tangerine clamshell ibook upgrade

[daal]

Greetings,

Here's what I'm trying to do: I'd like to upgrade the os on a tangerine clamshell ibook from os 9 to os 10.2

The difficulties I'm facing are:

1. The clamshell cannot currently connect to the internet. (our dsl provider says that only os x is supported, which is one of the reasons for the upgrade).

2. In order to run os x, I need to add more RAM. I've bought a 256 mb stick, but before adding it, I believe that I must first run the 4.1.7 firmware update. The read-me file however says os 9.1 is needed to run the firmware update.

3. I'm not incredibly mac-savvy.

Question: Since I don't have a 9.1 installation cd, I've downloaded the os_9.1_ update.smi.bin onto my PC. What should I do with this file? Should I burn it to a cd? Should I unpack it (with what?) and then burn it? Will this not work, and should I try something else entirely?

I.f this isn't the right place to post this sort of question, please direct me elsewhere. Thanks! Any replies, comments or questions or answers would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
daal

 

[daal]

Any suggestions as to where I should turn with questions of this sort?
-daal

 

[robbieduncan]

Any suggestions as to where I should turn with questions of this sort?
-daal

I would suggest you wait more than 5 minutes for a reply! What OS are you currently running?

 

[Whyren]

I would suggest you wait more than 5 minutes for a reply! What OS are you currently running?

Uh, 5 minutes and two days. As for the upgrade, you shouldn't have any problem getting OS X running on that iBook. I have OS X Tiger running on my original Bondi iMac (233MHz G3) with only 160MB of RAM. Granted, it's not the fastest thing in the world, but it works.

 

[robbieduncan]

Uh, 5 minutes and two days.

Oops Is my face red or what! Sorry!

 

[daal]

What OS are you currently running?

OS 9.0

In the meantime, I've managed to get the computer connected to the internet via tcp/ip, and I've downloaded the 9.1 update. With dsl, the clamshell already seems pretty fast. Will it get significantly faster with os x or just prettier? I'm wondering if I should stop while I'm ahead.

-daal

 

[CanadaRAM]

Well, the ISP's declaration that OS9 is not supported by DSL is bunkum... perhaps they don't have the knowledge, or perhaps they have a software ujtility that doesn't run on OS9. But, as you have found, TCP/IP (the underlying protocol of the Internet) Doesn't Care what OS you have.

I'd still be inclined to update the machine to 9,1 and do the firmware update. I wouldn't be in a hurry to go to OSX UNLESS you are hankering after some software (iTunes, maybe the latest media players for the Web, or new versions of application software) which needs OSX.

First before anything, back up your data files.

To work with the .bin file for the 9,1 upgrade, the easiest thing is to install Stuffit Expander from http://www.stuffit.com. This will allow you to decode the file, which will then be a folder with some stuff in it including a readme with instructions. IIRC I don't think you have to burn it to a CD, you can run it inplace.

Likewise, follow the instructions that come with the firmware update -- print them out or write them down -- and follow them to the letter.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

[Aliquis]

It all depends. OSX is going to probably be a tad slower, well... less snappy let's say.

And secondly, do you own the license for os9? if so you could request it from like a torrent location or something, as long as you own a viable license for it.

Then you could just install osx, see how you like it on the 'book, and if not, then you could reinstall os9.

Lastly, you can download Carbon Copy Cloner (which is free) and clone the drive of your iBook to an external HD... then do the same install OSX, try it out, if don't like - then restore the image you made from the external drive.

 

[moot]

Well good luck. I tried OSX on my tangerine and even though I had 544MB of RAM (the maximum on the tangerine) it ran like treacle.

I decided it wasn't worth it and went back to OS9. However I have another mac to do all my serious work

 

[daal]

Thanks for the input. I've now updated the os to 9.1, ran the firmware update and added the 256 mb of RAM, and I think I'm going to leave good enough alone and not go to OSX. I am however wondering if there are any significant reasons to go to ox 9.2.2. Is there any risk involved? Are there some programs that might run under os 9.1 and not under 9.2.2?
-daal

 

[Laser47]

Iv herd people say there is a significant increase in responsiveness to the finder with 9.2.2