I just installed MorphOS on my G4 Mac Mini, looks great but I can not figure out how
anything works. How do I activate the 'Menu system" in MorphOS? How do I "Shutdown"
the system when I am finished? How come there isn't a User Manual for how everything
works or is supposed to work?

Thanks

OMG!

I wasn't even that familiar with AmigaOS, and I figured most of it out by messing around with it (or asking a few pointed questions).

You couldn't figure out how to shut it down?

Do you have a driver's license?
And where do you live?

I want to avoid going there.

Thanks for the help, Goof Ball!

If you are not used to an Amiga environment then no wonder you feel lost.

I don't know what you mean by menu system. Just right click and hold it down to get the menu. There is also a shutdown option there. As well as various settings.

Welcome to our family

You can read my blog for tips and trix:

http://morphosuser.wordpress.com

Thanks, I am using a one button Mac mouse, so I figured it was a key combination to
activate the right mouse button, but couldn't figure which keys. Seemed to try most of
the usual suspects.

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You need to run ShiftClick to enable that feature. ShiftClick can be found in SYS:Utilities/Commodities.

Ah, then you should switch to a two-button mouse ASAP. Until then, you should copy the program ShiftClick from System:Utilities/Commodities to System:WBStartup. You can just drag it to there from one folder to the other. Now it will start every time you start MorphOS. You can also just double click on the program to start it. What it does is that it let you chose what key you need to hold down to activate the right button.

If you don't want the program to show up every time, right click on the icon, choose Information, double click on (CX_POPUP=AUTO|YES|NO) to remove the "( )" and change it to "CX_POPUP=NO". And press Save. Now it will not show up every reboot.

[ Edited by Yasu 16.02.2015 - 01:32 ]

Why did Apple invent a one button mouse???

p.s. Don't feel bad about asking for a manual.
The rest of us here owned real Amigas during the day and we still want documentation for MOS.
However, there just isn't any.
It might help you to go read an old AmigaDos book.

Here is a list of commonly needed apps on the left and what MOS has to offer on the right. On your main hard drive is a folder called Applications. Look in there for some of these apps:

Web browser OWB (Odysey Web Browser) 1.24. Same engine as Mac Safari.

Email Yam or Simplemail

Internet apps Twitter, Jabber, Podcast, etc...

Media Player Mplayer (all modern media standards including DVDs). On a Mac G5 I watched a bluray rip with this.

P2P mlDonkey 3.1.1.0 (all p2p networks supported)

BitTorrent mlDonkey 3.1.1.0 - save torrent to torrents/incoming

Encryption TrueCrypt – called Kryptos in MOS.

Secure file deletion rhErase

3D modeling Blender 2.62

Burning software Jalapeno – works with DL-DVD Burners up to 8.5GB

Weather app Wetter – sort of like WeatherBug

Remote Control Rdesktop for connecting to Windows PCs.

File Transfers Transfer – ftp and other protocols

PDF Apdf

File Manager Ambient, DirPous 4 PPC, DirOpus 5 68k

Package Manager Grunch – just like Linux package managers. keeps software up to date.

Screenshot Snapshoter

Scanner software SCANdal , epson perfection 1640SU usb scanner

Large hard drive support Any size hard drive with a 2TB max partition limit

File system support Windows, Mac, Linux, Amiga. File system size limits varies greatly.
IceFS for Amiga has NO limits and is free.
SFS has 128gb partition limit and 4gb file size limit.

Pictures Showgirls

Wireless Built-in. Mac Airport support and lots of pcmcia cards.

Emulators UAE (any amiga 68k). SNES, NES, Mame, GBA, etc...

3D support TinyGL, SDL

3D Games All open source 3D games, RTCW, OpenRedAlert

ADF support FileImgCtrl – mount amiga adf files, ISOs and hardfiles


Best Hardware to run on:

Powerbook laptop G4 17” 1.67 ghz with superdrive aka Powerbook 5,7


Mac G5 PPC (not intel!) tower 2.3ghz a1047 aka Powermac 7,3 or the 2.7ghz but it is liquid cooled and will need to be repaired due to cooling leaks. Conversion to heatsink/fan cooled doc is available.


Imac G5 not supported yet.

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No problem!
I'll admit both that Yasu's answer was certainly more useful AND that MorphOS isn't the best documented operating system.

But if the average nimrod can figure out an android device without any documentation...

So, you might not get my point (but if you don't, well more than a few others will).

And...you still haven't told me where I might run into you (or you into me if you're a driver).

No, on a more serious note, got a question, just ask someone.

