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PowerMac G4 OS install help

tony359

tony359

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 23, 2018
89
22
Hi all,

I've acquired an old G4 for next to nothing and I'm tinkering with it. It came with macOS 9.2, it was very slow and packed with software from the previous owner. Also Ethernet did not seem to work - but I do get a hardware link so I thought I should wipe the OS before assuming I have a hardware failure.

I downloaded a copy of macos 9.2 (I know I can go up to 10.5 but I'm experimenting right now!) and burnt it on a USB stick using HDD Raw Copy. The stick was seen by the Mac but as I don't have a mac keyboard and I was unable to boot from it, I double clicked to the installer and everything seemed to work ok. I selected a "clean" installation and when it came the time to reboot, I ended up with a black screen!

I have been tinkering with this for a while and I am kind of stuck - could you please point me to the right direction considering that I am mainly a Windows guy? Do I need a Mac keyboard to boot from a USB or from a CD? I have been unable to open the CD tray - I tried F12.

Thank you a lot!

Edit: after several reboots and after holding the mouse button at startup as recommended somewhere, the tray opened but also the old OS booted up untouched! Not sure what happened but I guess the next step is to try a different image and maybe insist on the "booting from CD" path.
 
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Thank you!

My only issue is that I am unable to open the CD tray on the mac as I don't have the proper keyboard. Any suggestion? Can I burn the image using my Windows PC? I can open the tray at boot somehow.

Good point about old and rare programs: how do you do that on a Mac? Can I just backup the whole disk? What would be the best way?

Thanks for your help!

BTW, the image you linked is the one I used!
 
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download the link I gave you, copy it over to your usb stick, drag a copy to either your Mac or PC and burn from there.

From a 9.2.2 Applications (Mac OS 9) Folder, there exists a Folder called "Apple Extras" and under that folder is "Eject Extras" folder; The " Eject Upper Drive" and "Eject Lower Drive" utilities both located uder the "Eject Extras" folder will Open the CD tray
 
It looks like I am too late as the OS now boots to the desktop but doesn't go any further - I've also noticed that the clock is one hour behind and does not update. It looks like that half-installation did something in the end. Too bad.

I did try a "menu.eject" procedure I found online to open the tray but that did not work. Anyway, I am now unable to use the OS - sorry, I did not know you could easily backup apps, on Windows you can't! :)

Can I do anything from my Windows? I should also have a macos virtual machine running somewhere if that helps.
 
I’m not familiar with windoze, but if you could download the first link I sent you, it’s a disk image so can be burnt using toast on your pc

I’m going to hand over now to other users more experienced with windows, but if you have toast then you have a way out of you conundrums 😲
 
Pressing your mouse's left button while booting will open the optical drive's tray.
You can also insert a straightened paper clip into the eject pin hold in front of the drive and push it in to manually open the tray.

Press C key on keyboard will force the Mac to boot from CD/DVD.

Press Option key on keyboard will show you all bootable drives and let you choose which one to boot from.
 
Hi Hardon,

I need some CD ROM disks - the label on the G4 says it has a CDROM and I only have DVD blank disks, I'll get some tomorrow! Anyway, I have found the ISO below (but I can try again with the one you sent me as well)

For This,
I can indeed open the tray by pressing the mouse button, however there is no eject pin I can see?

I have a PC keyboard, is there a key that I can use to replace the option one? I'll test again the C button tomorrow as it didn't do anything today but I did not have a CD disk inside.

Thank you all for your kind help!
 
tony359 said:
I can indeed open the tray by pressing the mouse button, however there is no eject pin I can see?
Click to expand...

I meant Eject Pin "Hole" (you may have to flip open the "lid" to see it) but you already could open the tray...

BTW, F12 for tray ejection automatically works only on OS X. For OS 9 you need to do some modification. Read the file "About Eject Extras" in Applications > Apple Extras > Eject Extras for instruction to assign a function key for it, after you've installed the OS.

A PC keyboard will do, and the Windows key is Command key.
 
thanks a lot guys! Great to know about the keyboard, I tried to access the Hardware test but to no avail and I thought it was a keyboard problem. Let me reinstall and I'll move from there.

It looks like I can open the tray now but I've checked again and I do not see the pinhole emergency release behind the plastic cover. I'll check again.
 
Your Mac ??
1578554479605.jpeg

lovely looking machines
 
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Yes! Still a bit filthy, I need to give it a good clean!
Does it have a nickname?
 
tony359 said:
Yes! Still a bit filthy, I need to give it a good clean!
Does it have a nickname?
Click to expand...
Quicksilver. Depending on the CPU inside it will be a 2001 or a 2002 model. The 2002 is better as it doesn't suffer from the 128GB HDD limit. What does the sticker on the back of the QS say about the processor speed?

QS 2002 Disk Set is here:


The 2001 OS9 disc is probably hidden in amongst the general OS9 pages. Possibly here:

 
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If it is a single processor, it is a 2002 model, if a dual processor a 2001 version. The single CPU 800MHz 2002 was the entry level model and lacked L3 cache, so was a tad slower in some applications.

It came with a special 9.2.2 install of OS9 (and Puma 10.1.2) so you cannot use an off the shelf OS9 disc to start it up. The links to Macintosh Garden will give you all the install/restore discs it came with, which were plenty.
 
thanks weckart! That is very useful.

When looking for software what shall I look for? Is there a name to identify the special OS install?

This is my motherboard - it looks there's a single processor under that heatsink.

One of the HDD is 164GB so I suppose it's a single processor then!

IMG_8503.jpeg
 
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tony359 said:
thanks weckart! That is very useful.
When looking for software what shall I look for? Is there a name to identify the special OS install?
Click to expand...

