Advice on system installation please

jimdadjimdad
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I work in education and we now have a few of the new imacs in our dept. however, we also have some older imacs (Rev B mostly). These came with system 8.5.

With our recent purchase of Dreamweaver for X I think we have reached the point where we will never again use 9.2 as all our regular apps are now OSX ones. I would now like to wipe 9.2 from the new imacs ( maybe apart from one ) and update a couple of the older ones with 9.2. I have a few questions.



First, would this be legal? This is obviously a biggie as I can't afford to make a mistake over this but nobody here seems to know.



Secondly, how do I uninstall 9.2 from the new ones?



Finally, is the CD with 9.2 on it that comes with the new imacs the complete works and will it be able to update 8.5 to 9.2 ?



Oops, extra question. I have 128 mgbs on one of the old ones and 96 on the other. Will they handle the new system?



Thanks .



[ 06-29-2002: Message edited by: jimdad ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    spiffsterspiffster Posts: 327member
    Although I'm not sure if its entirly leagle, you can do it. Those cds that come with OS X are the full version of 9.2 as far as i know. I'd do it if it was at home, but at a school, you better check.



    The 128 MB and the 96MB machines, these are the rev B's right? If they are they should be able to run 9.2. I dont see a problem with it. Hey, I used to run the original os 9 on a blueberry iBook with 32 MB of RAM. That was slow. Then I maxed the RAM it and it's fine. I'm typing on it now . If you can though, try to max the RAM on the rev B's. You can NEVER have enough RAM.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    first, i think it is legal (assuming the number of uninstalls of OS9 is equal to or greater than the number of upgrades to OS9). When you get an OS, the restrictions require that you only use it on 1 comp.



    second, to uninstall os9, goto the root directory of the hd ("/"). Locate the "System Folder". Destroy it. This'll get rid of OS9, but not classic programs. Those should reside in "Applications (Mac OS 9)". You may want to manually look through there incase any of those are carbon (and therefore osx capable). Also, there is a "Desktop Folder" which OS9 puts on the root. You may want to put its contents onto the users' desktop (though if they haven't noticed them missing now, they may not be important). Then delete that folder. I may be missing some other components, but thats definitely the bulk of it.



    thrid, i don't think your cds will work though. The cds that came with the older iMacs didn't work on different comps, and I think the same cd quirk persists.



    and about the RAM: 64MB is technically enough to install osX. And it is enough for OS9. I've run 9 on a b&wg3 and an iMac, each with 64. So 96 and more is more than enough.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    the all knowing 1the all knowing 1 Posts: 130member
    [quote]Originally posted by jimdad:

    <strong>I work in education and we now have a few of the new imacs in our dept. however, we also have some older imacs (Rev B mostly). These came with system 8.5.

    With our recent purchase of Dreamweaver for X I think we have reached the point where we will never again use 9.2 as all our regular apps are now OSX ones. I would now like to wipe 9.2 from the new imacs ( maybe apart from one ) and update a couple of the older ones with 9.2. I have a few questions.



    First, would this be legal? This is obviously a biggie as I can't afford to make a mistake over this but nobody here seems to know.



    Secondly, how do I uninstall 9.2 from the new ones?



    Finally, is the CD with 9.2 on it that comes with the new imacs the complete works and will it be able to update 8.5 to 9.2 ?



    Oops, extra question. I have 128 mgbs on one of the old ones and 96 on the other. Will they handle the new system?



    Thanks .



    [ 06-29-2002: Message edited by: jimdad ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Well I cannot vouch for legality completely, I've worked in education and it is a big issue--I'd go above a BBS to check on this one.



    As for removal of OS 9.2....if I am understanding this right you want to remove OS 9 from your OS X machines? If this is wrong, ignore the following, but here are the files you don't need for OS X and how to remove them.



    /Applications (Mac OS 9)/

    /Cleanup At Startup/

    /Desktop DB

    /Desktop DF

    /Desktop Folder/

    /Documents/

    /System Folder/

    /TheFindByContentFolder/

    /TheVolumeSettingsFolder/

    /Trash/



    I would pull all files you might need out of these (though in most cases this will be nothing). Then for each of the directories (all except Desktop DB and Desktop DF) type the following:



    sudo rm -rf &lt;directoryname&gt;/*

    sudo rmdir &lt;directoryname&gt;



    Replace &lt;directoryname&gt; with the name of the folder you want to remove completely...if you want you can just type a few characters of the name and hit tab to complete it, though for /Applications (Mac OS 9)/ and /System Folder/ you'll need to type "\\ " where the space is to differentiate them from their OS X counterparts. Example:



    user% sudo rm -rf Appl&lt;hit tab&gt;

    user% sudo rm -rf Applications\\ &lt;hit tab&gt;

    user% sudo rm -rf Applications\\ \\(Mac\\ OS\\ 9\\)/



    and the same for /System Folder/



    You'll need to have an Admin password to run sudo though, make sure you have that.



    Contact me (private message) if you need further info.



