Pear PC - Configuration and testing
Filed By: Robert Moir
Pear PC - Configuration and testing
Configuring and running PearPC for the first time.
We're now going to create our first configuration file, and we're going to try running PearPC for the first time. This is the step where most people make a mistake so I'm going to work through this step carefully.
As I already said, we're going to use a configuration manager to make this step easier, and lastly if all else fails, I have a sample working configuration file for you to look at and copy, tested on the system I am basing this article around.
Open the PearPC control panel, go to the File Menu, and select New Configuration File
Step through the wizard, choosing your options. If I don't make special mention of an option that means that either it should be obvious or because you should accept the defaults.
The first real page of the wizard should be fairly simple. Fill in the path to the PearPC executable itself and the location of your Virtual hard disk file.
Select a memory value here. You can choose 64Mb or higher and have a 'valid' system but really for OS X you want a minimum of 256Mb and I'd suggest more like 384 or 512Mb would be better.
See this important note on memory settings as well.
The next page of the wizard allows you to set important things such as the screen size / video mode, the type of CPU you're emulating, what Network card to emulate, and the boot method.
Pick your preferred Video Mode - should be self explanatory and I personally don't care what you choose here.
Next we have the Redraw interval. This must be between 10 and 500 The higher you set this number the faster PearPC will run, because it spends time updating the screen. However, because it spends less time on the screen it will feel less responsive to you as a user.
The right number for the redraw interval is open to debate. I find a setting of 60 works well on my test machine, other testers with Pentium 4 machines in the high 2.x Ghz ranges have reported better results when they drop this number to about 40. Experiment to see whats right for you.
The CPU setting allows you to choose whether to emulate a G3 or a G4 processor. Only the G3 option is available at the time of writing so again I'm going to suggest leaving it alone (on G3) for now.
Select to enable networking, choose your network card of choice (I used the Realtek). If you don't know what a MAC address is, don't even think of changing the numbers here.
Leave the additional arguments alone for now. We can play with them later if you insist but not right now.
Click 'Finish >>' to go to the last page of the wizard, and give your config file a meaningful name and choose where to save it. I strongly suggest saving it in the directory where you installed PearPC, and by 'strongly suggest' I mean I'm going to ignore any emails or forum posts asking for help that don't confirm that you've followed this step along with all the others on this page exactly.
Now, in the PearPC Control Panel, tick "CD-Rom Device is installed" and fill in/browse to the path where your first OS X install disk .iso is. Next, double click the icon for the config file you've just created. If presented with a screen asking you which boot device to select, choose the CD-Rom for now.
Typically one of three things will happen.
1. A major fault.
This is typically the result of a bad setting in the config file and is the Apple version of the Windows Blue Screen of death. Isn't it pretty?
As we're using an automated config file generating tool this is usually a problem with something daft like the video or memory settings. Read the notes above and this important note on memory settings, edit the config file - by hand in notepad if need be - and try again.
2. A configuration problem.
This typically means that you've chose a bad option in the config file. A good example and the one I contrived for the example below is choosing the currently unsupported G4 processor. Go back, edit the config file to find the fault, and try again. Steal the example config file if you're still stuck.
3. Success! Something appears to be loading.
This typically means you can proceed to the next step in this article. Well done, you're on your way!
