Looking to reinstall OS9Lives but hitting snags

[part12studios]

awesome i'm on it!   yea i see now how it's listed..  it just feels like so many forum threads..  in my haste it feels like so much information.. not used to forums themselves being sources of links.. usually more like a web page..  just my mindset / filter.. thank you for your help!     Ok.. laying off the coffee..

Thanks!
Caleb

[devils_advisor]

I also made a video about the installation. Which should be a part of the installation for explanations on how to and so on.

[geforceg4]

If you want any help let me know as it's fresh in my mind as I only did it a couple of days ago.

Cheers, Steve,

awesome to see you extend yourself to new members Steve! (al the while being a new member yourself!) amazing... we need more members like you here! great to see! awesome!

[geforceg4]

@caleb / part12studios


my images from the installation discs for the sawtooth g4 are posted on my private mediafire account here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/calxk3ticozkv/1999_sawtoothG4 it seems its 9.0.2, there *IS* a 9.0.4 version aswell tho i think that came out after the 9.0.2 version, i just havent got it posted on my mediafire in the same folder yet, but the hard to find 8.6 install + 9.0.2 are both originally shipped with the purchase of the sawtooth AGP machine!  (400 + 450mhz)


enjoy because it took persistance + quite a while to track these down..

i do reccomend u try the diehard instant daw aswell tho, if i were you id get a brand new drive (80gb-120gb) and split it into 2 seperate os9 partitions + install one of the machine specific installs + use the updates to patch up to 9.2.2, and on the other partition, install the diehard instant daw!  i believe the diehard instant daw is based on the MDD' install/restore image of 9.2.2

then u can compare the two, u cant lose.

[part12studios]

awesome grabbing the images now.  what software do you use to burn .bin files?

i'm on a macbook pro with the latest OS..  i tried "liquidCD" and "burn" and neither seem to know what to do with these bin files.

i feel like a noob with this stuff.. everything i normally would think works doesn't..  lol.. it's just a bin file, but these programs don't recognize it even though they say they support..  I know it might seem like I'm just asking to be hand held but I'm googling and trying out programs wasting CDs and DVDs in the process.. before I come back asking for help. 

sounds like good advise, i'll start with your recommendation.  i don't expect perfection.. i just want something reasonably stable and really all of this just boils down to the damn midi clock not going out from DP3 to any external midi hardware even though notes are going out perfectly fine..   and this seems to be because the "transmit sync..." option under /basic won't appear.. it's like the window pops up but it's invisible/off the screen.. so bizzare.. 

[geforceg4]

its been awhile since i made these images im not 100% sure but i believe the .bin file is "macbinary" u have to first "unstuff it" with stuffit expander

its not the cd image .bin format like windows cd imaging apps like PowerISO or MagicISO use..
read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBinary

the reason i would have made them .bin format is so that people downloading them using a mac os9 machine can get the files with the file fork association intact and burn them fine using TOAST. but u can still 'unstuff' them on mac osx or windows (windows has a stuffit expander aswell) but extracting them on those operating systems will damage the file fork. theres lots of posts explaining the nuances of this here on the forums though those posts may be burried by new posts now.. or they might be stickied. not sure.

its partially explained in each post on the download boards here (in the footer at the bottom of the page)

[part12studios]

yea i don't know.. must have evil spirits in this thing.. after a few different reboots and what not.. now OS9Lives partition is weird.. boots up to the mac finder face tile background but nothing else past that..   i'm just going to go back to square one. figure out how i installed OS9 in the first place and try to replicate that..  doing a restore software from the OSX tiger partition doesn't work..  the "continue" type button is grayed out..  that was almost perfect.. if i could have just done that.. 

I'll figure out later today (2:30am here)  gotta get some sleep..  I'll find the original tutorial i must have used..  ill try these other ones too as soon as I can figure out how to burn these images to DVD..  I did it before, I just have to figure out / remember what I did last time. 

