[cyberfunk]

I've got a Beige G3 Tower, and I've tried everything to get ANY MacOS X build to install on my machine. What happens is that I'll hit restart on the installer (yes I'm sure I've got good CDs) and the machine will boot, but then the screen will be blank. Just dark, and it will stay that way, no spinning circle, no happy face. The cd drive will access for about 10 secs, then nothing, and it'll eventually spin down and my machine will just hang.
I've tried taking out every card I'v put in my mac,updating the firmware and disconnecting the extra IDE drive I put in there.. and nothing. I've only got my keyboard and monitor connected to my internal monitor port. Please help.. I really dont wanna buy a new machine just for OSX but it looks like I might have to, even tho apple said my machine was supported.

[griffman]

Can you give some more info on your specs? Hard drives - how many, what partitions; any USB, SCSI, or serial devices attached? Some people have even found something like an MacAlly keyboard or third-party USB mouse messing up their installs. Give a bit more info, and maybe someone can spot something odd.

I know it installs on Beige G3's as I've seen posts from others who have it running. Of course, Apple would be happier if you just bought a new machine ;-).

-rob.

[cyberfunk]

Originally posted by griffman:
Can you give some more info on your specs? Hard drives - how many, what partitions; any USB, SCSI, or serial devices attached? Some people have even found something like an MacAlly keyboard or third-party USB mouse messing up their installs. Give a bit more info, and maybe someone can spot something odd.

I know it installs on Beige G3's as I've seen posts from others who have it running. Of course, Apple would be happier if you just bought a new machine ;-).

-rob.

Well, see I took out the USB & firewire cards I had in there, after this didnt work, I proceeded to take out my voodoo card, and try on internal video, I then took out my DVD decoder card (from apple w/ the machine) I had a 20 GB Maxtor IDE drive, but I disconnected it ( was slave to the CD drive, but the CD drive def still works fine) I had the main hard drive still connected (6GB)
1 partition, no serial or ADB devices attached except a standard apple keyboard and and ADB II Mouse ( apple standard).

[muchfresh]

sounds like another post for the support forum.

[cyberfunk]

This IS the Mac OS X Support forum!

now can anyone help me out?

[cyberfunk]

Just tried the disc on an iBook, works fine, but I really need it to work on my Beige....

[VanillaIcee]

Yes, don't worry. It seems that although you believe the copies you have of OS X are the real thing, they have one problem... they lack support for OldWorld Macintosh machines.

The same exact thing happened when I tried to install an OS X (4k78) copy on my Powerbook G3 series (Wallstreet, no USB). I was informed that simply making a copy from Toast will not necessarily copy the "Boot loader" necessary for older macs likes yours and mine. So although the disc you have may work on iMacs and newer, it won't run on computers with ADB ports.

The good news is that an official copy of OS X (whether through ADC or bought in a store) will work fine (or so I've heard). So just wait till Saturday, actually purchase it, and don't stress out.

I've been there. My screen was blank too. (OS X final release). I tried at the office and it kind of worked on another G3. So I brought my machine here. Turns out that OS X didn't like my monitor (Sony 17 pc monitor with adaptor). Now I could see on a white screen a text that said "can't connect" repeated indefinitely.

You have to make sure that you install it on the first partition of your drive (it's in the readme). So I finally got it to work on my machine. As for the one at the office, after several retries, I got it to boot but no apps work. I see all apps as folders in the dock. Performances are very disappointing on my machine. So slow. I got so mad. But then this morning my contact told me that Saturday there will be an update on Apple's web site upon registration. Looks like there was something wrong with the version that was shipped (that could explain the 4K78 issue). We'll see in 2 days.

[cyberfunk]

The reason I worry is my verision was definately a retail copy ( I got it at staples, fresh in the box). Also, I tried many diffrent monitors, apple and non.

What do you mean by OldWorld macs? Mine is a G3, and supposedly the first PB G3s arent supposed to be supported anyways.

Further, I've heard numerous reports of MacOS X installing fine on the same model as my machine.

[DREADNAUGHT]

While in the blank screen, try ejecting the CD and putting it back in. This worked for me on an 8500 with the Public Beta but I have no clue if it will help you.

[cyberfunk]

Originally posted by DREADNAUGHT:
While in the blank screen, try ejecting the CD and putting it back in. This worked for me on an 8500 with the Public Beta but I have no clue if it will help you.

