1. Mac G4 Boot From Cd
2. Power Mac G4 Install Disk Download

Blog 2020/5/7

The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer. How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store. The install CD includes the base Mac OS 9.0.4, other programs, and also a special installer for G4 Cube, with some extras on the CD. The restore CD includes the original hard disk settings disk image with Mac OS 9.0.4 and some bundled software like Acrobat Reader 4.0, iMovie 2.0.1, and everything else.

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Here are some notes on how I set up an installation of OS X Tiger (10.4)on an emulated PowerPC G4 using QEMU,on a modern x86_64 Mac.

This setup was performed using QEMU 5.0.0 (obtained via brew install qemu).

Note: at some point during this process -cdrom /dev/cdrom seems to have stopped working, but -cdrom /dev/disk2 works.

Step 1: Initial installation

In this step we will format the disk and perform the initial OS X installation.

Download a copy of the2Z691-5305-A OS X Tiger installation DVDand burn it to a physical DVD.

Note: for some reason qemu does not seem to be able to boot .iso files of the OS X installation DVD (using -cdrom tiger.iso),but if you burn that .iso to a physical DVD and then use -cdrom /dev/disk2, it works.

Boot the DVD to verify it works:

If you see the grey Apple logo, the DVD is working correctly with QEMU:

Quit QEMU and create a 127GB QEMU disk:

Boot the install DVD with the disk attached and being the installation. QEMU will exit when the installer reboots.

When the installer reaches the disk selection screen, there will be no disks to choose from, because the disk has not been partitioned yet:

Start up Disk Utility:

'Erase' the disk to partition and format it:

Quit Disk Utility and the installer should now see the newly formatted partition:

The install will take quite some time (over an hour). When it completes, it will reboot, which will cause QEMU to exit (due to the -no-reboot flag).

At this point you may (physically) eject the installation DVD (from your host Mac).

Mark the disk as read-only to prevent any accidental writes to it (which would cause any snapshots based on this disk to become corrupt):

Step 2: User account creation, system updates

In this step we will create a user account and install all of the system updates.

Create a snapshot of the disk (think of this as forking the hard drive):

The system updates can either be installed using the Software Update utility (iteratively repeated across many reboots),or you can download and install them manually.

The manual route is quicker because some of the updates are bundled, and you don't have to wait on Software Update to detect which updates have / haven't been installed yet.

To install the updates manually,download (on your host Mac) item #29 (Tiger_Updates.dmg_.zip)from the 'Mac OS X for PPC' pageof macintoshgarden.org.

Unzip that file and convert the dmg to a DVD image:

We can now use tiger-updates.cdr as a virtual DVD with QEMU.

Boot the G4 and create a user account:

Note: if you plan on using Software Update rather than tiger-updates.cdr, you man omit the -cdrom tiger-updates.cdr line from the above command.

Note: this boot may take several minutes to get started.

This install was set up with user macuser and password macuser:

This installation was set up with the Central timezone:

Disable the screen saver and power-saving features:

Open up System Preferences and:

• Display & Screen Saver -> Screensaver -> Start screen saver -> Never
• Energy Saver
  • Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for -> Never
  • Put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for -> Never

If you did not use Software Update, open up the Tiger_Updates 'DVD' and install all of the updates:

If you go with the updates DVD route, make sure you run Software Update at the end just to be sure you've covered everything.

Mark the snapshot read-only to prevent accidental writes to it:

Step 3: Web browser, video player, text editor

In this step we will install TenFourFox, VLC and TextWrangler.

Create a snapshot of the disk:

TenFourFox is a fork of the Firefox web browser which is currently supported on Tiger/PPC.Their website links to the latest version,FPR22.

The latest version of VLCfor Tiger/PPC is 0.9.10,which is still available from their downloads page.

The latest version of TextWranglerfor Tiger/PPC is 3.1,available via Bare Bonesor macintoshgarden.org.

Strangely, no combination of using Disk Utility and hdiutil to create .dmg or .cdr images of TenFourFox.app seemed to work with Tiger:

Note: in retrospect, perhaps this was an APFS vs. HFS+ issue?

I resorted to burning TenFourFox, VLC, and TextWrangler to a physical DVD and passing it through to QEMU.

Note: even burning to a physical CD-ROM didn't work -- it had to be a DVD.

Drag the applications into /Applications.

Shutdown the G4 and mark the disk read-only:

Step 4: Xcode, Tigerbrew

In this step we will set up a development environment for building modern Unix software.

Create a snapshot of the disk:

The latest version of Xcode Tools for Tiger/PPC is 2.5,which is still available via Apple (search for 'xcode 2.5' at https://developer.apple.com/download/more/, requires login),or via macintoshgarden.orgfrom their Xcode page.

Again, I had to burn this to a physical DVD in order to use it with QEMU.

