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medicman55 · Dec 16, 2007, 05:49 PM

Hey everyone,

I've lurked around this forum for the last couple months, but I've decided to start posting more. You guys seem like a good group of guys.

I know this is a subject that has been discussed before, but I seem to have a different sort of problem. I have a Macbook Pro, and a 733mHz G4 Power Mac.

Now, I've installed Leopard on my G4, through Target disk mode. Right now, I'm posting this from the Leopard installation, through Target disk mode, but it seems like when I try to run Leopard on the G4, it always brings the "installation" box back up. Is there some way I can disable it? Could I back up my installation? Could I somehow hack the hard drive through target disk mode?

Thanks for your time, and I'm sorry if this has already been asked.

adamfishercox · Dec 16, 2007, 06:13 PM

what installation box, exactly?

medicman55 · Dec 16, 2007, 06:23 PM

It brings up the "installer" box, on the G4.

For some reason, it doesn't recognize the hard drive on the G4, but there is no disk inside the drive.

Chuckit · Dec 16, 2007, 06:28 PM

What is it trying to install? Leopard doesn't install its own install DVD onto your hard drive.

medicman55 · Dec 16, 2007, 07:59 PM

Alright, let me start by saying: I'm an idiot, and had my Jaguar disk in the drive, and it kept starting up.

Now I have another quandry. I installed Leopard through Target disk mode, with the Jaguar disk out, and now all it does is flash the finder face on a folder, and a question mark. Is there anything I can do?

AKcrab · Dec 16, 2007, 08:03 PM

Hold down option when you start up and see if your drive shows up as a bootable drive. If it does and you get logged in, make sure that drive is set up as the startup drive in system prefs.

hookem2oo7 · Dec 16, 2007, 08:54 PM

it is probably because the leopard installer won't let you install to an APM formatted drive with your MBP and your G4 can't boot from anything but an APM formatted drive. You'll have to use disk utility to create an image from the G4, repartition the G4's hard drive with the APM option and restore the image back on it.

As another option, you could simply use Carbon Copy Cloner or a similar utility to clone your MBP''s drive onto the G4 (that is if your MBP has leopard) making sure the G4 is formatted with APM

medicman55 · Dec 16, 2007, 10:51 PM

Alright, I just tried using Carbon Copy Cloner, porting all of my system files and everything over to my G4. The drive is formatted in APM, and nothing happened. I'm not sure what else I can do, I'm getting pretty sick of this.

hookem2oo7 · Dec 16, 2007, 11:43 PM

Strange.

I just used CCC to clone a macbook HD to a dual 500 G4 and it booted perfectly after a flash or two of the ? folder. I guess you've tried booting while holding the option key? if it doesn't come up in that menu...i have no idea.

phobos · Dec 17, 2007, 12:33 AM

I would say don't bother installing leopard on such an old machine. It's going to be a pain to use.
Even on a dual G5 I have at work some things aren't as zippy as 10.4.10.
I regret even installing it there. On a newer machine it is perfectly fine.
So I guess, take your installation problems as a bad omen of what is about to happen when you try to use leopard in a old machine.

Laminar · Dec 17, 2007, 11:58 AM

Why exactly can't you just install from the DVD? You have a Leopard install DVD and a license for each of your computers, right?

Chuckit · Dec 17, 2007, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by Laminar

Why exactly can't you just install from the DVD? You have a Leopard install DVD and a license for each of your computers, right?

Because that G4 is unsupported, and Leopard would tell you so in no uncertain terms.

medicman55 · Dec 17, 2007, 12:33 PM

Yes, I have the five person, family license. I can't install it from the DVD, because its a 733mHz Power Mac, and it wouldn't pass the system check on the DVD.

I'm thinking about just installing 10.4 and leaving it there. I tried using CCC again, with no avail.

Judge_Fire · Dec 18, 2007, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by phobos

I would say don't bother installing leopard on such an old machine. It's going to be a pain to use.

There is no consensus on this, some have experienced a definite speedup on older machines. Let's see how it turns out for the starter of this thread, if it ever manages to install.

OreoCookie · Dec 18, 2007, 07:38 AM

First of all, your two Macs run on two different incompatible architectures: your new MacBook Pro uses an Intel cpu, your G4 a Motorola PowerPC. The binary (executable files) are different and incompatible. This explains why (i) Installing via Target Disk Mode and (ii) Cloning a working installation from your ProBook to your G4 doesn't work: the G4 doesn't understand your Intel binaries.

