Panther/iBook install problem

[decksnap]

Trying to reinstall Panther onto a 1 Ghz iBook G4 currently running 10.3.9. It is an off-the shelf Panther disk as I can't find the disks that came with the machine. When I put the disk in, it reads fine, and I click the restart icon to reboot from the install disk. At this point, the standard apple logo comes up on the grey screen, then, after a few seconds, the apple logo shifts a handful of pixels to the right and gets a little screwed up visually. Then... nothing. It just sits in this position. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[calebjohnston]

Try restoring permissions before starting the process? If not, contact apple. That's a very weird issue.

 

[decksnap]

Interestingly, when I hold down option on startup to get the startup disk prompt, it shows up fine, then, when selected, goes to the Apple logo, then the 'no' symbol. (Circle with slash through it)

Repaired permissions, zapped PRAM, no dice yet. Could it be the DVD drive?

 

[decksnap]

And if it is the drive, can I somehow install the system off of another system's DVD drive?

 

[calebjohnston]

Yeah, you can do that. you need another mac with a dvd drive and then connect them with a firewire i believe.. and then do something. I don't know. read the guides on apple's site.

 

[pseudobrit]

Yeah, you can do that. you need another mac with a dvd drive and then connect them with a firewire i believe.. and then do something. I don't know. read the guides on apple's site.

You'd boot the target Mac into FireWire target mode (command-T) and run it like you're installing OS X on an external HD.

But I think this can be fixed locally. Try these:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88152

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805

Can this machine be started w/o CD? That is, does the current local OS function?

 

[decksnap]

Thanks... I will try the target disk mode idea. Yes, the computer boots normally from its own drive. It just has quite a few issues that are to the point where I want to just reinstall the whole system.

It could be third party ram- but I don't see how it could be firmware if the current running OS is as new/newer than the Panther disk. (10.3.9).

It is boggling my brain that the DVD player works fine, and the disk is recognized, but on reboot from the disk it can't find a startup folder on the disk. Maybe the part of the disk it has to read for the startup folder is scratched? I did try cleaning it. But even if this is the case, maybe a different drive will have better results.