Thanks!
Caleb

[Steve_W]

Happy to help anyone in the forums!  I have 3 hard drives in my G4, I have 10.5.8 on one drive, Die Hard DAW on another and a third just for data.

I found the best way was to start from scratch, this is what I did:

First off, I burned the software restore disks from this site and treated my mac as completely new.  I ran the software install process so I had a working OS X partition.  I then installed the machine specific OS 9.2.2 on the other hard drive & rebooted into that.  Once I had a fully working 9.2.2 partition, I installed a few bits and bobs like Stuffit, Toast etc, then used Classilla to download the files from DieHard.

Once downloaded, I used the Apple System Restore to push the image onto my 3rd hard drive, then booted into that, Voila!

I had to go that way as I have the 2003 dual 1.25ghz MDD and you have to use the machine specific version.  I would think you could use a retail disk to boot your machine, but seeing as you already have a working OS 9 partition or drive, just download the files to that drive then restore the DieHard Image to a different partition or drive.

If you want me to really break things down I'll be glad to help.  Probably better to keep it in the public forum, that way it might help someone else in the same boat!  I'm off to bed now (25 to midnight here in the UK) but I'll check in tomorrow night to reconvene.

Speak soon!

[Steve_W]

By the way, the following info might help you.  In my setup, my daily go to machine is a late 2014 Mac Mini running El Capitan.  That machine is connected directly to a gigabit switch, as is my MDD. (in turn connected to my router).  In my OS 9 machine I have Fetch installed and set my Mac Mini up as an FTP server to pull files from that.

When I initially downloaded the images in OS 9 I had to leave it overnight, it took ages!  And as was pointed out by someone in here, OS 9 is a bit sticky with big downloads, so since using Fetch I do all my downloads on the Mac Mini and pull them into the MDD using Fetch, works great!

I installed stuffit on my Mac Mini to handling all unstuffing duties which works great (grab that here: http://my.smithmicro.com/stuffit-expander-mac.html )

It installs a widget that floats on your desktop so you can move it wherever you want and just drop stuffed files onto it.  This is great for images and so on, but when I downloaded the .bin files of the actual DAW, I did that directly on the MDD in my existing OS 9.2.2 partition and used the version of stuffit specific to that OS just to make sure its all in the right format.  Another tip is I prefer not to let Stuffit auto extract compressed files, just my preference (I don't like automation of any kind unless I've written the Apple Script!) as I like to know exactly what is doing what, to what, when, and what the result is!  Makes for a happy tidy Mac...

If you want, when I get home tonight I can give you very precise step by step instructions, however I see that devils_advisor has made a video, maybe that might be useful?  Is there a link DA?

Post back any queries, I'm sure between us all we'll get you through it!

[part12studios]

Steve thanks a ton!  You have some incredible stuff going on with your setup.  Thankfully I'm only hoping to achieve a fraction of what you've managed to engineer.  Props for getting all that to work together!  

My G4 is in the basement.  no internet available there except wifi..  I have an airport card in it and it's working BUT it fails to connect to my current wifi set.. something about the encryption or something..  something I'll figure out eventually.. but as it stands i'm ok with it being internet-less.. 

So I think my hurdles at this point will:

1. what program (and on what computer) do I need to burn the images

2. none of these images are over 700mb..  can I use a CD Rom or must I use DVD Disks for everything?  I've misplaced my blank DVDs' so I need ot find them today or buy some more (I do have some DVD-R+ disks, does anyone know if Super drives are DVD+ or -?)

3. I need to be sure that the DAW image (as a disk) or some other image must be bootable.  I know i have Tiger on the 2nd HDD (not partition), but honestly my hope is to have the first smaller drive by the OS9 drive and the 2nd one be for Digital Audio Recording.. 

NOTE: nether drive is over the 128gb ceiling so no need to partition them.. IIRC

4. get the image installed.  The installation of the DAW image.. is it a strict copy / paste approach or is there a more traditional "installation" process as you'd experience say, installing normal Windows or OSX? 

