Trying to install Mac OS X Server 1.X on a G3 B&W

Hello y'all

I have this strange issue that I cannot install any version of Mac OS X Server (Rhapshody 5.6) on my Power Mac G3 Blue and White.

When I get into the second phase of the installation, where the Rhapsody installer starts, all I get is a message saying "Root device?" as shown here:




Typing BSD device names like hd0 or sd1 leads to nowhere.

My G3 is completely stock, running on a Rev. B motherboard and with a CF card as a hard drive (the issue persisted on a mechanical too).

Also I'm using a burned disc, I've tried -R and -RW with multiples drives with no success. I've been researching for this issue for years but never actually found someone with the same problem, let alone the solution.

Thanks.

Did you format the cf card with the tools on the installer disk? If not, that might be worth a try.
Here is something a quick search dug up, in case you did not find that as well. That person seems to know a few things about the startup procedure:

QuoteThe boot partition must be the first logical partition on the boot drive. It should be formatted as a "Mac OS Extended" partition (that's what Apple did when they shipped pre-installed systems).

If I remember correctly, we needed to do something about the Boot ROM. There should be a "Boot ROM Update" utility or something on the install disc. If you have formatted your boot drive with a disk utility that's newer than the OS itself, you may need to reformat using the disk utility on the install disc, then install the Boot ROM.

Quote from: capmilk on March 16, 2021, 02:41:05 PMDid you format the cf card with the tools on the installer disk? If not, that might be worth a try.
Here is something a quick search dug up, in case you did not find that as well. That person seems to know a few things about the startup procedure:

I've always used the Disk Utility tool provided by the Mac OS live CD and the Boot ROM Update doesn't even exist.

It's really strange my situation, for example, Mac OS X 10.0 DP1 and DP2 installs fine (except USB doesn't work on DP1 for some reason) and they're basically Rhapsody 10.0.

It looks to me like the IDE cable going to the CDROM drive is bad. I don't get this error on booting mine. sd0: bad DMA Transfer count (0) on Inquiry

Here's my Darwin 0.3 dmesg, it's essentially the same as any of the Rhapsody kernels:
Kernel Release 0.3:
Thu Aug  5 08:04:05 PDT 1999; root
Copyright (c) 1988-1995,1997-1999 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MACH microkernel is booting on a Power Macintosh Yosemite class machine
CPU Frequency: 398920000 Hz
BUS Frequency:  99730000 Hz
L2 Frequency:  199460000 Hz
mem_size = 256 M
hash table factor is 1
physical memory = 256.00 megabytes.
using 2029 buffers containing 7.67 megabytes of memory
available memory = 232.47 megabytes. vm_page_free_count = e879
minimum quantum is 10 ms
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

PPC bus support enabled
rom: couldn't get physical range.
Registering: en0   [ethernet]
en0: Ethernet address 00:50:e4:11:22:33
Registering: Cuda   [via-cuda]
Registering: ADBBus
Registering: PPCKeyboard0 at handlerID 24
Registering: PPCPointer0
Registering: Display0   [ATY,Rage128y, slot J12]
hc0: device detected at port 0xfe001090 irq 2
Ethernet(BMac): Link is up at 100Mb - Full Duplex
Registering: hc0   [pci-ata]
ATADisk probed with controller id 104e004
hd0: WL40GPA872           8 V5DOA46A
hd0: using DMA transfers.
IDE: block major 3, character major 15
Registering: hd0
hd0: Device Block Size: 512 bytes
hd0: Device Capacity:   38166 MB
hd0: Disk Label:        Disk
hc1: device detected at port 0x80820000 irq 21
hc1: ATAPI device 0 detected.
hc1: ATAPI device 1 detected.
Registering: hc1   [ata-3]
ATADisk probed with controller id 104e804
Registering: sc0
sd0: MATSHITA CD-ROM CR-589 GA0W
Registering: sd0 at Target 0 LUN 0 at sc0
sd0: Disk Not Ready
sd1: IOMEGA ZIP 100 12.A
Registering: sd1 at Target 1 LUN 0 at sc0
sd1: Disk Not Ready
Registering: USBCMD   [usb]
Registering: event0
Registering: kmDevice0
Root device for /pci/@d/pci-ata@1/ata-4@0/disk@0:8,\\mach_kernel found: hd0
root on hd0
rootdev 300, howto 40000


This makes sense. Every time I use a third party CD drive it acted strange, or even so eject the disk when starting from disc.

I'm get another cable and try again.

Quote from: evolver56k on March 18, 2021, 08:14:50 AMIt looks to me like the IDE cable going to the CDROM drive is bad. I don't get this error on booting mine.

