PowerMac G4 MDD - Can't Install OS 9
Computer posts with happy Mac, then the expected folder with a question mark. I have a newer Apple keyboard (the last USB-A one), but the eject key doesn't work. So, I jammed a paperclip in the Combo Drive's eject slot, and pulled the drive out, plopped in my original OS 9 disc (yes, a real one), and kept getting the flashing folder. Even when rebooting holding down C.
Hooked up a USB cd/dvd burner, put the disc in that, held down C, nothing. Hooked up a 2007 MacBook via firewire, put the OS 9 CD in the laptop, and started the MacBook in Target Disc Mode, restarted MDD G4 and disc didn't load, again.
I booted into open firmware, which confirms the MDD USB is working, and I could type.
Any guesses besides the OS 9 disc having degraded? And if so, I believe I have seen folks mention where Apple is hosting classic OSes, or perhaps the Mac Garden has them. Should I just burn one of those, or does anyone use a USB/FireWire boot solution? If I recall the MDD G4 is only USB1, so I would prefer use a few of my old LaCie FireWire external drives, which I can load an ISO/HFS image on from my MacBook, but I haven't tried installing classic MacOS from 10.7 and assume Disc Image and the classic installer on the OS 9 disc won't work together, and I don't have another "bridging" computer that could boot OS 9 or 10.1 or 10.2.
Any guesses or pointers would be appreciated, I haven't noodled with a PowerPC Mac since 2007. Haven't mucked about OS 8 or 9 since … 2002 or 2003. Used it for years, but clearly lost a lot of muscle memory here.