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G4 Cube OS 9 Issues

Z

zackkmac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 7, 2008
880
129
Denver
Hi all. I am trying to get OS 9 onto my Cube so I can install the firmware update necessary for CPU upgrades. But I'm having issues.

First off, the DVD-ROM drive no longer works. So I can't use my OS 9 CD to install it that way. And my QS won't run this CD (software is older than what it came with) so I cannot install it from there either.

So then I bought a hard drive off eBay equipped with OS 9.2, which is supposedly the first OS Cubes came equipped with. Thought that would work, but apparently not. I have put it in my QS and even though it won't boot it since it's 9.2 and not 9.2.2, it sees it just fine when I am in OS X and I can use it for Classic and whatever else. So I know it has a valid OS 9 install on it.

But no matter what jumper setting I have the drive set on, the Cube gives me the flashing question mark screen. If I have it set to Cable Select or Slave, it will sit at a blank gray screen for 5 minutes then show the flashing question mark.

I've reset the PRAM. Is there anything else I can do? At this point I am nearly done trying to upgrade PowerPCs and especially this Cube. :(
 
zackkmac said:
Hi all. I am trying to get OS 9 onto my Cube so I can install the firmware update necessary for CPU upgrades. But I'm having issues.

First off, the DVD-ROM drive no longer works. So I can't use my OS 9 CD to install it that way. And my QS won't run this CD (software is older than what it came with) so I cannot install it from there either.

So then I bought a hard drive off eBay equipped with OS 9.2, which is supposedly the first OS Cubes came equipped with. Thought that would work, but apparently not. I have put it in my QS and even though it won't boot it since it's 9.2 and not 9.2.2, it sees it just fine when I am in OS X and I can use it for Classic and whatever else. So I know it has a valid OS 9 install on it.

But no matter what jumper setting I have the drive set on, the Cube gives me the flashing question mark screen. If I have it set to Cable Select or Slave, it will sit at a blank gray screen for 5 minutes then show the flashing question mark.

I've reset the PRAM. Is there anything else I can do? At this point I am nearly done trying to upgrade PowerPCs and especially this Cube. :(
Click to expand...
What if you put the QS in TDM (Target Disk Mode), and put the disk in the drive of the QS? The Cube should be able to mount it. Then just install from there.

BTW, Mactracker says that 9.0.4 was the first version for the Cube with CD and 9.1 for the Cube with DVD.
 
eyoungren said:
What if you put the QS in TDM (Target Disk Mode), and put the disk in the drive of the QS? The Cube should be able to mount it. Then just install from there.

BTW, Mactracker says that 9.0.4 was the first version for the Cube with CD and 9.1 for the Cube with DVD.
Click to expand...

I haven't thought of that...I'll give it a shot. :) But, wait. Don't I need to run the firmware patch from an internal drive, so it'll write the firmware to the Cube and not the QS?

And thanks! Either way, that means the Cube should still be able to boot this version of OS 9. The only thing I could think of before posting here was that maybe OS 9.2 was too early for this Cube too but now I see it shouldn't be.
 
Well never mind my question, I guess since the cube is the one running the TDM boot it would flash itself. Or at least I hope.

But so far I cannot get it to do anything in TDM. It just sits there with the ticking watch which never goes away...

What jumper setting should I set this drive to when it's in my QS as a second drive?
 
marioman38 said:
It won't write the firmware to the QS. Its just reading the disk in the QS drive, that is it.
Click to expand...

Good. Now to just get it to actually see the drive. Maybe this OS 9.2 installation isn't bootable?

When I first put it in my QS today, it gave me the circle with slash symbol which I'm pretty sure means the software is bootable, but the version is too old for the computer.

But now I can't get the QS to do that again and I cannot get the Cube to see it in TDM. Or even get the ticking watch to go away. It's probably all due to jumper settings because I can't tell what my current working main HD in my QS is set to.
 
You can use laptop drive or other.

Well if you have a long enough IDE cable to reach out side the curb and a power cord to extend you can use your quicksilvers CD-ROM drive for the cube.

Going to cubeowner.com you can read on how to use laptop drives as a replacement, which I have done, now I have a DVD writer from a dead G5 in there and it plays DVDs. I also have a 120 gig Hard drive so I did not have to mess with partitioning. I have a cube install disk that is OS 9 if you need to borrow it.
 
Put your Quicksilver in Target Disk Mode and connect it to the Cube. Disconnect all of the Quicksilver's internal hard drives first and put in the OS 9 CD. Then install OS 9 on to the Cube's internal hard drive when booted from the Quicksilver's optical drive on the Cube.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. :) Intell, I did try your TDM method as well but again the Cube never saw anything.

BUT I did manage to get OS 9.2.2 on it finally. The hard drive I bought did indeed have 9.2.2 on it (and seemed to be from another Cube), and all I did was put it in my QS as a secondary drive, booted into OS X and chose the OS 9 HD as the startup disk. I believe that properly "blessed" the System Folder because after that it became a recognizable OS and the QS booted into it (but always froze at startup, probably due to the Sonnet CPU).

So I put the newly-blessed hard drive back into the Cube set as master and it worked. :) And it even had the 4.1.9 firmware update installer already on the drive! As of today the Cube is now running at 1.6GHz and I will be installing Leopard soon.

Really appreciate the help from all of you!
 
Last edited:
The 4.1.9 firmware could have been the problem with your Cube. I know with mine it had trouble with Target Disk Mode with the stock firmware. The 4.1.9 update fixed it.
 
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