    --TAK1
  • Reply 4 of 12
    snofsnof Posts: 98member
    I would highly recommend that you use more than 96 or 128 MB of RAM for OSX. Otherwise it will be very sluggish. I would say that 128 is the absolute minimum anyone should use. I suggest 256 or more, but seeing as it's a school you probably have a fairly small budget for this kind of stuff. If you just wanted to run 9.2 you'd be fine with 96.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    jimdadjimdad Posts: 209member
    Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I think you're right, All Knowing - I need to be sure so i'll probably contact my Apple reseller for definitive advice. Snof, i'm actually putting 9.2 onto the older imacs, so that should be fine? Even if it is legal, though, I'm still not sure about whether the CDs which come with the new imac can be used to upgrade 8.5 to 9.2. There seems to be some doubt so far. any further thoughts?
  • Reply 6 of 12
    the all knowing 1the all knowing 1 Posts: 130member
    [quote]Originally posted by jimdad:

    <strong>Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I think you're right, All Knowing - I need to be sure so i'll probably contact my Apple reseller for definitive advice. Snof, i'm actually putting 9.2 onto the older imacs, so that should be fine? Even if it is legal, though, I'm still not sure about whether the CDs which come with the new imac can be used to upgrade 8.5 to 9.2. There seems to be some doubt so far. any further thoughts?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The CDs that come with the new iMac can be used for any machine, technically. I use the OS 9.2.2 and OS X 10.1.2 CDs that came with one of our LCD iMacs (newest versions we have on CD) to install 9 and X on nearly any other machine, be it iMac, Powermac, iBook, Powerbook, etc. Hell I've even use the 9.2.2 on an old 5400/200! Well... <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> maybe that wasn't the best idea ever (shoulda thrown it out) but it worked
  • Reply 7 of 12
    b.i.lb.i.l Posts: 30member
    I don't understand why people want to take OS 9 off of X systems... what happens when you unexpectedly need to run Adobe Streamline, or watch a RealPlayer stream? My System Folder is about 430MB; a small chunk of a FP iMac's 40GB drive. I'll have OS 9 on my system for a long time... it doesn't make sense to me to just chuck all that potential functionality.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    josephgjosephg Posts: 111member
    My understanding was that the 9.2 CDs that come with new machines are full versions.



    I installed 9.2.1 on my iMac DV 400 from the CD that came with my TiBook. Now I have problems. I don't know if the install was responsible, but it's a real pain now. See my thread ("iMac DV won't boot from CD):



    <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=001066#000004"; target="_blank">web page</a>



    But others seem to have installed 9.2 w/o trouble, so maybe I'm just cursed.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    [quote]Originally posted by josephg:

    <strong>My understanding was that the 9.2 CDs that come with new machines are full versions.



    I installed 9.2.1 on my iMac DV 400 from the CD that came with my TiBook. Now I have problems. I don't know if the install was responsible, but it's a real pain now. See my thread ("iMac DV won't boot from CD):



    <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=001066#000004"; target="_blank">web page</a>



    But others seem to have installed 9.2 w/o trouble, so maybe I'm just cursed.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Actually, the CD's are designed for that specific machine. Most newer CD's won't install on other machines. I used my PowerBook CD to try to update my G3, and it didn't work. I had to use System update to fill in the "holes" in the software.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    the all knowing 1the all knowing 1 Posts: 130member
    [quote]Originally posted by Ebby:

    <strong>



    Actually, the CD's are designed for that specific machine. Most newer CD's won't install on other machines. I used my PowerBook CD to try to update my G3, and it didn't work. I had to use System update to fill in the "holes" in the software.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I'm going to assume this was a fluke.



    Speaking as someone with much experience as a systems admin and who has installed *many* machines, I know they work, and just fine, as a full-install disc on just about any machine.



    I would recommend you not attempt to upgrade these machines, but rather find a way to backup important data, format the drive, and install 9.2 from scratch. it's much much cleaner.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    pastapasta Posts: 112member
    [quote]Originally posted by The All Knowing 1:

    <strong>



    I'm going to assume this was a fluke.



    they work, and just fine, as a full-install disc on just about any machine.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Well, just so you know, the system CDs that ship with the different Mac models have different software on them. You probably won't run into any problems using a Rev D iMac CD on a Rev B iMac, but you will run into problems when using a TiBook CD on an iMac. There's a huge difference in the hardware config of these machines, and these CDs don't have a complete package of all hardware configurations on them. For that you need to buy a retail version of OS 9.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    the all knowing 1the all knowing 1 Posts: 130member
    [quote]Originally posted by pasta:

    <strong>



    Well, just so you know, the system CDs that ship with the different Mac models have different software on them. You probably won't run into any problems using a Rev D iMac CD on a Rev B iMac, but you will run into problems when using a TiBook CD on an iMac. There's a huge difference in the hardware config of these machines, and these CDs don't have a complete package of all hardware configurations on them. For that you need to buy a retail version of OS 9.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I'll just reiterate: I realize that what you say is true--of anyone here I know that well. But What I'm also saying is that for the hundreds of machines I'm in the process of installing, I'm using an image create from LCD iMac CDs (9 and X) and it is going on iMacs, iBooks, TiBooks, PowerMacs, etc and we've tested them thoroughly with no side effects of any kind. So yeah....it works, and it works fine.



    So in theory they should not work, but in practical usage *I've* never had a problem with it.
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