Tried That, didnt work

Ok, so color me stupid. Since I knew that people had successfully installed the PB on PM8500s, I rushed out to my local Staples on 38th St. in Indianapolis, and purchased one of 2 copies they had sitting on the shelf, right under a copy of OS9. So, I get it home, back up my 2nd drive to CD-Rs, only to find that the Installer WILL NOT do an "unsupported" install! Does anyone know how to get this thing to install on an older machine. I have a PM8500 with a Newer G3 card, 384MB of RAM, and have successfully installed and run MacOS X Server (1.0) under this configuration (in fact it is currently living on a partition on one of my 2nd drive). PLEASE tell me I didn't just spend $130 on a copy of OS 9.1. HELP!

When I try to boot from the OS X CD, all I get is a weird "broken folder" icon, then the machine just hangs there. One thing I have NOT done is install 9.1 yet. Could that be an issue THAT early in the boot process?

have you tried zapping the pram more than one time?

on my old g3 i'd have to zap it 3 times before i could get it to recognize my hd after futzing with os x beta sometimes.

option-apple-p-r at boot and wait till it restarts. keep holding the keys down and let it zap a few times. cant hurt to try. your machine is officially supported, it should work.

[cyberfunk]

Anyone figure out why it wont install on my machine, a supposedly supported one??

What is the SIZE of the partition you are trying to install on?

The Read Me states that on a beige G3, the destination must be ENTIRELY within the first 8GB of the drive......

What is the SIZE of the partition you are trying to install on?

The Read Me states that on a beige G3, the destination must be ENTIRELY within the first 8GB of the drive......

[cyberfunk]

Originally posted by mr. blur:
What is the SIZE of the partition you are trying to install on?

The Read Me states that on a beige G3, the destination must be ENTIRELY within the first 8GB of the drive......

It's a 6 GB drive ( 3 GB free)

hmm....

i wonder if it's the os x server install that is causing the problem?

it will have made its own macx_booter partition and may be "confusing" the g3.

i would try getting rid of the server install (if your not running anything mission critical...), zapping the pram, then installing x again.

(i seem to recall similar problems way back when i was toying around with dp1/dp2/server.....)

[fmalloy]

I know it probably won't make you feel better, but I am running the Public Beta (right now) on my Beige G3 mini-tower (300MHz) and it installed and worked just fine, first time. I'm waiting for my retail CD to be delivered on Sat.


I hope this helps - here's details on what works for me:


- All stock config (video, hard disk, CD-ROM, no DVD, no extra SCSI card, no extra drives, etc.)

- Three disk partitions (I formatted): Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, and Documents

- I have a Sony 15" VGA monitor that came with a Mac adapter

I recommend for you:

- If you messed with the master/slave configuration of your hard disk or CD-ROM, make absolutely sure you have put it back to the shipped configuration

- Press the CUDA button on the motherboard. This is the mother of all reset buttons


- Zap PRAM

- Reformat, and create at least two partitions

- Install Mac OS 9.1 (from the CD you got with X)

If that doesn't work, I have no idea what's wrong and you may as well resign yourself to get that new G4.

[fmalloy]

I know it probably won't make you feel better, but I am running the Public Beta (right now) on my Beige G3 mini-tower (300MHz) and it installed and worked just fine, first time. I'm waiting for my retail CD to be delivered on Sat.


I hope this helps - here's details on what works for me:


- All stock config (video, hard disk, CD-ROM, no DVD, no extra SCSI card, no extra drives, etc.)

- Three disk partitions (I formatted): Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, and Documents

- I have a Sony 15" VGA monitor that came with a Mac adapter

I recommend for you:

- If you messed with the master/slave configuration of your hard disk or CD-ROM, make absolutely sure you have put it back to the shipped configuration

- Press the CUDA button on the motherboard. This is the mother of all reset buttons


- Zap PRAM

- Reformat, and create at least two partitions

- Install Mac OS 9.1 (from the CD you got with X)

If that doesn't work, I have no idea what's wrong and you may as well resign yourself to get that new G4.

[Doc Juansinn]

Greetings,
Does your G3 still have the original CD drive in it? I have a 233MHz G3 desktop and I had the same problem. Booted into OS 9.1, popped in the OS X CD, double clicked the installer, clicked the restart button, and got just a light grey (as if it were about to enter open firmware) screen. The CD would spin up and then spin down but nothing would happen. I tried many different versions of System Disk and Startup Disk and also the C key but nothing would work.
I had recently put in a non-Apple Toshiba CD drive just to see if it would work with the Apple driver (it did) and decided to leave it in. After getting a few more grey hairs trying to get the OS X CD to boot, I put the Apple CD drive back in and the OS X CD booted just as it should have. I'll have to check the Toshiba drive again to see if it will work with an installed OS X.

