Install OS9/OSX from USB?

[r6mile]

Hi all,
I finally have my G4 MDD, and have installed an SSD. For some reason my iMac keeps spitting out my blank media so I might have an issue with my superdrive.

Is it possible to install OS9 and/or OSX from a USB drive? I have tried with OS9 so far, downloaded the iso from Macintosh Garden. I tried to create a bootable USB install using Catalina Disk Utility, but it couldn't verify the image or something so I used Balena Etcher (which I've had luck with in the past) to make the bootable USB.

However, the Mac didn't see the OS9 USB as a bootable device on the boot menu pressing Alt. I have tried to follow this guide using Open Firmware commands.- http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20101011105729488 - but I get a 'can't OPEN the DIR device' error. I know these machines can boot from USB so is there a way of doing this?

 

[AphoticD]

There are plenty of resources on here for getting OSX to boot from USB. Try following some of the tips and tricks in these threads;

PowerPC G5 install OS X assist

Your G5 will boot from any Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 retail DVD. The minimum OS for your model G5 was 10.3.4. You do not require a pre-installed system of any kind. (Assuming your MacBook Air is running a more recent OS such as 10.11 El Capitan or later, otherwise the Disk Utility instructions are...

forums.macrumors.com

Boot G5 From USB?

forums.macrumors.com

The Open Firmware Wiki

I'd just like to chime in here really quick. iBooks / Powerbooks manufactured before 2005 will not assign the devalias 'ud' to a bootable flash disk. Machines manufactured prior to 2005 will boot a Yaboot boot loader Linux image with boot usb0/disk@1:,\\yaboot or boot usb1/disk@1:,\\yaboot And...

forums.macrumors.com

Booting Power Mac G5 from external disc drive

The USB drive will be the usb@b/disk@2 device. So it should then be the same as your G4s. Get the USB device alias with `devalias` e.g. "usb0", then boot with something like; `boot usb0/disk@2,\\:tbxi` Most Mac boot discs will load from partition 3, so "usb0/disk@2:3" Play around with a few...

forums.macrumors.com

Trouble Installing Leopard (10.5) via USB

I don't think the 12" PowerBook had the ability to boot from a USB drive at the multi-boot screen. You could try dropping into Open Firmware by holding command-option-O-F at boot then; dev / ls - to show a list of devices You should see one of your usb devices (probably on the second page...

forums.macrumors.com

I would recommend using a Tiger .iso to boot from, then use Disk Utility to partition and format your SSD. Choose the "Install OS 9 Drivers" option when partitioning. (I don't think this option is available in Leopard's Disk Utility)

Once OS X is installed, you can install OS 9 by dragging and dropping the "System Folder" and "Applications (Mac OS 9)" from an OS 9 install image into the root of your boot drive. I would use the MacOS9Lives Universal OS 9.2.2 restore image file found on the iso - mount the restore image file to access these folders.

You can then start your installed OS 9 system by going into Classic Preferences (which will only appear when your system finds an OS 9 System Folder). Once you have confirmed OS 9 starts up OK in the Classic Environment then you should be able to reboot into OS 9 using the Startup Disk preference pane.

 

[r6mile]

Thank you very much, I've managed to boot from both OS9 and OS 10.4 USBs now using Open Firmware: boot usb1/disk@1:3,\\:tbxi was the command that did it.

My MDD is the FW800 model which is unofficially unsupported on OS 9; there is a MacOS9lives image for this unsupported machine, but I get the floppy disk with a question mark when I boot onto it. The Tiger USB also doesn't show the 'install OS 9 drivers' option in disk utility for my SSD (though weirdly, the checkbox appears if I select the USB drive). Thankfully I have a FW400 MDD as well (which is supported), so I have plugged the hard drive into it, and am seeing now whether I can at least install the OS 9 drivers onto it using the Tiger USB.

PS: I had forgotten how slow USB 1.1 is! Loading the install USB from the machine is interminable...

 

[r6mile]

Help please! I used the FW400 MDD and managed to boot Tiger from a USB and get to the disk utility. The SSD showed up and I selected to format the drive with a series of partitions, checking the 'Install OS 9 drivers' box. However, disk utility hung up at 'Creating Partition Map': this should usually be a few seconds but it had been over an hour. So after googling this issue (which others seems to have had) I stopped the process and turned off the machine. However, when I went to try again the drive no longer showed up on Disk Utility, either on the FW400 or the FW800 MDDs.

The disk does however show up on Open Firmware, at least I think so: when I type devalias there is an entry which goes
hd /pci@4000000/ata-6@d/disk@0

Have bricked this drive like an idiot? Can I salvage it?

Thanks!

EDIT: Weirdly, the same things seems to be happening with an old 2.5 laptop IDE drive I had lying around. I am using a 2.5 - 3.5 IDE adapter cable - could the cable have gone bad?

 

[AphoticD]

It could be the cable. Is it known to work otherwise?

Can you try setting the drive’s master/slave jumper pins instead of using cable select? Also, try the SSD on the optical drive’s IDE bus instead.

I don’t think you have bricked the SSD. It should be ok to reformat on another Mac or PC.

If you transfer the SSD into your FW400 MDD, do you get the same issues?

 

[Amethyst1]

EDIT: Weirdly, the same things seems to be happening with an old 2.5 laptop IDE drive I had lying around. I am using a 2.5 - 3.5 IDE adapter cable - could the cable have gone bad?

