OS 10.3.9 hangs on Startup Window

Question

Hi,
I have a G3 that I rarely connect to the internet, it's mainly used to do compatibility testing on webapps. Today, I was trying to update it through Software Update, so I can get the latest java version for the OS but the network went down after I got only one of the updates.
After I restarted it, the problem appeared.
From the Crash logs I can see that LoginWindow crashed, because there's a trace there.
I already deleted all the cache files, chmod'ed 1775 /, well, everything that I could found.
The problem here is that I don't have the OSX 10.3 disks, they were lost somehow.
Can someone help me?
Thanks

Answer 1

When you say you cleared caches is this what you did:
You will need to type some Unix commands. If you are not comfortable with this, I don't know of anything other than a re-install. But if you are careful, you should be OK. I recommend you print this out in a largish mono-spaced font so you don't miss any spaces (or add extra ones). Note that case is important.
Be careful. Some of these commands are dangerous, since you are going to be root.
Start up in Single-User mode by restarting the computer. After the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until you see white text on a black background. When this has finished you will see a prompt ending in '#', although there may be other messages. Enter the following commands after the prompt:
/sbin/fsck -fy
Press RETURN. Wait a few seconds for 8-10 lines of output. If the last line says repairs were carried out, repeat this command until you get a message 'The volume <yourdiskname> appears to be OK'. Then continue with:
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Library/Preferences
rm loginwindow.plist
rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
rm com.apple.windowserver.plist
cd /Library/Caches
rm -r *
cd /System/Library
rm Extensions.kextcache
cd /System/Library/Caches
rm -r *
reboot
Press RETURN after each command.
This should now take you to a proper login screen after the normal boot sequence. You should then Repair Permissions by using Disk Utility (in your /Applications/Utilities folder).