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ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
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28
I'm trying to install Panther and it acts like it's not reading the CD drive. I get a flashing icon followed by a circle with a slash. I've tried holding down the C key and tried holding down the Option key.
 

Bigwaff

Contributor
Sep 20, 2013
2,693
1,809
What be your Mac year and model? Where did you source the Panther installer? CD media?
 

ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
95
28
I have a iMac G3 333mhz tray loading. Is there any way to boot via usb?
 

mac57mac57

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2024
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Myrtle Beach, SC
I would agree with @TheShortTimer. I installed Panther on a PowerMac G4 tower and quickly found that it was nearly impossible to get much meaningful software for it. There is the "Panther Thread" here on Mac Rumors that provides some application links, but in general, per @TheShortTimer, Tiger is much more richly represented in the app space.

Unless performance is an issue, I would go with Tiger vs. Panther. That having been said, I do understand the historical interest in bringing up and running Panther - I have done it myself!
 

TheShortTimer

macrumors 68040
Mar 27, 2017
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London, UK
I would agree with @TheShortTimer. I installed Panther on a PowerMac G4 tower and quickly found that it was nearly impossible to get much meaningful software for it. There is the "Panther Thread" here on Mac Rumors that provides some application links, but in general, per @TheShortTimer, Tiger is much more richly represented in the app space.

Yeah, most of the new PPC stuff that's been created by our community requires Tiger as the absolute minimum. In the past, I ran it as part of a triple-boot on my Gigabit G4 along with OS 9 and Tiger but nowadays I wouldn't bother with it because Tiger is basically an improved version of Panther.

Unless performance is an issue, I would go with Tiger vs. Panther. That having been said, I do understand the historical interest in bringing up and running Panther - I have done it myself!

Performance doesn't have to be an issue though. As I pointed out in my reply, Tiger can be optimised and tweaked to run well on lesser machines - as I've done so on my iMac G3/350. :)
 

ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
95
28
I only have 192mb of ram. Do you think Tiger would run on that? Do I need to have Panther installed first or can I go straight to Tiger?
 

Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,782
12,181
I only have 192mb of ram.
What are you going to do with OS X?

Do you think Tiger would run on that? Do I need to have Panther installed first or can I go straight to Tiger?
Tiger will run — but not nicely — but the installer might require more RAM, and it will complain because your iMac doesn’t have FireWire. You can install Tiger once that non-issue is circumvented.

However, I wouldn’t even think about OS X with less than 256 MB, better yet 512 MB.
 
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ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
95
28
It's a iMac G3 333mhz tray loading. Any ideas where I could find ram for it?
 

TheShortTimer

macrumors 68040
Mar 27, 2017
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London, UK
I only have 192mb of ram. Do you think Tiger would run on that? Do I need to have Panther installed first or can I go straight to Tiger?

@Amethyst1 types faster than me and beat me to replying but to reiterate, Tiger's official minimum RAM requirement is 256MB. You could probably get away with 192MB but as he's already warned, I dread to think how painful it would be. As has been answered already, there's no requirement to install Panther first.

Do yourself a favour and pick up some extra RAM for the iMac. You'll thank yourself for it.

It's a iMac G3 333mhz tray loading. Any ideas where I could find ram for it?

Have a look on eBay for starters. You should be able to find cheap stuff on there easily.
 
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TheShortTimer

macrumors 68040
Mar 27, 2017
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London, UK
I tried to boot from the image from the link but it won't go past the flashing icon

Okay, I didn't use the version in that link but according to a poster, it boots from USB. They copied the image using Disk Utility and held down Option post-chime.

This is the link. I can't install xpostfacto because I don't have a working os

I don't think that you need XPostFacto - in my case I certainly didn't.

How did you set up the USB install in Disk Utility? Was it the same as my method?
 

ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
95
28
Okay, I didn't use the version in that link but according to a poster, it boots from USB. They copied the image using Disk Utility and held down Option post-chime.



I don't think that you need XPostFacto - in my case I certainly didn't.

How did you set up the USB install in Disk Utility? Was it the same as my method?
I can't usb boot on a tray loading iMac G3 333mhz can I?
 

TheShortTimer

macrumors 68040
Mar 27, 2017
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London, UK
I can't usb boot on a tray loading iMac G3 333mhz can I?

Not if the firmware hasn't been updated as @joevt warned:

I think the iMac G3 333 MHz is too old for USB booting. You need firmware later than 1.3f2 04/23/99 such as 3.0f3 06/13/00 which is the earliest that I know that boots USB.
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...-booting-from-usb-from-the-boot-picker.48601/

You've got an iBook G4, right? You could remove the HDD from the iMac, place it in a USB enclosure or connect it to a USB IDE adapter and plug it into your iBook and run the Tiger installer and let it install to the HDD. Afterwards, put the HDD back inside the iMac and it'll boot up Tiger.

That's one option to keep in mind. :)
 
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TheShortTimer

macrumors 68040
Mar 27, 2017
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London, UK
Could I download the tiger-10-4-6-ppc.iso (3.53 GB) from Macintosh Garden and use an IDE adapter so I could put a SSD in it?

Yes, you can! :D

I wanted to suggest that you buy an SSD but its an added expense and I didn't want to come across as directing you to spend money that you might not want to… The HDD in the iMac will likely be slow - even for its time and an SSD will provide a noticeable boost in performance.

With my iMac G3, I used an IDE to SATA adapter with an SSD.

M58PE3R.jpg


Make sure that you get an adapter like mine that has a red PCB - aka the Marvell 88SA8052 chipset. You could connect the SSD to your iBook with a USB adapter and then install Tiger onto it and afterwards fit the SSD inside the iMac. This might be an even better solution. :)
 
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ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
95
28
Yes, you can! :D

I wanted to suggest that you buy an SSD but its an added expense and I didn't want to come across as directing you to spend money that you might not want to… The HDD in the iMac will likely be slow - even for its time and an SSD will provide a noticeable boost in performance.

With my iMac G3, I used an IDE to SATA adapter with an SSD.

M58PE3R.jpg


Make sure that you get an adapter like mine that has a red PCB - aka the Marvell 88SA8052 chipset. You could connect the SSD to your iBook with a USB adapter and then install Tiger onto it and afterwards fit the SSD inside the iMac. This might be an even better solution. :)
I have this one laying around would it work?
unnamed.jpg
 

ethanhodges

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2020
95
28
Do I need to partition the drive because it's a tray loading iMac? The drive that's in the computer now has a 7gb partition for Panther
 
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