Frequently Asked Questions
| General Questions Why should I use Bernie? What are the hardware requirements of Bernie? How fast will it run? Bernie stops talking to me when printing with InkMeister! How do I prepare a GS/OS system disk? Who Is Bernie? ...and our all-time favorite: Bernie says "Check Startup Disk" and bounces an apple
USB and Serial Ports Can I add a USB 3.5" drive and read ProDOS disks? Can I add serial ports to my Mac? My Mac has an internal modem. Does Bernie require an external modem? ROM Dumps How do I decompress the ROM dumps? I have extracted the ROM image as outlined in the docs, but Bernie keeps saying the image is corrupt... I'm currently using ROM 1 but would like to try ROM 3... How do I know the ROM dumps have the right size? Disk Images I have a few .dsk disk images. They do not seem to work with Bernie.. I have a collection of 5.25" disk images and need to convert them to disk images. HELP! I have created a disk image in Bernie, but the IIgs software does not recognize it. I have heard about a new disk image format. Any comments? Bernie refuses to display "2IMG" images in the mount volume dialog box. Bernie refuses to boot from my disk images. I'm looking for a particular software. Can you send it to me?
| General Questions Why should I use Bernie? Bernie is an easy-to-use Mac application offering fast, accurate emulation. It is offering all the features of a stand-alone Apple IIgs system. Plus, Bernie is the only emulation software offering commercial-quality code and support. Bernie is the only emulator featuring tight integration and an unique combination of an intuitive yet highly powerful, customizable interface.
What are the hardware requirements of Bernie? You only need a PowerMac - any model. You should have about 4Mb of free RAM to spare - that's all. Bernie alone requires only 3 Mb RAM, the rest is reserved for emulation of Apple IIgs memory. Bernie runs fastest when your monitor is set to 256 colors, but that's not a requirement. For a detailed listing of supported systems please see the compatibility page in this Support Center.
How fast will it run? On first generation Power Macs (601/66Mhz/L2), Bernie is running at approx. 3 to 6 Mhz. On a Umax 603e/200Mhz/L2, we have measured a performance of approx. 18-20 Mhz. A G3 with 300Mhz is emulating around 45 Mhz. Note that some options will have an impact on execution speed. For example, when enabling sound emulation you will experience a slow down of 5% to 15% (very average & ballpark). Unfortunately, these figures greatly depend on how you have set up your hardware, system software (extensions?) and Bernie. You can also slow down Bernie to a number of predefined speeds between 1Mhz and 14Mhz (including +/-20% fine adjustment). Bernie stops talking to me when printing with InkMeister! You probably have the slot settings messed up. Please check with the online tutorial ("printing with Bernie") if the settings are correct. How do I prepare a GS/OS system disk? Installing GS/OS is not very difficult, and it isn't trivial. Please have a look at our on-line tutorials (see "System Software") which show exactly what steps are required. Who Is Bernie? Bernie is a virtual dog. That little pooper with his floppy ears does not exist, a fact we largely regret. OTOH, he never ruined our carpet or got into a dispute with the postman. Bernie says "Check Startup Disk" and bounces an apple There are three things to consider: This happens when you are trying to boot the emulated Apple IIgs without a valid system disk. You do need to provide a bootable system disk in drive unit 1, otherwise the system can't boot. To check the device chain, open Bernie's "Disks" window (from the Window menu) and mount a system disk. If you do already have a system disk mounted but it's in the wrong unit, you can click with the mouse any drive (so it becomes highlighted) and then move it around with the arrow buttons. Another common pitfall is that you have Bernie's low-level disk support enabled and are trying to boot from a disk that is larger than 800kB. With low-level disk support Bernie does only recognize 800kB disks. If you have that option enabled, all you gotta do is disable it in the Setup menu and reboot (choose Reset from the Setup menu). If that doesn't fix the problem, it is very likely that the disk is not bootable. For example, the Bernie Starter Kit" does not include a bootable system. Try booting from a fresh copy of the GS/OS installer. USB and Serial Ports Can I add a USB 3.5" drive and read ProDOS disks? Yes and no. You can add 3.5" drives to your Mac's USB port, but these drives are of very limited use. None of today's products support 800kB disks which is what you probably need. You can read disks if you got a FDHD drive (1.4Mb capacity) on your Apple II. Most people have a 800kB drive connected to their Apple II, though, so these 3.5" disks are not readable. External USB drives can only read 720kB and 1.4Mb disks. 