@sircabulon: no, my disks are retail versions, although one says "PowerMac G4 install", and the other "iMac install" on the volume name. But they installed perfectly on the G3 iBook! 
@Boldt: yes, also tried that. The Pismo boots from the CD, I hear drive activity, then the floppy disk with the "?" appears, it is replaced by the Happy Mac, and it doesn't go any further.
@Franklinstein: also tried that, and it showed up randomly - sometimes the disc showed up, others it didn't. But clicking in it gave the same behaviour I described to Boldt.
Oh, and the hard disk is a Toshiba MK4025GAS, 40 GB. And I can also mention that this machine booted OS 9 from a "Classic install" I did when I had Tiger. But the install was all made inside OS X...
@Boldt: yes, also tried that. The Pismo boots from the CD, I hear drive activity, then the floppy disk with the "?" appears, it is replaced by the Happy Mac, and it doesn't go any further.
@Franklinstein: also tried that, and it showed up randomly - sometimes the disc showed up, others it didn't. But clicking in it gave the same behaviour I described to Boldt.
Oh, and the hard disk is a Toshiba MK4025GAS, 40 GB. And I can also mention that this machine booted OS 9 from a "Classic install" I did when I had Tiger. But the install was all made inside OS X...