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Mac Lab Report

Mac OS X and the Blue and White G3 Firmware Update Problem

- 2005.03.01

I've gone around on this problem once or twice, so I thought I ought to memorialize it with notes - and share them with you, while I'm at it.

Here's the problem: I have several Blue and White Power Mac G3 towers, the kind that have ADB ports in the back and can run OS X (barely).* I like these computers, but I have a couple that are kind of quirky.

I decided to upgrade one of them to OS X as an experiment. It was originally running OS 8.5, which is an okay operating system, but some of the software I use in my class requires OS 9.x and some of it requires OS X, so I dove in.

In an attempt to maximize the hard drive space, I first erased the hard drive using the OS X installer utility - this turned out to be a mistake. I then installed OS X, which went smoothly, if slowly.

After installing OS X, I tried out a number of functions, including connecting to a server, starting various programs, printing, and so on.

The first time I tried to use a Classic application, the OS told me it couldn't find a Classic System Folder. Of course not - I had deleted it in the hard drive wipe. Out comes the OS 9 CD.

OS 9 checked the drive and then aborted the install, telling me I needed to do a firmware update from the extras folder on the CD first.

Okay, so I found the "G3 Firmware Update" and ran right into a Catch-22. The firmware update requires that you be running the Classic Mac OS, and the Classic OS won't run until the firmware update is installed.

You Can't Get There From Here

You can't install the Firmware Update 1.1 by booting off the OS 9 CD; the firmware update writes a file to the active OS 9 System Folder, and CDs are read-only.

Blue & Whtie G3If you do what I did and don't have the original system CDs for the B&W G3, you're sunk. Luckily I had an original OS 8.5 CD that shipped with my aging G3 Beige machine, so I booted the B&W G3 with that CD, installed OS 8.5 as a clean install, and rebooted.

Now I could run the Firmware Update - run, shut down, hold the programmer's button on front panel, restart until you hear a tone, and then release the button.

Now I could finally install OS 9 and run Classic via OS X when necessary. But for now the machine is set to boot into OS 9 because running OS X and Classic at the same time takes so much of the 6 GB hard drive that there's no room left for Microsoft Office and certain other applications I need to use in the classroom.

To have the machine useful in its present state, I need to keep using OS 9. (My students are disappointed . . . they like getting to play with OS X.)

An OS X compatible firmware update utility would be nice, but it's unlikely Apple will expend any effort to retrofit these older machines that barely run OS X, as this is a relatively isolated problem.

If you're stuck, though, having a portfolio of older OS installation CDs is always handy. LEM

* UPDATE: I'm using OEM equipment, which has 128 MB RAM and a 300 MHz processor, and a 6 GB (not 4 like the article originally said) hard drive. I have to install Classic, Office, a suite of science programs, and leave some room for student work on the drive. On the machine I was using, the last thing I was installing was Office, and it didn't fit. Hence "barely." Also, OS X on the G3 runs acceptably well, but because of the RAM limitations switching programs starts being noticeably slow when I open two or more apps. I've used worse computer/OS combinations (OS 8.6 on a 5200, for example, is much worse) but it could be better as well. Perhaps "barely" was too strong a word.

Everyone pointed out that if you upgrade RAM and hard drive, OS X runs just fine. That's true, I'm sure. However, the upgrade budget in my district is something like a few pennies per machine (I am not making this up), so you can do the math and see that the priority isn't going to be OS X upgrades in a district where new Mac purchases are verboten. Nevertheless, when it comes time to make the switch to OS X, I will see what can be done. I've pulled bigger rabbits out of smaller hats than a moderate upgrade to a computer....

Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.

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