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Help me to install OS on Imac G4

A

asifnaz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 3, 2010
129
4
I have Imac G4 with 512 MB Ram and 80 GB Hard disk . First of all its optical drive (generic non-apple) is stuck and it would not come out . Second what latest Mac OS I can install on it . Third ,from where I can download Mac OS for free (I cant find it anywhere in my country so its legal here and its hobby and experiment machine anyway)

Please help
 
Most of us would suggest you start out with OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Hold Cmd (Apple) + Shft + O + F at the chime. You will boot into a black text on white background console. Type "eject cd" (no quotes). If that doesn't eject your drive, you will probably need to consider replacing it.

Alternatively, hold the left mouse button down while the machine chimes. That will also eject the drive.

If you can't get the drive working, don't have another PowerPC Mac, or don't have a spare FireWire cable, flash the disk image to an MBR-formatted USB drive. Then see if the system detects it when you hold down Opt (Alt) at the chime, which will present you with a list of bootable drives.
 
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Any iMac G4 can run Leopard, but additional steps have to be taken if it's a 700 or 800 MHz model. Wth only 512 MB of RAM, Leopard won't be a lot of fun, so I'd suggest to either upgrade the RAM to at least 1 GB - the more, the merrier - or run Tiger, which will also benefit greatly from more RAM.
 
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While Leopard is possible, I would advise Tiger until you get 1GB of ram in that thing.
With Tiger, use Camino and Arctic Fox as your web browsers.
 
Appleuser201 said:
With Tiger, use Camino and Arctic Fox as your web browsers.
Click to expand...

Camino cannot function as a primary web browser as it won't connect to most websites. Plus, Arctic Fox for PPC OS X is still experimental and highly buggy.

There was another option for Tiger specifically created to fill this void.
 
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What iMacG4 is it? (USB1 or USB2 version?)
Most is already said: Macintoshgarden as an os-source, tricks to eject the optical drive, Tiger as the "last" OSX to be installed without tricks, TenFourFox/TenFourFoxBox(osx) and Classilla-browsers(os9) ...
If you have another Mac with FireWire-socket and working optical drive, you might use that for booting / installing (by booting that other Mac in TargetDiskMode and connect both Macs via FireWire using the ALT-key on booting of the iMacG4)
You might get an external FireWire-optical-drive for booting / installation as well.
Don't know, if booting from an external USB-optical-drive does work - but presumably it's not working with USB1 or os9.
If you know the exact version of your iMacG4, then it might be possible to find an original install- or restore-medium to start with (or the iso-image) and run installation with the help of the "external" optical-drive solution mentioned above. A restore of the original software is the most convenient and original way to approach that machine (the early versions come with a dual-boot os9/osx&classic restore).
Mention: replacing the optical-drive is really tricky and needs repasting the heat-sink, after removing the bottom (info at iFixit).
 
Thank you all for great replies . I will check model and come here again
 
z970mp said:
Camino cannot function as a primary web browser as it won't connect to most websites. Plus, Arctic Fox for PPC OS X is still experimental and highly buggy.

There was another option for Tiger specifically created to fill this void.
Click to expand...
Camino is good for Google searching, and a lot of sites do load. Your the one who told me to give this browser another chance. Of course its shouldn't be a main browser, but it's a good one.
 
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This is the Imac G4 guys . Its ram is upgraded to 512 MB and it has generic optical drive .
1.jpeg
2.jpeg
3.jpeg
 
Appleuser201 said:
Camino is good for Google searching, and a lot of sites do load. Your the one who told me to give this browser another chance. Of course its shouldn't be a main browser, but it's a good one.
Click to expand...

Yes, it has a purpose, and it is useful for a lot of things. But that was still before AquaWeb existed, which has a lot more capability packed inside, thus is more fit for heavier browsing.

That's all I was saying.

@asifnaz Give that thing some TLC, will you? Magic erasers and paper towels w/ rubbing alcohol usually do a fine job.
 
z970mp said:
Yes, it has a purpose, and it is useful for a lot of things. But that was still before AquaWeb existed, which has a lot more capability packed inside, thus is more fit for heavier browsing.

That's all I was saying.

@asifnaz Give that thing some TLC, will you? Magic erasers and paper towels w/ rubbing alcohol usually do a fine job.
Click to expand...
I will clean the imac . I am looking for OS for it btw any help
 
z970mp said:
Yes, it has a purpose, and it is useful for a lot of things. But that was still before AquaWeb existed, which has a lot more capability packed inside, thus is more fit for heavier browsing.

That's all I was saying.

@asifnaz Give that thing some TLC, will you? Magic erasers and paper towels w/ rubbing alcohol usually do a fine job.
Click to expand...
Ive even known of people to use Camino on their modern macs, just because it's so fast for google searching and battery efficient. That browser should have never died off.
 
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As it looks, it's a USB2 model.
Dual-Boot os9 / Tiger&Classic will be the best to start with.
So have you got another Mac with FireWire-port and optical drive at hands? (Or maybe one of your friends?)
Then you could use that Mac's optical drive to start an installation-cd via FireWire on you iMacG4.
Maybe an USB-DVD-drive can be also used to to boot the iMacG4 via USB and installation disk. (@CooperBox might help to answer this question!)
 
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So this is your iMacG4:
(1) https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_1.0_15_fp.html

And this ought to be the Restore-Disk:
(2) https://www.macintoshrepository.org/16938-mac-os-x-10-2-7-imac-g4-flat-panel-late-2003-or-usb-2-0-

And these are OS X Installation-disk-images
(3) http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc

All you need is to download that software-install-DVD-iso (link 2), burn a working DVD, get an optical drive (internal, external-FireWire, Mac with DVD-drive and FireWire-socket (even an intel-Mac) - and maybe an external USB-DVD-drive might work too, which would be the easiest to get hands on).
Boot your iMacG4 while pressing the ALT-key.
Choose that Software-install-DVD for booting and installation and after less then 30 min you should have a working iMacG4 with the original system(s): os9 and OSX 10.2 Jaguar
Finally you may upgrade system to Panther or Tiger (3)

That is basically the easiest (=original) way to get your machine running.
 
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bobesch said:
As it looks, it's a USB2 model.
Dual-Boot os9 / Tiger&Classic will be the best to start with.
So have you got another Mac with FireWire-port and optical drive at hands? (Or maybe one of your friends?)
Then you could use that Mac's optical drive to start an installation-cd via FireWire on you iMacG4.
Maybe an USB-DVD-drive can be also used to to boot the iMacG4 via USB and installation disk. (@CooperBox might help to answer this question!)
Click to expand...
I was gonna suggest dual booting tiger and os9, didn't even know if it supported native os9 though. I always say, always dual boot os9 and OS X if your Mac supports native os9
 
That USB 2 model does not support OS9 native boot - only Classic mode. Maybe that's a good reason to go with Tiger.
 
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