Mac gurus, here’s your chance to shine. My google searches (OSX 9 happy mac boot switch) bring up THOUSANDS of useless links.
The story so far…
I have an imac DVSE 500 that’s been going great for a long time running 9.0.1.
A friend loaned me his ipod to test drive and fool around with for a few days. I checked the documentation and learned that I needed itunes 2 or 3 to firewire the info and recharge back and forth. Minimum sys 9.2.
I had a new Jag box on the shelf and “knew” that it automatically installed 9.2 along with X (was I wrong?). I installed X (2+ hours) and fooled around with it for a bit - the registration is a bit invasive and I tweaked the default desktop settings a little bit (volume, dock defaults, etc). Itunes worked great with the ipod and I was enjoying the new gui and features. I tried to launch a program off the old OS (a card game) and was informed that the OS couldn’t FIND a 9 sys to run the game.
I checked the prefs and found a switch to start up in ‘classic’ mode (9).
Now I get a happy mac and then nothing else (upon startup). I can’t get back to X, and my old 9.0.1 startup CD can’t help. In fact, it’s stuck in the slot until someone tells me the keys to hold down to restart on X and eject the disc.
My dear wife tells me to reload X, but she’s been brainwashed by M$ and stuff. I don’t want type all that info AGAIN. My files are intact but I can’t do sh*t with them now, I’m just looking at a happy mac in the middle of my dead imac screen.
FTR, I’m posting this message from my workhorse PowerPC 6500/300. 6 years without a glitch. Please help.
Mac OS X Jaguar does not include Mac OS 9.2 in the box. If you start up System Preferences and click on “Start Up Folders,” does it list Mac OS 9.0.1 in the window? If so, restart to that OS, and update OS 9.0.1 to OS 9.2 from OS 9. Then restart into Mac OS X and see if your Classic Application will run.
I never use Classic apps, so I don’t know if there’s more to it than that.
In order to restart and eject the disc, restart your Mac, and as it restarts, hold down the mouse button.
If it doesn’t see your OS 9 system folder in the Startup Disk section of System Preferences, one thing that might help is to use your old OS 9 startup CD. I don’t know exactly what you mean about it being “stuck in the slot,” but there are two different ways to start up from a CD:[ul][li]Insert the CD, then select the system folder on the CD in the Startup Disk pref-pane and restart.Restart your system and hold down the “C” key to start up from the CD.[/ul]Once you’ve started up from the CD, you can use the OS 9 Startup Disk control panel to try to start up from the OS 9 installation on your hard drive. If the control panel doesn’t see it, that indicates there’s something wrong with your copy of OS 9 and you’ll need to reinstall it.[/li]
Regardless, you won’t be able to run Classic applications through Classic mode in OS X unless you update to OS 9.2. It’s a free update from OS 9 that you can download on Apple’s web site.
One thing you might try if the Startup Disk control panel on the CD doesn’t see your OS 9 system is to run the 9.2 updater (which you’ve downloaded under OS X) and see if it sees your OS 9 system. If so, updating it is likely to fix the problem.
You can boot from a startup disk if you hold down the C key during startup.
I’ve been told that if you can’t boot into OSX, you can try holding down the X key during startup. I’ve never tried that (and I’ve got too much running at the moment to try it for you) but it’s worth a try if you can’t get anywhere.
Or you could try loading in “verbose” mode – at start up hold Apple-V. This will create a boot that looks like a Redmond-Infected machine’s startup and will tell you what’s happening in the background and could trigger the machine to recognize its own problems and try to solve them.
If you continue to have problems, try visiting MacMentor, which is full of amazing Mac experts who might be able to help you further.
I should ask this – did you download the Firmware update for your machine before you loaded OSX? I know that I needed to download it for my iMac before I upgraded, but I don’t know what happens if you don’t have it first. You might end up having to go ahead and go through the motions all over again, unfortunately, if that’s the problem.
Thanks, all macevangelists posting. I knew OSX would be a small hurdle.
spectrum, thanks for letting me know that 9.2 was NOT on the Jag install. Why did I think that it was automatic? I can’t get to sys prefs because I can’t get past my happy mac at all. Just happy mac onscreen, no matter what. Thanks, too, for getting my 9.0.1 disc out (mouse button - who woulda thunk?).
jason, I can start up on the 9.0.1 disc just fine but it doesn’t see the OSX option and just hangs me with a happy mac. If I can ever boot up, I’ll surf over and update my 9 to 9.2. I’m just stressing because I can’t BOOT UP.
TeaElle (Battery Park NY?), thanks for the great suggestions and link. X didn’t work for my particular quandry, and Ctrl-v didn’t bring up anything either. I’ll shut up shortly and reinstall, but I’m much richer for your macguru link.
What the heck, I’ve only been using these boxes since 1988. I should know a little more about them by now.
Reinstalling OS X is not the solution. Classic Mode only works with OS 9.1 or greater. You need to install that – this will give you the Control Panel option of “Startup Disk” which you can use to specify OS X versus 9.1 as your startup disk.
I believe an OS 9.2 updater is available for free on the Apple Web Site.
The Classic Mode System Preferences under OS X will only start up OS 9 in a window. To reboot into OS 9, you need to go to the Startup Disk System Preferences, select your OS 9.1 or greater System Folder, and reboot.
If you do reinstall Mac OS X, keep in mind that you can bypass the registration screen entirely by pressing Apple-Q to quit, just like any normal Macintosh application. So the registration looks intrusive, but they give you a simple way out of it.
…and the hampsters ate my long, thoughtful, grateful post. Damn.
Summary: Thanks to all individually and collectively. The links are awesome and the updates (and update info) spectacular. ed, your diagnosis was spot-on… my happy mac meant I was NOT seeing any OSX and was trying to load an OS that my box couldn’t run. Balthisar, I’ll try your suggestion but I suspect it will quit the INSTALLER along with the reg field.
Thanks again. I’m on disk 2 of the OSX reinstall now. Cross your fingers.
Partition the hard drive. The next time you have to upgrade you can install the upgrade on one of the partitions not containing the current operating system…
I upgraded my iMac DV by replacing the hard drive. I used a hard drive enclosure from OWC and used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the original hard drive to a partition on the new hard drive.
I then swapped the hard drives and loaded OS X on a second partition. Now I can boot from 9.0 or from OS X.