Download Nine 11 V1.0 …or read the Change History.
Changed: 10. Nov 1999
Created: 10. Nov 1999

What
This extension stops the System Error #119 from occuring in MacOS 9 for applications that read the low memory value "FCBSPtr".

Why
It seems to me that this "feature" was a mistake. A lot of old applications (especially those on CDs that can't be updated) will simply refuse to work. Whereas with the fixes already in place in MacOS 9, most of these will run without harm. Even "Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo" which was included with our 5400 refuses to run under OS9 without Nine 11.

Caution
I've been running Nine 11 for a week. It seems to work fine and has not caused any problems for ME. I can't guarantee anything here - maybe there is a secret reason for the SysError() of which I'm not aware. Developers should obviously not install this if they want to catch their mistakes...

For example, with Stuffit 5.1, the application will launch fine and you can expand items from archives, but you can not drag new items into the archive. I imagine there will be an update to the application soon - but at least there is not a crash...

The extension will not perform the patch if the code it finds is not what it expects and obviously not on 68K machines.

How
Nine 11 patches the LMGetFCBSPtr that MacOS 9 installs to return the real FCBSPtr and not SysError(119) on startup. It is an in RAM patch, no changes are made to any files and Nine 11 does not hang around in memory. You can just remove it from your Extensions folder (or turn it off) and restart if you think you are having trouble with it.

(I wanted to do this with a shared library, but the function in question does not seem to be "overridable" - if you know better, let me know)

Other
The Reaper V1.3 and beyond provides this feature on an application by application basis if you want more control.