Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Mac OS 9, Hacks & Upgrades => Mac OS 9 on Unsupported Hardware => Topic started by: djc6 on January 22, 2025, 07:11:51 PM
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I am trying to burn the "Mac Mini G4" ISO found here: https://macos9lives.com/downloads
If I try and open the ISO using Disk Utility under macOS Sequoia 15.2 - it crashes Disk Utility. If I try and right click on the ISO and "Burn disc" - it causes Finder to relaunch. I am using a 2018 mac mini and a Samsung SE-506BB/TSBD external USB optical drive.
So then I downloaded it to my Windows 11 PC, and if I try and burn the ISO there I get error "The selected disc image file isn't valid."
Does this "Ross_s Mac mini OS 9 CD v9.iso" work for anyone else? I also tried renaming it in case the underscore or spaces were causing problems. I've downloaded it multiple times on two different computers (one macOS 15.2, one windows 11). Its 678.4MB.
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I also tried image here and have the same problem: https://archive.org/details/rosss-mac-mini-os-9-cd-v-9
the md5sum hashes of the image from archive.org and from macos9lives.com are the same
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Windows probably doesn't like it because it is actually an HFS filesystem (or hybrid), and not really strictly ISO 9660 file format. You might try a separate "disk burner" util, and not the burner built into Windows.
The crash and/or relaunch seem a little odd to me. I wouldn't expect that to happen, but haven't tried it on such a new OS.
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It burned fine for me two weeks ago or so on my MDD in OS9, using Toast 5. Never tried it on Windows and it's probably like you're writing. Something odd about HFS images on Windows... Maybe?
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I was finally able to turn the CD and boot my G4 mac mini from it.
I just kept right clicking on the image and selecting "Burn Disc" and it intermittently doesn't crash Finder under macOS Sequoia 15.2. I had to try "burn disc" option about 20 times before it didn't crash.
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the main issue is that in modern macOS or windows you do not see at a glance when the downloaded image is broken, which is the cause i would suspect. (though disk utility should not even crash from an invalid file.)
other than that, every proper image can be burned on any OS. (except file formats like bin/cue) all image files are simply binaries.
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So it turns out the issue exists ANY ISO I try and burn on my 2018 mac mini running Sequoia 15.2. I wanted to burn another ISO with some software for my G4 Mac Mini, and same issue with Finder and Disk Utility crashing! Even the trick I used last time of right clicking "Burn to disc..." dozens of times didn't work!
Other things I tried:
- I borrowed another external USB optical drive - same behavior.
- I used a different USB cable - same behavior
- I created a new user on my computer and attempted to burn logged in as new user - same behavior
- I tried burning other ISOs off the internet, like the FreeBSD 14.2 boot-only ISO - same behavior
FINALLY found something that RELIABLY works. I found out how to burn from Terminal instead of using MacOS UI. This works every time!!
% hdiutil burn ~/Downloads/g4mini.iso
Please insert a disc:
Preparing data for burn
Opening session
Opening track
Writing track
...
Closing track
...
Closing session
Finishing burn
Verifying burn…
Verifying
...
Burn completed successfully
...
hdiutil: burn: completed
This works every time, the first time! I've burned a few ISOs now with Terminal. The "hdiutil" utility has several flags for the "burn" option, for example you can specify what speed to burn at - just like would be available in the UI if it didn't crash:
% hdiutil burn -help
hdiutil burn: burn an image to optical media
Usage: hdiutil burn <image>
Options:
-speed <speed e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8, ... max>
-device <OpenFirmware path>
-sizequery just calculate size of disc required
-testburn don't turn on laser
Toggles:
-[no]eject do (not) eject disc after burning [default: eject]
-[no]verifyburn do (not) verify disc contents after burn [default: verifyburn]
-[no]addpmap do (not) add partition map [default: addpmap only if necessary]
-[no]synth do (not) synthesize new filesystem from volume [default: synth only if necessary]
-[no]skipfinalfree do (not) skip burning final free partition [default: skipfinalfree]
-[no]optimizeimage do (not) optimize filesystem for burning [default: nooptimizeimage]
-[no]forceclose do (not) close disc (e.g. allow appending) after burning [default: noforceclose]
-[no]underrun do (not) enable buffer underrun protection [default: nounderrun]
Common options:
-encryption <crypto method>
AES-128 - 128-bit AES encryption
AES-256 - 256-bit AES encryption (recommended)
-stdinpass
-agentpass
-srcimagekey <key>=<value> (-imagekey is a synonym)
-shadow <shadowfile>
-insecurehttp
-cacert <file | dir>
-puppetstrings
-verbose
-debug
-quiet
Related actions:
-erase erase disc (quickly)
-fullerase completely erase disc
-list list all burning devices, for -device
I found the info here on how to do it: https://sullysrants.com/burning-disc-images-iso-files-in-mac-os-x-from-the-command-line/
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the main issue is that in modern macOS or windows you do not see at a glance when the downloaded image is broken, which is the cause i would suspect. (though disk utility should not even crash from an invalid file.)
I don't believe the images are broken, since the md5 hashes are the same if I download from macintosh garden or archive org. Also, it works fine once I burn from Terminal.
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Sequoia 15.3 came out yesterday. I upgraded and can now burn discs again in the GUI - using the same ISO images that failed before. No more having to use Terminal!
I saw a post in the Apple Support Community that 15.3 is also fixing the disc burning issue for other users: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255833454?login=true&sortBy=newest_first&answerId=261136061022
I guess I just picked the wrong week to start playing around with Mac OS 9 :) I would have never run into these issues if I'd have just waited a couple days until 15.3 came out.
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nothing against apple disc burner, but i bet toast would have burnt it. :)