Comments on: Getting Classic to work on OSX without OS9 installed

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:50:24 +0000

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been here. The format changed, I think I left that comment a few years ago actually…

Anyway, I’m very glad that comment was able to help someone. I know I was getting frustrated when I was trying to figure it out. I’m still using classic btw, haven’t gotten 100% of the apps switched over yet.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:57:34 +0000

Joel, thanks a billion for this comment. I would have sent you a mail if you’d included your address.

The software restore feature on my iMac is broken after I installed 10.4. It keeps telling me to insert the restore disc even though I have already inserted it and refuses to proceed. Just the kind of lame backwards compatibility support I have come to expect from Apple.

So, there is no way to use that to install classic.

But this comment allowed me to extract the image, install it, and get classic working.

Thanks again!!

By: joel

joel — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:56:28 +0000

Some new macs have also been shipping without the additional DVD required to install Classic. Apple has really been trying to kill Classic I think. This is a pain since you need to have the exact disc to install on your hardware. I tried borrowing this DVD from an older G5 and from a Powerbook G4 and neither worked on a newer Powermac G5.

BUT,,, if you use the terminal and browse to where the DVD is mounted (‘/Volumes/Software\ Restore/’ I think…) and do an ls -Fa, you will see a directory named ‘.images’. Inside that directory is a bunch of disk images. Type ‘cd .images’ and then type ‘cp os9general.dmg ~’ to copy the Classic software back to your home directory.

Now, you can open this disc image and copy the contents to your system drive. This is the same result as if you went through the installer. Works great, actually easier and faster than going through the install process.