May this stump the best of you!

tkdragon · #1 August 21st, 2004, 07:13 PM

A friend of mine decided to upgrade their PowerBook G4 by getting a bigger HD and maxing out the RAM and upgrading from OS 9 to OS X. Anyway, since he didn't feel up to the challenge, he passed it on to me, having done a little PowerBook maintenace before. So, I got everything installed; 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HD... Now I'm at the OS X part of this upgrade.
When I first started the OS installation and got to the "Select a Destination" nothing showed up(hoping I didn't break anything). I then just created a new partition by erasing the whole disc. The HD is now showing up (whew!). HOWEVER! It gives me this error:
"You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. You cannot start your computer using this volume."
I tried partitioning the HD into the first 8 GB for the OS install (the trick for getting older Macs to work), still no luck. Now i'm here. Stuck.
Did I miss some weird jumper settings on the new HD?
What am I to do?

**Cheryl** · #2 August 21st, 2004, 07:59 PM

What format did you use when you partitioned? Try it again - Use Disk utility and format it using Mac Extended. You shouldn't need to limit to the first 8 GB
Then run Repair disk to make sure the drive is okay.

Now install on the first partition.

perfessor101 · #3 August 21st, 2004, 08:12 PM

The 8 GB limit never applied to any G4 machines. Cheryl has it right you chose the wrong Mac Format. OS X required Mac OS (Extended) a.k.a. HFS+. And get rid of the partitioning. You will be glad you did in the long run.

tkdragon · #4 August 22nd, 2004, 04:31 PM

On a long shot, I decided to install OS 9 and see if it would like the HD better. IT DID! Once I had OS 9 Installed, the OS X installer took a liking to the HD as well. Who knew? Thanks guys

Jamesrdorn · #5 August 22nd, 2004, 10:54 PM

Just a tip. I put in a 20GB hard drive in my wife's Clamshell ibook, it had the same issue. The fix was to go into Open Firmware and do these commands.

reset-nvram
reset-all

wallah! OSX liked the hard drive again, I am sure OS9 reset the NVRAM while installing the OS, so OSX has no probs any longer.

Numbers1820 · #6 September 2nd, 2004, 01:11 AM

I have a similar problem that seems intractable.

(Cheryl, hello again. You helped me in a recent post regarding the same machine...)

The basic problem is that I cannot get the upgrade from 10.2 to 10.2.8 to work at all.

I'm working to upgrade my mom's clamshell iBook. The biggest part of that upgrade was to take out the original 3 GB HDD, install a used 10 GB HDD, and then reimport in all of her old contact data, etc.

My exact procedure was:
1) Take out the 3 GB and install the 10 GB HDD.

2) Boot the computer to see if the hardware was put back together correctly. (I actually yanked the 10 GB HDD from another iBook (dual USB), which I had upgraded. The 10 GB had 10.2.8 already on it.) (Yes, it did boot nicely with the 10 GB HDD.)

3) I then proceeded to erase everything on the 10 GB HDD in preparation for a clean install. (Why erase a perfectly functioning OS? Precisely because it wasn't perfectly functioniong. I had installed 10.1.5, then 10.2, then the various upgrades to 10.2.8 on this HDD all with the simple upgrade option. This had resulted in a rather disconcerting amount of kernel panics and related weird behavior, usually triggered by some or another network activity. I knew from previous posts that a clean install was needed, so I finally took this opportunity to, um, clean up my act (pardon the pun) and do it right. Hey, I wasn't gonna give my mom a flaky HDD/OS, now, was I?)

4) I installed 10.2 Jaguar from the CD. (I didn't bother with OS 9 because I don't think it's necessary.) 10.2 ran great.

5) I re-installed/imported, upgraded all of my mom's old apps, files, etc. Ran great.

6) I tried to upgrade to 10.2.8 via Software Update or by downloading the package. Always got an error message along these lines, "There were errors installing the software. Please try installing again." I tried both the Software Update and package method about 3x each, shutting down my machine after each one.

7) I came to this website and noticed this thread. I had no clue, Jamesrdorn, what Open Firmware was, but the word "firmware" got me thinking... I went over to Apple's Support site and found out that I probably needed to download a firmload update, v. 4.1.7, specifically . (See Apple Knowledge Base articles 86117 and 75128).

