Upgrade Problems

OneEyeWill · Jul 12, 2004

I was trying to upgrade my mac from 8.x to Panther. I dont really care about any of the files on the computer, but havent seen a way to just install Panther as a fresh install without upgrading. So i bought the 10.3 from apple, and it came with 9.2. Upgraded my 8 to 9.2 and then tried to upgrade to 10.3. For some reason I can no longer reboot from the cd. If i run the install, it asks me to reboot and I get an error that i cant make the cd drive the startup drive. Try to run the disk utility and it wont let me even highlight the cd rom to run as the startup drive. Nothing happens holding down "c" when i restart either. Can anyone help?
Is there a way to just reformat the drive and throw in the panther cd for a fresh install?..If not, how can i just get the upgrade to work?

mr_mac · Jul 12, 2004

1st, the upgrade is for OS X only. you cannot upgrade from 8-9.x.

2nd, what is your computer? is it compliant with the system requirements?

3rd, is your firmware up to date?

Mrmac

Horrortaxi · Jul 12, 2004

I'm a little confused.

What kind of Mac is this. If it's running OS 8 it's pretty old and may not be able to run OS X. Is it an iMac? Beige G3? iMacs need the firmware updated. You have to download it from Apple (or upgrade to 9.2 and run Software Update). iMacs and Beige G3s also need to have OS X on a partition smaller than 8BG for some strange reason. But if you're using a computer that old I doubt having a hard drive bigger than 8GB is an issue. Also, you need a minimum of 128MB of RAM.

Actually, Panther isn't even supported on beige Macs so the above will apply only to 233 iMacs or faster.

How are we doing so far? Anything sounding like it applies to you?

Isn't the default action of the install CD to reformat and do a fresh install. If not, it's one of the options. Eventually you get to a a screen where you can "customize" the install. Tell it to do a clean install (I think that's the terminology it uses).

For now, zap your PRAM and reset your firmware. That should get you back to being able to boot from drive or CD. To that hold command option P R while booting and let the computer chime 4 times. Then hold command option O F and let go when it tells you to. Type reset-nvram and hit enter. Then type reset-all and hit enter again. The Mac will reboot and you should be able to boot from the CD (or the drive if the installer didn't reformat it).

OneEyeWill · Jul 13, 2004

Ok. Sorry if I am sounding like an idiot, I dont know much about Macs. My mac is a blue ish G3. Its a little old, but pretty sure it meets the Minimum requirements to run osx. Not sure what Mr Mac was saying about not being able to upgrade from 8-9.2. I got the 9.2 cd and the 10.3 cd straight from apple. Had 8.x on the machine, put in the 9.2 cd, and now the mac loads 9.2. Thats all i know. Firmware is prob not up to date, but im still looking into where to go to setup the ip configuration for the mac to work with my router. Im not bashing macs at all, but cant the software just automatically detect the ip config like windows does?

In any case, I will try to reset the firmware at lunch..or might just have another dumb addition to this reply because im not to sure what command option P R is. But please dont give up on me. I will be back.

wrldwzrd89 · Jul 13, 2004

OneEyeWill said:
Ok. Sorry if I am sounding like an idiot, I dont know much about Macs. My mac is a blue ish G3. Its a little old, but pretty sure it meets the Minimum requirements to run osx. Not sure what Mr Mac was saying about not being able to upgrade from 8-9.2. I got the 9.2 cd and the 10.3 cd straight from apple. Had 8.x on the machine, put in the 9.2 cd, and now the mac loads 9.2. Thats all i know. Firmware is prob not up to date, but im still looking into where to go to setup the ip configuration for the mac to work with my router. Im not bashing macs at all, but cant the software just automatically detect the ip config like windows does?

In any case, I will try to reset the firmware at lunch..or might just have another dumb addition to this reply because im not to sure what command option P R is. But please dont give up on me. I will be back.

Command Option P R - a keystroke combination held down at startup to reset the PRAM (parameter RAM - a place where system-wide settings, such as the date and time, are stored). The command key is the one with the four-way "swirl" and the Apple logo. The option key is marked "option" and is located to the left of the space bar. P and R are the corresponding letter keys. You hold down ALL FOUR keys while the Mac boots - you should hear the Mac's startup chime in a few seconds.

Horrortaxi · Jul 13, 2004

Command option P R is similar to control alt delete on a PC. The 3 keys together do something (or in this case the 4 keys). Command is the Apple key, btw.

It's been a while since I got OS 9 working with ethernet. There is a control panel setting or 2. It basically will set everything up for you but you need to tell it to do it. Did you run the internet setup assistant yet? That's got to be your first step. Then go to Apple menu > Control panels > TCP/IP and tell it to use the ethernet port. The exact configuration in TCP/IP is what I don't remember well, but it's not that hard to figure out. You'll probably have to restart and then it ought to work.