I'm not a perfectionist and I'm happy to experiment.. I just think perhaps I'm making assumptions on how things should work vs how they actually work.   I could have sworn  I booted from the DVD OS9Lives 9.2.2 I have.. but its not booting to install.. so clearly I must have to do it another way and that other way has escaped me. 

Thanks!
Caleb

[geforceg4]

just use Toast.

yes of course u can use CDs .. OS9 was born in 1999. DVDs werent really even used back then because everything fit on cds!

the instant daw images are not bootable.. u must boot into a pre-existing mac os 9 installation and restore it from the images to a new partition as was just pointed out by Steve in his post above!

its a hard drive backup image, that u restore to a partition, there is no "install" other than that.. u are restoring the backup image to a new partition..

[part12studios]

OK i see what you mean now.  I have a OS9 dedicated hard drive.. i think 20gb.. and the other is like 80gb that has OSX on it.. not at my computer right now.. the 20gb was the original it came with and the other is a 2nd drive the unit.  it also has

Yea about the ISO thing I just wasn't sure if images are "dvd" specific or "cd" specific or they just right data on a surface with giving to flips about what the material is


Once i figure out how to do a true honest to god reinstall of my "core" OS9 partition I can look into the DAW.. because right now i don't have 2 partitions on the OS9 drive..

I did plan on wiping OSX off of it eventually to make that a audio recording drive for DAW organization / access time.. but
as it stands now (don't ask me how it happened, i don't know) now OS9.2.2 won't boot.. it just loads up to the finder icon tile background with a mouse and doesn't load extensions and all that.. i might try a command option P R command to see if that flushes something..  i didn't do anything to the OS9 drive.. just booted to different devices.. cd rom.. etc.. 

[devils_advisor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7pxmPVIB3E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVj-VKRZ4gw

have a look on how to install and what it looks like afterwards

[Steve_W]

Your'e welcome!  See answers below in red

1. what program (and on what computer) do I need to burn the images

OK, I'll try my best to give you proper step by step instructions.  I recommend using an OS 9.2.2 machine.  Either download the images to your main daily driver & use the sneakernet to get them over on USB!  OS 9 had a habit of getting grumpy if you try to restore/burn and some other functions from/to USB drives.  Not so bad with firewire, so once you've got the .bin files all in one folder, use stuffit expander to extract them.  Grab that from here: http://macintoshgarden.org/sites/macintoshgarden.org/files/apps/STFDLX703CLASSIC.SIT

2. none of these images are over 700mb..  can I use a CD Rom or must I use DVD Disks for everything?  I've misplaced my blank DVDs' so I need ot find them today or buy some more (I do have some DVD-R+ disks, does anyone know if Super drives are DVD+ or -?)

You don't need CDs or DVDs, the bin files, once extracted is a single disk image file which is separated into 4 files.  I'll explain what to do with them next

3. I need to be sure that the DAW image (as a disk) or some other image must be bootable.  I know i have Tiger on the 2nd HDD (not partition), but honestly my hope is to have the first smaller drive by the OS9 drive and the 2nd one be for Digital Audio Recording.. 

If you have an OS 9 retail disk, I suggest booting from that, then use disk utility to completely wipe every drive in your machine, then install that OS 9 to the DATA drive you plan to use for audio.  Once installed, boot into that drive, then install stuffit in there, get your DieHard files onto the same partition where you just installed OS 9, then use Apple Software restore (must be in the same folder as the .IMG files)  to push the image to the actual drive you ultimately want to boot from.  Once this is done, boot into that partition & enjoy a big fat smile as you see that DAW come to life!

NOTE: nether drive is over the 128gb ceiling so no need to partition them.. IIRC

4. get the image installed.  The installation of the DAW image.. is it a strict copy / paste approach or is there a more traditional "installation" process as you'd experience say, installing normal Windows or OSX? 

