OS X on an upgraded 8500

ElDiabloConCaca · #1 October 10th, 2003, 09:08 AM

So I've got this old 8500/150 upgraded to a G3/400 and I'm trying to load OS X on it with XPostFacto. I can get the installer running, but it ALWAYS hangs at "Processing Essential System Software (Writing Files)" and won't go any farther.

Does anyone here have any experience with XPostFacto? I'd like to try Sonnet PCI X Installer, but don't want to shell out $30 unless I know it'll work.

XPostFacto has a bunch of cryptic options in the menus for processor throttling, open firmware booting and debugging stuff, but i have no idea what those mean (short of the processor throttling) or if they would help at all, and the XPostFacto website doesn't have information about those options.

Has anyone successfully installed OS X on a machine like this with XPostFacto?

ksv · #2 October 11th, 2003, 05:15 AM

Never heard of that problem before. You're sure there's nothing wrong with the CD?

DeltaMac · #3 October 11th, 2003, 09:41 AM

the OS X load could take a substantial amount of time. How long have you let it work, could take a few hours?

ElDiabloConCaca · #4 October 13th, 2003, 11:57 AM

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with the CD -- I've used it to install OS X on a few different machines (and yeah, I have five OS X licenses so no breach of license here!).

Yeah, I've let the installer run overnight, and it never gets past that one part. I get a spinning beachball every time, followed by complete unresponsiveness -- can't move the window, etc... one note to mention, however -- when I do the installs, I'm DEselecting all the extra languages and print drivers and simply leaving only the BSD subsystem and additional applications checked. When I let the installer run with ALL options on, it gets farther than if I deselect some options, but only once it completed that way and the install was unbootable.

The specifics of my machine are: Power Macintosh 8500/150 with Sonnet Crescendo G3/400MHz 1MB L2 upgrade card. 420MB RAM. Built-in video, 2MB. That's it. Oh, and a 9GB 68-to-50 pin converted SCSI hard drive. Perhaps the converter is causing problems? Naah...

I have a 2GB regular 50 pin laying around here, but that's not enough space to install the required 9.1 and then OS X on top of that.

I bought and downloaded Sonnet PCI X Install 1.2.6, and it copies some extensions over, reboots, and then... the gray Apple logo comes up for a few seconds, then changes into the circle w/slash through it symbol, meaning, I'm guessing, that it can't boot.

I tried XPostFacto again, with unimpressive results. I got the installer to go all the way through again by telling the OS X installer to format the disk and THEN install, but, apparently, that wipes out the XPostFacto extensions for booting on unsupported hardware, and I get a kernel panic shortly after the gray Apple logo screen. So, I boot back into OS 9 and load up XPostFacto and tell it to reinstall BootX and the required extensions, and the same results happen -- kernel panic on trying to boot.

I've given up, unless someone has something else I can try. On a side note, I've tried different jumper settings on my hard drive as instructed, since OS X apparently is picky about SCSI jumpering and termination. I've deinterleaved my RAM as well. Tried with only 128MB as well.

Just no success. I have a feeling I could get it up and running with a good 10 hours to throw at it, but I've relegated that machine to existing with only OS 9.1 on there. I got the machine used for next to nothing, so no real loss here... although I was excited to run OS X on it... (sniff)

DeltaMac · #5 October 13th, 2003, 02:06 PM

I've heard about this a couple of times, The OS X installer seems to complain about SCSI-2 setups, it's probably the converter... do you have any kind of SCSI controller card installed? If so, have you tried connecting directly to the logic board SCSI bus? (Not many SCSI controllers are still compatible with OSX)
Try: install the original 2 GB, connected to the logic board SCSI bus. (not a SCSI card of any type!) Your 2 GB SHOULD be enough space to at least get a successful install of both OS 9 and OS X, at least from a wiped drive, once you get past the install, you could then replace the 9 GB SCSI, then clone the whole partition of the 2 GB to the larger drive.

Sorry, just a chance, sounds like a hobby!

ElDiabloConCaca · #6 October 13th, 2003, 03:52 PM

I'll try that... the 9GB is connected to the system SCSI bus -- I don't have any add-in cards.

I have a feeling it may be the adaptor I've got on the back of the 9GB drive, however, it works flawlessly with OS 9.

I'm going to try putting in the 2GB and loading a bare-bones 9 install, then a bare-bones OS X install on top of that... if that works, then I've got some troubleshooting to do with the 9GB.

Is anyone here versed on hard drive jumpers; specifically, what those cryptic labels like "DISABLE AUTO ATTN" and "WAIT 1/32 SPIN UP" do? I was playing around with those jumpers and managed to find a few combinations of jumpers (two jumpers) that would render the drive non-spin-uppable upon powerup. I heard somewhere that the "DISABLE AUTO ATTN" was either supposed to be ENABLED or DISABLED, but the wording was confusing, making me question whether the jumper was supposed to be disabled, or if the jumper was supposed to be enabled effectively DISABLING auto attn.

DeltaMac · #7 October 13th, 2003, 04:49 PM

don't mess with the jumpers unless you know what the original confiuration is. You can go to the drive's manufacturer web site, and usually there's very good info about jumpers. the only ones you would need to change are the device number jumpers (a set of 3 or 4 jumpers to determine the SCSI device number) and the termination selector (may be labled different names) go to the drives web site and see what you can find about jumpers for this SCSI drive.

ElDiabloConCaca · #8 October 14th, 2003, 09:32 AM

I went there, and it had a wealth of information about the jumpers -- however, if you already don't know what "unit attention" is, then disabling it is just as confusing as if you didn't go to the website at all... some information was helpful, though, and I managed to get my drive back to "stock" configuration concerning the jumpers.

Couldn't find any information about SCSI termination, though... this is a 68 pin UltraWide drive, and if I'm correct, termination on those drives isn't the same as termination on old SCSI-1 50 pin drives.

I'm starting to feel that the adaptor is to blame for me not being able to install OS X on the drive. From what I can see, its almost as if the drive stops responding at various points in the install process.

Still haven't had a chance to try my old 2GB yet, but I'm almost positive it would work.

Thanks, all, for all the help! If anyone else has anything I can try, I'm all ears!