Mac Blue and white G3 OS upgrade ...

[Jack Valiant]

Hi Guys.. I have been a blue and white G3 desktop computer with System 8.5 on. All is running well but in order to access USB devices I understand that I need to get it on system 9.2 or better? I have a system X CD but I believe that the installer also needs 9.2 so the question is how do I migrate from 8.5 to 9.2?

Thanks

Chris

[magic torch]

This takes me back.

System 8.5 will support USB, perhaps it's a particular device that needs OS 9?

You can upgrade from 8 to 9. Again it's been such a while, but I seem to remember problems upgrading straight to the last version 9.2.2

If you got a X CD, that'll be for OS X, the unix based system.

What's the USB device you're trying to use? I'll have a think and see if I can remember the upgrade paths.

[Jack Valiant]

Hi Jamie thanks for the reply... Every thing seems to work well on 8.5 apart from USB!What I want to do with this box is:

Put it on my home wireless network
Get it to recognise USB devices specifically my printer scanner combo

It does not see any USB devices at the moment although the system info does list the ports. When I attempted to load the Mac installer for my printer it wanted system 9.2 or better. If I put in a known Mac compatible memory stick for example it does not see them etc.

I had been told that I need to get up to system 9 first then 9.2 then system X

Cannot seem to find a version 9 installer for the G3 anywhere and that includes Ebay

Any insight or advice would be appreciated

Cheers

Chris

[magic torch]

Yep, seems like the devices need OS 9. E-mail me your address via my profile and I'll pop a copy in the post.

[Jack Valiant]

Jamie

YHM

Chris

[HiRich]

A few useful resources at Apple.com:
[url]OS9 Support|www.apple.com/support/macos9/[/url]
OS9 Updates
[url]G3 Support|www.apple.com/support/powermac/g3/[/url]
Note firmware updates that may be necessary.
Also:
www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3c.shtml

IIRC, and based on an early slot-loading iMac I recently resurrected:
- You will still need a disc set for some flavour of OS9, then add the updates above.
- If you were to leave the machine in OS9, then 9.2.1 should be OK (9.2.2 was for Classic environment only)
- If you want to run OSX, Panther should run fine on your machine (works on my iMac G3), but Tiger may be a problem (I think it needs tweaks). You must have Panther OS retail disks (black), not the grey machine-specific disks.
- You will need to keep a full version of OS9 on the G3, not a slimmed-down Classic-only variety. Use Extensions Manager or Conflict Catcher to create different start-up sets.
- OS9 will be significantly faster than Panther on your machine (going by my iMac experience). It's worth asking whether OSX is necessary on this particular machine, particularly if you're hard disk-restricted.
Hope This Helps

[Jack Valiant]

Hi Rich

Thanks for the info and advice I will try to migrate from 8.5 to 9.2 and see how it behaves

Cheers

Chris

[AndyWoodall]

I have a system 9 full os disc somewhere if the others can't help you.

Any reason why you don't want to just jump to OS X? I recently did a full clean install of 10.4 (Tiger) on a Blue and White G3 like yours and it runs brilliantly.

[Jack Valiant]

Hi Andy .. there are some applications on the Mac that I want to keep and even trying installers or restore it still requires OS 9 or better. One of the guys is going to lend me system 9 so hopefully can migrate from there to OSX

Thanks for your comments

Chris

[AndyWoodall]

Ok, good luck, I would recommend ditching 9 if you can at somepoint though.