help installing Mac OSX on imac g3

[MrRandave]

i recently got an imac g3 running OS 9.2. its 500mhz, 256mb ram, has a 20 gb HD, and a slot loading cd drive. i'm trying to install Mac OSX with the cd (not DVD) installation disks but when i try to open the dmg file, i get an error message that says:

"The document, "Mac OSX dmg" could not be opened because the application program that created it could not be found."
in small print underneath it says: "could not find a translation extension with appropriate translators"

anyone know what the problem is? i have no idea what it's talking about. thanks in advance!

 

[bryphotoguy]

First off, I think you need 9.2.2 or whatever is the latest update or the final firmware update. If so, I would recommend installing by inserting the disc and restarting your computer. Before it loads anything, hold the option button until the purple screen loads and you can choose the start up disc. Click the OS X disc button and then the restart button on the right. It should load from the OS X disc and not the hard disk. You shouldn't have any problems from there. Since you have the 500MHz, you should be able to use 10.4 discs because that machine has the dual firewire, right?
Hope this helps you. Let me know if it doesn't. I just installed 10.3 on a 350MHz with 384MB RAM and a 7GB HD. You shouldn't have you problem because I didn't.
Bryan
Oh, are you using actually OS X discs or ones that came from a iMac, iBook or something like that?? If you are using bundled discs, that's probably your problem. I have never found those to work on any machine except the model they were made for.

 

[MrRandave]

thanks for your help. i tried what you suggested but the osx disc doesn't work (only the hard drive shows up as an option). i got these discs from my friend but they are not from apple or for any bundle (he definitely burned these discs himself). these dmg files work though when i open them up on my macbook, but it doesn't work on the g3.

yes, this has the dual firewire and i had just installed the necessary firmware. i tried installing ubuntu as a second option (iso file) but i had the same result.

 

[D3v1L80Y]

thanks for your help. i tried what you suggested but the osx disc doesn't work (only the hard drive shows up as an option). i got these discs from my friend but they are not from apple or for any bundle (he definitely burned these discs himself). these dmg files work though when i open them up on my macbook, but it doesn't work on the g3.

yes, this has the dual firewire and i had just installed the necessary firmware. i tried installing ubuntu as a second option (iso file) but i had the same result.

Because you need to boot up from the actual disc, a .dmg file will not work in your case.
It is also never a good idea to try and copy an OS X disc, not only because it violates the EULA (read: illegal), but the copies are rarely bootable or usable anyway.
You will need to get your hands on a legitimate, retail version of the discs and then install OS X from them.

 

[bryphotoguy]

Agree 100% with above.

 

[Alexis]

Reboot holding down C. If it won't load up the installation, then the disc is copied incorrectly.

 

[MrRandave]

okay, so i discarded the cd's. but now i have another problem. while browsing through the control panel, i found that a version of OS X (not sure which one) was already installed in the comp. I had the computer boot with this partition as default. i then restarted the comp and now i get this error:

"panic(cpu 0): Unable to find driver for this platform: "PowerMac 4,1"."

at the bottom, it says:

"panic: we are hanging here..."

I'm fairly new to Macs and only started using a macbook 5 months ago. I'm trying to get this imac to boot back to os 9.2.2. Holding down the option key while booting only shows the OSX partion. When choosing it, i get the same error message while booting.

I've been trying to find a way to boot to 9.2 again but don't really know how. anyone know how to get it to boot to the 9.2 partition through open firmware?

the other option i tried was to install ubuntu since its free but i couldn't get the CD to boot. I tried ubuntu 6.10 and 7.04. Am i burning the CDs wrong which is why i can't get the imac to read them?

 

[bryphotoguy]

Hold down the option button like I mentioned before to bring up the boot menu. You can choose which drive boots first. You should be able to pick the OS9 partition from there.
Bryan

 

[MrRandave]

thanks! i got things back to normal.