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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Classic Macs and Mac OS > Installing OS 9 on a Digital Audio G4 with a 1.7GHz Sonnet Encore/ST

Installing OS 9 on a Digital Audio G4 with a 1.7GHz Sonnet Encore/ST
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shifuimam
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Jun 22, 2014, 10:16 PM
 
Just what the subject says. I can't get OS 9 to boot. I even took my Pismo PowerBook with 9.2.2 installed, installed the Crescendo/Encore software on it, and tried booting that. It almost booted (progress bar was ALMOST FULL) and then froze. Can't boot off a 9.2.1 install CD from ADC either. It also freezes partway through the boot process.

I have a feeling it's because of the CPU card but wanted to see if anyone has experience with this, first. I'm pretty sure (sort of) that I have the original 733MHz CPU card, so I can reinstall that to do the OS install if necessary, but I'm still a little concerned that the 9.2.2 install WITH the Sonnet software installed didn't work.
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reader50
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Jun 23, 2014, 12:11 AM
 
OS 9 boot problems often traced to the graphics card. And the final retail 9.2 release did not include the nVidia drivers released for the final few Macs that could boot classic. Do you have something like a 4MX card in it?
     
shifuimam  (op)
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Jun 23, 2014, 12:51 AM
 
We thought that might be the problem, so we tried both installing newer Radeon 9000 drivers and installing a Rage 128 PCI card instead. Both cards display video fine, but the OS freezes at the same point - right before launching the Finder.

With extensions off (shift+boot), the boot progress bar appears to get to 100% before freezing. Booting with virtual memory disabled didn't help, either.

Also tried swapping out RAM. I'm updating 9.2.2 now, but I doubt it's going to do anything.
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shifuimam  (op)
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Jun 23, 2014, 01:22 AM
 
Update: 9.2.2 didn't fix anything. Classic works fine.

I'm baffled. I don't know a WHOLE lot about the OS 9 boot process, but we've been reading up on it a lot and have tried every troubleshooting step we've found online.
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reader50
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Jun 23, 2014, 01:55 AM
 
For some reason, I read your original post as trying to install on a Cube, hence the suspicion it had a later vid card.

If it were the CPU card, you'd think it would fail much earlier in the boot process. Instead, the timing suggests the Finder is coming up and mounting devices. Got anything connected that might trip it up? Like an OS X volume with later HFS+ stuff?

Anything Snow Leopard (or later) touches may have compressed binaries in the resource forks. I believe Journaling will just be ignored by OS 9, but using a case-insensitive file system is something else. Classic wouldn't see this, since it turns the direct hardware stuff over to OS X.

Not sure how OS 9 would handle folder hard links in a Time Machine volume, for example.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Jun 23, 2014, 08:28 AM
 
Wasn't there a CDEV or INIT for the upgrade cards under 9? Wow- that was a long time ago...
     
is not
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Jun 23, 2014, 09:32 AM
 
May you ask here: http://www.macos9lives.com/smforum/

There are several users with G4 upgrade cards around.
     
shifuimam  (op)
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Jun 23, 2014, 01:01 PM
 
There's a system extension, and I do have that installed.

Right now it's a freshly-formatted hard drive with nothing but OS 9 on it (and a couple empty partitions). I have a second hard drive installed, but Time Machine isn't set up on it or anything. I used it in OS X for random data files, media, etc.

I'll try posting on that other forum, too.
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shifuimam  (op)
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Jun 23, 2014, 02:29 PM
 
I think I figured out what was wrong - sort of.

I know that the MDD and later G4s required using the system installation disks that came with the machine due to a special boot ROM. It looks like my ADC 9.2.1 installer and 9.2.2 updater (from Macintosh Garden) were missing something. I downloaded the original 9.1 install disk from Macintosh Garden, used Classic in Tiger to install it (after formatting my OS 9 volume), and it booted! Now I'm going to try updating to 9.2.1 and then 9.2.2 using Apple's updaters. Hopefully that won't break anything.

ETA:

Updating to 9.2.1 broke it. I'm going back to 9.1 so that I have a working system, but I would LOVE to know what the hell is going on...
( Last edited by shifuimam; Jun 23, 2014 at 02:43 PM. )
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Mike Wuerthele
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Jun 23, 2014, 03:28 PM
 
That 9.1 thing spurred an old memory... Can't quite pull it out.
     
reader50
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Jun 23, 2014, 05:53 PM
 
shif, what is the firmware version of your DA? Check sonnet support here, particularly the last FAQ #237.
     
shifuimam  (op)
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Jun 23, 2014, 07:42 PM
 
I installed the Sonnet FW updater from OS X awhile back, when I first got that upgrade card from a friend. I reran the firmware updater prior to doing any of this stuff, and it indicated the FW was up-to-date for Sonnet support.

What could 9.2 be changing from 9.1 to cause the boot process to crap out? It seems like it's failing at the point where the boot process hands off to the Finder.
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reader50
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Jun 23, 2014, 07:59 PM
 
Like Esta, I have the feeling I know the answer. But it's been a decade, and the memory isn't surfacing. Thought it was the firmware update.

If it really is the Finder, you could use the 9.1 Finder with 9.2.2 -- but I think there was a different solution. Maybe an email to Sonnet support?
     
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Jun 24, 2014, 05:22 AM
 
A little googling dug up the following:

Low End Mac’s Compleat* Guide to Mac OS 9 | Low End Mac

Special Considerations

There are a couple Macs that require a special version of Mac OS 9.2.2. If you try to run the standard version on these models, they will be missing some crucial ingredients. The Early 2003 iBook G3 (12″ and 14″), 867 MHz and 1 GHz Late 2002 Titanium PowerBook G4, 2003 eMac, Quicksilver 2002 Power Mac G4, and MDD Power Mac G4 (the model without FireWire 800) require a machine-specific version of OS 9.2.2.
Perhaps using the Sonnet card means that you have to have that specific version?
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
shifuimam  (op)
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Jun 30, 2014, 12:20 PM
 
So maybe I should try the MDD or Quicksilver G4 restore disc instead? I'll see if I can find that.
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Waragainstsleep
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Aug 27, 2014, 06:28 AM
 
I don't recall that many machine specific OS 9 installers. Something about this is ringing a vague bell though. Have you checked for a firmware update? Or a downgrade. I think there were some G4 CPU upgrades that needed specific ROM versions to work correctly.
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Waragainstsleep
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Aug 27, 2014, 06:32 AM
 
You need Firmware version 4.2.8 which Sonnet implies requires 9.2.X to install.

http://www.sonnettech.com/publicfile...t_1700_qsg.pdf

You might need the original CPU in order to upgrade the firmware on the logic board. Then fit the upgrade.
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