Fresh Install 10.3 On Vintage iBook G4

[kgranger111]

I picked up an iBook G4 (Early 2004) from a second hand store, turns on to the flashing folder icon, so I want to get a fresh install of 10.3 (assuming the drive isn't completely failing). Avoiding the need to find the old installer CDs on eBay, I am trying to create a USB bootable installer, but I am having a lot of trouble. I can't find much information on whether or not this is even possible, so I am just going off methods I've used on modern macOS installers via Restore in Disk Utility. I found ISO files of each of the installer discs online, so I am mounting these and trying to use the mounted disk image as the source, with the formatted USB as the destination. I get the error "Source volume is read-write and cannot be unmounted, so it can't be block copied".

Has anyone tried to do this before with any luck? Should I just get the dang CDs? I swear my nostalgia to see Panther again is strong enough to give me tremendous patience in figuring this out.

 

[chscag]

Avoiding the need to find the old installer CDs on eBay, I am trying to create a USB bootable installer, but I am having a lot of trouble. I can't find much information on whether or not this is even possible, so I am just going off methods I've used on modern macOS installers via Restore in Disk Utility.

An iBook G4 will not boot from USB. It may be possible to boot it from a FW drive depending on the speed of the drive.

You may be better off picking up a Panther CD on eBay.

 

[kgranger111]

I’ve been referencing this write up: https://demonicsweaters.com/2019/06/booting-a-vintage-ibook-g4-from-a-usb-flash-drive/

Although I haven’t tested this yet, as they didn’t give any insight in the actual creation of the installer. Do you see any validity to it?

 

[Amethyst1]

An iBook G4 will not boot from USB.

It will even though this capability wasn't publicised. Furthermore, USB drives will not show in the boot picker so you have to enter OpenFirmware commands to boot from USB. With that being said, I don't know if 10.3 contains the drivers necessary to boot from USB. 10.2 does not IIRC; 10.4 and later versions definitely do.

I picked up an iBook G4 (Early 2004) from a second hand store, turns on to the flashing folder icon, so I want to get a fresh install of 10.3 (assuming the drive isn't completely failing). [...]

The Late 2004 iBook G4 came with 10.3.5 so a retail 10.3 (that is, 10.3.0) disc/iso may not boot. Here's an image of the proper 10.3.5 restore disc. In any case, I'd try using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to restore the mounted image to a USB drive. The current Disk Utility is beyond useless for this kind of thing.

 

[kgranger111]

Here's an image of the proper 10.3.5 restore disc.

I’m only seeing Disc 1 for this build on that site. Did this installation need all 3 discs or just the first one?

 

[Amethyst1]

I’m only seeing Disc 1 for this build on that site. Did this installation need all 3 discs or just the first one?

This is a DVD and contains the full OS (which originally came on three CDs) plus additional applications; deselecting these should allow installing without the need for the second DVD.