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Help with iMac G3 strawberry running OS 9?

A

ashuriiusagi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2013
10
0
I found a dumped imac g3 strawberry in our neighbourhood. With a new cord, it works however I would like to install a faster operating system on it and am coming up with a few problems.

First of all, obviously I have no admin rights. This imac looks like it used to belong to a school and then someone must have bought/was given it and has their own account also. (Shouldn't the school have wiped all the data off of it before handing it to someone else???) I have no idea how to get admin rights and so far everything I have googled has not worked (eg: will not boot into single user mode... Don't know if I am using the wrong keys considering I am using a pc's keyboard with it) How do I gain admin rights?

Do I need admin rights to install a new operating system? -panther or jaguar. I haven't chosen yet. If anyone could help me out I would be grateful thank you.
 
Sorry, I probably need to figure out how to get past admin rights before installing anything. I have copies of panther and jaguar and neither of them will boot... Unless they are crap copies or something, I am not sure but waiting for them to boot themselves or holding down "c" does not work. Can anyone tell me how to bypass the admin rights?
 
You need to go to /System Folder/Preferences
Delete the Multiple Users preferences file
Restart

The trouble is you need a mac os boot disk....
-i wonder if a old g3 would boot from system 7? (even though imac G3 first os was os 8.1)

you can dl system 7 from apple here
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

-another option might be dl a ppc version of linux and delete users from it?

-personally i would load it with ram and run Tiger
 
tom vilsack said:
You need to go to /System Folder/Preferences
Delete the Multiple Users preferences file
Restart

The trouble is you need a mac os boot disk....
-i wonder if a old g3 would boot from system 7? (even though imac G3 first os was os 8.1)

you can dl system 7 from apple here
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

-another option might be dl a ppc version of linux and delete users from it?

-personally i would load it with ram and run Tiger
Click to expand...

A G3 will not boot from System 7.

I've found that when using a Windows KB the Windows Key = Command, Alt = Option and Ctrl = Control.

If there is no open firmware password you should be able to select your boot drive by holding option and in most cases just holding C should boot to the optical drive but for some reason that isn't working for you.
 
MisterKeeks said:
You repeatedly state that Tiger is dead, but have no evidence to back it up.
Click to expand...

It is, trust me tiger is dead for my uses


Omniweb won't load facebook

tenfourfox won't load facebook

safari is just a trainwreck at this point

Camino is unsupported Garbage

And thats why tiger as a main os will never work

just like panther last year tiger is now dead to me

10.5 is on life support until next year thou
 
apunkrockmonk said:
A G3 will not boot from System 7.
Click to expand...

I've gotten Mac OS 7.5.5 running on an upgraded G3 and a G4 machine before.

Lil Chillbil said:
It is, trust me tiger is dead for my uses


Omniweb won't load facebook

tenfourfox won't load facebook

safari is just a trainwreck at this point

Camino is unsupported Garbage

And thats why tiger as a main os will never work

just like panther last year tiger is now dead to me

10.5 is on life support until next year thou
Click to expand...

Tiger may be dead to you, but there's a lot of PowerPC users that still use it. Facebook work fine for me on my old G3 iMac and Tenfourfox. Tiger's Tenfourfox and Leopard's Tenfourfox are the exact same. If Leopard's can do it, so can Tiger's. That is excluding CPU dependent features. If you're using Facebook to gauge an operating system's life, then Windows 98 must still be alive because it can do Facebook just fine with KernelEx and Firefox 14. Still, using just one website to judge something is not a good system of judgement.
 
Intell said:
I've gotten Mac OS 7.5.5 running on an upgraded G3 and a G4 machine before.



Tiger may be dead to you, but there's a lot of PowerPC users that still use it. Facebook work fine for me on my old G3 iMac and Tenfourfox. Tiger's Tenfourfox and Leopard's Tenfourfox are the exact same. If Leopard's can do it, so can Tiger's. That is excluding CPU dependent features. If you're using Facebook to gauge an operating system's life, then Windows 98 must still be alive because it can do Facebook just fine with KernelEx and Firefox 14. Still, using just one website to judge something is not a good system of judgement.
Click to expand...

TenfourFox is slow as ***** and I understand that this was an unfair trial

this was running on a machine with the following specs


1Ghz Dual Processor Quicksilver g4
1.5gb of Ram
Radeon 9200 128mb


This machine is great for light browsing and or handbrake and video editing sessions (which is what I use it for) but for heavy script based browsing its about as useless as a rock

But my quicksilver shall remain in use for many years to come as a server/Finalcutpro editing rig

twiggy.jpg
 
apunkrockmonk said:
I'm assuming you had to modify it in some way?

I was under the impression that 7.x didn't support the G3 or G4 architecture.

I thought 8.1 was the minimum.
Click to expand...

All I did was swap out my 8600's 604 with a G3 and it booted into the original 7.5.5 OS. I was very surprised. It wasn't overly stable and crashed with a system error after about 5 minutes. It lasted only about to the desktop with a G4 in it.
 
