Panther wont boot up

SAbsar

SAbsar

Mac Graduate
Umm... I upgraded to 10.3 last month, then went on to install a few upgrades and stuff. Today i downloaded the new security update and tried running it. Well, during the optimization process, power went out. Now when the power came back, i switched on the iMac (ofcourse), and since then, he (i consider it polite to address a macintosh as a he instead of an it :P) gets stuck at STARTING LOGIN WINDOW something. I tried booting from the Panther CD again, to repair permissions and everything, but nothing. I tried to reinstall Panther, but since im on 10.3.3, it wont write over it, saying that a newer OS is already installed. Please tell me how to get out of this mess. I mean atleast help me get my data off the mac!
 
You tried to do an Update Install, correct? I suspect there is some way to 'force' it to write over the previous files, but I don't know what it is, sorry.
You could try an Archive Install, that might work.
If that doesn't work, you can try to get the data off by using Firewire Target Disk mode (connect the computers to one another via firewire and press T as you start up the computer you want to use as a disk).
 
Awwww... I dont have another mac with firewire, and I dont have an external firewire drive either. And what is an Archive Install? I mean I cant even boot up into the system, how can i archive install (thats if i think archive install means what it really means :s)

Yaar its looking pretty bad.... help me out here.

btw... yaar is just a local expression we have for 'man'.
 
You could try booting up in single-user mode (by keeping Command-S held down when you power up) and then updating the prebindings once you get to the single-user prompt by typing "sudo update_prebinding -root / -force" (without the quotes, of course). You'll need the root/admin password to do this.

It sounds like the update installed just fine, but since the computer crashed during the prebinding update, then some programs may fail to operate correctly without the prebinding information. That method described above should fix any prebinding problems, if that is truly the problem that's causing your OS X install to go funny.
 
Try an Open Firmware Reset;
Reboot your computer while holding down command-option-o-f. At the prompt, type
reset-nvram and hit the Return key, then type
reset-all and hit the Return key again. Your computer will reboot.
 
Okay, there are some ideas i would *never* have thought of myself :P
So why doesnt Apple create some kind of bios setup utility like they have on wintel boxes? I mean make all this easier. Well Im not at home right now, but will try this as soon as i get home.

Thanks
 
So i tried both your ideas diablo and bob... None of them worked out.
mmm diablo, i dont know, maybe i didnt do it right or whatever, but it didnt ask me for the root password or anything. Instead it gave me this error:

<b>Dyld: update_prebinding truncated or malformed library: /System/Library/Frameworks/DiscReading.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/DiscRecordingEngine.framework/Versions/A/DiscRecordingEngine (file is empty)
Trace/BPT trap</b>

and bob, the resetting didnt work out either :(

Im really bummed out at this!
 
Oh! That i can boot into a unix prompt, can I network it with a wintel box and transfer my files over, so that i could make a clean install? I was thinking about it anyway, but now seems to be a pretty good time to do it :P
 
You don't need to be able to boot up into Panther to do an Archive and Install. Simply boot from the Panther Install CD, then when you are prompted with what kind of installation to do, select "Archive and Install". I believe this step comes after selecting the disk to install to -- there should be a button at the bottom of the window labeled "Options" or "Customize".

An Archive and Install preserves all your user settings and Applications, and will back up your System Folder to a new folder named "Previous System Folder".
 
Oh... but then, when i boot with the panther CD, it says it cant install panther on my drive because apparantly a newer version (10.3.3) is already installed. :@
Ummm... i was wondering if i could transfer my files from my mac to another machine via network or burn it up on an external DVD writer. Theres about... 25GB of extremely important files that i need! :(

Nonetheless, itd be a lot much better if i could get panther to staart up.
 
Once you get to that point, look for the "Customize" or "Options" button somewhere along the bottom of that window. If you click that button, a new sheet (those things that "slide" out from the top of a window, like a save dialog) should slide out with options on it: Clean Install, Archive & Install, Upgrade Install, etc.

That's when you need to select Archive & Install.

Or, you could pull the hard drive out, slap it in another Mac and back it up that way. I doubt you'd be able to use the network, since it's booting into single-user mode (or is it? What does it boot into now?), but you can try. Try connecting from a Windows machine or another Mac using the Mac's IP address...
 
Oh yes i did just that... archive and install!!! But i had to use my jaguar disc, the panther disc was an upgrade disc! So i have the data off safely!

Thanks you guys!
 
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