I am trying to get BeOS 5.0 installed on my PowerMac 8500, but the ISO of BeOS on this site doesn’t appear to work as a bootable installer. I followed the instructions and burned the 5.0 ISO, started the BeOS Launcher in Mac System 7.5.3 from the CD, which takes me to the BeOS 4.5 Boot Menu, but it does not detect the CD as a bootable volume. Is there a known-working version of 5.0 Pro that anyone has that they could upload?
It’s a tricky multi-track CD, with the PPC stuff on a different track than the boot stuff and the X86 version of BeOS. Best to see if you can find an old BeOS CD on an auction site, or borrow one.
I’ve been looking for a BeOS 4.5 or 5.0 CD for a long while now on Ebay, but with no such luck. Plus, no one I know in the area would own one. 
I’m kind of surprised that there’s no good way to make a bootable PPC image - all the tutorials I have seen to make a bootable BeOS disc involve the x86 version, which isn’t relevant to PPC.
I’m pretty sure that since everyone here who would own a BeOS CD wouldn’t be interested in selling one, as we’d all be fans of BeOS, so I’d be barking up the wrong tree if I were to ask here. 
I’m not sure if it would work but you could try running the haiku ppc boot loader… I think you have to run the boot loader from openfirmware as its not detected automatcally. Its a long shot but could be worth a try
No, the bootloaders are not compatible. The PowerPC port of Haiku is for “new world” systems (G3 and above), while BeOS was compatible with “old world” macs (where Open Firmware is not as easily reachable). And the way to load the system is quite different as well.
Where did you get the iso from? It should be easy to check if it’s valid by comparing it to an original CD…
Try pressing Shift when the BeOS logo appears after you run the BeOS Launcher and select “Rescan for bootable media”, assuming your disc was burned correctly…
If it doesn’t work, try the 5.0.3 bin/cue from https://archive.org/search.php?query=beos
Thank you - that bin/cue image worked like a charm! Now I’m going to explore this OS a bunch and see what software I can still find. 
Just one more quick question, is there a web browser for BeOS that supports https?
NetPositive in the Pro version of BeOS did https, but the encryption algorithms it supported are no longer supported by the Haiku web site You can still use SeaMonkey or FireFox for BeOS.
Or maybe not, don’t know if there are PPC versions of SeaMonkey or FireFox.
Afaik not because there is no gcc for Ppc BeOS, just mwcc.
sorry to say that, but i had no luck with my 9500 and beos too. i’ve spent nearly a day and installed different beos-/haiku-versions on very strange machines, but this project was horrible.
for a moment i’ve just seen some boot icons. even an original beos 4.5 cd and different harddisks and processor boards did’nt helped me
Why beos and not haiku?
It is the same for x86 you need a boot image and the system image file. Then you need to burn using a cue sheet. You can find a tutorial about it on our knowledgebase:
http://besly.de/menu/search/archiv/cddvd/bootablebeoscd.html
http://besly.de/menu/search/archiv/cddvd/zetalivecd_win_eng.html
how much ram is needed for a haiku ppc?
Nobody knows as there is no Haiku for ppc, just a (currently) broken, incomplete porting attempt. But i suppose it would require around the same amount as for PC, so more than 192Mb