User profile for user: hlhbk
hlhbk Author
User level: Level 1
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Can't install mac os 9.2...please help

I recently purchased a g3 800 mhz ibook that had mac os 10.3 installed on it.
Before I get into my dilema let me explain what i am trying to accomplish. i am primarialy a PC user but have been a huge fan of the journeyman project games. I won an auction on ebay for Journeyman Project pegasus prime. So I bought my ibook, and was very excited.

Well needless to say running pegasus prime didn't work under os x. So I won another action for the retail CD of mac os 9.2.1. That won't install under the classic enviornment because it states that the installer can't run.

After doing some research I see that only mac os 9.2.2 will run on this ibook. Is there any way to get this cd to get installed after downloading the updates or what? I am kinda lost as this is my first real mac use in years.

Is there a guide to intergrate the 9.2.2 update into the install off the cd?

Also The ibook has a cd burner/DVD combo. Unfortunatly the system did not come with the installation cd's. That is why I purchased 9.2.1 off of ebay, and have been scoping out copies of 10.3.9 to buy as well. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, but by the end of last night I was so frustrated with this thing I just had to walk away.

I checked my model on apple support and it states it supports os 9.2.2, so I know I can run it. I also have been looking at emulators for the mac to see if I can get 9.2.1 to run on them, but it doesn't seem to be working.

I guess I understand why apple made certain cd's only work with certain systems, but I do not understand why their classic enviornment doesn't emulate everything.

Thanks in advance for you help on this matter.

Mac OS X (10.3.x)

Posted on Feb 1, 2008 1:09 PM

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21 replies
User profile for user: eww
eww
User level: Level 9
53,052 points

Feb 1, 2008 6:30 PM in response to hlhbk

Hi, hihbk. The only source for a bootable OS 9.2.2 on your iBook is the model-specific CD set that originally came with it.

To use a retail OS 9.2.1 installer CD, you would have to be able to start the computer in OS 9.2.1, which is impossible on that model. There never was a retail OS 9.2.2 installer CD. Every disc that can install OS 9.2.2 directly is specific to a particular Mac model and contains a build of 9.2.2 tailored to that hardware. The disc(s) you need should have been supplied to you with your iBook as part and parcel of your purchase, but unfortunately that's much more the exception than the rule in the used-computer trade. If your game requires you to start your computer up in OS 9.2.2, you have no alternative but to try to locate and buy the appropriate model-specific installer disc.

If your game (about which I know nothing) can run in Classic mode (OS 9.2.2 functioning as a sort of super-application within OS X), you can copy an OS 9.2.2 System Folder from another Mac that operates properly in Classic mode onto your iBook, and it will probably provide you with a working Classic mode. It will not be bootable, i. e. you won't be able to start your iBook up in OS 9.2.2.
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User profile for user: hlhbk
hlhbk Author
User level: Level 1
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Feb 1, 2008 7:07 PM in response to eww

I have been searching online for 9.2.2 disks to purchase for my mac and I am unable to find anywhere that has them in stock. Do you know of anywhere I can get them from.

I can't believe how hard apple made it to run an os. How hard is it to allow for 9.2.1 to run on a system that can run 9.2.2?
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User profile for user: eww
eww
User level: Level 9
53,052 points

Feb 2, 2008 2:36 AM in response to hlhbk

hlhbk: You won't find the model-specific installer disc set for your particular iBook "in stock" anywhere at all. You will have to be lucky enough to find someone who happens to have that set and is willing to part with it. In all likelihood, it will be someone who used to have an iBook like yours but sold it and kept the discs, leaving someone else in the same bind you're in now. Or someone who used to have the same iBook and discarded it after it broke, or parted it out. But the disc set you seek was never an item that a store would have been able to order and keep in stock: it was only available as part of the original purchase of an iBook of your particular model.

Do you know for certain that the game you want to play will not run in Classic mode, and requires that your computer be started up in OS 9.2.2? If you don't, then it would be well worth your while to find out by copying the OS 9.2.2 System Folder from another Mac to yours, designating that System Folder for use as Classic in the Classic pane of System Preferences, and then trying to run the game in Classic mode. If that works, you're all set; if it doesn't, at least you know that wasn't the answer, and you can focus on finding the disc set you need. Or you can resell your iBook to someone who doesn't need to boot it in OS 9, and buy an older Mac on which you can use your retail OS 9.2.1 installer disc.
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User profile for user: spudnuty
spudnuty
User level: Level 5
7,128 points

Feb 2, 2008 7:41 AM in response to eww

hihbk,
I know that the 800 shipped with 9.2.2 but I can't see why it won't boot into the 9.2.1 installer. This is from your post on "dual USB"
So I won another action for the retail CD of mac os 9.2.1. That won't install under the classic enviornment because it states that the installer can't run

So when you tried this you booted from that installer? So it booted? Then you selected the iBooks hard drive and that's when you got the message?

