[suhail]

When I start-up my iMac (set to boot in os9) I get a flashing question mark! What key combination do I need to use to force boot into OSX, other than the 'X' key.

[larkost]

Try booting with the option key held down. This will bring you to a menu showing all of the valid boot partitions that the computer can find. If you don't see one with the MacOS X label on it... then you are SOL...

[suhail]

Originally posted by larkost:
Try booting with the option key held down. This will bring you to a menu showing all of the valid boot partitions that the computer can find. If you don't see one with the MacOS X label on it... then you are SOL...

Thanx. But no OS is showing-up with the option key

[SSharon]

just a quick note. at least for me it takes a long time for it to work with option held down so wait a bit. I mean maybe a minute to show one button and then another minute it will show another drive etc. and even after all that I had to wait another two minutes before I could select one and then boot up.

[cpac]

the option key only works if you have X and 9 on different partitions or disks.

If you need to boot into X when you normally boot into 9:

boot into 9
go to the startup disk control panel
select the OS X System folder as the startup folder
reboot

when you need to boot back into 9, go to OS X's startup disk control pane and select the OS 9 folder, and then reboot.

[Taipan]

Hi!

IIRC, if you press "X" during booting it should boot into OS X.

[Link]

holding down X or command X does the trick.

[Jim_MDP]

Originally posted by cpac:
the option key only works if you have X and 9 on different partitions or disks.

What a terribly odd and inaccurate thing to say.

[ryaxnb]

Originally posted by Jim_MDP:
What a terribly odd and inaccurate thing to say.

iThought that was true. It's not?

[Gul Banana]

It's not really inaccurate. The following statement would be completely correct:
The option key is only useful to force booting into your choice of 9 or X if you have 9 and X properly installed on separate partitions or disks.

[Jerommeke]

If pressing X does not help, and you know OS X is on your hard drive, the system is probably damaged or not installed correctly.

When it does help, go to your system preferences, Startup disk, and select the system you want to boot from.

[theolein]

There is another way™, but it's a bit tricky. I used to have to do this to boot between OS8.6 and OSX10.0 back in the day:

Try the following:
At boot press: cmd-alt-o-f
this will bring you into open firmware.
if you can now type, type printenv and press enter
you should get a list of environment stuff including your boot device which should have a line to the tune of:
pci@blabla 10,\\:tbxi
the number there is important.
now type:
boot hd:10,\\:tbxi
replace 10 with the number form that line above
and press enter
if all is well you should now boot. if it isn't i think your openfirmware is corrupt and you will have to call apple.