I recently got a free Powermac G4 400 (PPC) from a school that I work for that was clearing out their old computers. As of now, it is running OS X 10.3.9, and I wish to upgrade it to 10.4, as the processor is too slow for 10.5. However, the machine has a password still in use, which I need to start the upgrade process. I looked around online to find ways to reset the password, but none of them have worked as of yet. Any ideas on how to do this?
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Reset Password On Panther
- Thread starter lisalover1
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How do I boot from the disc? I tried holding down the C key as well as holding down the C and Mac keys on startup, but it didn't ever give me the option to boot to disc.
With the disc in and the computer off, turn it on them immediately press the Option/Alt key. This will give you the boot device chooser. When it is done searching for bootable devices, select the Tiger disc with the mouse and then click the arrow button. This will start the machine up from the disc. Some older Macs don't support the C at boot option or won't do this if the optical drive is setup incorrectly.
Okay, I got to the boot selection screen, but the disc isn't appearing as an option to boot from, only the Hard Drive is an option. It shows up on the desktop when in the OS, though.
Your Tiger disc needs to be a Black-retail-version disc, any of the grey computer specific discs will not work unless you have the one designated for your computer.
There are a few ways to reset the password via single user mode. I don't know if they would work on a Panther installation or not.
A gray restore Tiger disc will boot on a 400Mhz PowerMac G4, but it won't install on one without a few modifications.
A gray restore Tiger disc will boot on a 400Mhz PowerMac G4, but it won't install on one without a few modifications.
Do this to reset password
http://gigaom.com/apple/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/
What is your cd of Tiger? (retail legit?,grey?,copied?)
http://gigaom.com/apple/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/
What is your cd of Tiger? (retail legit?,grey?,copied?)
Thanks for the help, everyone, it's really appreciated. Now, when I am trying to setup an account, I go through all the steps, but when I try to actually create an admin account on startup (Panther), I get the error "MESSAGE_FATAL_ERROR unable to add standard user". Then, it starts the whole first start sequence over again. Also, yes, I am using a burnt DVD of OS X Tiger.
lisalover1, you said you're still on Panther here? If you are, you are in luck my friend. I just got a PowerBook G4 Titanium with Panther, I didn't know the admin password. Here's what to do, it worked perfectly for me and I'm typing this on the PowerBook now.
1) As soon as you turn on the computer, like as soon as you press the on button, press Command + S at the same time until a bunch of terminal codes come up.
2) Type in the following codes:
/sbin/fsck y (press enter)
/sbin/mount uaw (press enter)
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone (press enter)
reboot (press enter)
This will create another User Account on there that is fully administrative with no password yet. It'll play the Welcome video and set up as if it's the first boot. It'll skip the login screen and go straight to your new account, and there you can get everything set up.
1) As soon as you turn on the computer, like as soon as you press the on button, press Command + S at the same time until a bunch of terminal codes come up.
2) Type in the following codes:
/sbin/fsck y (press enter)
/sbin/mount uaw (press enter)
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone (press enter)
reboot (press enter)
This will create another User Account on there that is fully administrative with no password yet. It'll play the Welcome video and set up as if it's the first boot. It'll skip the login screen and go straight to your new account, and there you can get everything set up.
Thanks for the tip, but when I enter that remove command, it gives me an error saying "No such file or directory". Also, I get an Incorrect Block Count error when doing the first command. Plus, my machine now freezes during the "Login Window Starting" portion of booting.
They don't know what it is; they haven't used the machine in years. Besides, I already deleted the account, so it wouldn't be of any use to me now.
I know you deleted the account, I was referring to the beginning.
But now I know that you couldn't have gotten a hold of it anyway.