The disc images are at the MG link I gave. You can either use the restore discs to give a complete factory installed set of software as it was sold with the Quicksilver or use the install discs to control exactly what software you want to install.

The MacOS9lives Universal 9.22 disc may also work as it was cobbled together a couple of years ago but is not specifically optimised for this or any Mac computer but created from an eMac 9.2.2 (the last machine specific 9.2.2 version Apple released for any of its hardware) with some updates and hacks included so that it should start up any Mac that supports 9.2.x.

For OSX, any off-the-shelf release after 10.1.2 up to 10.5.8 will work.
 
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thanks, that is very useful again.

So, I have burnt the 9.2 ISO on a CD - just the OS. The PM booted from it but surprisingly it took me to the same old desktop - but with a "CD" tiled background and a lower resolution that my monitor barely supports. This time though I can access the file system.

You suggested to back up the applications before wiping it: how do I do that? Is it just a matter of copying the "Applications" folder?
 
weckart said:
For OSX, any off-the-shelf release after 10.1.2 up to 10.5.8 will work.
Click to expand...

10.5.x will likely require a solution like LeopardAssist to install on the 800MHz G4;


Also, if it wasn’t already mentioned, another method to open/close the CD tray is to drop into Open Firmware;

Hold Command (Windows) + Option (Alt) + O + F at startup and then at the prompt: eject cd

To try getting the current install operational (if required), I would attempt booting with “Extensions Off” by holding the Shift key as you see the happy Mac screen.

tony359 said:
So, I have burnt the 9.2 ISO on a CD - just the OS. The PM booted from it but surprisingly it took me to the same old desktop - but with a "CD" tiled background and a lower resolution that my monitor barely supports. This time though I can access the file system.

You suggested to back up the applications before wiping it: how do I do that? Is it just a matter of copying the "Applications" folder?
Click to expand...

The CD wallpaper is as expected from the install disc. You’ll always be able to tell which volume you’ve booted from as it will be the one at the top right of the desktop.

Yes, you can just drag and drop files, folders and apps from the Applications folder to back them up.

I think the best solution would be to run the installer from the CD and choose the Clean Install option. This will ensure your existing System Folder and Applications folders remain mostly untouched. I think the naming convention becomes “Previous System Folder” and “Previous Applications”.

The Quicksilver is a great looking Mac. I would love to acquire one myself eventually. :cool:
 
Thank you!

I have reinstalled OS 9.2 and the good news is that the Ethernet port now works! That's great!

However, I am puzzled why I still end up on the old desktop after the reinstall, despite having selected a "clean install". I thought the disk was being formatted but it looks more like a simple OS reinstall.
The point is that when I tried to run the Video driver for OS9 I got an error message (something like "your OS cannot run this software, please check the documentation") and some apps I am lunching are saying they won't work with my OS version. If I wanted to completely wipe the disk, do I format the drive before installing? Would OS9 install ok on a blank disk using the link provided above?

I am not going to install 10.5, I understand that 10.4 is better for the machine I have.

Thanks for the backup advice - I remembered there's a second HDD on the unit so I just copied the entire FS to the secondary drive! :)

Thanks for the hint about Open Firmware which I just googled and I understand it's the Apple BIOS! :) I love learning new things!
 
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Little update for you guys.

As the only reason to stay on OS9 was to troubleshoot the ethernet port - and since that worked with a clean install, I moved to OSX 10.4.

After the OS crashed just after installation - and after figuring out how to run AHT - it took me a while to realise that one of my memory modules was faulty - you can imagine all the intermittent crashes and weird issues I had!! Since I have identified the faulty stick - thankfully a 256MB one and not the 512MB one - the system has been rock solid. That leaves me with 768MB of RAM, I may think of upgrading the lot to 1.5GB!

I have re-installed OSX with the good memory and updated everything to 10.4.11. All is well, having lots of fun. OSX was truly a stunning breakthrough back in the days, it looks and feels light years beyond OS9.

I have also installed TenFourFox and I am finally able to get to the internet - slowly but surely.

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions but thank you for your help so far!
 
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tony359 said:
However, I am puzzled why I still end up on the old desktop after the reinstall, despite having selected a "clean install". I thought the disk was being formatted but it looks more like a simple OS reinstall.
Click to expand...

That’s right. OS9’s Clean Install won’t erase the volume. So the desktop icons/files will remain.

If you want a completely fresh start, boot from the CD again and launch the Drive Setup app from the Utilities folder to Initialize the HDD.

I would highly recommend you erase and install Mac OS 9.2.2 and then also install Mac OS X 10.4 on the same volume (and run Software Update to install 10.4.11).

Mac OS 9 and OS X are designed to install side by side like this. You can then use the Startup Disk Control Panel (OS9) or System Preferences pane (OSX) to select which OS to boot into.

OS X 10.4.11 and earlier also have the Classic Environment which will allow OS9 to boot on top of OS X as a compatibility layer for running OS9/Classic apps side by side with OS X. This is fine for most older apps, but most Classic games run best when booted from OS9 directly.

The G4 you’ve chosen is great for learning all about the full range of 1999 - 2009 era Mac software. Once 10.4 is running you can also install a modern web browser like TenFourFox (combined with PowerUOC to boost performance).

tony359 said:
The point is that when I tried to run the Video driver for OS9 I got an error message (something like "your OS cannot run this software, please check the documentation") and some apps I am lunching are saying they won't work with my OS version.
Click to expand...

If you can post screenshots we might be able to figure out what’s going on here (hit Command-Shift-3 for fullscreen or Cmd-Shift-4 to screenshot a selected area). Check the Read Me files for compatibility info regarding your system.

——

Edit: I just read your latest post and it looks like you’re figuring it all out. The faulty RAM module is definitely the culprit behind strange behavior and likely the reason why the seller wanted to part with the Mac!
 
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