Upgrading WebServer to OS 10.2 HELP!
 

Hey, I am upgrading our team's webserver to OS X.2 and everytime I go to install it it freezes while Its trying to copy the files.

HELP!

Are you booting it from the CD?

I don't think that Installation from the finder is a good idea

Yeah Its from the CD... it wont let you install from the finder

Try a clean install, there might be something interfering with the installation process.

Tried that... still nothing. It freezes when its copy the first couple files.

The CD is pristine and the Mac meets the system requirements. I have never had this much trouble with a mac before.

Try to re-build the desktop and zap the PRAM.
If that doesn't do than you might have trash the System Folder. Check your Disk Utility to make sure your hard drive isn't fragmented. Make sure that the hard drive is formated HFS+ and not UFS

I have never heard of installation that went this bad before, you might have a defective CD. And no advice on what to do.

I had a similar-sounding problem installing 10.2.3 on a beige G3. It would get about half-way through installation and the screen would go off and the computer hung.

I eventually tracked it down to the Epson printer drivers it was trying to install! No idea why they caused the install crash, but doing a custom install without them worked. I then updated to 10.2.4 which installed okay - it put in later rev. drivers.

What machine are you installing on? Did you reformat the HD, run Disk Utility, etc.?

Beige G3, I went and I told it not to install any drivers... this is right at the beginning of copying files. It says its looking at the packages and than the whole thing freezes over.

I have re-formated the Drive 2 or 3 times in both Unix and Mac format.

I have never had such a problem with my mac before.

I know the CD is ok, I have used it before.

Keep the advice coming

Even though the CD worked in one computer, doesn't necessarily mean it will work in yours. I've found that making a copy of the CD is sometimes enough to "smooth out" any imperfections in the CD.

Also, it is possible that there is something wrong with one of the blocks on your HD. I'd recomend using Apple's Disk Utility and choosing whatever kind of "surface scan" they offer--sorry, my memory of Macs is getting a little foggy so I don't remember the exact options.

--Rob

I used to have OS X on this machine.... but I took it off becuse I didnt have enough RAM. Now I do. I have toatly re-formated the Drive.

Just a Update: On the latest try I got a general error and it said re-start my machine. This is better than it freezing

Have you removed any non-original PCI cards you might have?

Have you tried doing the most basic system install (no drivers, no internet, etc.)? I forget what all the options are, but you want to do a minimum install.

Unless I'm mistaken, if it's crashing while checking packages it is before it actually starts installing files on your disk, though.

It probably isn't your problem but I know OS X is supposed to be very finicky about memory timing. I didn't have any RAM problems with my G3 with a variety of sticks (128 & 2x256 MB, all PC 100 CL2). There used to be some RAM test utilities on the web which came out when OS X first appeared. A lot of people had to get new RAM back then because cheap chips would fail Apple's test. You might check on xlr8yourmac.com and macnn.com forums.

BTW since the install my G3's been rock-solid with no crashes for at least a couple of months.

Hmmm I just installed New RAM today... It worked perfectly with OS9. Although for some reason I think it would tell me... not just hang there.

I have tried installing it with the Min. stuff. Still didnt work

I'd pull the new RAM and try it then. 'Fraid I'm out of ideas beyond that and I'm heading to bed. Good luck!

It seems to be the new RAM. I gotta figure out this upgrading the 2 sticks at the same time thing. It seems they need to be the same.

What I dont understand is that they are actauly made differently.They placement of the notches are different.

I bought this 128 stick http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Apple%2BiMac&mfr=A pple&cat=RAM&model=iMac+%28G3-233%2C+266%2C+or+333%29&submit=Go. Does anyone see where I can get the other stick with the different Notch?


I'm going to bed

Glad you found the problem, Matt. The memory you linked to is listed as 144-pin SODIMM for the iMac. The beige G3 takes 168-pin DIMM.

I usually buy my memory from either OWC or TransIntl , but Crucial has a very good reputation and I would buy from them, too.

The beige G3s came with PC66 memory, but I'm using PC100 and PC133 in mine. Make sure you get 2-2-2 or CL2 speed code. And in case you hadn't heard, it will take up to three 256 MB sticks, but not the 512 MB ones.

ok found the problem. Its the fact that I need to update the Firmware so OS X can use the RAM (went to the mac store, they filled me in). I CANT FIND THE FIRMWARE.

I tried installing it in 9 and it said it already had it. So I need it for X.

HELP!

Did the store give you any more specific info on what firmware updater you needed? I know there was an updater for iMacs, but I don't remember having to update my G3...

A quick search at Apple's knowledgebase gave this info:
86117 which lists a firmware update for beige G3s with a SCSI card. Is yours a SCSI HD or ATA? If it is SCSI, then that looks like it might be your fix. It does say you have to boot from OS 9.x on the HD to apply the update - you can't boot from the CD.

I don't know...Beige G3's technically fit the system reqs, but I've read some iffy reports about how compatible they really are. I'm running my server on a Blue and White G3 with 384 megabytes of RAM. It's a 350 mhz, but we overclocked it to 400 and it's still fine.

I will warn you on one thing: be very, very careful with OSX. I've had tons of trouble with it. It pains me to say it, but don't ever download any new software from Apple when it first comes out. Always wait for user reports. iMovie 3.0.2 and iTunes 4 have tons of bugs. You're going to need to tread carefully....

