iMac installs 10.3 but won't boot??

Pengu · #1 May 30th, 2004, 12:11 PM

Heyas,

I recently upgraded my parents iMac 266 with an extra 256 RAM (its only actualy 128 extra at the moment, but thats a technical issue that the supplier is remedying) and decided to put 10.3 onto it, to stop the problems i've been having with trying to share ANYTHING on our LAN between my g4 and their imac, and improve the life/usability of it.

I also swapped out the original 6G hard drive and put in the original 20G drive that came with my G4 (i have a 40 and a 120 now). First time i booted off the osx.3 cd, it wouldn't let me pick the volume at all, to install to. I wasnt sure if the imacs had that 8gb requirment, so i partitioned and tried again. no dice. Figured it was probably the jumper settings (ANOTHER WD HDD with no jumper settings on the drive

) so i changed it to what i think is master. not 100% sure, but im fairly certain. anyways. Boot up off the install cd again, it will let me install to the first partition (i made it 7 gb) but not the second one (turns out they DO have that limitation). Fine. I pick the options I want. I click install, i walk away. I come back a while later and im at the "Please select a language to continue the installation" screen. Ok. Whatever. Open "Startup Disk", pick 10.3 on the HDD. Reboot. Flashing icon. doesn't find it.

Does anyone have ANY idea what the hell is going on? Is it MORE jumper issues? Do I need to fiddle some more?

Thanks

Pengu

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 May 30th, 2004, 01:35 PM

When the screen asking you to select the language popped up, you say you restarted -- shouldn't you pick the language you wanted instead of restarting?

Also, there is a firmware update associated with OS X on early iMacs -- did you install that?

ModFather · #3 May 30th, 2004, 03:14 PM

I recently had a problem installing 10.3 on a Rev. D 333 iMac. Sometimes it would install, sometimes it wouldn't. If it did install, it frequently kernel panic'd at startup. If it didn't, it would start up without the Dock present. Dropping back to 10.2.8 solved the problem. Don't know what the problem was.

Mod

Pengu · #4 May 30th, 2004, 06:38 PM

ElDiablo - The language selection screen is the first thing you see. Picking a language would have just been the first step in installing it all again.

Yes I made sure the firmware is up-to-date.

Thanks ModFather.

**fryke** · #5 May 30th, 2004, 07:14 PM

Yep. You haven't actually installed anything - you left the computer too early. It didn't do anything but wait for you to choose a default language for the installation.

ElDiabloConCaca · #6 May 30th, 2004, 07:49 PM

I think he installed OS X, but the startup disk was probably still set to the install CD, so after a reboot, it just started up from the install CD again.

Pengu: install OS X again, but this time, wait around until it's done -- don't leave it sitting there. When the install is done and the system reboots, quickly eject the install CD and then let the computer do its thing.

Pengu · #7 May 30th, 2004, 08:17 PM

Ok, thanks for trying to help, but neither of you really read what I did.

Quote:

Open "Startup Disk", pick 10.3 on the HDD. Reboot. Flashing icon. doesn't find it.

The system is installed. It is taking up space. I can choose it in the Startup Disk util. It just wont boot with that setting.

ElDiabloConCaca · #8 May 31st, 2004, 12:10 AM

I read every word you wrote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pengu

Fine. I pick the options I want. I click install, i walk away. I come back a while later and im at the "Please select a language to continue the installation" screen. Ok. Whatever. Open "Startup Disk", pick 10.3 on the HDD. Reboot. Flashing icon. doesn't find it.

Installation of Mac OS X, unless you choose the absolute minimum install options, takes the first two install disks. The reason I said it sounds like it didn't finish installing is because after the first disk installs, the system should reboot and then boot from the hard drive, then ask for the second install disk.

What happened to you, from the quote above, is that the first disk finished installing, but the system rebooted from the install CD instead of the hard drive, and that's probably why you saw the "Select Language" screen instead of the system asking for disk 2. It sounds like the reason it's doing that is because something went wrong with the first disk installation -- or the new hard drive is messing something up.

Have you tried with the original hard drive? It would rule that out if in fact it does the same thing. You may want to try re-seating the jumpers again -- I have nothing but WD drives in my machine, and they all have the same jumper settings. If you're looking at the jumpers with the drive oriented with the logic board part down, then "Single Drive" would be no jumpers; "Master" would be the center pair of jumpers (third set from the right or left); "Slave" would be the set of jumpers second from the right or fourth from the left. I would try the "Master" setting first, and "Single Drive" second. I don't think the hard drive and the CD-ROM are on the same bus, so I don't think "Slave" would be a necessary setting to try.

I hope that helps!