OSX 10.3 Netboot

B

Bigjake52

Registered
i"ve been stuck on this for years to say,

I"m trying to get my power mac g4 net boot my original Clamshell Ibook and my three Rev.B imacs to net boot.

My Rev.d Imac g3 and my Firewire Clam will net boot off my server.

I"m trying to make the imacs netboot as I have no hard drive available for them to use and plus its a bit of a pain to install stuff with there broken disk drives im to cheap to replace.

I have my osx server serving netboot and like I said it works with my clamshell Firewire and my newer IMac g3's so there is nothing wrong in my network configuration.
My DCHP is server from my tp-link router, and it works fine, and everything gets an ip from it, I have also given the server a static IP, and have a few other servers in my house a static and nothing is over laping

also How can I get OS 9 to conect to my Open directory service in my g4?
 
Watch your language ... that often will hurt your chances of getting any help at all.
I'll guess that the oldest iMacs firmware won't support netboot
And, probably the same for the iBooks prior to the addition of the Firewire port.
There's probably not a netboot solution for those oldest models.

One option on those old iMacs is replacing the hard drive with the software already loaded on the replacement drive.
For the old clamshell iBook? Those are not as "easy" as the iMac to replace the hard drive, and I've changed a few. It's a challenge to even get a replacement hard drive to work in that iBook.
If you are trying to do re-imaging from a net-boot image, then I don't think you'll ever get that to work.

Install software using a USB flash drive. It's going to be slow, eh?
That's assuming you're using OS 9, and not OS 8 on the oldest ones. OS 8 doesn't cooperate too well with some 'modern' USB devices.
 
First off, I have seen these Imacs on a previous netboot server, Im trying to do a diskless 10.3.

I want x and not 9 on the said system, I rather not have to install drives in them as they were pulled when i got the said systems, there disk drives do not work. as the readers were distoryed by stupid students.

I know they netboot, as if i hold the N key down they do have the globe and also why the apple confrice that intrdruce the imacs show netboot off then ? im sorry but saying they dont when they do is a bit BS to me
 
I did say it was a guess, and if you know about these particular iMacs, then I can't dispute that...
I don't support netboot on 10.3 anymore, so I'm not too sure about that.
The iMacs that I support may fail to netboot for a variety of reasons:
failed hard drive,
faulty logic board,
faulty memory, or not enough memory installed (probably the most common here).
dead ethernet port (of course :D )
Maybe a few other problems ...

Even the oldest iMacs will boot to 10.4, if the system is available (already installed on the hard drive, or - in your case - on a netboot.) The Macs have to have enough RAM. I have a BondiBlue (the first iMac) running 10.4.11 with 160 MB RAM. It doesn't get used continually, and is only used for a few simple web sites, and as a visitor sign-in kiosk. It performs those tasks without complaints.
Enough of that, you weren't asking about 10.4.
I do know that 10.3 really needs 128MB as a minimum. I think that you can boot to 10.3 with 64MB - and I am sure that you can boot with only 92MB. I used to show off an old iMac in a shop where I worked, with only 96MB, running 10.3.9

When the school pulled out the hard drives, did they also remove some of the RAM chips?
How much RAM is installed in those iMacs? I wouldn't recommend less than 256MB.

Maybe the same situation for RAM in the old iBook. If the chip was pulled out, then some of those only have 32MB on the board. Not enough to boot any OS X, AFAIK, and the newer, firewire ones that you have would still have 64MB, even with no memory, and COULD boot to 10.3, I suppose.
Is the RAM a possible answer?
 
well I do have a 10.4 img file running and it works fine on my firewire systems, there is no problem there and that I can not understand.

I did ujpgrade my server to 10.4 on the chance it will work

I know the systems will boot mac os 9 off a usb stick, that is how installed os 9 on one of my older ibooks with out firewire.
they have enough ram the boards work fine,

the systems do not get past the blinking netboot icon, with the globe,
no grear and it seems like there is no network trafic going on
 
You won't boot to a 10.4 image if you don't have enough memory in a Mac.

The reason I asked about memory is: when we get rid of old Macs, we remove the hard drive, and usually the memory, too, unless the memory is not usable in a newer Mac that we might still be using. There might be 'enough ram' for booting to OS 9, but not nearly 'enough' for OS X.
I also know about booting to OS 9 from a USB flash drive, but that's not possible with OS X on a PPC Mac. Why did you mention booting to OS 9 (which you already said you don't need?) Did you think that booting to OS 9 is relevant to booting to OS X? There's no relation between the two, and (as I said) OS X needs substantially more RAM to boot. Not enough RAM, and no OS X.

With that in mind - Can you be a little more specific about the amount of memory installed?

Another thought - Are you connecting through the same ethernet switch that does work with your newer Macs, and have you tried a different patch cable?
How long did you wait for the netboot? I would give up after about 30 minutes if nothing else happens. I'm not saying that's normal, but only that you should give the netboot extra time to see if it ever does boot.
 
I have 512 in all my systems systems, okay there is enough ram and yes they do boot mac os 9 off usb its unstable and very slow though,

I know apple said it cant. X will not boot off usb as it resets the usb buss while loading.

Like I said I have a Firewire Ibook and two slot loading Imacs that boot osx just fine off my server. there is no problem with the server.
 
If you are sure those particular iMacs and the iBook used to netboot to OS X, (and I'm not so sure that the oldest models will netboot to OS X), and you have checked your ethernet connection on another Mac that will netboot OK, I don't have other ideas.
Perhaps someone else will add their 2 cents.
 
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