[cyberfunk]

Originally posted by Dr. Wahnsinn:
Greetings,
Does your G3 still have the original CD drive in it? I have a 233MHz G3 desktop and I had the same problem. Booted into OS 9.1, popped in the OS X CD, double clicked the installer, clicked the restart button, and got just a light grey (as if it were about to enter open firmware) screen. The CD would spin up and then spin down but nothing would happen. I tried many different versions of System Disk and Startup Disk and also the C key but nothing would work.
I had recently put in a non-Apple Toshiba CD drive just to see if it would work with the Apple driver (it did) and decided to leave it in. After getting a few more grey hairs trying to get the OS X CD to boot, I put the Apple CD drive back in and the OS X CD booted just as it should have. I'll have to check the Toshiba drive again to see if it will work with an installed OS X.

yea, its the original CDRom drive that shipped with it, it does happen to be a DVD drive.. perhaps if I try another one.. I'll try it and report back

In response to an earlier post, I'm not running OSX server, just 9.1.

[cyberfunk]

Alright, I GOT IT TO WORK, Buuuuuuuuuut after a few secs and the spinning circle ( I got it to work by trying ANOTHER apple cdrom drive, appears the standard DVD drive that shipped w/ my machine doesnt co-operate.. ) there is a "kernal panic" what do I do about this? it just hangs

Here, The retail Mac OS X (real Apple CD, not a copy) boots up fine on my Beige G3 (was a 233 MHz, now a 500 MHz rev. B after upgrades), but the installer won't let me select any of my partitions to install on. All are grayed out. I tried everything I can think of. PRAM is zapped, CUDA switch is zapped, PCI Radeon card is out, standard Apple CD drive is in. I also tried reformatting my hard drive as one big HFS+ partition. I even got to try formatting a partition as UFS; with one of these on my HD, the OS X CD boots up to a gray screen, the mouse is moveable but shows a spinning beach ball icon. It never comes out of this loop.

Mac OS X Public Beta was installed on this same computer las fall without problems.

This sucks. It's a $130 coaster!

I also had a nightmarish experience installing OS X (retail copy - thank you Staples) on a Beige G3/266. In order to potentially help anyone else having problems I will go through the whole process I used to get it installed.

-Tried to boot off the CD. I seemed to be loading but my screen was just blank. I eventually switched from my add-in ATI video card to the onboard video and was greeted with a happy Mac screen! But that was as far as I got. It would not boot any further.

-Tried resetting both the PRAM and the reset button on the motherboard. No difference. Started removing whatever modifications I made to the system over the years to see if some piece of hardware was hanging it up. Still wont boot any further than a Happy Mac.

-Tried multiple PRAM and motherboard resets and eventually go stuck in an Open Firmware screen. Oh no!!!! No amounts of resets would get me out of Open Firmware. As a last resort I decided to do one last round of resets and power down the computer. I removed the power, CMOS battery, and system ROM. Waited a few minutes. Put everything back together and --

Success!!!

I was able to boot up from the CD with no problems. Everything loaded fine and the OS installed. I reinstalled all my PCI cards, USB devices and everything else I had removed from the system while troubleshooting. Everything worked fine.

What I would like to see, as a topic of discussion, is how firmware updates and Open Firmware settings stored. I would assume that removing the battery, power, and ROM provided the ultimate in system resets. I did have the Public Beta installed (I had planned to reformat and wipe it out.) As far as I know, this did modify Open Firmware and probably installed some firmware updates when it was originally installed. I would make an educated guess that something in my system was hanging up the installer/boot process and I somehow reset Open Firmware or the ROM and fixed it.

Hope this helps!

I read about Staples selling OS X and was able to buy a retail copy. (I
know, boo, hiss!) I have an original G3 266 desktop with 192mb. The install goes great up to the point that the installer indicates that it is completed and will restart the computer in 30 seconds. If you click on the Restart button, the machine freezes, losing the cursor. If you allow the installer to time out and restart, the same thing happens. This is minor compared to the next problem.

From there you can do a forced quit and the machine boots into OS X and launches the Set Up Utility. Looks great! Love the music. The first question asks you to pick your country. But, there are no countries listed even when the list all option is clicked on. Keyboard entries yield the error bell. The scroll bar is dimmed out. If you click on continue button, that yeilds a spinning cursor and the Select Country dialog returns. You can force quit set up and the result is that it launches Set Up Utility again with the same blank list of countries.

Has anyone come across this? If so, what was the solution?

