Attempting to install BeOS 3.1 from original CD on Power Mac 7600/132

[nullvalue]

So I still have my boxed copy of BeOS 3.1 from 1998 - back then I played with the Intel version that came with it. Now, 24 years later I finally have a PPC machine (7600/132) to install BeOS on. I performed a fresh install of Mac OS 9.1 from CD on it and the system is performing well. Machine has 320 MB of RAM, a USB card and an Ethernet card. Performed the Mac Tools install and started the BeOS Launcher. As the installation instructions state, at the Be logo screen I held down on the Left Shift key until the Boot selection screen comes up. Nothing shows up until I tell it to rescan devices. Then the BeOS CD shows up... I select the option, its says "booting from ...", but then nothing else happens - the whole system just hangs. Anyone have a thought on what could be happening?

 

[NJRoadfan]

Install an older version of Mac OS on the machine. I couldn't get BeOS R5 to start on a machine that had anything later than 8.6 installed. Apple broke the bootloader somehow.

 

[Franklinstein]

Apple broke the bootloader somehow.

Ha. Of course they did. Do you suppose that was intentional or a "happy accident" on their part?

But yeah I'd second the older MacOS thing. 1997/98 was System 7.6/OS 8.1 territory so BeOS is probably geared more toward working with those.

I tried to download a copy of BeOS (MacWorld Preview 1997) a while ago and while the boot loader and all that seemed to come up properly it just hangs after that. I suspect it's because I am unaware of how to properly burn the ISO it came with (it looks like it's multi-session/multi-partition or something, but this apparently was original to the CD it was copied from) because the ISO is about 550MB while the finished disk, which Disk Utility says "burned successfully," is only about 40MB.

 

[MacKilRoy]

Ha. Of course they did. Do you suppose that was intentional or a "happy accident" on their part?

But yeah I'd second the older MacOS thing. 1997/98 was System 7.6/OS 8.1 territory so BeOS is probably geared more toward working with those.

I tried to download a copy of BeOS (MacWorld Preview 1997) a while ago and while the boot loader and all that seemed to come up properly it just hangs after that. I suspect it's because I am unaware of how to properly burn the ISO it came with (it looks like it's multi-session/multi-partition or something, but this apparently was original to the CD it was copied from) because the ISO is about 550MB while the finished disk, which Disk Utility says "burned successfully," is only about 40MB.

You likely need to use something like Toast CD to burn that image properly.

 

[nullvalue]

Thanks!! Downgrading to 8.5 worked! Tried several times to install directly to 8.6 but none of the disks I made would make it through the installation process. 8.5 worked fine.

 

[cheesestraws]

Ha. Of course they did. Do you suppose that was intentional or a "happy accident" on their part?

Hanlon's razor probably applies here.

 

[Verault]

Does BE OS only run on power macintosh systems? What about 68K based machines? Just curious if there is a list of supported macintosh models as this would be a fun project.

 

[Phipli]

Does BE OS only run on power macintosh systems? What about 68K based machines? Just curious if there is a list of supported macintosh models as this would be a fun project.

Sadly it doesn't run on 68k machines. The original BeBoxes were PPC603 based, possibly some weird (not 68k) prototypes aside.

 

[Verault]

Hmm Thats too bad.