[G4] How to get actual kernel panic data?

[Eric Smith]

My iBook G4 has started experiencing regular kernel panics.
My immediate question is how can I get the actual kernel
panic message to display, rather than the generic message
("You must restart your computer ...") ?
It's a long shot but maybe there's some clue in there
I could decipher.

Background: this started happening out of the blue.
Once it started, it would either happen during the boot,
or if it did boot all the way up it would happen as soon
as I tried to log in. I was able to boot from the install
CD without any problems and run Disk Utility, repair the
filesystem and repair permissions (but no significant
problems were seen). After doing this it would run for
a longer period of time after booting, but after about
15-20 minutes of operation it would panic again, and
then start panicking on every boot again.

I took it to my authorized Apple repair shop (and they're
good; I've used them for years on different systems).
They ran all their HW diagnostics and found nothing
(I have never opened it and added RAM or anything else),
and wiped the disk clean and reinstalled. They also tried
different kb/mouse, running off an external drive, etc.
The result: still random panics, although they claim the
panics are less frequent now. At that point they gave up.

So I'm not sure what to do next. Live with a system that
panics at random intervals and hope it doesn't get worse,
or declare it a total loss? I don't expect that taking it
to Apple will be of any use because they will probably just
want to replace the logic board at a prohibitive cost.
All I'm thinking is that if I can gather some more data on
the actual panics there might be some hope.

Thanks,
Eric S.