8600/G3 and OS X 10.3

February 15, 2005

I don't know when I will have time for this project, but I want to install OS X 10.3 on my old PowerMac 8600 with the Sonnet G3/266 upgrade and use it for a file server. I live in a multi-platform household, and a little SAMBA sharing could make life easier.

I already upgraded the 8600 to 9.22 with OS 9 Helper. And I "installed" X Post Facto 3.0. This 8600 has a USB/Firewire card and a few other trinkets.

Before I start, I will need to boot back to OS 9 (hold down option at startup, select that hard drive; one reason why I put 9 is on its own 4 Gig SCSI hard drive while X gets its own 36 Gig SCSI hard drive), and reformat the 36 Gigger with Apple Drive Setup. It wouldn't recognize it for the initial formatting, but X Post Facto isn't happy with anything else that I have (I'm fairly sure that my HDT is too old to count, but I did use it for the initial format).

Then it should be as simple as inserting the installer CD, launching X Post Facto, and letting it go to town.

March 29, 2005

UPDATE 1: Of course it's not that easy! I can't format the 36 Gig SCSI drive with Apple's software (I did dig up an old copy of APS PowerTools that had no problem), but in order to be compatible with XPostFacto, I have to format with Apple's software (not possible) or with Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools. This project isn't worth that much $ to me, so I'm pondering alternatives.

May 4, 2005

UPDATE 2: I dug out an old 4 Gig SCSI drive, formatted it, installed OS X. Once I booted into X, I noticed that the 8600 could format the 36 Gig drive ... did that, installed X on it, and swapped the 36 Gig for the 4 Gig drive. Other than spinning my wheels trying to decide if I were going to continue on this path, I think I got the 36 Gig up and running in the shortest way possible: by bootstrapping with the 4 Gig drive. I don't know why I couldn't format 36G with OS 9.2.2 on the 8600, or much of anything (mounting was problematic!) on my dual G4 MDD. But it works now, the install was smooth as silk, and I'm burning CDs with my favorite applications so I can install goodies! File server, here I come! I look forward to Samba file-sharing bliss at home.

November 18, 2005

UPDATE 3: I have spousal permission to use a Mac mini for our home file server instead, because it'll use less power.