Did a pretzel-option-shift-del .. and it finally managed to recognize my macOS9 cd ... wooohoo.. I am on the way to have this thing finalized .. =)
Thanks ppl - for your suggestions
I can't even start the startup Disk program. And I would have thought that the "C" key at bootup would override this in any case. I am attempting to blow away the MacOSX drive in any case .. so ANY way I could boot my OS9 CD would be help full.
Installed OSX clean .. on a Bronze PowerBook - decided I wanted classic for some of my old apps and so wanted to do a clean MacOS 9 installed followed by an OSX PB install on top.
Pity It won't let me boot of my CD - and in addition the OSX StartUp disc crashes (silently).
This leaves me...
Same problem with same machine .. if you ever find the answer let me know =\. Not just that but pressing c to boot of another cd won't work for me any more either (even after pram zap) ..