Sorry for the crappy attitude, but since I've been using computers since the '70s I'm still trying to figure out why people think there is a significant difference between virtually any of the OS' (and I'm not really trying to be rude, you've just amused me).

Hello new MorphOS user. MorphOS can be very confusing because most of the available computers are Apple, which use the 1-button mouse for many years. This is complicated because MorphOS uses the right click option for everything.

For a Mac Mini desktop computer just use any two or three button mouse.

For a laptop, "smash" the touch pad with your fingers, and keep them on the touch pad, while clicking the mouse button.

Mac OS has a function where if you have a 1 button mouse, you can press the command key while pressing the mouse, this displays the mouse menu. MorphOS does not have this keyboard + mouse function. There is a utility called Shift Click, which will pop up each time you open the utility. Its mascot is a dirty brown toy mouse resembling "9".

The other menus are a hidden feature, which can be displayed by changing the settings. The clock bar on the top of the screen will never display a menu, unless you right click, or "smash" the touch pad, or "Shift Click".

If you are looking for a "Start Menu" and "Quick Launch", there isn't any. Instead, you can create Panels (dock-things) which you can add application shortcuts.

To shut down, use the Command key + Q and then type S.

There isn't any sleep or hibernation setting unfortunately.

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Welcome new user :)

There are several different ways to simulate the right mouse button. Most of them are explained for example here:
http://library.morph.zone/Tips_and_Tricks#How_to_Use_RMB_with_One-button_Mouse

I'd suggest you to take a look to articles in Library section of this forum. You'll get impression what can be done when reading different reviews etc, even if there isn't any proper user guide.
http://library.morph.zone/Main_Page

BTW. that shutdown can be achieved from the RMB menu or key combination for it, but also by opening Shell and typing "shutdown", or just pressing power button long enough (it's ok because MorphOS doesn't do any shutdown procedures anyway, just be sure you're not writing anything to HD while doing it).

OP makes a good point though, there should be a manual for MOS. It beggars belief they expect people to pay for an OS that has no instructions on how to use it, and not even an online help system. OS4 seems to have the same problem too. No point adding features and then not telling users how to use them.

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No one said it wasn't a valid idea.
But who is going to do it?
It is a big undertaking and being thorough and no missing important points would be dificult.

How about a wiki?

Quote:
library.morph.zone/

@ASiegel

Okey, that's a wiki. Then how about a subsection at the top where we can add a total beginners guide?

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MOS dev team of course. They wrote it, they should document it. Otherwise you would up with something unofficial, inaccurate and/or incomplete which might not even get put on the MOS CD.

Wiki is not the solution either, it needs to be something that can be accessed when offline.

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I disagree. I enjoy new features even if there isn't any instructions.

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I am making one also but mine is not finished.

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That depends on the discoverability and intuitiveness of the new features. In some cases you might not even realize a certain feature is there. Not everyone wants to experiment with (aka randomly adjust) configuration of their system, it can cause problems if misconfigured.

[ Edited by Minuous 19.02.2015 - 16:31 ]

@ Yasu

Quote:
I think the library is perfectly fine for adding content aimed at new users.

Once there is a sufficient amount of helpful content, it might be time to discuss how to ensure that new users will find it more easily. Right now, any frontpage links would point to an empty page, which would help noone.

At this stage, it might be more pertinent to ask what questions must be answered to make new users feel at home...


@ Minous

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As long as the documentation included a disclaimer informing about potential inaccuracies and the community-driven origins, there should be no problem. Even the included release notes feature a disclaimer with similar language.

If there was an actual need for it, it would also be possible to mark sections of the wiki that have been reviewed by members of the MorphOS development team and keep those protected from unmoderated editing.

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Depending on the used engine, it is certainly possible to export wiki content as PDF documents (with embedded images) or an archive of HTML pages.

@ASiegel

Good point. Let's start with that.

> Internet apps Twitter, Jabber, Podcast, etc...

"Twitter", "Jabber" and "Podcast" are not names of MorphOS-compatible applications.

> PDF Apdf

Apdf has been superseded by VPDF.

> Scanner software SCANdal , epson perfection 1640SU usb scanner

I think SCANdal supports more than this model.

> File system support Windows, Mac, Linux, Amiga.

These are operating systems, not file systems ;-)

> Wireless Built-in. Mac Airport support and lots of pcmcia cards.

...and PCI cards.

> 3D support TinyGL, SDL

SDL is no 3D API but uses OpenGL for 3D.

> 3D Games All open source 3D games

This I doubt :-)