os9 installer for MDD just showing floppy disk icon

[markel]

Hello,
I picked up a G4 MDD 1.25 DP this week hoping to use it as an OS9 machine. I'm able to boot to the os9 installer downloaded from here, but instead of being shown a usable GUI, the installer just shows a floppy disk icon with a flashing question mark and I cannot move the mouse cursor.
I know the system is working as it boots into OSX fine, but said floppy disk icon is all I get when trying to install os9.
Any ideas on how to move past this would be much appreciated!

[macarone]

The most important requirement to boot OS 9 is that the hard drive it is installed be formatted with OS 9 drivers.

One way of doing this is to start the computer in Target Disk Mode, by holding the T key down right after hitting the power button. Then connecting it with a FireWire cable to another Mac and use Disk Utility to reformat and partition, making sure to check "Install OS 9 drivers". Even when Disk Utility does NOT let you select "Install OS 9 drivers" for the computer it is running on, it WILL let you select it for a FireWire connected hard drive.

If you don't have access to a second Mac for the above, you can also format an external FireWire hard drive with the OS 9 drivers, and then copy the OS 9 System Folder to the external, and select it as the startup drive. After you have booted from the external hard drive,  you can reformat/partition the internal drive with OS 9 drivers.

     *     *     *     *     *

There are TWO basic versions of MDD models: FireWire 400 and FireWire 800.

The FireWire 400 will accept a regular OS 9 installation.

To boot OS 9 on a FireWire 800 MDD, you must replace the file Mac OS ROM file in the OS 9 System Folder with a MODIFIED file. I'm using version 9.5.1. Drag and drop will work.

[SCSI_G4]

I got the same problem the first time I tried to run OS 9 on my 1.25 GHz MDD (single processor). The problem was related to the master ATA drive jumper. Previous G4 were designed to work fine with the master drive having its jumper set to "Master'. Starting with the MDD series, machines were shipped with "Cable Select" enabled on their drive instead of "Master". OS X is able to handle either jumper setting but not OS 9. That's why you're able to boot OS X and not OS 9. Changing the master drive jumper from "Master" to "Cable Select" will solve the problem.

[markel]

I got the same problem the first time I tried to run OS 9 on my 1.25 GHz MDD (single processor). The problem was related to the master ATA drive jumper. Previous G4 were designed to work fine with the master drive having its jumper set to "Master'. Starting with the MDD series, machines were shipped with "Cable Select" enabled on their drive instead of "Master". OS X is able to handle either jumper setting but not OS 9. That's why you're able to boot OS X and not OS 9. Changing the master drive jumper from "Master" to "Cable Select" will solve the problem.

Not sure I'm understanding you here, I've tried booting to the OS9 install disk with the drives set to cable select, as well as them set to a Master/Slave configuration. No change, the OS9 installer still shows me that floppy disk with a flashing question mark.

To clarify, you did use the OS9 installer from this thread, correct?

[SCSI_G4]

No, since my machine is able to boot in OS 9, I used the standard MDD installer:
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-os-922-powermac-g4-mdd

But I was unable to boot Classic until I switched the jumper from Master to Cable Select. What I'm saying is that OS 9 is somehow picky about these things, at least on MDDs. In my case, it could point to the way my Seagate Barracuda behaves. I haven't tried this with another drive.

I would suggest you try booting OS 9 using another drive model. We never know... Good luck.

[FdB]

I've tried booting to the OS9 install disk with the drives set to cable select, as well as them set to a Master/Slave configuration. No change, the OS9 installer still shows me that floppy disk with a flashing question mark.

Your MDD is looking for a viable startup disk.
When it does not find one, you get the flashing floppy icon.

First, I would suspect the OS 9 install disk / CD. Was it burned / created correctly?
(Maybe try that again.) But even before that, you might attempt the option-key boot…
which might allow you to choose the OS9 install disk as your startup disc -
IF it recognizes it as a viable boot disk. If not… well burn, burn that CD again.

AND, are you attempting to install OS 9 or OS 9.2.2?
The preferred 9.2.2 Universal Installer download is here:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2109.0.html

Multiple drives in the MDD are set to Cable Select.
*OS X version on one drive & another dedicated to OS 9.2.2?
Or... you'll need to partition a single drive.

[markel]

snip

It is a MDD FW800, so I've been using the OS9.22 Installer for Unsupported G4s. Holding Option is how I boot to the installer, it shows up in the boot menu but the flashing floppy disk shows up ONLY once I attempt booting to the CD. I can boot to Mac OS 10.4 Tiger just fine. Even if I unplug all drives but the ODD and try to boot to the OS9 install disc (via the option menu) it still gives me a floppy disc icon.

[FdB]

MDD FW800 was unclear in previous posts.
I do have a pair of FW800 MDDs with OS 9.2 installed that I’ll try to bench-up and review that process on tonight or tomorrow.
IIRC, I wiped their drives and installed only 9.2.2 (no longer any OS X present in any flavor, on either of them).

You might try booting into Open Firmware and then attempt to direct-boot from CD via OF command.

with the CD/DVD in the drive and machine shut down, boot into Open Firmware (holding down Option and Command and the “o” and “f” keys at startup, until the Open Firmware “text screen” shows. Then (with the CD/DVD already in the machine, before Open Firmware startup)… type:  "boot cd:,\\:tbxi" (exactly as shown, without the quotation marks) at the prompt and then hit enter.

If it still does not recognize or boot from the CD/DVD, I would then still question the burn process.