Well, I'm new to the Mac world, and was given a G4 for free. However, it is running OS 9.0 (which I've upgraded to 9.1), and I'm trying to upgrade it to Tiger. My G4 is the 500mhz dual core, 512mb RAM, with a 40GB hard drive.

I have the four install CD's, and have tried to install OS X already. However, when I run the installer, and click on the Install/Restart button on the Tiger installer, I get an error. It says something to the effect of 'cannot select CD as boot disk.' Also, I've tried to restart the computer holding option down, and it lets you pick the boot disk, but the CD isn't an option. I've searched the internet a for a while, and coulnd't find much, so any help would be appreciated.

I have seen that issue if the disc had become scratched, peventing Installer from seeing the bootsector on the CD/DVD.

Is that disc scratched?

No, it's almost perfect. I know another forum recommended that I upgrde the firmware and then try it again.

That is always a possibility... Some older Macs did need updates to OpenFirmware in order to be able to boot to HFS+ partitions, so if it never had OS X, then it definitely is a possibility that it would need a firmware update.

Although, I thought that all the OS X installation discs came with those firmware updates on them for the older Macs.

Are the discs legit (be honest). If they arent, they were probably written improperly using toast or nero. If they are, then make sure they arent some old machine-specific discs.

Did you try holding C while rebooting?

Well, I've somehow gone backwards. I fooled around with it a little, and now I can't even boot OS9. I get a ?/Smiley face when I try to boot, and there are no startup discs when I hold the option key down, just the two buttons (forward and reload). I tried holding "c", but it won't do anything. I've reset the PRAM, and tried to start in single user mode to check the HD, but I can't even get into that (tried holding cmd s). I can get into open firmware, and I did reset-nvram and reset-all, but it still will not load. Any thoughts?

are the disks legit if not buy legit ones also does it read dvds?

Yeah, they are legit, but I didn't buy them. I got them from one of my friends who did buy them, but they are the OS X install disks, and not restore disks. What's bothering me is that I can't even get into OS9 any more. The HD isn't even registering when I hold option on startup. Could my OS9 files have gotten corrupted somehow (I don't know how, as all I really did was try different boot up modes). I don't see it as a good thing when I can't even get into SUM....

**EDIT** Yes, my G4 does have a DVD-RAM drive **EDIT**