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

[ssp3]

Did you burn your CD on Windows?

[aBc]

Has anyone else had this problem?

Sounds like a bad, poor or incomplete burn of the download.
You might try the V.9 burn again and select a very slow burn speed.
(We all have our collections of CD coasters.)
And yes, many have had similar problems, normally attributed primarily to “bad burns”.

Of course, if push comes to shove and you can’t get a bootable working disc no matter how hard you might try...
perhaps one of our kind and considerate European members might mail you one (to your ultra-secret location / country).

[Jubadub]

I burned the iso of v9, however I couldn't get the computer to boot from it. So I burned the v8 iso instead (the version linked in the first post.) This time it booted up just fine!

The first post only has a link to v9, though. Are you sure you booted from v8?

Like @aBc said, yes, all symptoms indicate a bad CD burn. What CD drive and burning software are you using? Reiterating @aBc's advice, try burning it with the lowest speed possible. You should also check a "verify" option on your burning software so that it checks for you, after burning, if the burning was done correctly.

I'm confident, based on your described symptoms, that this is the issue.

[NineLives]

Did you burn your CD on Windows?

Hi ssp3, thanks for the response. No, it was a DVD+R burned on a 2006 Macbook running OS X 10.4.11.

Thanks also to aBc and Jubadub for the hints. I had no idea a burn could go bad like that, I always thought it would either work or not.

In the end I dragged the system folder from the CD directly onto the HD, then performed the "blessing" ceremony as described on https://macos9lives.com/mac%20os%209%20lives_003.htm. Now I am 

[NineLives]

The first post only has a link to v9, though. Are you sure you booted from v8?

Oops I meant on this page https://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=4365.msg30502#msg30502 under "previous versions", a recent edit I guess.

[NineLives]

So... I burned v9 to a CD and this time it worked! I could "restore" OS9 and boot up on that volume.

[Jubadub]

So... I burned v9 to a CD and this time it worked! I could "restore" OS9 and boot up on that volume.

There we go. Grats.

[Jubadub]

Weird question, especially at such a late hour, but...

Has anyone ever attempted to boot his/her minis under Mac OS 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2 and/or 9.2.1 instead of 9.2.2?

Could be useful to have 9.0.4 in a separate partition to run those few problematic programs that will throw a fit at anything higher than 9.0.4.

I need to fetch myself some System (and Finder?) files from 9.2.1 and lower and try it sometime this week.

Mac mini booting System 7.5.5

[zefrenchtoon]

Weird question, especially at such a late hour, but...

Has anyone ever attempted to boot his/her minis under Mac OS 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2 and/or 9.2.1 instead of 9.2.2?

Could be useful to have 9.0.4 in a separate partition to run those few problematic programs that will throw a fit at anything higher than 9.0.4.

I need to fetch myself some System (and Finder?) files from 9.2.1 and lower and try it sometime this week.

Mac mini booting System 7.5.5

This is not a direct answer to your question but more a clue to "how to try it" I think.
If you don't already know, there is this thread on 68kmla:
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/mac-os-8-6-for-some-unsupported-g3s-and-g4s.46765/

[Jubadub]

@zefrenchtoon Thanks for the pointer!

Btw, I tried to use the Mac mini ROM with Mac OS 9.1 (System and Finder files replaced accordingly), and, it bombs during Start Up screen. Oh well, it would have been too easy otherwise.

I may try 9.2 and 9.2.1 next, but, I'm not sure I care about these so much, since I'm too happy with Mac OS 9.2.2 to try anything else, to be perfectly honest. But it would be great if people got the mini to boot 9.0.4 and 8.6 somehow.

Or, even earlier than 8.6. New World ROM Macs, with support for the separate Mac OS ROM file, got introduced with Mac OS 8.1 for the Beige PowerMac G3, so we could theoretically go as low as that. To go even lower, I believe we would have to patch up the System file of Mac OS 8.0 and lower with whatever was added to the Mac OS 8.1 System file, much like how we patch System 7.5.5 ~ Mac OS 8 System file so that they support HFS+ just like Mac OS 8.1, which @ELN pulled off in 2020.