader but then get stack again

I really appreciate if you could please let me know step by step guidelines to be able to boot and ultimately install Haiku in my 2007 Imac 20"

Many thanks

The beta4 release candidates might be a better option for a UEFI system like a Mac. I’ve booted my UEFI rig (non-Mac) to bare metal for the first time ever on beta4.

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Did you burn an USB or DVD?

The steps I followed are in this post after I burned the DVD.

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2007 iMacs likely have 32bit EFI, in particular a proprietary firmware which implements EFI 1.10 specs and so called fat EFI binaries support.
I don’t have any 2007 model to check but the issue is likely that AFAIK it’s not possible to boot Haiku 64bit out of a 32bit EFI. I think @davidkaroly is working on a hybrid bootloader. More on this here.

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Thanks for the hint. I was able to run Beta 1 64 bits on the same unit hence I bet there will be any workaround, lets see if fkap has any input!Cheers

Via EFI bootloader?

Hi @amgpuma. This is really an old post! Sorry, I am not using anymore that iMac (although I still have it). For last years I use a Lenovo T450s with Haiku natively, generally nightly builds. So, I don’t know how most recent Haiku versions work on it.

Yes, via EFI boot. I’m gonna try a clean install of OS X and then the suggesred UEFI boot

Thanks for the update, worth to try!

It makes sense. According to my findings iMac 7,1 should have 64bit EFI instead!