Stupid Power Mac G3 install story

[hazmat]

So my friend's B&W Power Mac G3 was running 8.6 and he wanted to put 10.3 on there. First I installed a 9.2.1 CD on there and it was quick and easy. Software Update found 9.2.2 and some other updates. He has Verizon DSL which uses an app to connect. Upon trying to download the updates, SU closes all other apps. Nice. No way to run SU. Couldn't find the update on Apple's site, but found all three he needed through Version Tracker. Installed the three no prob. Then went to install 10.3. It would not let me install without erasing the drive because of the journaled filesystem. Only options there were Journaled or UFS. WTF? Good thing he has a second drive in there which he backed up essential stuff to and didn't care about wiping the boot drive. But still, what if he only had one drive? I thought there was an option to not enable journaling or something like that so the drive wouldn't have to be wiped.

[Arden]

Not in Panther there isn't.

As long as he has a Classic system on his external hard drive, he will be able to run the Classic environment and install OS 9.2.2 where he wants it, which includes the drivers needed to boot into it.

I had the SU problem for a while. We use Earthlink DSL, which uses MacPoET (Mac PPP over Ethernet) to connect to the Internet. An earlier version required the program to remain open to keep the connection alive, so when the program quit (as SU likes to do), we had no more DSL. I had to connect via dialup to get what I needed. Fortunately, this version of MacPoET can be quit without killing the connection.

[hazmat]

I think that's a big problem with the install. They should not require journaling. I don't think most users would need it, plus it would have made life easier. But anyway, He also needs to be able to boot into OS 9, not just Classic. He has a lot of stuff he uses from 8.6 that I think will take long time to replace in OS X, including some MIDI stuff that I don't think will be allowed to run under Classic.

[RacerX]

I haven't done a 10.3 install yet, but can't you enable journaling without wiping the drive? I seem to remember when Apple added journaling to 10.2 (I think it was 10.2.2) you could enable it without reformatting the existing drive.

I know in Server 10.2.3 you could do this via Disk Utility under the Information tab, but that is the only place I've ever used journaling.

[ksv]

I think the reason you have to wipe it is something else, perhaps too little available space?

[hazmat]

Originally Posted by ksv

I think the reason you have to wipe it is something else, perhaps too little available space?

If that's the case, then the installer should have told me that so I could have quit it and then cleared off space and then installed again.

[ksv]

Originally Posted by hazmat

If that's the case, then the installer should have told me that so I could have quit it and then cleared off space and then installed again.

Definitely, but did the installer say anything specific about the reason at all?

[hazmat]

Originally Posted by ksv

Definitely, but did the installer say anything specific about the reason at all?

No, it simply said that in order to install, the drive must be erased. There is definitely the possibility that it did say that, but I would like to think that I did read everything carefully, looking for a way out.