Okay, first of all, I'm not phased if I can't access "Facebook" of all things on my imac. I have other devices to not do that with.

What I am aiming for is to wipe the imac entirely and have a fresh new osx operating system of some kind on it first, however it will not load any mac operating system on it, I have tried holding down "c", Heck, I have tried all kinds of commands with various osx install disks but the same thing keeps coming up: folder with a question mark, which then turns into a finder face, which then boots up back into the os 9 operating system. I can't figure out wether this is because the cd drive doesn't work or the permissions are set so I can't because it is was a schools computer at some point or the disks I have with osx's on them don't work or ALL OF THE ABOVE?!?!? ARGH! The only account I have access to is a student account that doesn't allow me much leg room to alter things or play around with settings. This is my dilemma.

I would even consider installing a version of linux on it at some stage, but I was hoping to try installing a fresh mac osx first.

Hopefully this narrows things down a bit. Anyone else with an answer please?

----------

Tom, is there a linux version you would recommend to use to delete the users accounts with? -and is there a way to do this without stuffing the current os up? (I have done this before on winxp and somehow managed to delete the wireless driver or something with it >.< derp)
 
I have used Lubuntu on a number of old ppc with good success...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu

-What version of osx are you trying to load? (strawberry max without work around i believe was panther 10.3.9?)
-Are the osx cd your using burned copies (sometimes these can have issues working in certain older ppc)
-Have you tried holding down "alt" and then picking the cd drive?
 
Judging from symptoms, it's most likely Open Firmware password protected.
I've seen it often in Macs bought from educational institutions.
How to get rid of it (force method):
http://www.securemac.com/openfirmwarepasswordprotection.php

Lil Chillbil said:
Omniweb won't load facebook

tenfourfox won't load facebook

safari is just a trainwreck at this point

Camino is unsupported Garbage

And thats why tiger as a main os will never work
Click to expand...

It's the end of the world :p
 
Tom - I was trying to install panther or jaguar. Both are copies so I can't validate whether they actually work or not (I'm not willing to check on my macbook o_O eeep!). They are burnt onto cd-r disks... Which I assumed would be fine but maybe not. Two more dilemmas! I have tried holding down alt as well as the c key. I even tried using the other keys to see if I was holding down the wrong key (being a pc keyboard it confused me. derp.) but with no luck.

I might just try booting lubuntu and seeing how that goes before I tackle anything like the open firmware password protection 666sheep suggests (The website you lead me to says that doing so might wreck the imac's logic board:confused:). I would hate to wreck it. It is really a nice find, I mean seriously, who just dumps an imac let alone a pink one??? eiii!
 
If there's OF password enabled you won't be able to boot from ODD, network or any other volume than you're now.

You should try only "Force Removing..." method from link I posted. It won't harm your logic board.
 
Your other option with OF passwords (as mentioned above I think) is to change the amount of memory in the system (either upgrade it, or downgrade it by pulling one of the sticks of memory)
 
MisterKeeks said:
You repeatedly state that Tiger is dead, but have no evidence to back it up.
Click to expand...

Something is dead when there is no support and/or updates for it. I don't know the story with Tiger, but MrKeeks says it's still up and well.

Btw, Apple still own copyright on Tiger. The only OS they released to the public is OS9 i think with the NetBoot service. And that's more like a system folder for classic emulation.
 
MrPilot said:
Btw, Apple still own copyright on Tiger. The only OS they released to the public is OS9 i think with the NetBoot service. And that's more like a system folder for classic emulation.
Click to expand...

Apple hasn't put OS 9 up for public download yet. Only Mac OS 7.5.3 floppy images.
 
Intell said:
Apple hasn't put OS 9 up for public download yet. Only Mac OS 7.5.3 floppy images.
Click to expand...

Sorry wasn't aware that OS7 was out there for free.
Regarding OS9 it was more like netboot service rather than a full-on OS. It seemed as they had allowed os9 system folder to reside in the netboot image file from apple. I could (and I usually am) be mistaken :)
 
666sheep: I finally got around to trying to reset the firmware password. According to the imacs firmware, there was no password in place to begin with... The imac still won't boot from any cd I use, including lubuntu as suggested by Tom, even using the firmware's interface. It just says "Can't open cd". I am running out of ideas. So far this imac is turning out to be just a retro paper weight = still cool, but utterly useless.
 
-Correction, It does have a password because I can't get into single user mode but it is not letting me reset it. From what I have read online, I might be able to reset it by pulling out the ram and inserting it back in but I would rather that be a last resort for the moment... Is there anything else I can do at this point?
 
That sounds like a good idea. I'm just not keen on pulling it apart... It looks like it is my only option at this point. I do have a manual on how to take it apart though. How though would I go about installing a mac os on an "external" hard drive? I have done this with linux mint on hdd I took out of an old laptop but I don't want to risk accidentally installing panther or something on my macbook running mountain lion. Forgive me if this sounds dumb.
 
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