800kB disks use a different encoding. Can I add serial ports to my Mac? Yes, you can. You can either buy a USB<->serial converter (reportedly works very well with Bernie) or, if your Mac has expansion slots, third-party serial cards from MegaWolf or the like. We did not test any of the third-party cards and therefore can't make any recommendations. My Mac has an internal modem. Does Bernie require an external modem? No, most internal modems are wired internally as simple serial devices. Bernie recognizes them and you can surf the Net with them. There's no need to attach an external modem. This includes internal modems in desktop systems and most internal modems in mobile systems. Basically, the acid test is: if the modem is using the Rockwell Interface Protocol, then it won't work. Otherwise chances are very high it will. (Attention: the Rockwell Interface Protocol is not the same as the Rockwell Chip Set, the hardware found in many modems. The chips work fine but the Rockwell interface protocol does some of the signal processing in software and is therefore not a self-contained serial device.) ROM Dumps How do I uncompress the ROM dumps? ROM dumps on the Net are usually 'zipped'. You can use StuffIt Expander, a free utility from Aladdin, for 'unzipping'. Be sure to use the latest StuffIt Expander because earlier versions do not support Zip archives. I have extracted the ROM image as outlined in the docs, but Bernie keeps saying the image is corrupt... You have probably been using PC Exchange on the Mac for reading the ProDOS disk with the ROM dump. This does not work. Instead, use a HFS disk to move the ROM dump to the Mac. Please refer to the documentation that came with Bernie.
I'm currently using ROM 1 but would like to try ROM 3... Before you spend hours of online time, think twice. ROM 1 is just fine, actually it's better than ROM 3 because some software refuses to work with ROM 3. (This includes my all time favorite Alien Mind...) A few really cool updates to ROM 3 machines are improvements in hardware.
How do I know the ROM dumps have the right size? Both ROM 01 and ROM 3 ROM dumps must have a size of 128kB or 256kB respectively. ATTENTION, the file size displayed in the Finder window may be misleading. That's because of the way how MacOS allocates disk blocks. Instead, click a ROM dump file, choose Get Info and locate the file size displayed in the upper half. For a ROM 01 file this size must be exactly 131,072 bytes. A ROM 3 dump has 262,144 bytes. Disk Images I have a few .dsk disk images. They do not seem to work with Bernie.. Bernie supports any 5.25" disk image support that produces files of (exactly) 140kB in size. Currently, Bernie recognizes 5.25" disk images if they have a file type of TEXT, BINA, ????, or DSK5.
I have a collection of 5.25" disk images and DESPERATELY need to convert them to disk images. HELP! In very, very rare instances we do convert your 5.25" disks to disk images. This service is limited to data disks your life depends on - we are unable to convert disks with commercial software that is available elsewhere already or that isn't important to you. Current charges are $80/hour plus $20 s/h. You may also want to consider acquiring a cheap Apple II and doing the conversion on your own - it's not that tricky. Please see the Support Center for more information. I have created a disk image in Bernie, but the IIgs software does not recognize it. Be sure "Low-Level Disk Support" is not checked in the Setup menu.
I have heard about a new disk image format. Any comments? Bernie does work with a new cross-platform disk image format. It will not replace existing formats. The format offers a few advantages over existing formats, such as user-defined comments, raw and nibblized disk data, and more. The current version does not use all the features (such as defining your own comments and nibblized data images).
I have downloaded a few disk images of type "2IMG", but Bernie refuses to display them in the mount volume dialog box. Bernie inspects the file type to determine what kind of disk image you got. If the file type is set to 'TEXT' or '????', Bernie tries to figure out itself what format it is. If it's a "2img" disk, Bernie sets it to the proper file type and mounts it. You can force mounting of disks with incorrect file types by: put the image(s) in a folder mount the folder Bernie refuses to boot from my disk images. Open the Setup menu and find the "Low-Level Disk Support" option. If this option is enabled, Bernie will only "see" disk images that have a disk size of 800kB. If you'd like to boot from a disk image of a different size, you need to disable low-level disk support. This activates CleverPort, Bernie's proprietary disk controller that can deal with all disk sizes.
I'm looking for a particular software. Can you send it to me? No. We're really sorry for that, but we're unable to handle requests like this due to the sheer amount of e-mails we receive and for copyright reasons.