Advice on saving G4 "lamp" iMac

[xantufrog]

Hi all, my lab is hoping for help getting this classic running - from the screenshot, you can see it gets stuck at "waiting for Printing Services" on boot. I'm a PC/Linux person primarily so troubleshooting this is going to be foreign / a big learning experience for me.

Things I have done/found: got into single user mode and found an error with fsck: 'Incorrect block count for file mach.sym (it should be 140 instead of 45)' 'volume check failed'

burned some OSX 10.3 install cd isos (in windows using transmac) and found it won't boot to cd (nothing shows up in the boot selector menu except the hdd with osx). The cd drive opens and closes and I can hear it do a tentative spin when powering the system, so it's not completely dead (but unknown if it can read media).

Any tips? We'd like to give it new life - but it's hard to figure out what to do with what seems to be a corrupted file system on hdd and it won't read my cd!

 

[ifrit05]

You could try to restore the image to a USB stick with TransMac, or try to burn the .iso file using Windows native .iso burner app. Other than that you're kinda out of luck without another Mac to use. I would also look into replacing the hard drive.

 

[xantufrog]

You could try to restore the image to a USB stick with TransMac, or try to burn the .iso file using Windows native .iso burner app. Other than that you're kinda out of luck without another Mac to use. I would also look into replacing the hard drive.

I can get it to boot to a USB image? I thought a Mac of this era didn't have that ability. Would you mind sharing the process? Also, curious about the "other Mac option" -> can a working G4 restore this one in some way?

Thanks!

 

[ifrit05]

I can get it to boot to a USB image? I thought a Mac of this era didn't have that ability. Would you mind sharing the process? Also, curious about the "other Mac option" -> can a working G4 restore this one in some way?

Thanks!

Of course!

Every Mac that has USB is capable of booting through USB (despite reports stating otherwise). There are 2 options to do so.

The first is just holding down option to get to the boot-picker. If the drive was restored properly it should see the drive as if it was a CD (not to mention if the Mac is USB 2.0 it is much faster than installing from CD).

The second is a little more convoluted. If the drive does not appear in the boot-picker, you must boot into open firmware by holding option-command-O-F while booting. at the prompt, type boot usb0/disk@1:,\\tbxi or boot usb1/disk@1:,\\tbxi then return if the first command does not work.

NOTE: If using a PC keyboard, the option key is ALT, and the command key is the Windows key.

-----------------------------------

If using another Mac, you have a couple options. The first is to use a FireWire cable to connect the two together, then boot the G4 into FireWire Target Disk Mode by holding down the T key while booting. This makes the internal drive appear as an external drive on the other Mac, allowing you to Format/Diagnose it.

The other option is to remove the hard drive then connect it to the other Mac through USB to diagnose it.

You can also use Disk Utility to restore the .iso/.dmg/.cdr to a USB drive or burn it to disc. This way you're actually using the built in native Mac OS X utilities to restore the image, making it more compatible.

 

[xantufrog]

Of course!

Every Mac that has USB is capable of booting through USB (despite reports stating otherwise). There are 2 options to do so.

The first is just holding down option to get to the boot-picker. If the drive was restored properly it should see the drive as if it was a CD (not to mention if the Mac is USB 2.0 it is much faster than installing from CD).

The second is a little more convoluted. If the drive does not appear in the boot-picker, you must boot into open firmware by holding option-command-O-F while booting. at the prompt, type boot usb0/disk@1:,\\tbxi or boot usb1/disk@1:,\\tbxi then return if the first command does not work.

NOTE: If using a PC keyboard, the option key is ALT, and the command key is the Windows key.

-----------------------------------

If using another Mac, you have a couple options. The first is to use a FireWire cable to connect the two together, then boot the G4 into FireWire Target Disk Mode by holding down the T key while booting. This makes the internal drive appear as an external drive on the other Mac, allowing you to Format/Diagnose it.

The other option is to remove the hard drive then connect it to the other Mac through USB to diagnose it.

You can also use Disk Utility to restore the .iso/.dmg/.cdr to a USB drive or burn it to disc. This way you're actually using the built in native Mac OS X utilities to restore the image, making it more compatible.

