This is a problem that just has me stumped! I have just bought a G4 dual 450. It came with a Jaguar 10.2.4 disk set as the only OS. I still must use OS9 to run some of my high end audio software so I want to boot the machine in OS9. In order to install OS 9, I ended up jumping through all kinds of hoops. Even with a factory OS9.2.1 disk, the machine would not boot off the disk. I basically installed it on another drive within a G3 and then moved the drive into the G4. Then I had a classic environment available to retry a install of 9.X. Now the machine has 9.2.2 on it. But no matter what I do, it will not startup in OS 9. I have even tried to network a startup from the 9.2.2 on the G3. No luck. My Boot ROM (from the profiler) says 4.2.8f1. I thought that perhaps it was the boot ROM but I see no indication on the Apple site that this is an outdated boot ROM. Perhaps it is a version that doesn't support OS9 boot? In anycase, the machine runs OS9.2.2 in the classic environment, but it will not boot OS9.x from the CDROM, the installed OS9 folder, or via an ethernet connection....HELP!!!

Unfortunately new Macs won't boot into Classic. This has been the case since early 2003. From the above doc: "In 2002-09, Apple announced that starting in 2003-01 new Macintosh computers would only start up into Mac OS X, while retaining the ability to use most Mac OS 9 applications in Mac OS X's "Classic" environment."

Well then riddle me this....... I have the same problem as rwb2 when i installed Jaguar and now that i have gone to Panther and im running a iMac DV SE 1999/ 2000 circa...... and it came with os 9 and its had all the updates to 9.2 whatever.... but still no boot from os 9 just can use in classic...... Ideas?????????

Me too. I've got an old Beige G3 (upgraded: G4/500, 640MB RAM, ATI-7000, USB, Firewire, 30GB Internal + 100GB FW External)... used to be able to boot into 9.2.2 on a 23GB partition whenever I needed to. A couple weeks back, I repartitioned my drives, did a clean install, then replaced most of my old stuff from disk images... now, I cannot boot into OS 9. I choose my startup disk, restart, the machine "bonnnngggs", the monitor flashes a grey screen with a happy-mac, then two seconds later it "boonnnngggs" again and starts up in OS X (10.2.6). Generally, this is followed by some swearing. I want to install a firmware update for my OWC Mercury Oxford-911 Firewire harddrive, but the installer only runs on 9.x... and says it will cause serious damage if run in Classic. Any thoughts on THAT?