PBG3 Wallstreet- switching OS?

Something is baffling me – I have a little problem with my PowerBook G3 Wallstreet with Sonnet G3 500mhz, If I pick an OS to startup with ie. I’m in Mac OS 8.1 and I would like to switch it to Mac OS 8.6, then the OS is selected and go to restart, it will restart back to Mac OS 8.1 and even tho Mac OS 8.6 is selected, did those Macs able to switch OS – I believe it has Old World Rom and one of the last series with old world ROM, I know PowerBook G3 PDQ you could switch OS easily that the Option key at the startup does not work on Wallstreet.

Would it be that case that it wouldn’t switch OS due flat PRAM battery?

What did we do back in those days to switch OS? or it that what it is that they are not compatible to change OS? Unless I'm missing something?
Cheers
AP

Answer; it cant be more than 8gb - that was my issue.
Cheers
AP

I believe the technical limitation is that the OS files (presumably just the System and Finder?) need to exist within the first 8GB of the drive, regardless of the partition size, with the exception of OSX, where the whole OS partition also needs to be within the first 8GB. Although I suppose that could be Apple making sure of the first requirement?

aladds said:

I believe the technical limitation is that the OS files (presumably just the System and Finder?) need to exist within the first 8GB of the drive, regardless of the partition size, with the exception of OSX, where the whole OS partition also needs to be within the first 8GB. Although I suppose that could be Apple making sure of the first requirement?

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I’m not fully convinced about the limitation on Old World Macs under classic OS - my Beige G3 can boot off a partition that’s completely past the 8GB mark.

croissantking said:

I’m not fully convinced about the limitation on Old World Macs under classic OS - my Beige G3 can boot off a partition that’s completely past the 8GB mark.

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I think the way it works is that if certain system files manage to make it outside of the first 8GB of the partition, things get messed up. So it will work for a while, but eventually can/will break.

I wonder which files and if something like Speed Disk would put them in the wrong or right place...

Funny thing is I just realized that I have a 40GB drive in my PDQ with a single partition. Has been that way for a few years. Guess I've been lucky?

3lectr1cPPC said:

I think the way it works is that if certain system files manage to make it outside of the first 8GB of the partition, things get messed up. So it will work for a while, but eventually can/will break.

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I honestly think it’s a misconception for Old World in OS9, based on the testing I mentioned.

I’m open to any evidence to the contrary, though.

I imagine since the OS is the first thing you install it's probably quite unlikely to be an issue unless you almost filled the drive and then did an OS update, or something like that

croissantking said:

I honestly think it’s a misconception for old World in OS9, based on the testing I mentioned.

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In fact, you have to be right here. I remember doing a 8gb/32gb partition split on a Rev.A Beige G3 and had 8.6 on the 32GB partition for decades with no issues at all. (10.2.8 & 9.2.2 on the 8gb partition)

The limitation is with Open Firmware and applies to reading system files beyond the first 8GB of a drive (rather than partition). But my theory is that OW Macs booting OS 9.x and below use ATA drivers from the Toolbox which don’t have this limitation.

New World doesn’t work since it can’t access a Mac OS ROM file that’s past the first 8GB of a drive.

3lectr1cPPC said:

Funny thing is I just realized that I have a 40GB drive in my PDQ with a single partition. Has been that way for a few years. Guess I've been lucky?

Click to expand...

Originally I had 25gb partition which was pulled from PDQ which it was able to dual or quad boot, it didn't work too well in Wallstreet which got me stumped hence asking that question above.

So what I did - I rebuilt fresh m.2 inside it and went from there.
Cheers
AP