Code Select Expand

sd0: bad DMA Transfer count (0) on Inquiry

Here's my Darwin 0.3 dmesg, it's essentially the same as any of the Rhapsody kernels:

Code Select Expand

Kernel Release 0.3:
Thu Aug  5 08:04:05 PDT 1999; root
Copyright (c) 1988-1995,1997-1999 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MACH microkernel is booting on a Power Macintosh Yosemite class machine
CPU Frequency: 398920000 Hz
BUS Frequency:  99730000 Hz
L2 Frequency:  199460000 Hz
mem_size = 256 M
hash table factor is 1
physical memory = 256.00 megabytes.
using 2029 buffers containing 7.67 megabytes of memory
available memory = 232.47 megabytes. vm_page_free_count = e879
minimum quantum is 10 ms
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

PPC bus support enabled
rom: couldn't get physical range.
Registering: en0   [ethernet]
en0: Ethernet address 00:50:e4:11:22:33
Registering: Cuda   [via-cuda]
Registering: ADBBus
Registering: PPCKeyboard0 at handlerID 24
Registering: PPCPointer0
Registering: Display0   [ATY,Rage128y, slot J12]
hc0: device detected at port 0xfe001090 irq 2
Ethernet(BMac): Link is up at 100Mb - Full Duplex
Registering: hc0   [pci-ata]
ATADisk probed with controller id 104e004
hd0: WL40GPA872           8 V5DOA46A
hd0: using DMA transfers.
IDE: block major 3, character major 15
Registering: hd0
hd0: Device Block Size: 512 bytes
hd0: Device Capacity:   38166 MB
hd0: Disk Label:        Disk
hc1: device detected at port 0x80820000 irq 21
hc1: ATAPI device 0 detected.
hc1: ATAPI device 1 detected.
Registering: hc1   [ata-3]
ATADisk probed with controller id 104e804
Registering: sc0
sd0: MATSHITA CD-ROM CR-589 GA0W
Registering: sd0 at Target 0 LUN 0 at sc0
sd0: Disk Not Ready
sd1: IOMEGA ZIP 100 12.A
Registering: sd1 at Target 1 LUN 0 at sc0
sd1: Disk Not Ready
Registering: USBCMD   [usb]
Registering: event0
Registering: kmDevice0
Root device for /pci/@d/pci-ata@1/ata-4@0/disk@0:8,\\mach_kernel found: hd0
root on hd0
rootdev 300, howto 40000


Tried with the new cable, same problem.

That's really odd. The only thing I can think of is the IDE controller is bad (really weird that it only manifests for a Rhapsody kernel). The IDE controller for the cdrom/zip disks is built into the Heathrow I/O controller, the CMD controller is separate and uses the IDE header labeled 'Ultra-ATA'.

One last test would be to use the cdrom as a slave on the same cable as the hdd, connected to the Ultra-ATA header. I've never tried that, but it might work.

Quote from: evolver56k on March 26, 2021, 10:23:35 AMThat's really odd. The only thing I can think of is the IDE controller is bad (really weird that it only manifests for a Rhapsody kernel). The IDE controller for the cdrom/zip disks is built into the Heathrow I/O controller, the CMD controller is separate and uses the IDE header labeled 'Ultra-ATA'.

One last test would be to use the cdrom as a slave on the same cable as the hdd, connected to the Ultra-ATA header. I've never tried that, but it might work.

Yeah I think my onboard IDE controller is busted for some reason, maybe I'll find some IDE PCI card and see if that works.

Along some threads I've found someone with a G4 cube with the same issue and he got a hard drive image of Mac OS X Server 1.0 installed. Sadly the image is too big to fit into my CF card. I'll see if I can create one QEMU or if someone had one where I can download.

Hi @yntzl did you find the issue?  I'm trying to do the same thing with a SD Card in a ZULU SCSI and getting that boot error also. root device?  Hoping I can get a few tips :)

Quote from: berskyboy on January 18, 2024, 10:59:10 PMHi @yntzl did you find the issue?  I'm trying to do the same thing with a SD Card in a ZULU SCSI and getting that boot error also. root device?  Hoping I can get a few tips :)

Hello @berskyboy

Unfortunately no. In the end I bought a Power Mac G4 and used it to install Rhapsody into the CF card and later moved into the G3, which booted up and completed the post install successfully.

Hi @yntzl ok sounds good.  I'm working with the install and getting to the Mac OS X server via the CD Ver 1.2 v3, and yah it's pretty picky installer. At least it sees the Zulu scsi disks.

I ended up putting the OS X Server Rhapsody CD on the SC card as CD60.hda and it finally loaded!!! yahoo.  BUT is very slow. I heard about the G3 patch but can't find it.  I also upped the RAM to be 128+256mb (helped a bit, I might buy some more 256mb)

 

I just installed OS X Server 1.0 on my B&W. I had to replace the CD-ROM drive.

The replacement drive I have is "LTN-5291S LITE-ON LTN-5291S46C Black 52X CD-ROM IDE Drive" from https://www.ebay.com/itm/285515801432

Now I have the system installed, I want to know how I can make the best use of it. Is there anyone porting modern Unix utilities to it? What apps should I get?