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[RossDarker]

And if you believe the DVD drive is broken, you could try getting the OS 9 CD (from the ISO) onto a USB stick, like so,
(this is how on Mac OS X with terminal, you say you have Ubuntu, so it may be similar, but not exactly the same)

hdid -nomount /Path/to/cd.iso
(Take note of the number /dev/diskX, what ever X is)

diskutil list

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskY
or
diskutil umount /dev/diskY
 (Y being the disk of the USB)

sudo dd if=/dev/diskX of=/dev/diskY
(Use ctrl+t, to see how many bytes transferred, can take a while)


and you should, when that finishes, be able to boot your G4 from holding Option Key as you startup.

[unix05]

Never knew I could boot from USB.  Also,  yeah,  the process should be similar to that on Ubuntu. I'll try OS X first,  though. Maybe I'll have luck with it. Thanks for all the help,  will report in case of more issues 

[RossDarker]

Good luck!

[unix05]

Thanks!
Also,  I found a mac os 9 install disk I must have fried earlier because I don't remember it. When the desktop starts loading it just pops out an error saying "error type 41"Finder" " and I have to restart. Anyone know what that might be?

[RossDarker]

Is this from when you boot off the CD/DVD or did you restore it to a USB stick? Could be your DVD drive is messing something up, if you are booting from the CD/DVD.

[unix05]

Booting from CD/DVD. I can't seem to find any OS X install files on the internet that don't require OSX for opening them,  so I have to try MOS9 again.

[RossDarker]

You don't need to open the ISO, just restore it to the USB stick. There are some Windows tools you could get to transfer the ISO to a USB stick, if you can't use my way because you don't have access to OS X.

[unix05]

I tried restoring it to USB with rufus and it doesn't work.  Also,  I can't seem to boot from the USB anyway.

[unix05]

Nevermind,  managed to boot from the install cd without the finder error.

EDIT: Can't figure out how to boot to the cd while the hdd is plugged in...

[RossDarker]

Maybe it's your cable that connects the HDD, or maybe the connection of the cable to wherever inside the computer. You could try installing onto a USB stick, just to check.

[IIO]

error 41 is "cant load the finder app"

[unix05]

To add on to the mountain of problems,  now my mac wont boot from any dvd.

[RossDarker]

I'd still go for a USB stick attempt if I were you. If you have an SD card, restore the ISO to that, lock the SD card then have the SD to USB adapter to try that. This should make it read-only so it's like a CD. Try different tools, also try from ubuntu, maybe a tool to get an ISO to a USB stick. It must be your DVD drive is broken. To boot from the USB, it should show up when you hold option key when starting up.

[unix05]

Just tried that,  the USB doesnt show up in the menu. To make things even worse(if that is somehow possible)  I think the years of dust in it caught up with me - -  I feel sick 
I think I'll just sell it at this point

[RossDarker]

If you decide to do that, you could get a g4 mini, quiet and now run os 9 very well.

[unix05]

I highly doubt anyone would give over 50$ for a g4 with no OS.

[RossDarker]

Hmm maybe you could sell parts of it individually. If you want to try get your current g4 working you might be able to get a new dvd drive. (external or internal).

[unix05]

I dont want to get a new drive because i dont want to spend any more money on it. Selling for parts is too much hassle for me.

[unix05]

I just remembered how awful it smells. It smells like half-burned plastic even when turned off. Maybe it did make me sick...

[RossDarker]

If you really want to go for attempting the current one, I have a suggestion that should work on Windows. (if you have access to OS X natively, look at next bit of this)

It will be quite a lot of work, but if you get it working it will be great.

First, set up QEMU System PPC on the Windows computer to run Mac OS 9.2.2, (see https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/ppc-osx-on-qemu-for-windows). Install Mac OS 9.2.2 on the image file you make. Keep this image file. (not the ISO, but the one you installed 9.2.2 on with qemu)

Now use VMWare Workstation to install a copy of Leopard Server (iso: https://drive.google.com/file/d/101HcsqgwYZrI6Fup-mCkiF_ur5f2MG5m/view?usp=sharing). Use XSVR-105-000-R-LN7-HGS-DPD-H24-8DH-LGQ-3 when asked for 10.5 server serial key. Once installed, grab a USB stick, or even better get the drive from the g4 and plug it into your Windows machine. I will refer to which ever you chose, as "the drive" Use the menu at the top to pass the drive connection directly to the VM. Also in the VM settings, attach the QEMU image (with the installed 9.2.2 on), as a hard disk (or other storage device) to the VM. Open up the terminal in the VM and...

diskutil list

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
or
diskutil umount /dev/diskX
 (X being the disk of the qemu image attached to the VM)

diskutil list

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskY
or
diskutil umount /dev/diskY
 (Y being the disk of the physical drive passed through to the VM)

sudo dd if=/dev/diskX of=/dev/diskY
(Use ctrl+t, to see how many bytes transferred, can take a while)

If all that works, now shut down the VM, and put the drive back in the G4 and see if it boots from it. If you restored the qemu image to a USB stick, try boot that the same way.

Obviously if you have access to OS X somehow, just use Qemu for OS X to make the OS 9.2.2 image, then restore that to the drive or USB stick by doing:

hdid -nomount /Path/to/qemu.img
(Take note of the number /dev/diskX, what ever X is)

diskutil list

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskY
or
diskutil umount /dev/diskY
 (Y being the disk of the USB/Drive)

sudo dd if=/dev/diskX of=/dev/diskY
(Use ctrl+t, to see how many bytes transferred, can take a while)

and try boot the G4.