8) Firmload Update v. 4.1.7 was, predictably, an OS 9 app, so got my iBook install CDs out, installed OS 9.1, then ran the updater. Or, I tried to. It involves shutting down the computer, then holding down the command and power keys until you hear a long tone. I held down both keys simultaneously. Nothing. No sound, nothing on the screen, nothing nothing. I tried this again and I got (thanks for the hint, Jamesrdorn!) the "Welcome to Open Firmware" screen. How un-Mac like! (At least for previous to the OS X/Unix days...) It listed two options, "shut-down" and "boot-mac". Shutting down just, well, shut down the machine, but rebooting (power key only) normally only gave me the "Your machine has not updated the firmware. Please review the instructions and try again." (Something like that.) "boot-mac" only booted back into OS 9.1 with the same "not updated" message. Then I tryed resetting the nvram and all as you suggested, Jamesrdorn, but this didn't do anything. I got the same "not updated" message in OS 9.1, and was still unable to run the 10.2.8 installer in 10.2.

9) Your suggestions, please? I'm thinking about starting with an absolutely clean install, this time by running the iBook OS 9 Software Install CDs from a freshly-erased HDD. But then I would have to reinstall all the stuff I worked so hard over the last couple of days to tweak and stuff. Yuck! There's got to be a better way...

Thanks for your help.

Numbers1820 · #7 September 2nd, 2004, 08:19 AM

Okay, I got the firmware update in OS 9.1 to work, but I still can't get the OS 10.2.8 update to install.

I remembered this morning that the only (I hope) hardware glitch when I put the clamshell back together is that the speaker is no longer functional (must have not re-inserted something correctly?). So, no wonder I never heard any start-up chimes; there wasn't a functional speaker to chime for me! So I just held down the command-power key combo for about 30 seconds (I simply guessed how long would be correct), and voila! I was informed that the firmware update had worked just fine.

Upon rebooting into OS 10.2 just now, though, I am still getting the "There were errors installing the software ... Please try installing again." slogan. Oh, brother!

Ideas, anyone??

Numbers1820 · #8 September 3rd, 2004, 10:23 AM

[Disclaimer: I first posted this information at the end of a previous post, "May this stump the best of you!" But after not getting any response for 24 hours, and feeling a bit of urgency, I decided to post this here and see if I got a different reaction. Sorry if this breaks the site etiquette. If you're not offended, please read on...]

My basic problem is that I cannot get the upgrade from 10.2 to 10.2.8 to work at all.

I'm working to upgrade my mom's clamshell iBook. The biggest part of that upgrade was to take out the original 3 GB HDD, install a used 10 GB HDD, and then reimport in all of her old contact data, etc.

My exact procedure was:
1) Take out the 3 GB and install the 10 GB HDD.

2) Boot the computer to see if the hardware was put back together correctly. (I actually yanked the 10 GB HDD from another iBook (dual USB), which I had upgraded. The 10 GB had 10.2.8 already on it.) (Yes, it did boot nicely with the 10 GB HDD.)

3) I then proceeded to erase everything on the 10 GB HDD in preparation for a clean install. (Why erase a perfectly functioning OS? Precisely because it wasn't perfectly functioniong. I had installed 10.1.5, then 10.2, then the various upgrades to 10.2.8 on this HDD all with the simple upgrade option. This had resulted in a rather disconcerting amount of kernel panics and related weird behavior, usually triggered by some or another network activity. I knew from previous posts that a clean install was needed, so I finally took this opportunity to, um, clean up my act (pardon the pun) and do it right. Hey, I wasn't gonna give my mom a flaky HDD/OS, now, was I?)

4) I installed 10.2 Jaguar from the CD. (I didn't bother with OS 9 because I don't think it's necessary.) 10.2 ran great.

5) I re-installed/imported, upgraded all of my mom's old apps, files, etc. Ran great.

6) I tried to upgrade to 10.2.8 via Software Update or by downloading the package. Always got an error message along these lines, "There were errors installing the software. Please try installing again." I tried both the Software Update and package method about 3x each, shutting down my machine after each one.

7) I researched macosx.com and found the thread, "May this stump the best of you!", which seemed to offer some clues. Contributor Jamesrdorn, specifically, suggested that the firmware in clamshell iBooks needed to be fiddled with. I had no clue what the Open Firmware James mentioned was, but the word "firmware" got me thinking... I went over to Apple's Support site and found out that I probably needed to download a firmload update (v. 4.1.7). (See Apple Knowledge Base articles 86117 and 75128).

8) Firmload Update v. 4.1.7 was, predictably, an OS 9 app, so got my iBook install CDs out, installed OS 9.1, then ran the updater. I ran into some mishaps I won't repeat here, but eventually was successful. BUT (and this is the crucial "BUT" I still can't get the OS 10.2.8 update to install!!! Oh, brother!

Ideas, anyone??