Boot the G4 and install the Xcode Tools:

Tigerbrewis a fork of Homebrewfor PowerPC Macs running Tiger or Leopard.

Mac G4 Boot From Cd

Open up a terminal on the emulated G4 and use the following commands to install Tigerbrew:

Also, change Terminal.app to spawn a 'login' bash shell:

• Terminal -> Preferences -> Execute this command -> /bin/bash -l

Don't forget to mark the disk image read-only:

Using these QEMU hard drive images

Power Mac G4 Install Disk Download

At this point we've created a series of four chained hard drive images:

We can squash these images into a single, combined, stand-alone hard drive image:

We can then boot using that combined image directly, without the use of any snapshots.This is analogous to having a real Mac with a physical hard drive:

Or, we could treat combined.qcow2 as a 'golden master'and create snapshots based off of it, perhaps to try out some experimental tigerbrew packages:

Perhaps in experiment-1.qcow2 we try out gcc-7, and in experiment-2.qcow2 we try out llvm, etc.

Each of these snapshots can be used with the above command line as the -hda argument:

• qemu-system-ppc ... -hda experiment-2.qcow2

We could even create further branches off of e.g. experiment-2.qcow2:

Perhaps we decide that experiment-2B.qcow2 was the keeper and the rest can be gotten rid of?

combined.qcow2 now contains the changes from experiment-2.qcow2 and experiment-2B.qcow2.

Thus far we've been branching off of the 'tip',but we could just as easily branch off several points in the snapshot tree.For example, if we hadn't merged the images into combined.qcow2,we could make a 'daily driver' snapshot for web browsing based off of 3-browser.qcow2,and a 'dev box' for doing development work based off of 4-tigerbrew.qcow2:

Let's say we accidentally hosed our dev box with a careless rm -rf /. Starting over with a new dev box is trivial:

Etc :)

Resources:

Reinstalling Mac OS 9 on a PowerMac G4 MDD

The PowerMac G4 MDD was Apple’s last Mac capable of dual-booting into both Mac OS 9 and OS X. The last of the G4 towers, this model was originally introduced in 2002, briefly evolved into an OS X-only configuration with FireWire 800 in 2003, then returned to the original design for another year.

Due to the need for some customers to run Mac OS 9 for several years after the introduction of OS X, Apple continued to sell this configuration online in parallel with the PowerMac G5 for over a year. They never pushed this option on the Apple Store but it was a consistently strong seller.

These machines came set from the factory to boot into Mac OS X, with OS 9 also loaded on the hard drive. No OS 9 installer was provided, rather that was available as part of the Software Restore CDs bundled with the Mac. The MDD uses a model-specific version of Mac OS 9.2.2, newer than what was included on the last retail OS 9 installer. You need the bundled discs if you want to reinstall a bootable OS 9 on this machine. (Note: only MDDs without FireWire 800 ports can boot into OS 9, models with FireWire 800 ports require OS X. The install CD I used is Apple part number 691-4078-A.)

Recently I was contacted by a client who was looking for just this. He had a dual 1.25GHz MDD with some older ProTools hardware, and preferred to run the software in OS 9 rather than OS X. The problem was his installation of OS 9 was unstable so he was looking for the original installer. Did I have a copy of this rare item?

Off-the-shelf I did not, but fortunately I knew what he meant and where to get one. My last job before running Oakbog full time was as IT Manager for a recording studio, and we ran ProTools hardware and software on these very Mac models! We had about 5 of those systems at one point, so I suspected there were plenty of CDs still buried deep in drawers. Fortunately there were, I contacted my colleagues at the studio and arranged to get a set of the install discs.

My client didn’t need Mac OS X, nor was he interested in first installing OS X 10.2.1 on his tower before restoring the OS 9 image. He just needed a bootable OS 9 System Folder. I suspected this was included on the set of four CDs somewhere, but it isn’t a Finder-visible file.

A bit of sleuthing in Terminal helped find the mystery location. The OS 9 software is in a hidden directory called .images on the first disc. Inside there are several files including OS9General.dmg. I was able to mount (open) this disk image to the desktop via the following Terminal command:

open /Volumes/Restore CD/.images/OS9General.dmg

That takes a few minutes, then mounts a volume called OS 9 Content onto the desktop. Inside here are our old friends Applications (Mac OS 9) and System Folder, just as we know and love.

To test this worked before sending to my client, I copied the two folders to an external FireWire drive (formatted with OS 9 drivers), then connected this to my MDD running Tiger. The Startup Disk Preference Pane showed the external drive with Mac OS 9 as a valid boot choice. Restart, a few screen flickers later, and voila! Welcome to Mac OS 9.2 appears on the screen.

Mission accomplished. I now had a valid boot system for Mac OS 9 on an MDD, along with the disc image. My client was thrilled to hear the good news, and I sent him a copy on CD the next day.

