How do you boot from the disc at system start on Mac OS X Panther?
I am stuck because I tried to upgrade a G4 to Panther OS and there was an error. Now I cannot go back to the old OS and cannot login to the new one because I don’t have the password.
Is there a way to boot from the disc and install a different OS? Like Jaguar? How do I do this? In Windows it is so simple but Mac makes it to where you are a zombie user with NO control over your system. It’s terrible!
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On a Mac it is very simple.
Hold down the C key (C for CD rom) as your system boots.
It will then boot from what ever CD is in the drive. You should then be able to install the operating system of your choice (or erase the hard drive and start again if need be).
You have two questions, so I hope I get extra credit for two answers.
Q1) How do you boot from the disc at system start on Mac OS X Panther?
A1) When you say "disc", do you mean optical disc, such as CD or DVD? Here is the comparison of PC and Mac (doesn’t matter what operating system is on the Mac, could even be Vista):
* Windows (as in "PC")
1. Press delete repeatedly at startup to get into the BIOS setup screen.
2. Choose the advanced BIOS setup.
3. Arrow down to the 1st startup disk.
4. Press page up to change it to CD-ROM.
5. Press F10.
6. Press Y key.
7. As it restarts again, press any key when you see a message to do that.
* Mac:
1. Hold the option key at startup.
2. Choose the disc.
3. Press return.
Q2) Is there a way to boot from the disc and install a different OS?
A2) No, whether Mac or Windows. Well, an XP CD may offer slight flavor choices, such as "Pro", Server, or the basic. But you won’t get one disc from Microsft with both XP and Vista or both XP and 2000.
Q3) You didn’t ask this but I offer it as another one you could have asked. "What’s up with the error?"
A3) Probably a defective disc. Try to do an archive install and choose to customize, and then uncheck all the languages except your basic one (such as English), and uncheck all the printer drivers. If the error came at one of those installer packages, it will probably skip over that and install fine.
Q4) Another unasked one. "Can I reset the password?"
A4) Yes, in a manner of speaking. Restart holding command + S. You’ll finally end at a command prompt (# similar to DOS but with a hundred lines of UNIX stuff showing). For these commands, don’t type the " and be aware of space or no space between stuff. Type "/sbin/mount -uw /"
Press Return. (Nothing appears to happens, no problem. Also, you will see # again. That’s just the command cursor; ignore it.)
Type "rm /var/db/.applesetupdone" (The normal format of Mac OS doesn’t care about upper case.)
Press Return.
Type "reboot"
Press Return. (Now stuff appears to happen. You will finally get past the "Welcome" in a dozen languages and then you can create a new admin user. It should be a different short name from your old user. A few screens later, you come to the registration. Just choose "later". It doesn’t come back later to nag.
After you have completed the new user, open System Preferences > Accounts and delete the old user. It will put all old user’s data into a disk image and put that into a "Deleted Users" folder. If you don’t need that old user data, trash the disk image.
Insert disc, start up while holding down ‘C’ – easy.