I don't know what problems you're having now. My guess is that Apple exagerrated the compatibility between Jaguar and Beige G3's.

For expert mac help, check out these sites:

www.macfora.com
www.4osx.com

They've helped me a lot.

--Petey

Sorry, I must have totaly read what he said wrong. Its not A Beige G3 its a 333mhz Imac

Well, that would explain the firmware update and the iMac memory in your earlier post...

You can download the iMac firmware update from Apple downloads

Does the 333 MHz iMac use a CD tray or is it slot loading? The update on Apple is for slot loading. Don't know about earlier iMacs.

As far as stability goes, I've had no problems with OS X.2.4 on a beige G3 (other than getting it installed), a 400 MHz iMac and my TiBook. I can't remember the last time any of these machines crashed. Seriously, like more than two months without a crash on any of them. The only things that have any problems are IE and Word (which will crash if it doesn't have the necessary fonts installed). Neither of them take the system down though.

When I try to install the Firmware tells me that it doesnt know the firmware that is already on my machine. I have a trayloading machine.

the server is actualy up now.... but the GUI is running slow.

server

Make sure you're loading the correct firmware for your iMac. It sounds like you're using firmware for the later slot-loading iMac.

I wouldn't expect great GUI performance on a 333 - OS X is very graphic intensive and the G3 iMacs are pretty limited in that area.

Also, after any software install or update, make sure you run the Disk Utility and repair permissions. That is one thing that seems to help stability (thought not speed, unfortunately).

An iMac? Weird...it should have worked fine, as my 400mhz iMac upgraded without a hitch...

--Petey

I'm not surprised. My 400MHz machine was pretty sluggish.

How much RAM do you have?

Is this a machine that you plan to use everyday? Because if you have OSX multitasking you're going to notice a drastic decrease in server capability.

Open up "Terminal" and type in "top". You'll see the most recent thirty processes that you are running or have ran.

You'll want to keep a close count on the number of processes. I've noticed that once I get up to 10,000, my machine is slow as mud when I try to SSH or FTP in.

Personally, I restart my server once every couple of months or when I start to notice it's getting sluggish, and I try to restrict it's use to just serving.

Also, you might want to play around with Energy Saver and make it so your monitor goes to sleep even if your computer is always awake. It can't hurt, and might help save your monitor. My old iMac blew it's graphics chip early this year, after running fine in Classic for a good year and a half and OSX for about two months. I don't know if it was related to the increased graphics toll in OSX, and I doubt that OSX was the definitive cause...but it can't hurt to just keep your monitor off when it's not needed.

The good news is tha OSX comes preconfigured with perl and php--all you have to do is enable the mods in apache. mySQL can be a $@#$@#$@#$@#$@# to set up, but it's doable. I might be able to help you with that, although I'll be honest: my experience with getting mySQL to work usually involved random typing on the keyboard and fervent prayer.

Oh yeah...that link isn't working.

--Petey

try to run os x 10.2 on a 333 g3 and you're gonna BURN ;) I wouldn't bother running it anything earlier than a 500 mhz (my sister's 333 tray-loading iMac ran sluggish with 10.1)

also, crucial is one of the BEST places you can buy ram. OWC uses crappy tier 3 ram. wouldn't trust their ram with my data.

your best bet would to be to reformat and just install the base darwin. (or yellow dog linux)

OS 10.2.4 is running fine on a 400MHz iMac and a 466MHz beige G3 at my house. None of the users are complaining, which is a nice change from the crash-prone OS 9.x days. OS 10.1 was reputed to be a dog, but I wouldn't expect a 333MHz machine to work well with 10.2 either.

I have been running OS X 10.2 on a 400 mhz blue and white G3 for 6 months, and it's been great. Hasn't crashed once.

On the odd occasion, I get the spinning beach ball cursor in Internet Explorer for longer than I like, so I go and check my email, and when I come back, it's finished spinning.

Sure, I would love to have one of the latest greatest Macs, but this is working fine for me.

My Xp has been crashing like a mo...... :(

That's what you get for using Winblows.


--Petey

OS's these days seem very odd.

Personaly, I've been running xp on my laptop for about a month now with no XP related crashes or freeze ups. A few of my programs die every now and then, but thats probably related to their inate buggyness.

Most people I know love OS X. Others seem to be having a hell of a time with it, and none of us can figure out why. Same with XP. I suppose some configurations just don't play nice with any OS.

-Andy A.

I'm using and indigo 350mhz iMac running 10.2.6- it works fine!

I'm pleased to stand corrected! Nice thing about Macs - they stay usable for a long time.

Now I wonder if I could get my IIci (with proccessor upgrade) to run anything past 7.5.3... that would be a feat...

before we got an airport extreme base station, I had a Performa 6400 running OS8.6 24/7 for months on end (until rolling blackouts hit, anyway) as our router

ah, the good ol days :D

If there is still a problem with the upgrade to OS X, here is a link to a "Tidbits" article on upgrading the firmware on iMacs before installing Jaguar (OS X 10.2). The article contains a link to the correct Apple downloads.

Edit:
Sorry, I forgot the link. (It was late.) Here it is:
"Tidbits" article