Installing Mac OS 8.6 on iMac G3 (333 Mhz- "Fruit Colors" Model)?

There are a couple ofm things you can do. If you are in the US you can call Apple at 800-767-2775 and see whether they still have the install discs, which they will send you for a small fee. You can also go on eBay and look for the discs, but make absolutely sure that they are the off-white ones with an  and a big Mac OS 8 on them, which is the retail version, and not the grey machine specific ones. You can also try Craig's list.

The iMac 333s shipped with OS 8.6, so you can't attempt to install an earlier version of the Mac OS on them. The "off-white" OS 8 retail/universal installer disks that MGW mentioned won't work with your iMac, as they were OS 8.0 and 8.1. You need OS 8.6, but the problem with trying to find a Mac OS 8.6 retail/universal installer disk is related to availability, because not many were produced before the release of OS 9. The retail/universal OS 8.6 (and 8.5/8.5.1) disk is green with a pattern on it (matching one of the included desktop wallpapers) and had a large "8"in the center, as seen in this eBay listing. There's no guarantee that the retail/universal OS 8.6 installer disk will work in your case, because the iMac 333's Restore disk (probably orange in color) may contain a software build with components that aren't contained on the universal/retail disk. This would make the use of a retail/universal OS 9.0/9.1 installer disk a better bet. These disks were white in color. As for installing Panther, you'll probably need more memory and available hard drive space to do so. Additionally, a tray-loading iMac should have its firmware updated to version 1.2 (if it hasn't been done already), before attempting to install Jaguar or Panther. The firmware updater must be run while the computer is booted from the internal hard drive, running OS 8.6 or 9.0/9.1.

or 9.0/9.1.

You sure about 9.x?

For a tray loading iMac ( iMac 333 MHz, iMac 266 MHz, & iMac 233 MHz), you need to use the version of Mac OS classic ( 8.x ) that came with your machine.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60384

This article says, "System Requirements Mac OS 8.0". Of course maybe this article was written before 9.x came out.

For panther, you need 128 meg of memory.

On the tray loading machines you may be able to get away with loading Panther without upgrading the firmware. There were lots of problems when upgrading the OS on a slot loaders. I do not thiink the tray loaders had this problem, but you never know.

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Open Firmware, boot into Open Firmware.

Power on your iMac while holding down command+option+o+f

The first output line contains the firmware level.

What firmware do you need?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

Robert

"You sure about 9.x?"

No, since I haven't tried it. If he follows your "Open Firmware" suggestion and discovers that it has already been done, then it's a moot point. Unfortunately, he only has one version of OS 8.x that he can use - OS 8.6. If he needs to update the firmware and can't find the iMac's original OS 8.6 Restore disk or a retail/universal OS 8.6 installer disk, he may be forced to attempt running the firmware updater when booted to OS 9.x.

from

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

I'm not certain what "3.0.f3 built" means. I understand that you have a tray loading machine. A plastic tray comes out where you drop in a cd.

I'd guess you are OK.

Most people use these machines to run classic. Should be able to run any version of 9.x.

Robert

If you Google that firmware revision for your iMac, you'll find many questions about it, posted across various Discussion Forums on the web. I believe that the BootROM version 3.0.f3 is the updated firmware version for your tray-loading iMac. Unlike other firmware updaters that contain the corresponding BootROM version in their titles, the designation of "1.2" for that firmware updater is misleading, because it doesn't match the corresponding firmware version created after running it.

If you use a retail/universal OS 9 installer disk, you should have no problems. Machine-specific Restore disks are often lacking key software/driver components needed for a unique hardware build - like the iMac. If you want to wipe the drive clean and start fresh, boot the iMac from the installer disk, use "Drive Setup" in the Utilities folder to erase the hard drive with the "write zeros" option selected, update the hard disk driver, and format the drive as Mac OS Extended (HFS+). If you want to install a larger hard drive, this would be the time to make the substitution. It uses a 3.5" IDE/EIDE drive, with a maximum capacity of 128 GBs being recognized.

You may run Mac OS 10.3 on this machine. Mac OS X takes about 4gig. You can trim it down to 3gig with a custom install.

This will require a minimum of 128meg of ram. More is better. I'd suggest 256. You may put 512meg of ram in this machine. There are two memory slots. One must be Low Profile memory. Be sure you can return your memory cards. iMac memory cards are finicky.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac-G3-G4/

All the tray loading iMac g3's, models a-d, are constructed the same.

these articles deals with adding memory

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43012

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43013

The tray loading iMac requires the boot partition to be within 8gig. Since there are hidden partitions before the first visible partition, people recommend that you make the first visible partition 7.5 gig to 7.9gig. The machines support upto a 128gig Parallel ATA drive.

You should be able to use Unix symbolic links to 'move' some directory like /Users to the second visible partition.

Robert