This is amazing help, thank you so much! I'll give the USB a try, and then see if I can rescue it from another Mac if no luck!

 

[xantufrog]

Of course!

Every Mac that has USB is capable of booting through USB (despite reports stating otherwise). There are 2 options to do so.

The first is just holding down option to get to the boot-picker. If the drive was restored properly it should see the drive as if it was a CD (not to mention if the Mac is USB 2.0 it is much faster than installing from CD).

The second is a little more convoluted. If the drive does not appear in the boot-picker, you must boot into open firmware by holding option-command-O-F while booting. at the prompt, type boot usb0/disk@1:,\\tbxi or boot usb1/disk@1:,\\tbxi then return if the first command does not work.

NOTE: If using a PC keyboard, the option key is ALT, and the command key is the Windows key.

-----------------------------------

If using another Mac, you have a couple options. The first is to use a FireWire cable to connect the two together, then boot the G4 into FireWire Target Disk Mode by holding down the T key while booting. This makes the internal drive appear as an external drive on the other Mac, allowing you to Format/Diagnose it.

The other option is to remove the hard drive then connect it to the other Mac through USB to diagnose it.

You can also use Disk Utility to restore the .iso/.dmg/.cdr to a USB drive or burn it to disc. This way you're actually using the built in native Mac OS X utilities to restore the image, making it more compatible.

Well, following your guidance and the info I found in post #3 here (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/booting-from-a-usb-drive-on-a-powerpc.2281823/) I was able to get it to execute boot on BootX, but it seems to just spin the little progress wheel under the apple symbol indefinitely, so I'm not sure I created bootable media successfully. I'll try a few more images from the web in case this one is bad

 

[ifrit05]

Well, following your guidance and the info I found in post #3 here (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/booting-from-a-usb-drive-on-a-powerpc.2281823/) I was able to get it to execute boot on BootX, but it seems to just spin the little progress wheel under the apple symbol indefinitely, so I'm not sure I created bootable media successfully. I'll try a few more images from the web in case this one is bad

Once you press enter in Open Firmware, immediatly hold down command and V to enable verbose mode, should give you more info on what it stops on. (Command=Windows key on PC keyboards)

 

[xantufrog]

That didn't seem to work, not sure why. I managed to get my hands on this fellow, so my plan is to use it as the parent to rebuild the other one. Got a FireWire cable on the way. Once I mount the old computer on this one as a target drive, what do I need to do to flash a bootable disk on it from this one? Is there a special "clone" option?

 

[ifrit05]

On the parent or host/working Mac, you can use Disk Utility to "Restore" the first install CD to a partition on the target Mac, then create another partition to use as the install destination. Unmount/Eject the target Mac, then reboot it. Hold option/ALT to get to the boot-picker, and it should see the install CD from the first partition you made. At the install section it should she the other partition you made as well, but make sure you customize the install and only choose Base System and BSD Subsystem, otherwise it will need the other discs.

Fun fact: I do this with all my old Macs, I like to think of it as a pseudo recovery partition.

 

[xantufrog]

It lives! There's something sweet about using one iMac to rescue another over FireWire


Now to figure out why its DVD drive doesn't read (it opens and closes fine now). These two are quite the old pair... this old one has a non-functioning DVD drive and one busted USB port, while its savior has the quietest speaker imaginable and its internal mic doesn't show up

 

[xantufrog]

A tale with a happy ending - iMac G4 rescue kit: new battery, new DVD burner, SSD upgrade, and a fresh install of Sorbet Leopard.

 

[retta283]

It lives! There's something sweet about using one iMac to rescue another over FireWire

That's the real dual G4, love to see it. I had two iMac G4s at a job once and it was the neatest looking setup I've ever had. Glad that you were able to breathe some new life into one of these.

 

[xantufrog]

That's the real dual G4, love to see it. I had two iMac G4s at a job once and it was the neatest looking setup I've ever had. Glad that you were able to breathe some new life into one of these.

I’ll probably sell the stock one and just keep the one I rescued with blood sweat and tears, but they do make a fine pair!