Mac G4 will only boot OS 9

Velcrobelly

Registered
I am running OS X on a Mac G4. When I boot, the machine will only boot into OS 9. I have tried holding the option key down on boot, and only the drive with OS 9 shows up.

However, when I click the refresh button, the OS X drive shows up and I can boot into it from there.

Alternatively, when I am in OS 9 and go to startup disk, the OS X drive appears there as well. Switching and restarting gets me into OS X as well.

I guess the issue is that the machine does not recognize an OS X drive on initial boot.
 
Have you tried repairing the disk with Disk Utility while booted from the Mac OS X Install CD just to make sure there's nothing wrong with the drive (or partition) that Mac OS X is on?
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
Have you tried repairing the disk with Disk Utility while booted from the Mac OS X Install CD just to make sure there's nothing wrong with the drive (or partition) that Mac OS X is on?

I have verified the OS X boot disk using the installation CD and everything appears to be OK.
 
MacMuppet: same thing. Both Control Panels write the same value to the NVRAM. If it's OS X in OS X, then it's OS X in OS 9.

What kind of Macintosh is it, and what kind of hard drive configuration do you have? Do you have OS 9 and OS X on separate partitions, or separate drives?
 
Are you running OS 9, or a later version - 9.2.1 or 9.2.2?
What is the version of the Startup Control Panel in OS 9?
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
MacMuppet: same thing. Both Control Panels write the same value to the NVRAM. If it's OS X in OS X, then it's OS X in OS 9.

What kind of Macintosh is it, and what kind of hard drive configuration do you have? Do you have OS 9 and OS X on separate partitions, or separate drives?

The machine is a G4. The drives are separate from each other (not partitions).
 
Repair permissions. I bet the permissions are set so that you are not allowed to change the boot up disk.

Start up with the OS X CD (insert CD, restart, hold down the C key) When you get the installer screen, go to the Installer menu and select Disk Utility. Click on First Aid tab, then the OS X drive, then repair permissions.
 
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