OS 9 freezes just after completion of boot process

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Level 1

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OS 9 freezes just after completion of boot process

At a client's request I installed OS 9.2.2, 10.3.9 and 10.4.9 on a PowerMac G4 MDD, each on a separate partition or volume. Actually, in a PowerMac G3 b&wI installed OS 9 on to a 6GB Seagate IDE drive then moved the drive to the front drive bay of the MDD. I used a retail OS 9.2.1 disk, not a grey "Classic" disk and updated to 9.2.2 on the G3 as well. I can choose the OS 9 install as my startup disk from within 9, while booted off the 9 install CD, from both the OS X installations and from booted OS X retail disks. This model MDD DP1.25 is not the FW800 mode, which doesn't support the dual boot. That's all by way of info. The issue is this:

OS 9 freezes right after it boots, or to be more precise, neither the USB keyboard can type anything, while the mouse can move around but can't select anything. Have zapped PRAM, reset NVRAM re-instaled OS 9 from within the G4 but always te same result. The keyboard and mouse work fine in other machines. Also, I installed OS 9 i\ a Maxtor 6GB drive, tried it in the MDD and it froze too, but both the 6B OS 9 harddrives peformed normally in different G3s.

Finally, I used a grey "Classic: disk to install OS 9 "Classic" on the Tiger partition and as "Classic," it rus very dependably. But now I want to know why the pure install of a retail fersion of OS 9 keeps freezing up; what exactly is meant by the "dual boot"--potential or two installed systems or 2 booted OSs, both running; and finally, if there's something I should know about USB in OS 9.

On my own 12 PowerMacs G3, all run Tiger, half on SCSI, half ATA

MacBook Pro 2.33/3GB/120GB Mac OS X (10.4.9) PowerMac G4 FW800, 3 Mac Servers G3; 10 PowerMacs G3 B&W; TiBook G4

Posted on Apr 22, 2007 11:59 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Don Archibald

Level 10

101,623 points

Apr 23, 2007 12:47 AM in response to Toolshed4

Hi, Toolshed4 -

...I want to know why the pure install of a retail fersion of OS 9 keeps freezing up; what exactly is meant by the "dual boot"--potential or two installed systems or 2 booted OSs, both running;...

Dual Boot refers to the ability of the machine to boot to both OS 9 and OSX; but it means boot to either, not both at the same time.

As far as why the machine is stalling when booting to the OS 9.2.2 you installed on the drive via a B&W G3, there's a couple of issues at play.

• All OS 9 installs are tailored to match the machine running the installer, unless special steps are taken. This applies also when using a retail OS 9 Install CD - although such a CD is sometimes referred to as a universal install CD, it does not perform a universal install automatically. The term actually refers to the ability of that CD to perform an OS 9 Install on any Mac supported by Apple for that version.

So, when you installed the OS while the hard drive was in the B&W G3, the OS was tailored to the B&W G3 - it became a model-specific install; ditto the updates.

There is a way around that - you can do a universal (boot any Mac) install using any retail OS 9 Install CD (and some model-specific CDs), but you must instruct the installer to do that. The directions for doing that are on this webpage, at the top (wait for the graphics to cycle) -
Ron Jackle's Mac Page

***

• More importantly, that technique will not work with any G4 (MDD), nor with a Quicksilver (2002) model. Although those machines are Dual Boot capable, as far as booting to OS 9 those machines can use only the model-specific version of OS 9.2.2 that came on their original disks.

One or more of these Apple KBase articles may help you install it from that machine's original disk set -
Article #106294 - Mac OS X: How to reinstall Mac OS 9
Article #107383 - Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3: How to perform Mac OS 9 clean installation with Restore CDs
Article #42929 - Using Restore Discs with Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3..3

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Answer 2

Apr 26, 2007 6:50 AM in response to Toolshed4

I had this problem and it was caused by it trying to automatically mount some servers. I fixed it by booting classic under OS X and going in and uncheck the automoount for those volumes it was trying to mount.

Scott

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Answer 3

Apr 26, 2007 3:49 PM in response to Toolshed4

Don's hinted at (what I think is) the probable cause at the end of his post, the MDD's can't boot from an installation of OS9.2.1 from a retail OS9.2.1 install cd. Apparently you can boot the MDD from that cd, and run the installer, but you can't then boot from the OS it installs.

Same with updating it to OS9.2.2. This dates from some time before the release of the MDD's, like mine. The OS9.2.2 that comes with MDD's uses an updated version of OS9.2.2, not at least the Mac OS ROM file. Pretty important if you want anything to work.

The MDD's come with a grey OS9.2.2 install disk that they can boot from, install OS9.2.2 from, and then boot from that.

The other possible causes, maybe already hinted at, are extensions that do a version check, like stuffit expander. Can't remember which domain name it tries to look up, www.stuffit.com, I think. But that has now moved to www.alladinsys.com. So the extension (and app) hang for 60 seconds or so while they try to find stuffit.com.

And try turning off file sharing if you can ever get it to boot (start by trashing the prefs while in OSX or booted off cd. The Shareway IP Bgnd extension used to cause OS9 to hang at startup / wake up if the network connectivity had changed since shutdown / sleep.

Does it boot OS9 with extensions off (hold down shift key during boot) ??

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Answer 4

Toolshed4 Author

Level 1

26 points

Apr 29, 2007 6:40 PM in response to Simon Teale

I've been sick for the past week so forgive the delay in responding. I extracted the version of OS 9 (or more accurately, the "Software Install" application) found on my own FW800's grey install disks (couldn't use the disk itself on a MDD) and installed OS 9 from there and it boots normally now. Knowing that the version of 9 optimized for the later G4s is actually post 9.2.2 is very enlightening. Thanks to all.

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Answer 5

Apr 29, 2007 10:56 PM in response to Toolshed4

Tpdd,

Excellent news.

Years ago I did a (painstaking) check between the retail OS9.2.1, upgraded to OS9.2.2 and the version of OS9.2.2 installed from my MDD OS9 install disk. Differences in file versions ran into several dozen files, all with minor version changes. I did document tham somewhere, long since forgotten.

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