Even if you don't use your ProBook's installation DVDs (as you seem to have a family licence), the Installer will complain that your machine is not supported. You can circumvent that by installing via FireWire, using a PowerPC-based Mac.

Also, keep in mind that even though your machine can run Leopard, it will never run OS X as well as your second machine. You will not be able to use all the new features, i. e. I think you should stick to Tiger.

hookem2oo7 · Dec 18, 2007, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

First of all, your two Macs run on two different incompatible architectures: your new MacBook Pro uses an Intel cpu, your G4 a Motorola PowerPC. The binary (executable files) are different and incompatible. This explains why (i) Installing via Target Disk Mode and (ii) Cloning a working installation from your ProBook to your G4 doesn't work: the G4 doesn't understand your Intel binaries.

I'm pretty sure that's not right. I booted PowerPC and Intel macs from a single installation (which was installed using a macbook pro) that I had on an APM-formatted external drive. I've also cloned a drive from a mabook right onto a G4 and booted just fine.

OreoCookie · Dec 18, 2007, 11:12 AM

What I wrote is indeed correct: PowerPC Macs and Intel Macs use different, incompatible cpu architectures. This means if you own machine-specific install discs, only the Intel binaries are included for the system at least (I'm not sure whether apps come as Universal Binaries on Intel-only install discs). Although the OP wrote, he has purchased a family pack, I wanted to include this bit, just in case

However, if you use the retail version of Leopard's install discs, you get both binaries and if you pick the correct partitioning scheme (see below), things work fine and you can boot from both architectures. Keep in mind that PowerPC Macs cannot boot from USB drives.

Then there is the thing of different partition schemes and boat loaders: Intel-based Macs can boot from both, APM and GUID, PowerPC Macs cannot boot from GUID. If you plan to use your external drive with both, PowerPC and Intel Macs, you should use the older APM scheme. The Installer DVD uses the partition scheme employed by the official DVD standard and thus works on any supported Mac.

If you install via an Intel-based Mac onto a Target-disk mode drive of a PowerPC Mac, see here for more details. So in your case it works, as the external drive used the APM partition style that is understood by both flavors of OS X and you have obviously used the retail version of OS X.

hookem2oo7 · Dec 18, 2007, 11:31 AM

I see... A machine-specific install disc wouldn't work, and yes, I did install leopard from the retail disc on the MacBook i cloned. The thing about installing to an APM partitioned drive is that the installer running on an Intel Mac will balk at it. You have to either install using a PowerPC mac to the APM drive or install using an Intel Mac to a GUID partitioned disk, clone it (or make an image), repartition to APM and restore.

OreoCookie · Dec 18, 2007, 01:11 PM

Yes, this would explain it.
You see, this is one of the big, big advantages of OS X: there is no separate version of apps for PowerPC or x86 (technically, you would need four versions, a 32 and a 64 bit version of each architecture). There are very few apps (e. g. SoundBooth) that only run on Intel, but all other combinations just work on any architecture (via emulation, if necessary). To the user, all of this is transparent. This is why I use a Mac and what sets it apart from Windows: there you really need different versions of everything for your version of the OS.

amazing · Dec 18, 2007, 03:27 PM

The G4 has to be formatted in HFS+ and then you should try installing via firewire target disk mode, which I believe will bypass the speed check.

seems like that has worked for other folks?

medicman55 · Dec 18, 2007, 03:52 PM

I've tried most everything people have posted before, but at this point I'm not willing to go any further. I feel that 10.4 will be good enough for my 733 mHz Power Mac.

If someone figures out how to install 10.5 from an Intel machine, onto a PowerPC, let me know. At this point though, I'm fine with 10.4.

imitchellg5 · Dec 19, 2007, 03:45 PM

Leopard will run fine on a 733 MHz G4. I put it on my 533 MHz box and it ran very well actually, even with only 1 Gb of RAM. The only thing that didn't work at all was Time Machine (which is half the point of Leopard, but still). That being said, I've put Tiger back on it (and all my other Macs) since CS2 won't run in Leopard.

T25 · Dec 20, 2007, 08:11 PM

Install on a later machine, use Disk utility to make a clone onto a Firewire drive (the one out of your old machine if you have a case), put drive in older machine, or boot from Firewire.
Runs as well as Tiger so far (on 400 G4).

.

forkies · Dec 21, 2007, 07:33 AM

Using Open Firmware to install Leopard below 867 MHz

angelmb · Dec 22, 2007, 02:50 AM

iCode | LeopardAssist - Skip the 867mhz Check.