In OS X you won't have to configure anything.

That G3 is definitely supported under Panther--provided you have enough memory of course.

OneEyeWill · Jul 13, 2004

Ok forget that last reply I sent. I went home and checked out a few things, its amazing what you can find with a few clicks of the mouse. I reset everything like you said, (the command key is the apple key

, didnt realize that when you first explained it) but it did not seem to do anything anyways. It rebooted to the hard drive and still cant startup from the cd. I found a thing called control panel, and set the tcpip configuration. Did the software update for the 9.2. but still no go on the cd rom boot option. Does the software updater update the firmware too, or do i have to go to the apple website for that?

I checked the memory in control panel, under virtual memory it it says i have 96 mb ram built in. Is that how much memory I have? I could of swore i opened it up and saw 192 mb memory. It looks like the hard drive is partitioned 3 ways. The OS has 1 gb, main has 15 gb and an extended has 3 gb.
So could the cd rom not being an option for startup when the osx cd is in there be because i dont meet the minimum requirements to install osx?
This has really been a pain. I guess Maybe i have to find out if they still sell ram for the g3, whatever speed that might be.
Ok, lets say i have more memory, and the cd boot works, will the panther setup allow me to re-partition the drives so I can have enough hd space to install the os? Or do I need to go about that a different way?

Thanks for your help.

Horrortaxi · Jul 13, 2004

Just to rule out a problem with the CD drive, can it read another disk?

96MB would definitely explain it not booting from the CD. I think it'll give you a grey screen with that circular "I'm working" icon at the bottom--and it never goes away. Pick up a 512MB stick and you'll be in good shape. For the age/speed of that memory it's going to cost more than it should. You might consider Ebay. I don't know the specs of the memory but you can look it up on crucial.com.

Firmware--if software updae didn't find an update then there isn't one. You can search on Apple.com just in case but I wouldn't sweat it.

Once you get your system requirements sorted out you will be able to reformat the drive into 1 partition. If it's the stock drive though, you might want to consider replacing it. It would be between 6 and 12GB. Depending on your use of the computer that might be pretty skimpy--especially the 6GB (in any event).

siliconjones · Jul 13, 2004

That machine uses PC100 memory.

OneEyeWill · Jul 19, 2004

Problems

Ok, I'm back. Got some upgraded ram for the machine, still no help, Called Apple tech support, even less of a help, that lady didnt have a clue.

I still just cant select the osx cd as the startup cd. The cd rom works fine, ive reinstalled os 9.2 3 times. I can still get into the osx cd because the install file still shows up on the desktop when i boot, so the cd itself doesnt seem to have a problem. I am completely out of options, and i need this to be working in the next 7 days for a deadline for something with my work. Can anyone think of anything else that could be done?

If there are no other ideas, can someone walk me through a way to just fdisk the drive, re-format and try to start over? Hopefully its as easy to do as with a pc. Can i even do that? And if so is it possible to just put the osx 10.3 cd in, or do i have to use 9.2 and try to upgrade still?

Horrortaxi · Jul 19, 2004

You've reset the PRAM and firmware as described in another post, right? System has enough RAM? How about PCI cards? Anything non-Apple in there? Sometimes people ahve to remove 3rd party hardware for the OS X intallation and then put it back after.

If you get this far and it still won't install we have to take a very carefull look at what you're doing. It should be working.

Yes, you can reformat the drive and start over and yes, you can start fresh with the Panther disk. You don't need OS 9 first. Boot from the OS 9 CD and open Drive Setup from Applications > Utilities. You can erase it from there. I'm sure there's a similar thing in the OS X CD but I haven't done it.

OneEyeWill · Jul 19, 2004

Finally

Ok, I just want to say thanks for all your help. I got some for you now...according to apple help desk, and after 2 1/2 hours with 3 different ppl.

They found something they said in older machines, the older cd rom drives do not run the new osx cds when osx has never been installed before for some reason. So for the fix i had to run this command in that place you took me earlier. Held down Option, Command and O F then at the command line type in boot cd:,\\:tbxi
That somehow forced a startup from the cd.

Again thanks for all the help.

Horrortaxi · Jul 19, 2004

That's an odd one! I'm glad you got it sorted out. I'm going to file this one away for future reference.

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Upgrade Problems

OneEyeWill

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mr_mac

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Horrortaxi

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OneEyeWill

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wrldwzrd89

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Horrortaxi

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OneEyeWill

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Horrortaxi

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siliconjones

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OneEyeWill

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Horrortaxi

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OneEyeWill

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Horrortaxi

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