I'm thinking what happened is that whoever did that install of 10.3.2 - .9 did this.
When you erase the volume ( HD ) you use Disk Utility. You select the entire volum and format in Mac OS Extended ( Journaled ) the Utility pops up a box that you have to check and says "Install Mac OS 9 drivers. If this option is not selected, this device cannot be used by a computer running Mac OS 9."
So when your installer looks at that hard drive and sees that there are no OS 9 drivers installed it says that it can't be installed on that hard drive.

Does that seem right?
If so we can work around it.

Richard
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User profile for user: eww
eww
User level: Level 9
53,052 points

Feb 2, 2008 8:33 AM in response to spudnuty

Hi, spudnuty. The reason an 800MHz iBook can't use an OS 9.2.1 installer CD is that it can't start up in OS 9.2.1, which is the version in the CD's own System Folder. No Mac in recent memory, and hardly any Mac ever, has been able to start up in an earlier OS version than the one that was preinstalled on it at the factory. There were three different 800MHz G3 iBook models (the "32 VRAM," "14.1 LCD 32 VRAM," and "800/900 MHz 32 VRAM", also known as "Early 2003"), and they were all shipped with OS 9.2.2 preinstalled.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25114

There is no workaround that will enable hlhbk to install OS 9.2.1 on the iBook in question using that CD. The CD is worthless to him unless he can find an older Mac on which to use it, then update that installation to 9.2.2, then copy the resulting System Folder to his iBook for use as Classic only.

If the iBook were able to start up using that CD, and the hard drive in the iBook didn't have OS 9 drivers installed on it, the installer application wouldn't see any hard drive at all. It would then be necessary to reformat the drive using Drive Setup, erasing everything that's on it now, in order to install the OS 9 drivers. And then the Installer would look at the iBook's hardware configuration, realize that it couldn't run on that computer model, and put up an error message saying as much.
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User profile for user: spudnuty
spudnuty
User level: Level 5
7,128 points

Feb 2, 2008 9:15 AM in response to eww

Hey eww,

It would then be necessary to reformat the drive using Drive Setup, erasing everything that's on it now, in order to install the OS 9 drivers.

Well actually that's also option in disk utility in the OS 10.3.2 installer and yes you'd have to erase and reformat that drive with the OS 9 drivers to run OS 9.2.2.

There is no workaround that will enable hlhbk to install OS 9.2.1 on the iBook in question using that CD. The CD is worthless to him unless he can find an older Mac on which to use it, then update that installation to 9.2.2, then copy the resulting System Folder to his iBook for use as Classic only.

Right and that's what I'm offering but didn't want to advertise it.

I've got 2 500s, a 700 and access to a 900 G3 iBooks.

Richard
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User profile for user: hlhbk
hlhbk Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Feb 2, 2008 2:32 PM in response to spudnuty

Ok here is the deal I don't have another mac to copy the system folder for os 9.2.2, and I don't know anyone who has a mac other than myself. I can boot to the 9.2.1 cd, and get to the desktop and it states that it can't install on this computer. I have been told the game will run under classic mode, which is fine with me. I just want it to run full screen. The other problem is I don't have any of the cd's, so I have been looking for a soluation for that.

i am looking at an auction on ebay and am awaiting an anwser from the seller to see if the media includes 9.2.2. It is a buy it now auction that looks to have all the media I will need. I still don't understand why mac wouldn't let 9.2.1 run on a system that came with 9.2.2. It would be like saying that someone that had windows xp sp2 preinstalled on their machine couldn't run sp1. It makes no sense.

Also it is frustrating that there isn't a utility to intergrate the updates available online to streamline the install and burn it back to a disk.

Thanks for all of the replies. If you want to help me out and see if the media on ebay is the correct media please email me at hlhbk@hotmail.com. Please also leave me a message you emailed me so I know to check it.

Thanks in advance.
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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,259 points

Feb 2, 2008 3:27 PM in response to hlhbk

I still don't understand why mac wouldn't let 9.2.1 run on a system that came with 9.2.2. It would be like saying that someone that had windows xp sp2 preinstalled on their machine couldn't run sp1. It makes no sense.


Not really, it would be a little closer asking why XP can't be installed on a pre XP PC, except Macs have tighter integration of HW/SW than PCs do. OS 9.2.1 just simply isn't aware of the new HW of a machine that came out after 9.2.1.
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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,259 points

Feb 2, 2008 7:48 PM in response to hlhbk

Funny the pics didn't show up last time I went to eBay!

I don't see how you could go wrong at that price, but they are Gray, so there likely only going to work on yours...

http://support.apple.com/specs/ibook/iBook_G4.html

Or the other iBook G4 ranges...

http://support.apple.com/specs/ibook/iBookG4_Late2004.html

http://support.apple.com/specs/ibook/iBookG4_Mid2005.html

Tried tracking it down by iMovie 2, which the first info at Apple show up as Date created: 2002-04-04, which predates the 1st iBook G4.
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Can't install mac os 9.2...please help

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