The story continues: Mac OS 9 Isn’t Dead Yet…

—–
Update June 2012:
Mac OS 9 for PowerMac G4 MDD has been made available for download via the Macintosh Garden.

1. Hi, downloaded your cds on macintosh garden, to install on my Gigabit Ethernet, it now detects an os9 system but when I try to boot to it, a floppy with a question mark appears and my hdd starts spinning, any idea?

2. Hi,
   I have my old G4 MDD dual 1.25 and I have OS9General.dmg
   i try to burn it with Disk Utility and Toast, but it is not a BOOTABLE CD.
   I can only copy all folder and document on my hard disk and it work.

   BUT I AM LOOKING FOR A BOOTABLE OS9 INSTALLER CD or DVD.

   thx a lot

3. does anyone have the powermac g4 original restore disk for the 1.25ghz MDD 2003?? the disc im looking for is a DVD, and its part number is z691-4409-a – it includes 10.2.6 mac os x + mac os 9.22 as well as AHT 2.02. someone i spoke to online has the disc but he claims hes never been able to successfully copy it. is this a known issue to anyone else?
   i have the 1.25ghz mdd 2003 model and would like to get its specific original disc to restore it to factory settings!

4. Hi Adam, how did you create the partition on the external firewire hard drive and use the Mac OS 9 HDD driver to boot off it, Did you run the disktools in Classic to create the external partition, or is just “Blessing” the hard drive enough to set it as the active partition to boot from? I also used OS9helper in classic to update a OS 9.04 system that I copied off my previous Beige G3 Mac to install OS 9.2.2 within classic and make it bootable on a 2002 G4 Quicksilver that I built from pieces that I bought on Ebay.

   Thank you for the help, and the article!
   Jose F. Medeiros

5. I have a G4 mirror. It had 1 hard drive. Another computer I had was running system 9.2.2 for my Scitex, and it died. I took the hard drive and put it into the 2nd drive spot and hooked it up in the g4 mirror. I can see everything on that drive and I can access all the files. When I go into the system preferences and go to the startup disk and select system 9 and restart, I get a ? folder. When I try to reinstall system 9.2.2 I get a message Quicktime is not compatible, please upgrade to QT 6.0.3. When I try to start Classic it says the same thing. I need to run system 9 to run my Scitex software, any ideas?

6. Adam,

   I found a G4 powermac (the one with oval bay doors – quick silver model I think?) in the dumpster. Anyhow, I put a spare blank hard drive in it and it booted right up. It gives me the “wheres the os” ?/finder icon in the middle of the gray screen. Unfortunately I don’t have a FW drive or any clones of previous ppc 9 installs from back in the day.

   * I want to install OS9 classic on it but how does one open up the cd tray to put the cd in?
   * I do have some backups of my white intel iMac and my 08 intel MBP. If I switch them to a FW drive, will they work even though they are for intel machines?

   I’m hoping I just stick my OS9.2.1 disc into the g4 PM, and it should install 123 like my old bondi blue g3. Any other tips? Thanks for your help!

7. Hi Adam

   Thanks for your site – lovely. I had a collection of old Macs starting with a couple SE’s, moving up through 10 Classics, Colour Classics, several pizza boxes (LC, LCII, 430,etc),630, 4400, 6 Grey G3’s and 4 G4 towers as well as a couple of ancient laptops, an Atari STE and 2 BBC micros. Most of these I gave away to an IT technician friend who was starting a computer museum in his garage. I still have over a dozen original install/software discs for OS 9 and OSX for PPC, iMac, iBook, etc and wondered if they were worth keeping/passing on. They range from the old orange disks up to 2005 Mac Pro disks.

8. I have the MDD that is duel 1GHz can I replace the CPU’s with The 1.25GHz Chipset and Have it work? without any additional tinkering?

9. Adam,
   I wondered if you could help me with a trouble-shooting question.
   I recently had the “power supply” replaced on a G4 Tower (running OS 9.2) and computer boots, no problem. However, ever since, the computer seemingly refuses to accept any file transfer from any external device (whether a folder of pictures, other docs).
   A typical scroll bar appears indicating how many items new to be copied, but the scroll bar sits still, instead of moving, and in effect, stays still with no other action. I checked extensions, etc. for anything appearing out of sorts – but could not find a sourse of the problem.
   (PS – I use the G4 as a back-up server (to another G4) for a medical office software; the software will open – no problem – from any recent back-up off the main server; but as I said, I cannot copy the folder permanently onto the device, as I had long done in the past). Any thoughts would be sincerely appreciated, Thank you

10. I made a bootable USB stick with Mac OS 9.2.2, I can boot on it and install Mac OS 9.2.2 on my G3 : http://www.numopen.fr/Creer_une_cle_USB_Mac_OS_9_et_installer_Mac_OS_9