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Resolved PowerMac G4 wtf?

LegoWormNoah101

LegoWormNoah101

macrumors member
Original poster
May 25, 2021
54
14
United States of America
So, here's the scoop.

I acquired a Power Mac G4 (466 Digital Audio variant) from VCF SouthWest and did some basic testing. DVD drive, keyboard, Acer wireless mouse, VGA, it's all good.

After testing I was ready to create a new user account and start fresh. I used SU mode to delete AppleSetupDone. However, Setup Assistant keeps throwing this error when trying to create any account, no matter what I seem to change.

Now my objective was to format the hard drive and start fresh.

I tried a burned install disc for 10.4.6 from a reputable eBay seller AppleFloppiesOnline, and that isn't registering in any form! Not the Alt boot menu, not CMD-Opt-Shift-Del. My MacBook can read it easily, but not the G4?

Keep in mind I haven't tried OpenFirmware, and I tried removing the hard drive to force the PowerMac to always use the drive, but no matter what I tried, the disc doesn't boot.

I'm not ready to start burning and potentially wasting my blank DVDs yet, so was I just unlucky and the DVD drive died right as Setup Assistant broke? Or must I suck it up and order the OEM disc?
 

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Is it possible that your "reputable eBay seller" shipped you a copy of an Intel-only 10.4.6 installer? Yes, it will only work on Intel Macs, such as your MacBook - won't boot or install on a PPC Mac.
That would be incredibly unlucky, as you would have the exact version that boots on your MacBook (the Intel versions are those that came with specific models, and won't boot other Macs at all. Apple never sold a universal Tiger installer that installs on either a PPC or an Intel Mac.
 
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DeltaMac said:
Is it possible that your "reputable eBay seller" shipped you a copy of an Intel-only 10.4.6 installer? Yes, it will only work on Intel Macs, such as your MacBook - won't boot or install on a PPC Mac.
That would be incredibly unlucky, as you would have the exact version that boots on your MacBook (the Intel versions are those that came with specific models, and won't boot other Macs at all. Apple never sold a universal Tiger installer that installs on either a PPC or an Intel Mac.
Click to expand...
MacBook gives this error message trying to open Install Mac OS X. Does this prove that my disc was a PowerPC disc?
 

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Yes, that installer DMG for Tiger looks OK for your PPC.
Burn that to a DVD.
One good thing about that. You can burn Tiger installer on a standard DVD-R. No need to waste a dual-layer DVD-R. Those are getting a little scarce now.
Another choice would be to restore the DVD DMG to a 4GB partition on an external Firewire drive (if you have one), which would not need the G4's internal optical drive, just boot and install from an external firewire drive. The other bonus would be a noticeably faster install, compared to DVD. An external Firewire drive can be a literal lifesaver sometimes.
 
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DeltaMac said:
Is it possible that your "reputable eBay seller" shipped you a copy of an Intel-only 10.4.6 installer?
Click to expand...
That should show up as bootable device on a PPC Mac though — and quickly kernel panic.

DeltaMac said:
Apple never sold a universal Tiger installer that installs on either a PPC or an Intel Mac.
Click to expand...
They did. Tiger Server 10.4.7.

DeltaMac said:
Another choice would be to restore the DVD DMG to a 4GB partition on an external Firewire drive (if you have one), which would not need the G4's internal optical drive, just boot and install from an external firewire drive.
Click to expand...
This can be done using the G4‘s HDD using another Mac and TDM. Create two partitions on the G4‘s HDD, restore the Tiger installer to one, boot from that and install to the other.
 
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DeltaMac said:
Yes, that installer DMG for Tiger looks OK for your PPC.
Burn that to a DVD.
One good thing about that. You can burn Tiger installer on a standard DVD-R. No need to waste a dual-layer DVD-R. Those are getting a little scarce now.
Another choice would be to restore the DVD DMG to a 4GB partition on an external Firewire drive (if you have one), which would not need the G4's internal optical drive, just boot and install from an external firewire drive. The other bonus would be a noticeably faster install, compared to DVD. An external Firewire drive can be a literal lifesaver sometimes.
Click to expand...
IT WORKED!

W.I.P, but I got it in the boot picker. Now to continue the process and see where it next breaks
 

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Okay...I knew it was too good to be true...
I like to show the install log as it's happening, but somehow trying to resize the log window causes the entire system to fall apart and freeze.
Now either booting from DVD takes a while or I corrupted something. Verbose seems to lock up here
 

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Starting over with a new DVD, but I do have one more question: should I add this if Classic Environment would be compatible enough, and/or because I'm installing 10 first, would that break the driver?
 

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The 10.4.6 installer has always been problematic for me on PPC Macs. Try the 10.4.0 instead and download the combo updater for PPC.
 
And here is where I am cutting my losses for now. When a better time comes, I'll just get a new DVD drive, so any recommendations for where to find one that's known to work will be great. I am more than willing to dispose of everything and start fresh with another G4 tower
 

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LegoWormNoah101 said:
The heck?!
Could this explain all my problems?
Click to expand...

Very likely!

LegoWormNoah101 said:
And here is where I am cutting my losses for now. When a better time comes, I'll just get a new DVD drive, so any recommendations for where to find one that's known to work will be great. I am more than willing to dispose of everything and start fresh with another G4 tower
Click to expand...

You can use modern SATA optical drives quite easily with a IDE to SATA adapter. I doubt that you need to start anew with another Mac - it's just a matter of working through the issues via a process of elimination. Do you have another hard drive that you can use/test to rule out whether the current one is deficient?
 
TheShortTimer said:
Very likely!



You can use modern SATA optical drives quite easily with a IDE to SATA adapter. I doubt that you need to start anew with another Mac - it's just a matter of working through the issues via a process of elimination. Do you have another hard drive that you can use/test to rule out whether the current one is deficient?
Click to expand...
Hold everything! I got back into the installer! Now that I'm in Verbose mode, if it crashes again, we can decipher the error message
 
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