os 9 problem please help

Ok, i need to update my firmware for my sawtooth g4 before i can install my new 1.7ghz g4 cpu, but i cant seem to figure out how to boot into os 9....i never installed os 9 itself, i just bought os 10.4 off of ebay but i was told some years ago that osx has os 9 built in. im not gonna have to go out and buy os 9 am i?

The bad news is that OS X does not have System 9 built in to it. However, the good news is that you do not have to have System 9 to install a firmware update. What firmware do you need? The G4 Sawtooth needs Firmware 4.2.8
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120068
You can check that in the About this Mac, More Info, Boot ROM Version in OS X.

From that page:


Any English Mac OS 9.1 or later (but not X) is required

ok so i have to buy os 9.1 or later just to install firmware? thats so freak'n retarded. they should make os 9.1 free

shelflife19 said:

ok so i have to buy os 9.1 or later just to install firmware? thats so freak'n retarded. they should make os 9.1 free

Click to expand...

Apple's latest version of their operating system, OS 9.1, is now available as a free download.

Click to expand...

It is free, well, sorta ... you do need to pay for it if you don't have OS 9 installed ... I recently picked up a Full Retail Version of OS 9 from eBay for a good price. The major releases are never free but the incremental updates [9.x.x] are if you catch my drift.

i was looking at amazon and they got it on there for like a 100 bucks, outrageous

shelflife19 said:

i was looking at amazon and they got it on there for like a 100 bucks, outrageous

Click to expand...

I paid US$40 for mine ... that's from eBay.

still i hate having to pay 40 bucks for something im only gonna use once, maybe twice.....but now i have a question....what im gonna do is when i get os9 is just take 10.4 offjust format that, and install os9, update my firmware and then install 10.4 again, now with os9 being on there will osx let me install it on top of os9 or will it have to be a seperate partion all together?

You guys are absolutely right, you do need System 9 to install the firmware update. OS X won't run correctly without it, therefore the firmware update has to happen before OS X.

IIRC, you'll need to update to OS 9.2.2 before you install OS X and you won't need a separate partition. I just had to do the very thing. I had Panther installed, ran into problems, had to buy OS 9 then dropped back to that, then did the upgrade to Panther again .... I think you have to watch what disc you eventually buy. Make sure it isn't one that requires you already have OS 9 installed. There are bootable discs which you'll need then there are the upgrade discs ... here's a pic of the disc I bought.


Full Install Macintosh OS 9.2.1 CD NEW Not Upgrade