G3 with only CD-RW

There were a limited number of Tiger install disk issued on CD, but they are not cheap:

http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=111

If you find Tiger offered for download, RUN AWAY! People who buy these pirated copies seldom get them to work at best, and get malware at worst.

Although there are Apple documents that say some pre-Intel Macs can boot form USB, in the real world this seldom happens. That leaves out the thumb drive. Your best option if you cannot find Tiger retail on CD is to use an external DVD player to use a DVD version of Tiger. It MUST have FireWire connectivity and be bootable.

NOTE: All iMacs need a firmware update BEFORE attempting to install OSX and it has to be run from OS9. See this article:

iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9

If the firmware update has already been installed, the software updater will tell you.

Rather than spend $189.95 for Tiger on CDs at FastMac, you could buy a FireWire DVD±RW drive from Other World Computing and then purchase a reasonably-priced, retail/universal installer DVD version of Tiger at eBay. An external optical drive with all of those connection interfaces is a useful piece of hardware to have.

If the firmware update has already been installed, the software updater will tell you.

I do not think so. I remember that being a major complaint that it didn't tell you and left the iMac g3 slot load screenless.

You need to figure out the level of your firmware before installing 10.2 or greater. ( The PC name for firmware is BIOS. ) Installing 10.2 with a down level firmware will most likely make your iMac unusable and difficult to fix.

What is Open Firmware?

The firmware on a PPC is called Open Firmware. Open Firmware software receives control when you poweron your machine. It does some hardware testing and some hardware configuration then passes control to your version of Mac OS. It reside on a PROM ( program read only memory ) chip on the logic board.

Figuring out what level of Open Firmware you have?

1) Mac OS 9.x or 8.x, you need to use the Apple System Profiler.

Apple -> Apple System Profiler

2) Mac OS X, use the System Profiler.

Apple -> About This Mac

click on the More Info... tab

click on Hardware

read the Boot ROM Version

3) 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. Mine reads:

Apple PowerMac4,1 4.1.9f1 BootRom built on 09/14/01 at 13.18.04

Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer Inc.

On my machine, I have 4.1.9f1.

What firmware do you need?

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

For a slot loading iMac, this article indicates that you need to be running 9.1 or later version of Mac OS Classic.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130

"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers with slot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a local drive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1 or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior to following the update instructions."

You can download the Mac OS 9 updates from the Apple site.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1387?viewlocale=en_US

For tiger, you need 256meg of memory. A slot loader will take 1gig of memory.

You may need to get more memory.

get the 512meg card(s)

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/G3_450MHz_500MHz_600MHz_700MHz

Mac OS X 10.4: System requirements

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1514

Pick the appropriate combo update.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24901

There is no need to partition. You can save hard drive space by doing a custom install. Leave out the print drivers you do not need and the languages you do not need. By customizing, you can trim Tiger down to about three gig.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1442

outoforderorder explains how...

By the way, here it is how you find the terminal application.

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

From: san francisco,ca

Registered: Apr 27, 2007

Re: Do the widgets drain system resources and power?

Posted: Apr 28, 2007 2:51 PM

I tend to think dashboard is neat, but not neccesary for my everyday workflow.

it is possible to enable and disable it as needed,

by entering the following commands into the terminal:

-- To turn Dashboard off:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

-- To turn Dashboard on:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

-- You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:

killall Dock

Bye Bye Dashbaord

http://www.kainjow.com/kermitsoft/downloads.html

Disable Spotlight, Bonjour and Dashboard:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8749558#8749558

Only firewire will work on PPC iMacs.

The firmware should be at least 4.1.7, but preferably 4.1.9. Unfortunately, you need to have OS 9.1 installed on the resident hard drive in order to run the firmware updater. As for FireWire, it's needed to boot your iMac from an installer disk. In older Macs with onboard USB 1/1.1 speeds, FireWire is also necessary to get the best possible performance from the drive. USB 1.1 (max. 12 Mbps data transfer) is much too slow, forcing you to burn disks at the drive's lowest speeds.

Some machines were set up to dual boot from the same partition.

Look in

blue apple > sysem preferences > startup disk

see if 9.x appears.

Robert