Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Installing OSX on PowerBook G3 266

D

Droooooj

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 19, 2009
104
5
London, UK
I've found an old PowerBook - the PDQ model, which has no USB or Firewire.

I've upgraded it to OS 9.2 and want to get upgrade it to OSX (1.0 for now) but either the CD drive is broken, or the OSX installer CD I have is formatted in a way that OS 9 can't read, as every time I insert the disc it says it needs formatting and won't read it.

I tried copying the contents of the OSX installer CD over to the PowerBook via an AFP network from my MacBook Pro, but it wouldn't copy the system files (said they were either locked or had filenames which OS 9 didn't understand).

I was hoping the PowerBook drive would be formattable/installable over the network from my MacBook, but although I could see the machine on my OSX desktop, it didn't show up in Disk Utility, so I guess that option is for Firewire connection only? (which I don't have)

I'm not sure any of this would work anyway as the installer.app on that CD wouldn't run under OS 9 anyway!

Anyone able to help me achieve this OSX install - OS 9 seems so long ago I can't even remember what all the compatibility issues were at the time, so I'm struggling to even understand what my problem is! :/

Could I take the EIDE/ATA-2 out of the PowerBook and pop it in an enclosure and get my MacBook to reformat it/clean install OSX, and then pop it back in the MacBook? Would that work?
 
Last edited:
The HD is 4Gb, but annoyingly partitioned into 4 parts (unequally). I think the biggest partition is 2Gb.

From my research so far the first iteration of OSX needed only 1.5Gb (or 800 MB for a minimal install) so I think I'm alright on that front.

I've just been reading Roderick Usher's similar thread (https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/145/) and someone there suggested using a PCMCIA adapter and CF Card. I think I have one of these in storage for my Amiga - would this particular device work on my MacBook?
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=440

If so could I fool the Macbook into thinking the CF card was a bootable CD?
(I think I know the answer to that already. :D )
 
Have you tried booting directly into the OS X installer by inserting the CD, restarting, and holding down "C" while booting?

I've had more than one CD drive of this era(and newer) that gave trouble with an OS install due to a dirty lens in in the drive. There are CD-ROM drive cleaning disks out there-the ones I have are an audio CD with a small, fine brush attached to the disk surface. The disk is inserted and the audio gives instruction to advance to specific tracks so as to bring the brush into alignment with the lens. It might be worth trying one of these.

How big is the PB HD? The OS X install must be on the first 6GB (or was it 9?) or the HD.
Click to expand...

Neither, it's the first 8gb :) . I generally format the first partition to 7gb just to be on the safe side(after a frustrating evening of trying to install OS X on my beige G3 where I'd used disk utility to format the first partition to 8gb). Of course, with a 4gb drive, this doesn't matter.
 
I did try holidng down C, it clicked and whirred, but then just booted up normally (as if there was no CD). I tried it twice, should I keep trying?

I once did get the OS9 CD to mount in the PowerBook, and I instantly tried to copy the contents off on to the HD, but it just kept giving me disc errors. (that's why I assumed the CD must be in a format that couldn't be read by OS9)

Regarding the HD size - do you mean OSX 1.0 won't install onto a drive (or partition) bigger than 7Gb? (if so I misunderstood Catzilla's advice, sorry!)
 
I had a PDQ and it displayed none of the problems you describe. Sounds like an optical drive problem. I have three Pismos and two had optical issues. One had a failing drive. Just plain worn out. I pulled it out of its housing and replaced with an Apple compatible drive. Plain sailing so far.

The other Pismo has a DC board issue. Not enough power gets to the peripherals so optical disks cannot be read and the USB and FW ports were dead. I got the soldering iron out and rescued those ports but the DVD drive can only eject otherwise it struggles to spin up.

On a Wallstreet OSX must be installed within the first 8GB or it will not boot. I got Panther installed via XPostFacto but it was a tad laggy with a 300MHz cpu.
 
To be clear, you say you are installing "OSX 1.0"

Do you really mean the "Mac OS X Server version 1.0" commonly called "Rhapsody" that looks like Mac OS 9? Or do you mean "Mac OS X 10.0" that introduced the "Aqua" look and feel?

Because I'm pretty sure Mac OS X Server 1.0 won't run on a PowerBook. And it requires booting directly to its install disc, it doesn't have an OS 9-readable side to it.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
Because I'm pretty sure Mac OS X Server 1.0 won't run on a PowerBook. And it requires booting directly to its install disc, it doesn't have an OS 9-readable side to it.
Click to expand...

It will install and run but it is pretty crippled as an OS and was never officially supported on Powerbooks.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
To be clear, you say you are installing "OSX 1.0"

Do you really mean the "Mac OS X Server version 1.0" commonly called "Rhapsody" that looks like Mac OS 9? Or do you mean "Mac OS X 10.0" that introduced the "Aqua" look and feel?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I do mean Mac OS X 10.0 (Aqua)

If I wanna plop a new optical drive in there, what type do I need? I really didn't want to spend any money on this but maybe it's the only way.
 