If it happens on more than one machine I'd suspect the cable. Does the hard drive at least spin up?

 

[r6mile]

The issue has happened with both machines. Plugging into the optical drive IDE doesn't seem to have made a difference.
Perhaps it is the cable then - @AphoticD I have only used the cable briefly today, I only just received from eBay. It is strange that this issue only happened after this Disk Utility issue, but maybe that did something to it?

@Amethyst1 I'm not sure if it spins up as it's a quiet SSD! I will have to try listening more closely (difficult when the rest of the computer is so loud!)

I have flagged it to the eBay seller as faulty anyway, hopefully I can get a replacement. The annoying thing with the cable is it doesn't have that 'missing' slot for the pins, so I had to try plugging it a few different ways to get it to work the first time! I haven't used IDE drives in a while, really makes you realise how much of a step up SATA was, even just in the connectors! Silly little bendy pins...

EDIT: Update - the drive now shows up in the system profiler. But nothing in Disk Utility - do you have any advice?

 

[Amethyst1]

@Amethyst1 I'm not sure if it spins up as it's a quiet SSD! I will have to try listening more closely (difficult when the rest of the computer is so loud!)

There are no moving parts in an SSD - I meant to check this with the old HDD you mentioned you had. You can put your finger on the drive to feel the vibration caused by the motor.
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The annoying thing with the cable is it doesn't have that 'missing' slot for the pins, so I had to try plugging it a few different ways to get it to work the first time!

Uh-oh. Does that mean the cable also fits "upside down" at the end that plugs into the mSATAtoIDE? That is dangerous because some pins carry 5V DC, and plugging it in upside down could possibly fry something when power is turned on. I feel really bad now as I naively pointed you to this cable!
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EDIT: Update - the drive now shows up in the system profiler.

Can you try hooking up the SSD to a native mSATA system, just to check that it's still okay and it's the fault of the adapter or the wretched cable?

Sorry sorry sorry!

 

[r6mile]

There are no moving parts in an SSD - I meant to check this with the old HDD you mentioned you had. You can put your finger on the drive to feel the vibration caused by the motor.
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Uh-oh. Does that mean the cable also fits "upside down" at the end that plugs into the SSD? That is dangerous because some pins carry 5V DC, and plugging it in upside down could possibly fry something when power is turned on. I feel really bad now as I naively pointed you to this cable!
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Can you try hooking up the SSD to a native SATA system, just to check that it's still okay and it's the fault of the adapter or the wretched cable?

Sorry sorry sorry!

Yes the cable fits in all directions annoyingly! I haven't heard (or 'smelt') anything fry so I don't think that's done any damage.
But don't worry! None of these parts are expensive, hopefully there is a resolution somewhere. I don't have another adapter to check the mSATA drive on another computer unfortunately. I've tried booting in single-user mode on both machines (to run fsck) but nothing happens.
The cable appears fine though as I have just tried again with the spinner 2.5 and it is detected in Disk utility.

 

[Amethyst1]

Can you post a picture of System Profiler's details on the SSD?

 

[r6mile]

The drive has magically reappeared again on Disk Utility! I will try the partitioning again - wish me luck! I think I will just let it do its thing this time...

 

[Amethyst1]

Let's hope it's reliable after all. Nothing more annoying than something which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

 

[Amethyst1]

Which mSATA-to-IDE adapter are you using, by the way?

 

[r6mile]

This one from eBay -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401929781050

It's possible it's just not a very good one. Let's see...

 

[r6mile]

Now my old IDE spinner is showing up on Disk Utility but I get input/output error when trying to format it on disk utility. So either this drive is bad (could be, it's 15 years old), or the 2.5-3.5 IDE cable also. What a nightmare!
I've got a 2.5 SATA - 3.5 IDE connector arriving shortly, hopefully I'll have better luck trying to connect one of my old 2.5 SATA drives...

 

[AphoticD]

I haven’t tried 2.5” to 3.5” IDE adapter cables, but have had success with SATA to 3.5” IDE in my PowerMac G4s. So maybe try an mSATA To SATA adapter then adapt to 3.5” IDE with power from Molex.

 

[r6mile]

I got the seller to send me a different adapter, and it worked! Reassuringly, it was a cable issue then and not a disk one.
This sort of thing - which plugs straight into the existing 3.5 cable, and also makes it impossible to plug the cable the wrong way around. To keep in mind if anyone is trying to plugin a 2.5 drive into a 3.5 cable!

 

[Amethyst1]

Great to hear that - and sorry for having pointed you to the non-working cable first.

 

[r6mile]

Great to hear that - and sorry for having pointed you to the non-working cable first.

Not your fault! I probably would have bought the same one first - it's the first one that comes up on eBay, and I only found that adapter because I looked through the seller's other listings. All's well that ends well! Machine is installing Tiger as we speak

 

[r6mile]

Follow up question guys - I have Tiger and Leopard running, still working on getting the unsupported OS9 installed, but when I press Alt at boot I see my Tiger and Leopard installs but for some reason the keyboard and mouse are not responding on that screen. Clearly they are getting picked up at boot (because I can press Alt), and Open Firmware is loading fine. But any idea why specifically at the boot selection the keyboard goes away?