IMac w/ CD-Burner only; how do I install 10.4.3?

Question

I have two iMacs; one with a DVD reader, and one with a CD-Burner only. The 10.4.3 software is on DVD. How in the heck I am supposed to install the OS on the iMac with the CD-Burner? If Apple tells me I have to purchase a DVD drive, I am going to be EXTREMELY IRRITATED.
Is there any way to use my other iMac to host a network install?
iMac 700Mhz G4 512MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3)
iMac 700Mhz G4 512MB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Answer 1

Sweet. I like your setup. Do you have an ethernet
cable (or a firewire cable) for networking?
as long as you've got the cable, here's what you do:
1. pop the DVD in the mac with a DVD drive, open disk
copy, and get it started making a READ/WRITE image of
the DVD
2. that'll take a while, so while it's going, get
BootCD from http://www.charlessoft.com/ and make a
boot CD that works for your mac without a dVD drive.
make sure to include these programs:
nstaller
Terminal
Disk Utility
Console
3. burn your Boot disk
4. if you want to do a clean install, back up, and
erase your disk on the destination mac (the one
without the DVD drive). otherwise, just continue.
5. boot the destination mac from the cd you jsut
made.
6. if you have ethernet cable, connect the two macs
with ethernet cable (patch or crossover, doesn't
matter) and open the disk image on the DVD mac If
not, boot the DVD mac in target mode connected to the
destination mac
7. on the destination mac, connect to the DVD mac if
you haven't already. if using ethernet, you need
only mount the install disk image you made earlier.
if using Target mode, just mount the disk image
now.
. navigate to /System/Installation/Packages/ on the
install mount. open OSInstall.mpkg
9. follow the instructions. if you're lucky,
everything will go smoothly, and you are on your way.
if you're not lucky, stuff will be wierd. if it
worked out, go ahead and clean up... delete the disk
image and stuff, reinstall apps, user data,
whatever. IF NOt, continue on.
0. if it doesn't work, that means one of the
packages is being troublesome. I've had trouble with
X11User and BaseSystem. X11 user can be installed
later, so we won't worry about it, but BaseSystem is
a bit of a trick. See, the problem generally is that
it's preflight script is looking for files that
aren't there. So you'll need to navigate to
/System/Installation/Packages/BaseSystem.pkg/... and
find the preflight script, and edit it. pretty much
you'll need two lines left. the first line of the
file can stay. then go through and find a line that
says something about 'exit' and 0. (meaning exit and
return a success). Delete every line in the file
except this exit line and that first line up at the
very top. Save, and try installing again. If
something still doesn't work, check the console to
see what it says, and keep playing.
11. Once you get it working, Clean up, and you're
done
I've used this method to install 10.4 on my
iMac(350MHz CD-ROM) several times (twice actually),
and almost managed to make it work on my mom's beige
G3, except that her CD drive won't spin up, so I
would have had to boot of a ZIP disk. Have you ever
tried to fit an OS X boot system into 100MB?? it's
next to impossible.
However, that doesn't mean I'm responsible for
anything you do to your mac. Really you should back
up before you get started, regardless of whether you
want to do a clean install or not, but that's just me.
Thank you very much for your instructions but I have just one iMac.
Any other ideas?
Thankx