Droooooj said:
Sorry, I do mean Mac OS X 10.0 (Aqua)

If I wanna plop a new optical drive in there, what type do I need? I really didn't want to spend any money on this but maybe it's the only way.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to make you aware (if you aren't already) that Mac OS 10.0 is a pretty bad OS. It is buggy, and does not run very well. Mac OS X didn't really become usable until 10.1 or 10.2. If I were you I would just stick with OS 9 and use the vast amount of OS 9 software available.
 
You can upgrade to 10.1 for free from 10.0. I think the update is less than 150MB in size.
 
n0cus said:
I just wanted to make you aware (if you aren't already) that Mac OS 10.0 is a pretty bad OS. It is buggy, and does not run very well. Mac OS X didn't really become usable until 10.1 or 10.2. If I were you I would just stick with OS 9 and use the vast amount of OS 9 software available.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Mac OS X Server 1.0 is fun from a "wow, this is an oddball OS" perspective.

Mac OS X 10.0 is just plain bad. 10.1 is at least mostly usable.
 
n0cus said:
I just wanted to make you aware (if you aren't already) that Mac OS 10.0 is a pretty bad OS.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know that... :D I just wanna get it to at least OSX and then I can upgrade from there as it's pretty straightforward and I know how to do it - But I've never made the more complicated transition from OS 9 to OSX before, which some would say is my Achilles' heel.

So just to get back on track:

If I wanna put a new optical drive in the PowerBook, what type/brand do I need?

Could I boot from a CF card in the PCMCIA slot in the PowerBook?
 
Droooooj said:
Yeah I know that... :D I just wanna get it to at least OSX and then I can upgrade from there as it's pretty straightforward and I know how to do it - But I've never made the more complicated transition from OS 9 to OSX before, which some would say is my Achilles' heel.

So just to get back on track:

If I wanna put a new optical drive in the PowerBook, what type/brand do I need?

Could I boot from a CF card in the PCMCIA slot in the PowerBook?
Click to expand...

Your best bet is to find an OEM optical drive. Maybe buy something like this (I know this isn't your exact model) and extracting the optical drive to replace yours. I didn't think upgrading to Mac OS X from OS 9 was such a hassle. In theory, you should be able to hold option and boot to the CD. There, you should be able to format your hard drive and install OSX.
 
While I wait for an OEM optical drive to appear on eBay I've tried giving the CF/PCMCIA installer idea a whirl.

I've formatted the card to OSX Extended [nb: not OSX Extended (Journaled) - I don't think OS 9 can read that format?]

I then mounted the Mac OS X 10.0 .img file and used Disk Utility to 'recover' the mounted virtual CD to the CF card. It did it in a few minutes. The CF card now has the same name and contents as the CD image.

Oddly it wouldn't let me recover the .img file directly to the CF drive, I kept getting an error saying "Source file needs to be imagescanned..." which I did, but then I just got the same error again. That's why I mounted it.

But anyway, I can't get the PowerBook to boot from the CF card. What else do I need to do? It can see the CF Card, and I can open files and folders. But if I select it as the startup drive, it sits for 10 seconds then just boots from the HD as normal. If I hold down the key combination at startup which forces the HD to be ignored and use the next bootable device found, I just get the flashing '?' Floppy Disk icon.

How do I make the CF Card a clone of the Installation CD *AND* bootable?
 
I think you need OSX Disk Utility to image and restore bootable OSX volumes. There is a beta of Disk Copy 6.5 which can open unencrypted .dmg images but that is your lot. You will probably need another Mac to create your bootable CF drive with.

OS9 has no problems reading or installing on journalled HFS+ volumes
 
Last edited:
weckart said:
I think you need OSX Disk Utility to image and restore bootable OSX volumes. There is a beta of Disk Copy 6.5 which can open unencrypted .dmg images but that is your lot. You will probably need another Mac to create your bootable CF drive with.

OS9 has no problems reading or installing on journalled HFS+ volumes
Click to expand...

I was using my MacBook Pro running 10.6, and indeed, Disk Utility to restore that .img to CF drive.

Is it worth me trying to format the CF card to journalled HFS+ and re-Restoring the .img file, or will the .img file overwrite with whatever format it was created with to the CF card?
 
I am confuddled by .img file, which would suggest OS9 is being used. Disk Utility under OSX creates .dmg files, which would be the usual way of preserving bootable OSX volumes.

Journalling is neither here, nor there. It can be turned on or off on OSX volumes and is not a prerequisite for booting. Restoration overwrites everything bit for bit, so only the partition type (APM) is important. The formatting is determined by what you restore.

What did you use to create the .img file of OSX 10.0?
 
Any chance of getting a bigger disk?

I once got a Wallstreet to run tiger with xpostfacto. I don't remember exactly how I did it, but I think I had possession of a friend's Powermac g4 at the time. I think I used a laptop-to-desktop style IDE adapter ($5 on eBay) and put it in the Powermac to do the install.

So your USB Case idea might work.

I think the pram battery was dead so it was tricky to get it to boot to OSX instead of OS9, but it did work.

Sadly it got dropped and wouldn't turn on or I'd probably still have it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back