For the past week I have trying very hard to install Mac OS X onto my PowerBook G3 PDQ. I have burned 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4 to verbatim brand CDs at 3x speed to make sure they are readable by the cd rom drive as I've heard that anything over 4x speed may cause issues. I currently have a 256mb Samsung brand ram stick on the bottom of the CPU since it appears to not be recognized on the top slot for some reason despite the two 32mb modules it came with worked just fine on both slots. I have a mSATA to ide adapter on the PowerBook which is small enough that it does not need to be screwed in place. Also the pram battery is dead and I heard that unplugging it can alleviate certain issues, so I unplugged it.
The Msata to ide adapter I had originally tried was this type
I have ordered a new one which looks like this however it has not arrived yet
I was considering buying a different apple rom hard drive but I'm not so sure if that will work either.
- At first, when I tried to install OS 10.2 onto the SSD, it would hang at the "examining packages" screen. I was later able to get it to install when using the original hard drive.
- OS 10.3 would also install fine, but I had forgotten that apparently you shouldn't install the 10.3.9 update or else it will crash your wallstreet, which it did after I had erronously attempted it.
- I would switch to an ibm brand travelstar taken from a broken thinkpad t20(the motherboard was the issue and the hard drive was removed after an unsuccesful repair, and was proven to be functional as I had bakced up it's contents). I tried to install OS 10.4 on it and it would issues with the boot process multiple times with the most common errors being that in XPostFacto's window, it would say that the disk had invalid extension cache files, but it would still attempt to reboot into the installer. After booting, it would hang in the booting saying that it was "still waiting on root device". When enabling the L2 cache setting it would crash and reboot in some instances.
- Today I went back to the original 2gb hard drive as oppoesd to the 15gb travelstar. I booted into os9 from a bluescsi this time, using a CN50 adapter on the back. The same thing happened where it was searching for the ide/01 drive, and continue to wait for the"root device" while the cd started to spin down. I tried the L2 cache again and it had kernel panic like before, but with 10.3, it would freeze when it was "testing 0xBD040000"
- It is important to note that I was actually able to install 10.4 once, when I first used the travelstar, but afterward it would not boot into the OS after the initial success. This wouldn't happen for 10.3.
- Installing on a hard drive or on an msata ssd, causes the cd drive to not be seen
- When using the L2 cache, it crashes ona kernel panic
- XPostfacto reports every cd I have used as having the "invalid extension cache files"(When I first used the travelstar, this did not happen on any cd I used, but it started to happen again after the initial 10.4 installation).
The Msata to ide adapter I had originally tried was this type

Mini PCI-e msata SSD to IDE 2.5 inch 5V 44pin Adapter Card | eBay
1 x Msata to IDE Converter. MPN : Does Not Apply.
www.ebay.com
I have ordered a new one which looks like this however it has not arrived yet

mSATA Mini SATA SSD to IDE 44Pin 2.5 inch Hard Disk Case Enclosure Box White ... | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for mSATA Mini SATA SSD to IDE 44Pin 2.5 inch Hard Disk Case Enclosure Box White ... at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Last edited: