Mac OS 9 booting on: Mac mini G4 (Detailed Posts)

[CurtisC]

I’m having a problem with a G4 Mac Mini. The OS 9 install works, but later on, I did this:

I took out the CD / DVD drive, and with an adapter, put a hard drive in its place (80 GB).

When I turn the computer on, it automatically freezes, staying at a gray screen.

Is there a way to overcome this?

I’ve reset the PRAM multiple times, and no results!

[IIO]

does the boot manager work ? (hold alt during startup - it should at least show a question mark now)

[Astroman]

it's an IDE bus with most likely master (harddisk) and slave (CD) setup.
If you add another HD that's not set to 'slave mode' on the adapter, then the whole bus doesn't work anymore... afaik.

[sardaukar]

Just wanted to say thanks for this ISO, I'm now dual booting 9.2.2 and 10.4.11 on my Mac Mini, and will soon add MorphOS 3.11 to the mix

[macStuff]

is there much difference in speed between the 1.5 + the 1.42?

[slomacuser]

I have tried to install Mac OS 9 on 1,5 GHz mac mini without succes. It eyects CD after happy finder and floppy disk statrs to blink.

[devils_advisor]

You need to tell us what cd image you used and btw since when does a mac mini have a floppy drive ?
I hope you downloaded the modified OS9 version from here because otherwise it wont work at all.
Is you CD possible bad or your burner?

[slomacuser]

I have downloaded image v8 and the cd is recognised when loaded to current osx 10.4
Yes mini does not have floppy drive but it is displayed after happy mac, probably from rom

[IIO]

hrm, first happy mac but then the ? floppy symbol, i see that from time to time on my machines when booting from HD.

but the kind of errors which can cause this normally should not appear when booting from a CD.

try resetting PRAM - just in case - and then boot from the v8 CD again.

[devils_advisor]

Did you by any chance mount the image and used drag and drop to create the CD? It's not bootable in that case. You would have to bless it again.

[slomacuser]

I have burned the image on PC and I think that the none bootable CD would not even boot to happy mac ... what I wonder is did any tried to install Mac OS 9 on 1.5 GHz Mac mini not the overclocked one? I think it is the difference in the machine itself

[FdB]

Have you tried “option-booting” the machine with the V8 disk in?

1. Insert the V8 disk in machine, booted under OS X.

2. Shut the machine down.

3. Power up the machine with the disk still in... and hold down the option key.

4. Release the option key when the “available boot disks” are shown.

5. Choose the V8 disk to boot from… when that screen appears. (Patience)

If the V8 disk isn't offered as an available boot drive, possibly your V8 disk is N.G.
If this doesn’t work for you, you may have to attempt the Open Firmware route.
But if your V8 disk burn is good one, this option-boot routine should work for you.

The 1.5GHz mini should be no problem. V8 works on every mini from the 1.25 to the 1.52
(even the overclocked ones).

[slomacuser]

Checked all see pictures for details, no luck

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zvx6tlyr9fmq5kt/AAAjzE3TW3CHdLfvgZ8-PKUDa?dl=0

[FdB]

Here’s an old post containing the rundown for “Open Firmware boot” from a similar situation:

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4658.msg33605.html#msg33605

If you've any qualms about attempting this approach…
perhaps a newly downloaded and created V8 disk should be tried first?

[ELN]

That Happy MacTron and floppy icon are put up by the early 68k environment. The disk starts working but then the early MacOS can’t mount it. You have a bad disk or a bad drive. Try burning at 1x speed.

[tommi]

hi everybody,

success with my 1,33GHz mini as well.......
i have to admit all your efforts  leave me speechless..... now my mini is alive with OS9, wow
great, great job, thanks to all.

i can confirm that when checking the check box in sound control panel the system would freeze as well, but that freeze vanished in the air after installation of driver for m-audio transit usb (just the driver, hardware not plugged in), which is still available at their suppot site.

maybe i'm just repeating former experiences - there is (at least some) USB sound from my V8-powered mini even with m-audio drivers disabled AND no asio stuff installed:
1. platinum sounds from control panel "appearance" are being played
2. QT midi sounds are being played - right now i'm listening to JSBach Brandenburg concerto #5
3. QT sample movie sounds are being played
(all of them crystal clear no distortions at all)

I am using one of those tiny lil cheapcheapcheap USB audio mixers with just one mic in and one stereo in: it's a McCRYPT MX.3BT (manual can still be found on www) with channel 2 set to "usb play" - that's all folks.

Hopefully there will be more success stories from my mini using more sophisticated daw software and connecting more usb devices - there is a Behringer XENYX UFX 1204 usb firewire mixer available for more checks to come :-)

[grhmhome]

I found my old eMac copy of Mac OS9. Right now I'm ripping the image onto my pc so. How can I make this disk image work on my Mac Mini G4 1.33ghz? What files or patches should I replace on my Mac OS9 disk image?


Thanks for your time,

grhmhome

Edit: I know the disk image exists on this site, but I want to do it the most 'legal' way possible.

[devils_advisor]

Legal? Changing their disc is probably already questionable, or illegal? Get the update image instead of the install disc and extract the room and the ATI drivers. I made a video to show what has to be transferred to make it work. I used the instant daw in the video but the procedure is the same.

[ELN]

I suggest booting the eMac from the disc (hopefully 9.2.2!) and then installing over FireWire disk mode onto the mini’s drive. Then just replace the Mac OS ROM file with one from here. Good luck!

[slomacuser]

Thanks to all especially ones trying to help via privat messages. It was corrupted data. I have downloaded and burned the CD on a Mac. And it works.