See above

I'm not a perfectionist and I'm happy to experiment.. I just think perhaps I'm making assumptions on how things should work vs how they actually work.   I could have sworn  I booted from the DVD OS9Lives 9.2.2 I have.. but its not booting to install.. so clearly I must have to do it another way and that other way has escaped me. 

Thanks!
Caleb
[/quote]

Sorry to be a pest but just in case I missed it, do you know the serial number for your machine?  If so, just to be sure, put it into the lookup section on everymac to be 100% sure what machine you have, then post the link in here so I can take a look.

I don't even mind doing a full tutorial on video as I know it might help others, and I mean literally all the nuts and bolts!

If you would like me to do that let me know, as soon as I have time I'll get it done, probably on Friday, then chop the video together on Saturday, edit & comp it & upload by Sunday...

[part12studios]

OK so I don't have a retail disk.  maybe someone could check ebay and link me to one they know would be what I want?  there are a lot of OS9-ish disks out there but my fear is that I may buy the wrong one.  I'm always happy to get legit stuff to insure smooth operation.

I don't know/use sneaker net..  the G4 is offline.   I did buy an airport card, but it fails to conncet to my wifi due to something about the WLAN or something not being compatible.. probably just really old and my wireless router is using something newer the wifi on the mac doesn't recognize.



I was linked a fantastically promising disk image that's specifically for Sawtooth machines (which I have) however it's also a .bin and extracts to a extensionless file..  i've tried to mount it as an ISO in OSX.. i'm not having any luck.. and wasting disks.

Does anyone know what program I should use that will unquestionably burn this ISO (assuming it's an ISO, it has no extension) to be a disk..   I have a macbook pro with the latest OSX on it..  i have a windows 7 laptop with CD/DVD burner..   and of course the Sawtooth G4, but that unit isn't online so i'd have to download the file(s) from another and transport it over via flash drive or usb HD.

I think once I can burn this sawtooth OS disk i'll be golden. 

[devils_advisor]

You dont burn it on anything unless you wanna archive it. Watch the 2 videos it will show you what to do. The videos work in conjunction with the description.  Look at the download links you need them all. Again watch the 2 videos and you see what needs to be done.

[part12studios]

ok understood about the DAW.. but right now i have a dysfunctional OS9..  i need to make a (bootable) OS9 disk so i can format / reinstall everything.  i'm stuck until i can figure this out, but i'm glad to know the DAW part of the process requires no disk burning.

In another thread I was given the sawtooth OS9 image.. I just have to figure out how to get that image burned onto a CD/DVD successfully. 

[DieHard]

OK... let's start from scratch...

1) When booting appears to get "weird" it is a good idea to reset the PRAM "Command-Option-P-R" as soon as you turn on power, wait for 3 separated chimes (cycles) before you release the keys... just google this if I am going too fast
2) you can hold "option" all key to scan for all things bootable or "C" to boot to a CD-ROM
3) You do NOT need to buy anything, since we have all the versions imaged here, so just let us know the exact model of your G4

[geforceg4]

 

[part12studios]

OK so for this one the PR command combo did the trick to fix the funky boot.. thanks for that.  I suspected that might work I just hadn't had a chance to try it. 

So at this point I just need to figure out the exact steps to take this nice sawtooth installation image and successfully burn it to a CD so I can boot from that CD to do a clean wipe / installation of 9.2.2 again..  I want to troubleshoot DP3 to figure out what I did somehow to cause the "transmit sync..." option under basic to simply not pop up a window at all when it really should. 

Eventually I'll probably get more comfortable to not exercise the nuclear option but for now i want to just back up and be more methodical with my troubleshooting..  another thread I'm posting on has the image i'm talking about so I'll see if the owner of that knows which burning software i should use.  I do understand the DAW image doesn't need burning and i look forward to trying that one out as soon as I get this sawtooth installation bin burned to a cd i can boot from since the 9.2.2 imagine I have fails to fully boot.