(Original Beige G3 266 desktop, Rev C ROM, Maxtor 20 G with 4 equal partitions, System 9.1 <fresh> & OS X on the 1st partition and 9.1 on the 4th partion)

Thanks in advance for your answers. I will post solution(s) when and if one
is found.

Craig Kozloski
[email protected]


"The gods too are fond of a joke. "
- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

[cyberfunk]

Thanks, but can anyone explain this aforementioned (look up to my last post) Kernal Panic while at the initial boot screen (disk spinning)

[Geobunny]

Hrm, it seems the beige G3 isn't as supported as Apple would like to think it is!

My beige desktop G3/266 won't install either. I get as far as CJD did - the happy mac, then nothing. If I boot in verbose (cmd-v) mode, I see that it's "still waiting for root device". I too, have a 3rd party CD drive, but the public beta installed fine.

Eventually, I split my drive into two 2gig partitions, installed public beta onto one of them, fired up the installer.app and installed the .pkgs off my ADC mailing CD (4k78) and it all went through fine and dandy. However, when I restarted, I had the same problem of sitting at the happy mac screen with the spinning cursor (and many curses from me too!). Again, in verbose mode it says "still waiting for root device". What the hell's going on?

------------------
Shh! Be vewy, vewy qwiewet! I'm hunting wuntime ewwors

[cyberfunk]

waiting for root dev means it's waiting on the drive that it's booting off of, but for some reason when I try to install it overwrites the background grey image with dos-like text w/ a kernal panic

[Ernie]

I'm running X on a biege G3 tower. 333 Mhz. I had a simelar problem with an earlier build of OS X. After pressing the install button and the system restarted, it just sat there, stuck. I could'nt boot back into OS 9.1 either.

Zapping PRAM (do it 8 times) fixed it. I then booted directly from the CD for OS X instead of going into OS 9 and starting from there.

For what it's worth, K78 installed without a hitch on my machine.

Good luck..

[cyberfunk]

hmmm, I only wish it worked that way for me, I was really elated when I got it to "boot" with the spinning circle, only to be dismayed by the kernal panic, what xactly is a kernal panic? Is it the unix kernal, failing to execute some instruction?

the "kernel panic error" from my understanding is that the kernel looks at the system hardware to determine if it is able to continue with the installation of the software. this error happens when there is a piece of hardware that the software doesn't support. i am guessing that after you tried to make everything as stock on your mac up until now is that it may be your cd-rom even though you got it to boot up to the spinning disc. i, too, have had this error but it was becasue of the voodoo card i had. i am running osx with a beige g3 300mhz, usb pci card, on a partitioned 4gb ultra wide scsi internal drive on the same bus of 2-9gb ultra wide scsi in raid0. good luck with the install, i know how frustrating it is.

[cyberfunk]

I got it! It's the fact that I've got a REV A G3 mini! It's got something to do w/ that.. the Rev B ppl arnt having trouble w/ this....

[G3 Addict]

i have a g3 beige 233mhz, 128mb RAM, 20gb HD, and a ATI PCI card16 mb.... i am in the same problem of a guy here... im stock in the window that we sopose to choose the disk to install the OSX software, i see it (the disk) with the capacity and everything, but it is kind of gray... a transparent icon of the disk, i CANT double click it ... it is there but i can click on it.... whats happenings????? i am in the middle of a single step here please help!!!!!

[email protected]

im gonna be here waiting for an answer (just in case)

[cyberfunk]

GRRRR damn appl tech support, they're not really that helpfull

[SandyG3]

We'll I'm lucky I guess, I have a rev C beige G3 MT, only after I had 3 mboards replaced from when it was a rev A g3;-) Pickin up osX tonight and I'll install it and see how it goes, 433mhz G3(clocked from 350), 768ram, ati128vr, ati128,pci usb, 2 20gigers,cdrw,dvd, I"ll try it with everything installed and post results...

[auskropp]

I had the same problem that everyone else had - the installer did would not let me install on the my hd.

*****If you have a hd larger than 8 gigs - you have to partition*****

I made a 7.5 partion and a 20 partition. After running the installer again it would let me install only onto the 7.5.

Good luck!

[dindaex]

I am also having trouble installing the final on my rev A Beige G3/266. I have 320MB and a 30GB HD (9GB Sys/Apps, 17GB Data, 3GB Temp). I also have a an Initio Mile UW-9100 with a 9GB UW-SCSI drive with music and video files on it.

I know there is no driver for the Miles. And I am hoping that the reason the installer would not install to my Sys/Apps partition is that the beige G3 needs to go on a 8GB (or smaller first partition) or the Miles is getting in the way.

