iMac G3 333, questions to OSX installation

I recently picked up an iMac G3 333 Mhz with 256 MB RAM for 10$. It came with an 6GB harddrive and pre-installed OS9. Played around with it the last days, upgraded to a 40 GB harddrive and must say I am amazed. It turned out, that this old Mac is still quite usable for me.

The next challenge would be, to install an older release of OS X on it (Panther?).

First question would be regarding the firmware upgrade. I found this mentioned a few times, but always referred to a link on apple.com, with an particular update for the "slot" G3. What I got is the tray version. Can I use this update on my tray iMac? I was not able to find anything for the older tray version.

For the installation of OS X, is it possible to do that from an external drive? I know I can't boot with a tray Mac from USB, but is it possible to start the installation from a booted OS 9 using an external DVD drive? The internal drive is a CD drive and is very picky when it comes to burned CDs.

What I would like to have, is both systems on my drive. I am enjoying to explore the old OS 9 and the software, but OS X would give advantages of course. My harddrive is already partioned into 7GB/32GB. What is necessary to keep OS 9 and be able to switch?

Thanks in advance for your support.

Holger

Panther will run well on it but upgrade the memory to 1GB and before you look at OS X you need to make sure the firmware has been updated and you cannot start OS X from within OS 9 alas. This is the firmware update for tray loaders and instructions are with it:-

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60384

You can check out the current firmware by going to About this Mac under the apple icon in the menu bar.

You MAY be able to get OS X loaded if you have Firewire on the iMac, can't remember back that far, and a Firewire external optical drive. They are pretty dear. It may be simpler to throw in a combo another CD drive in as Panther mainly came on CD's. When you buy Panther make sure to get the black retail install version and not a silver grey model specific lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk3LuEQt8gc

Thank you, that was what I am looking for! Managed to get a 3 CD panther version. Maybe I give it a try tonight.

Holger