imac G3 boot problem

[Henry001]

Hi guys,
I bought an imac G3, created a new admin account, and deleted the original admin account. Computer hangs with "init: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory"

I have a red OS9 CD, but the imac won't boot from the CD.

Tried option-ctrl-O-F, nvram-delete, [set-default hangs], and reset-all.

Any advice for me to try?

Thanks, Henry.

 

[zaney]

I recently got an iMac G3 too, although I can't say I've seen this problem. I've had a few times where it wouldn't boot from the cd, and it turned out that a harddrive I'd just installed was somehow conflicting with the CD drive.

Have you got a CD version of OS X to try booting from? Or even System 7, which I seem to recall is now available for free (not to install obviously, but just to check that it will boot).

EDIT: Looking at your error again, it says theres no such file as /bin/sh. Which, frankly, is a pretty serious problem if your shell has gone walkies. I can see why it would have gone though, just from changing accounts.

 

[Henry001]

Thanks Zaney. Based on my experience with PC's, I'm probably headed to a Mac service guy, as I can't figure how to boot from CD.

 

[zaney]

Just hold down C on the keyboard as you turn it on.