My ibook G3 trapped in darwin window, help!

Question

hi All,
my Ibook G3 was "trapped" in the "Darwin / console" window for 3 days and please kindly let me know how can i fix the problem and your advise are really appreciate, thanks & situations listed as below:
iBook G3, OS 10.3 (or higher with update)
day 1 : my OS9 is down so i start to use the OS10.3 platform and perform the rebuild the desktop for OS9, and also perform the disk repair from the install disk but all fail to use the OS9 platform. Then i install another new system(OS10.3) but i can't login (i don't know the login name & password)...
day 2/3 : so i use the install disk to reset the password but i think i do something wrong and more problems found - i was trapped in the "Darwin" window and i try the solution from this forum already (ie: start in Single mode, mount -uw /, chown root /, chmod 1775 /, exit), and i also use the intall disk to perform the "repair permission" command, but the black darwin screen still appears and says :
Darwin/BSD (mms-Computer.local.) (console)
login:
please let me know how can i fix the problem? and thank you so much!
bill

Answer 1

In that case you had best find a say to backup what you don't want to lose. And in the future you should maintain backups to prevent having this type of problem.
Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.