Old iMac with no OS?

[Brandon639]

I just got an old iMac from my school. Its one of the first ever made, the colored ones, and it seems to have no OS installed, as I get the Small blue folder with Finder and a question mark flashing on it.

I hold down every type of command on startup to get it to start from disk, but to no avail.

How can I install a OS back onto it? I have the OS X disk and everything.... It just will not recognize the command on startup.

Thanks!

[CoolCanadian]

What version OS is it?
If no progress is made I suggest installing Ubuntu Linux.
Its an open source OS that is free for download by simply google searching it.

[Brandon639]

It had Mac OS 9.0, but I am still working on it. But I will not be putting Linux on it, its a Mac, it will have Mac OS on it.

[Rutherford The Brave]

Linux is terrible on Macs. Well, Im not a mac guy because well they are awful....Still if it has a control panel check that see if it works, thats about all I know.