I'm trying to upgrade from OS 8.6 to 9 on Sheepshaver, but I can't get any installers to run. No matter what installer I use I get the same message: "The system software on the startup disk only functions on the original media, not if copied to another drive." Every OS9 installer I try gives this message. I've tried acquiring a CD of it but no one appears to be selling at the moment. Any advice?

Hi,

There are some less then legal ways to acquire a suitable CD image for OS 9. Some torrent site spring to mind.
If you use a cd image, you need to set it to read only in the OSX finder, otherwise the Mac OS Installer thinks it doesn't run from a CD, which it tries to prevent.

Best,
Cat_7

OK so I tried making the installer read-only (I'm Windows 7 BTW not OSX) and it starts booting OK, but then it suddenly freezes and I get a message from Windows saying that Sheepshaver has "stopped working" and the program promptly closes. Have you heard of this happening before?

Are you using an OldWorld ROM or a NewWorld ROM?

I'm using the New World Rom with the latest version of Sheepshaver.

That's very odd. The installers that I've used in the past have worked fine for me. You could always revert to a previous version of SheepShaver to see if that works. Also, you may want to check if the installer is for a specific machine. I have found those ones to be rather finicky.

I've got a couple of installers, all of which I've been told are universal and not machine-specific. I tried them all with an older version of Sheepshaver and even with a different copy of the ROM file but I still get the same problem. It boots, then just as it's loading the standard programs during startup, (can't figure out which one causes it to crash but I see three icons on the bottom left) Sheepshaver just crashes and shuts down without any explanation or error report. I get the same problem with extensions off as well.

Try a different ROM image. If you google "Redundant Robot SheepShaver" (without quotes) you can find a guide that has some.

I don't mean try an OLD WORLD rom versus a NEW WORLD rom. Just try a different New World rom...

I agree with ClovkWise. That is the best ROM I've used to date. If that still doesn't work, you might try installing OS 8 on another image, booting off that, and then proceed to install OS 9 on your first image. This may or may not work, but it is what I had to do.

No difference sadly. I can run OS 8.6 fine, it's only when I try running 9 that I get problems.

Hi,

Have you tried disabling features in the GUI before installing? If you have Networking enabled, that might be a bottleneck. Perhaps also activate "ignore illegal memory access"

Best,
Cat_7

The installer will only work if it is on the original CD or if it is made to believe (forgive the anthropomorphism) that it is on the original CD. If you do not have the CD itself, the installer must be on a disk image that is an exact copy of the original CD, usually a .iso image, and the file must be locked to appear to the installer as a (read-only) CD. (Booting from a writeable disk image will change its content, so it may not be useable as installer disk after that.)

If you have an .iso image file of an original install CD, you can also burn that .iso to a CD. That CD should then be an exact copy of the original CD and can be used as such. Note that burning a .iso file to a CD is not the same as burning a .iso file onto a CD. See: http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

For upgrading from 8.6 to 9.0.4, you will need a full 9.0.4 installer or a full 9.0 installer and a 9.0 to 9.0.4 updater.

(The new world rom from the Redundant Robot site should be fine for both 8.6 and 9.0.4.)

Still no joy. Ignore illegal memory access was already ticked, but unticking it didn't fix the problem either.

Are you using an ISO of your own installation disk, or did you get it, maybe, from the Garden? The only other viable option I can see is getting another copy of the disk, or a new image altogether.

I've got about three or four different images from various places including one from Macintosh Garden but they all do the same thing, like it's something specific to that version of Mac OS. I don't have a disk of my own or any way of getting one right now since no one I know has one and I can't find anywhere that's selling them.

Going back to the question about illegal memory access, I had a play with that option and discovered that if it was set to ignore, sheepshaver would crash and display a Windows error message (Sheepshaver is not responding etc.) but if it was disabled, sheepshaver would just close when it reached that stage. Perhaps that's of some help?

I tried the 9.0.4 retail disk image from Macintosh Garden, "Mac OS 9 Retail.toast". I can see nothing wrong with it, works fine with SheepShaver MacOSX.

Are you sure you start up from that disk and not from your existing 8.6 Disk? Can you still start up from that 8.6 disk?

Hello,
I'm not sure if I understand the problem.
You do have an OS9 image and as Ronald pointed out, they usually do the job.
Can you mount your image, do you see it on the 8.6 Finder?
Did you try to create a seperate volume to install OS9 onto?
Boot 8.6, run the installer and select your new volume for it.

And does the image from redundant robot boot your system?
I am a bit puzzled why you shouldn't be able to install.

Best wishes!

Yes 8.6 still boots and it can see both the 9.0.4 image and the new volume.

9.0.4 installs absolutely fine onto the new volume but when I try and boot from it, I get the same problem. The problem I get is not installing 9.0.4, it's that when I try and boot the installer, or boot the freshly installed volume, it just crashes and shuts down. It's like it's something specific with OS9 that my computer or Sheepshaver doesn't like.

Hi,

Perhaps the problem is SheepShaver related, and not Mac OS.
What version of SheepShaver are you running? The one from our forum page here? http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5325

Can you past the contents of your sheepshaver_prefs file in your reply?

Best,
Cat_7

Ah nice one. I noticed half of the people in that thread were having the same problem as me. They suggested I increase the memory size, which I did and now the system boots but freezes shortly afterwards, usually when I'm running an installation or setup wizard. That's the version of Sheepshaver I'm running as well.

Here's the prefs file you asked for.

Is this freeze related to the Configuration Assistant? From the setup manual:

"When you launch SheepShaver, the emulated machine will boot from the installed system. The Configuration Assistant will guide you through the configuration of the new system. However, in SheepShaver the Configuration Assistant will usually lock-up while configuring network settings. Better quit the Assistant when it arrives at the network settings and do the remaining configuration manually in the various control panels."

Bingo. Thanks for that! It also froze while I was trying to install Acrobat Reader, though that might be some other problem. I'll try running it again and get back to you