G3 memory

BTW do you have a apple branded cd rom drive, if so use that to install, most times OS X dont like to install useing a non apple branded optical drive. its the same as you with my Pioneer DVR-110D when i can get the OS X install cd to boot, it will load the installer and gets to where it copy's the files and just stalls out. i then have to put the stock apple branded 24x cdrom in and the installer loads just fine.

BTW make shure the hdd is set to master (or single master) and on its own ide cable . and make shure the optical drive is set to master on its own ide cable that way you know its not that keeping you installing

You can use this link to download the early version of Safari, then update it:

120233- Safari 1.0 for Mac OS X: Information and Download

Not to ask a silly or insulting question, but is your 10.4 Tiger install disk a DVD? Are you trying to install a DVD in a CD-ROM drive?

Just making sure, sometimes that's not obvious. Are you using XPostFacto?

I think Jaguar is 10.2, Panther is 10.3, Tiger is 10.4. 10.2 can install without XPostFacto, but 10.3 and 10.4 require it on the G3. Most folks agree 10.3 runs better overall than 10.2, and 10.4 adds some minor new features that aren't necessarily worth the effort/risk of upgrading from a good working 10.3 system unless you have specific applications that really require it.

Is your target hard drive on the original on-board ATA interface? Has that been partitioned with the first partition less than 8 GB for the OS X installation?

Bummer, there are lots of potential hick-ups to getting a new OS installed on any computer, but if you keep at it you can resuscitate your old G3 into a decent working and useful machine.

So, you already have installed 10.1? and trying to Software Update to 10.1.5? And now you are trying to do a new install of 10.2? (just trying to understand what you did so far and what you have now, it wasn't that clear what you meant by X in earlier posts.)

Maybe try using XPostFacto anyway even though you technically only need it for 10.3 and 10.4, sometimes that helps provide more useful error messages.

Also, what other details can you give about the computer, do an Apple System Profiler and list all the hardware that shows up.

Sometimes, a third-party or add-on device might cause problems during the installation, and restoring to a stock configuration by removing those expansion cards may help. Is your target hard drive large enough? Do you have a stock 4GB or 6GB drive, or was that upgraded previously to something larger than 8GB? If so, you'll need to partition it, if it's on the internal built-in ATA interface.

I am not sure what the minimum HD size requirements are for the various versions of OS X. I know that on my 8GB partition with just a basic 10.4 Tiger install I have about 6.5 GB full with not many personal documents in /Users, that is just an emergency boot disk. I wonder what the requirement is for 10.2. Even if 6GB is big enough to fit the installation 10.2 CDs, there may be some temporary files that need to be expanded during the installation that are filling up your disk. How full is the disk currently, if 10.2 is trying to archive the old 10.1 system during the install could that fill it up? Just speculation, not sure about that. I found this info in the 10.2 README file:
The amount of disk space required depends on your computer and the way you are installing Mac OS X. If you see a message that you do not have enough disk space to install Mac OS X, you can deselect items to save space.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106713
lists some updates for 10.1. Some times if the Apple Software Update feature fails then you can manually download and install the mpkg or pkg file.

For Classic you need a OS 9 System Folder, which you can install from the 9.1 CDs and then do an update to 9.2.2 via Software Update all when booted into OS 9. Then you need to let OS X know where to find it in the Classic System Preferences Pane, it might not have one selected by default. You may need to reinstall printer drivers after the OS 9 classic system folder has been installed to make sure that printing will work from classic apps.

I do not recommend pursuing it, but for the sake of completeness, the installer 10.1 update is available through this article:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/installerupdate.html

10.2 is very, very cranky about anything that could be considered a non-standard configuration. Conventional wisdom is to remove anything non-Apple while attempting the install, including PCI cards and large amounts of memory, and if successful, add it back in later. In my opinion, they did not do nearly enough engineering or testing on the installation process. 10.3 is much more forgiving and easier to install.

From my own experience I would add that if your Mac goes to sleep during the 10.2 install, it will fail, and that you will need to install the updates in small batches, and repair permissions between each batch.

i have installed 10.2 on my stock 4gb hdd with OS 9 already installed . but it left no room for me to update to 10.2.8. its safe to say a 4gb with nothing else on it would install 10.2 and a 6gb hdd would be awesome