simple question?

Q

Qfxz

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My G5 iMac is getting a new harddrive, meanwhile I had to fire up my older front, slotload IMac (G3), it has 10.3.9 installed and 250GB external harddrive. Unfortunately, this little iMac only has 30GB on board memory.
Here is one of two questions:
After the 10.3.9 install/upgrade I only had 4GB of available memory. I have looked through just about every file/folder to delete duplicate/unnecessary files but cannot find what has used up the memory. Any help? Suggestions?
I have a LaCie 250GB external drive, partitioned in three sections at 78GB each; can I install OS X on one of the partitions and work from that for my Photoshop, Illustrator and other graphics software projects?
A few minutes ago a message came up saying that my memory is close getting full and should clear some files to make room. If there is a good answer to the first question then I am home free, otherwise???
This iMac (slotload) is only rated for 512MB RAM max at 133-333 speed, two 256MB boards (max). Is there a way to get around this and add more RAM, a way to boost it to768MB RAM or even 1GB RAM and still have the system work and utilize the extra memory?

Any help is greatly appreciated. A fourth question comes to mind. DO i need the adapter to run a mirror monitor on the slotload (a 17" flat panel, mac compatible, ViewSonic brand. I have the software to set up the mirror)?

Thanks for any help. I love this site, it has been a great help from time to time when I am stuck on some problem. And Macs are the only way to go (as far as I am concerned).

John Q.
 
'After the 10.3.9 install/upgrade I only had 4GB of available memory. Any help? Suggestions?' - impossible. If only MacOS X 10.3.x was installed, and then updated to 10.3.9 - then a 30 GB hard disk drive would not result in only 4 GB of free storage space. 'Panther' would occupy 4 GB or less.

Not mentioned - what software applications reside in the '/Applications/' and '/Applications/Utilities/' folder.

Not mentioned - whether 'Erase and Install' or 'Archive and Install' was performed when installing MacOS X 10.3.x. The results are quite different.

It is possible you have some large in quantity and / or size 'log' files, 'swapfile's, and a large in quantity of cache files. There are a variety of MacOS X utility applications that will allow you to clear / delete such files. Then there is 'Terminal' where you can create a 'rm -rf ...' command line and clear all the referred to files [view 'Unexpected "startup disk full" messages and 0kb available on harddrive'].

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'... can I install OS X on one of the [LaCie 250 GB] partitions and work from that for my Photoshop, Illustrator and other graphics software projects?' - yes.

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'If there is a good answer to the first question then I am home free, otherwise???' - ?

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'This iMac (slotload) ...512MB RAM max at 133-333 [MHz], two 256MB boards (max). Is there a way to get around this ... add more RAM, a way to boost it ... and still have the system work and utilize the extra memory?' - there are iMac Upgrades; however, at these prices you could purchase a Mac Mini and a (cheap) monitor, and use the iMac's keyboard and mouse.
 
I had installed 10.3 over the 10.2.8, full install without erasing-
My ext HD is USB and I understand I cannot boot 10.4 to the older front slotload from the ext HD if it is not a firewire connection-this would have allowed me almost 80GB more of memory had I been able to utilize it (home free comment)
Apps/Util are stripped to system apps and less than 1GB of other apps, everything else is on the HD. I am going to run the terminal commands.
I think 'MacJanitor' will do the same on clearing logs and caches.
Your information appears to be workable. Will it stop the logs from being written (if this is the case), if not, what else can be done?
Thank you for the response and your help.

John Q
 
To verify the effectiveness of 'MacJanitor' (freeware, or equivalent utilities) - first view the '/Library/Logs/', '~/Library/logs/' folders, '/tmp/', '/var/tmp/', '/var/vm/', etc. folders (and their respective sub folders); then open (launch, run) the desired utility; and finally, view the folders (and sub folders) again. Only then will one know which items are either deleted, ignored, or updated.

'MacJanitor' performs the same steps of 'crontab' ('Panther' - MacOS X 10.3.x); or, the 'LaunchDaemons' - 'com.apple.periodic-daily.plist'. 'com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist', 'com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist' ('Tiger' - MacOS X 10.4.x).
Note, one can remove or relocate the 'periodic-daily', 'periodic-monthly' and 'periodic-weekly' 'LaunchDaemons' and use 'crontab', with 'Tiger'.

I have a UNIX script executed by 'cron' that deletes various cache, log, and virtual memory files or folders automatically (in addition to 'crontab' executing 'periodic daily', 'periodic monthly', and 'periodic weekly' - at times I assigned). Thus, I know for sure that the respective files or folders were truly removed.

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Since you performed an 'Archive and Install', look on the 'Desktop' for a 'Previous Systems' folder. If it is present (there or elsewhere), review its contents, move those items (files and / or folder) you want to their 'Tiger' equivalent folders, store them elsewhere, and / or delete them.

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'Will it [the 'Terminal' commands provided in an above reply] stop the logs from being written (if this is the case), if not, what else can be done?' - no. As per 'Activity Monitor' ('/Applications/Utilities/' folder) the 'crashreporterd' and 'syslogd' daemons are launched by 'root'. I never tried to prevent their initial launching (maybe something to try at a future date). If you force quit 'syslogd' 'root' will immediately re-launch it.
As for 'crashreporterd' - according to 'man crashreporterd' (entered into a 'Terminal' window), it appears moving (or deleting, though not recommneded) 'crashreporterd' from '/usr/libexec/' and (the folder) 'CrashReporter' from '/System/Library/StartupItems/' may work. Also, 'man crashreporterd' states 'Administrators can edit the crashreporterd entry in /etc/hostconfig to prevent crashreporterd from starting at boot time.'. I have not performed either action ... yet.
 
I ran the terminal commands last nite, it seemed to be taking a long time so I let it run overnight, this morning it was still not done (?) so I quit it. I ran MacJanitor, it cleared some of the files. Presently I do not have time before work to check further. I do not think the terminal command worked and that MacJanitor helped very much.
Since I had all my files on the external drive I did not do the 'archive' just an install of 10.3. I had thought I did a firmware update, let me check that this afternoon.
If I go into the files, Library/logs/folders/tmp, etc and run MacJanitor-later when I get home I will try it one more time.
The UNIX script, 'contrab', is that only for Tiger?
I will try these steps again/later today.

John Q
 
I can not explain why the single line of UNIX code ...

rm -rf /var/vm/ /Library/Logs/ $HOME/Library/logs/ $HOME/Library/Caches/Safari $HOME/Library/Caches/Software\ Update/

... did not execute and complete by the time you released the <return> key. I do test my code before posting it.

'The UNIX script, 'contrab', is that only for Tiger?' - no. 'crontab', by default, is used by 'Panther' and earlier MacOS X'es, for executing 'periodic daily', 'periodic monthly', and 'periodic weekly', and any user supplied UNIX, AppleScript, etc. commands. 'Tiger' (MacOS X 10.4.x) uses 'LaunchDaemons'.

I moved the 'com.apple.periodic-daily.plist', 'com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist', and ''com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist' 'LaunchDaemons' files, and entered 'periodic daily', 'periodic monthly', and 'periodic weekly' into 'crontab' - for 'cron' to execute, each morning. This is possible since 'cron' is executed ... via the 'LaunchDaemon' 'com.vix.cron.plist'.

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fryke - I did receive and viewed your private message.
 
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