Right now, I have it installed on an old 1.2GB external SCSI drive plugged into the onboard SCSI. It runs, but the drive is very slow. I will probably try to move the VM to a faster drive and see how much that helps.

On the bright side, I have the AV personality card and have no problem with sound.

Has anyone started a Beige G3 Support Group yet? :-)



------------------
dindaex
http://www.darkproductions.com

[cyberfunk]

I have a VERY IMPORTANT question to ask of everyone who gets a kernal panic when mac OS X is booting up ( happy face/spinning disk) on the install..

WHAT CD-ROM/DVD-ROM DRIVE ARE YOU USING? Is is apple? and most important , is it SCSI or IDE.. if I get enough answers, I believe I have a possible soultion to the panic problem!

[warpmoon]

if you're getting kernel errors, try removing any extra RAM you have in the comp and checking if it works.

[cyberfunk]

Already done that loooong ago, methinking the prob is w/ the SCSI cd drive I'm trying to boot off, I need to find a spare IDE drive..

[SandyG3]

Ya, you have to boot osX cd off of a apple ide drive, or other ide drives might work, I can tell you for almost certainly that it will not boot or support scsi cdroms yet as I have read others trying to use thier scsi cdroms in osX with no luck mounting cd's.

[cyberfunk]

Yea, it's all about the SCSI/ conflict I think on my machine!

[crazyjohnson]

This is all a darn mess. I dont want to have to get a new computer. Could anyone actually _install_ without problems on a 266 Desktop (little additions)?

Originally posted by cyberfunk:
Yea, it's all about the SCSI/ conflict I think on my machine!

[dogzilla]

FWIW, I had 3 problems with my beige G3 minitower:

1) Nothing worked until I flash-updated the ROMs on my SCSI-2 card. Apple-supplied card, but it won't work unless you get the update. This is mentioned in the Read Me.

2) The vga connector on the ixMicro gets set to 640x480. The setup assistant is an unresizable 800x600, and there are no default buttons. It is necessary to connect an Apple monitor to get a usable resolution.

3) Network won't see the 10/100 card initially. It will run off the mobo ethernet. You need to connect that first and then switch to ethernet card once you're running.

To the fella experiencing the kernel panic: some of your hardware is freaking out the system. I doubt it's RAM, probably one of your PCI cards. Have you removed everything (including Apple-supplied cards) and tried it that way?

[bojangles]

Mac OS X is running quite smoothly on my Rev. A G3/266 w/640MB non-Apple RAM, stock IDE CD-ROM, 30GB Quantum HD (six partitions). I wiped out the first partition (2GB), installed 9.1, then restarted from the Mac OS X CD and installed over it.

Having said that, I have found that X doesn't quite like my PCI graphics card (ATI Nexus 128, which I eventually got to work with the PB; time will tell�) and will not start up with any SCSI devices attached. (Yet.) I haven't checked to see if it likes my internal SCSI CD burner, tho�. That's the next step.

If anyone else has any idea on how to troubleshoot the Nexus and external SCSI problems, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll keep trying!

[This message has been edited by bojangles (edited 03-26-2001).]

[bojangles]

Well, good news and bad news. I just restarted into X, and with absolutely no explanation, it's now working beautifully with my Nexus. One problem solved!

Unfortunately, I also tried using my interal SCSI CD-RW (Yamaha CRW 4416, SCSI ID 3) and got horrible results. While its existence doesn't seem to bother X at all, inserting a disc throws it into a kernel panic, or worse, a complete freeze.

How 'bout a fix, Apple?

[cyberfunk]

BINGO! It IS the SCSI CDROM I bet.. I'm going to borrow a new apple IDE drive from my school, swap it in, and see what happens.. UNIX historically has very scetchky support for SCSI (we ARE running a BSD core here...)

[Szwarc]

Its not (only) the SCSI CD-ROM drive. I managed today to exchange it with my old
and original ATA CD-ROM Drive and I also disabled the all SCSI chain. The Mac Os X Install CD could not even boot with it :error message "StartUp Disk cant find a Install CD" Big change : no more kernel panic..........

[crazyjohnson]

Would you stop stealing things from "your school". You would not believe this kid, he "borrowed" a Palm . . . whats next?

Originally posted by cyberfunk:
BINGO! It IS the SCSI CDROM I bet.. I'm going to borrow a new apple IDE drive from my school, swap it in, and see what happens.. UNIX historically has very scetchky support for SCSI (we ARE running a BSD core here...)