I just got a nice old iMac g3 (this one to be specific: http://apple-history.com/imacslot ) with OS 9 on it.
Back in the days I always had only one computer at a time, so I never did networking on the classic OS.
Now I wonder how the NetBoot would work, and is it still supported in Lion and later?
It would be nice to have some disc images with different Mac OS versions and let the iMac boot from those.
So, how would I set up a Server for that?
i just did that for os9 i can send you a image ready to drag and drop on a server but i dont know about lion. up to 10.5 server there is a os9 netboot function but i believe they dropped that.
I think the images are the smaller problem.
I just don't know where to get the netboot Server. The old Mac OS X Server versions were quite expensive so I never bothered about them, now with Lion and Mountain Lion it's quite cheap but I don't want to buy it if they removed the NetBoot Server from it. Best would be if there is some free (openSource) software that does it.
deploy studio is the name i believe lion compatibel is what the manual said. my image is just the extracted version of the netboot image available from apple or the installed version. i had to actually install it to get it to work right. i can help with the setup. see if you find a service called netboot in lion. by the way you need afp to work with os9
Is this what you meant? http://deploystudio.com/
I really have no clue on what to do with it. It created the NetBoot Folders in /Library but I just don't know how I can choose to load the Mac OS 9 image I have downloaded from the Apple Site.
you need to install this image .. the reason why i offered you the installed version is because i needed to install server 10.4 to make it happend and then transfer the installation to my 10.5 machine. that netboot image wont install under 10.5. deploy studio is to make boot or netinstall images from retail cd's for example or harddrives.
Oh, I think I understand now.
Then of course it would be very nice to get an installed image. 
if you have a ftp server mail me the information i need and i upload the files the way i have it on my machine and you just match it with your setup. after that all you need to do is start the netboot server.
Thanks for the files!
In the Server App I see the MacOS92Default image. When I try to change settings like "Make available over" and click save I get this error message: "The error occurred while processing a command of type 'writeSettings' in plug-in 'servermgr_netboot'."
I have set user permissions, so that shouldn't be the problem...
Any ideas?
fix permissions via disk utility
I did, but it had nothing to repair.
let me have a screenshot and the logfile pls. besides that are you using wifi ? dns config dhcp config ? for os9 you will need afp configured. i found that error when i used wifi instead of ethernet.
I don't use Wifi everything is connected via cables.
DHCP is running on the router
DNS didn't do anything to it?
Screenshots:
The Error Message: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80502/Netboot/Error.png
AFP Sharing SP0: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80502/Netboot/AFP1.png
AFP Sharing Client0: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80502/Netboot/AFP2.png
Log (not sure what exactly you need): https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80502/Netboot/Log.png
That happened while booting the iMac, the selected entry is what comes up when I try to change settings on the image via Server.app
I checked what's going on via Wireshark: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80502/Netboot/Wireshark.png
.10 is the Server, .109 is the iMac G3, .1 is the Router
The filter in Wireshark is set to this: bootp || bootparams || ip.src == 192.168.0.109 || ip.dst ==192.168.0.109
is this os 10.7 ? you know they dropped support for ppc with 10.6 ... you might have to go back to 10.5 to make it work. i installed 10.4 installed the netboot updated to 10.5 and it worked. after loosing the harddrive i installed 10.5 new and drag and dropped the netboot installation in the folders and it still worked.
in the first picture on the right bottom i see a dns call is that when he gives you the error ?
Oh no, Server.app is just reading all the settings when you start the App. That can be ignored.
i guess it doesnt work with your server version. i can make a video and drop the folders on my 10.5 and film the boot process and the server output to prove it works.
I think it might be because of incompabilities of the AFP versions. I think the iMac needs AFP2.x while Lion only supports AFP3.x
