Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

ephraimephraim · Jun 7, 2006, 06:11 AM

I have a perfectly working Rev. A iMac (Bondi Blue). The original 4GB disk is crowded with 10.3 installed, even after stripping extra language resources, so I swapped in a 40GB disk. I made the first partition less than 8GB, just to be careful. 10.3 installation went perfectly, the iMac thinks it's a bootable disk (I can set it as the startup disk), but it doesn't actually boot. It just sits there flashing the folder-with-a-question-mark until I put in the installation CD or kill the power.

What am I missing? Do I need to start at an antique system version and work my way up? Do a firmware upgrade or downgrade? Some voodoo with the disk jumpers? I'm getting frustrated here.

Eriamjh · Jun 7, 2006, 06:15 AM

Firmware needed to be updated before you try to run 10.3, I believe.
Reinstall OS9/OS8. Update Firmware. Repeat OSX installation, then try again.

ephraimephraim · Jun 7, 2006, 07:41 AM

That makes perfect sense now that you mention it. I was thinking I shouldn't have to re-do the firmware updates because I already did them -- but that was with the other disk, not this one, and some or all of the update must be disk-resident. I'll give it a try tonight and let you know how it works out.

Eriamjh · Jun 8, 2006, 05:12 PM

I don't know about it being disk resident, I thought firmware was flashed into the chips on the mobo, but regardless, confirm the firmware update from within OS9 and then be sure that you are within the 8GB barrier on the OSX installation (like 7.9GB or less).

After you install, all should be well.

iMacfan · Jun 9, 2006, 09:40 AM

I think the Bondi iMac was one of the first Macs to use ROM-in-RAM, and so the ROM is kept on the HD, and loaded in startup. This saves money on large ROM chips.

Or was it the toilet seat iBooks? (I've one of those laying around as well...)

David

ephraimephraim · Jun 9, 2006, 12:20 PM

I tried installing 8.1 and still couldn't boot from disk. Likewise 9.2. The one thing I haven't tried yet is to install the firmware update while booted from the installation CD -- my only chance, really, since I can't boot from the HD.

More news tomorrow.

Stratus Fear · Jun 9, 2006, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by iMacfan

I think the Bondi iMac was one of the first Macs to use ROM-in-RAM, and so the ROM is kept on the HD, and loaded in startup. This saves money on large ROM chips.

This is true, but that's only for the Mac OS ROM, which only pertains to OS 9 and older. OpenFirmware is still contained within a flash chip on the motherboard, so if it's already been updated, the update is still there. I'd search somewhere else for the problem, although I honestly wouldn't know where to start because I don't know anything too specific about the older machines.

ephraimephraim · Jun 9, 2006, 06:52 PM

I'm stumped. I got the only applicable firmware updater from apple.com, transferred it via sneakernet with a USB thumb drive, and it told me the firmware was already up-to-date. And the machine still doesn't boot from HD, only from CD.

This is driving me nuts.

ephraimephraim · Jun 10, 2006, 08:53 AM

One more thing that fails to make it bootable is installing Ubuntu Linux. Installation is perfectly smooth, then it's back to the blinking folder when I restart. I also tried resetting PRAM (holding cmd-opt-P-R at startup) after installing 9.2. Made no difference at all.

eddiecatflap · Jun 10, 2006, 09:39 AM

i got 10.3.0 working on an imac g3/233 somehow

ephraimephraim · Jun 10, 2006, 05:26 PM

I have 10.3 working on the original disk -- it's the disk upgrade I'm stuck on.

Two more things that don't help are holding the option key at startup and re-blessing the 9.2 System Folder. Neither has any effect that I can see.

One more tactic that occurs to me is to ask the systems support folks at my office to clone the old 4GB disk onto the new 40GB disk. That'll have to wait until next week.

ephraimephraim · Jun 11, 2006, 05:48 PM

It's all working now. Thanks for all the suggestions, but the answer was none of the above.

The disk, a WD400, came with one jumper installed. The disk label didn't show a meaning for that jumper position, so I figured it was a spare position and the as-shipped condition was equivalent to no jumpers. No jumpers means "master or single drive", which is what I wanted.

But on Western Digital's web site, that jumper position means "cable select". I removed the jumper and the machine started right up.