From Doomtech

My Macintoshes

I have several macintoshes, but there are two that I usually play with, because they are the only two that are powerful enough for any useful purpose. Those two my 12" iBook G4 (1200 MHz G4), and my Quicksilver G4 (733 MHz G4). At the moment, I run both Mac OS X Tiger on them, along with Gentoo Linux for PPC. I also have a Beige desktop G3 (Gossamer, 266 MHz G3) system, which is a oldworld Macintosh. PPC is different from x86 in many ways, and oldworld macintoshes are very little forgiving when it comes to booting anything other than the Mac OS releases they were meant for. The superficial howtos below are about running two operating systems on this Beige G3 that it was never supposed to boot.

Tiger on the Beige G3

Mac OS 9.2 and below is kinda useless in my opinion, since it is very difficult to find software for it. All the proprietary software is gone (at a very large extent), both from vendor sites and warez sites. Plus, I think Mac OS 9.2 and below is crap, more or less. Anyway, the Beige G3, along with other old world Macintoshes, were supported up to Mac OS X Jaguar 10.2.8. The sama problem kind of applies to Jaguar as to OS 9.2, as you will have to use older versions of programs etc., because many new programs are aimed at Panther and Tiger only. Although Apple stopped supporting such old beasts, you can still get it to work with XPostFacto (http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/). This guide is aimed at those who know how to do stuff like partitioning and how to install the respective operating systems. There are probably a houndred ways to do this, which may be more correct than my method, but here is how I got this all working.
What you need:

• Beige desktop G3. Other models might work as well with the same proceedures, but I haven't tested (if you try this on another system, and have success, then drop me an email).
• Mac OS X Tiger install DVD (I didn't have any success with the CD version I downloaded).
• DVD-ROM in the machine(If you get the CD version working, fine for you, then you won't need the DVD-ROM).
• Mac OS 9.2 install CD (9.0 and 9.1 might work as well).
• XPostFacto (Everyone should be able to get their hands on that. As of writing, the current version is 4.0b4. Get the sit file, not sitx).
• An empty drive (No OS, on the primary master. Preferrably one that says anything between 6GB and 8.4GB of space).

After you have accuired the needed stuff, then you are set to go. First, start by booting the Mac OS 9.2 install CD, by inserting it and holding C during the sosumi boot sound. After it is finished booting, partition your drive to one large partition. The partition cannot be larger than 7.45GB, because of limitations with the hardware, or with OS X on oldworld machines (I really don't know where the problem lies). This partition is for OS 9.2. Proceed with installing OS 9.2, you can customize the install and only include the OS and the option below it (I think it is the internet stuff, you will need it to fetch XPostFacto later). After the install is finished, boot it. Go to the XPostFacto (http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/) home page, and get the latest Testing release, unpack it, place the Tiger DVD in the DVD-ROM, then launch XPostFacto. Choose Options, then check "Use old NDRVs" and "Use PatchedRagePro". Those options do work on my revision of the Beige G3. Make sure that XPostFacto has detected your Tiger DVD as bootable, then press "Install from CD". The machine will now reboot.
The Tiger DVD should be booting now, unless something is fucked. Try booting OS 9.2 by pressing the Option key during boot, then mess a bit with the settings in XPostFacto, then try once more. Once finished booting, just press next, until you get to the point where you can choose a drive. If the drive/partition is larger than 7.45GB (8.4GB if you ask a disk manufacturer), then it will simply not let you install on it. Choose your drive, then go on. Do not choose to format, just let it be at the default choice. When it gets to where you can choose what stuff to install, you can probably uncheck most of the stuff, like printer drivers, to save space. Proceed with installing Tiger. This will take some time, so you should go have yourself a well deserved kebab or other favorite food.
After the Tiger install, my system did not boot. Screen stayed black for an awful lot of time, which got me angry, scared and confused. Anyway, I found a solution. Boot the OS 9.2 CD once more, and when it is finished, you should be presented with the XPostFacto folder, unless you closed it before you pressed "Install from CD" when you were in OS 9.2 earlier. Or if you did, your drive should be mounted, and XPostFacto can be found where you left it (the desktop folder in my case). Run XPostFacto, and choose to Restart. This should reboot you into Tiger.

Enjoy Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Linux on OldWorld Macintoshes

Usually, they tell you to install Mac OS 7 or later on your oldworld to install Linux, because you have to use BootX, but fear not, the patented Bakkus-method will work out great. It involves using the disk tools floppy from the OS 8.5 install CD as your environment for BootX. Stay tuned, more to come.