[ale] [OT] Upgrade G4 Mini to OS X 10.5?

arxaaron arxaaron at gmail.com
Mon Nov 1 18:20:12 EDT 2010


On 2010/11/01, at 15:55 , Scott McBrien wrote:

> I don't think Leopard works on G4s.

Tiger (OSeX 10.4) runs fine on G3, G4 and G5
Leopard (OSeX 10.5) is fine on G4 and G5
Snow Leopard (OSeX 10.6) == NO PPC

>  I thought Mac minis started off with G5 processors?

TTBOMK, PPC Mac Mini's and Laptops only ever got
up to G4 processors.  The lack of G5 laptop chips was
a big part of the motivation to migrate to x86 architectures.

G5 only appeared in iMac and Power Mac models.

>  When leopard came out I just bought the OS disk
> for it from the apple store and was on my way.

Apple discontinued distribution of the Leopard OS 10.5
update & install disk some time ago.  Continuing to distribute
it would interfere with the usual industry forced migration
schemes. Getting a pressed copy is inordinately expensive
now (more that the resale value of most PPC Macs) if you
can even find one.

I find that all my working PPC Macs are still quite useful
and that there is very little software that is not compiled to
run on PPC if it runs on OSeX 10.5.  The bigger problem is
hardware, as I have several PPC Macs in my basement
that were killed by the bad capacitor plague.  Almost
makes me think that the bad capacitor problem was
intentional, but I'm sure that big globalized monopolist
corporations have my best interests at heart and would
NEVER conspire together to fix LCD monitor prices or
intentionally make "defective by design"  products that
would fail prematurely and force me to buy replacements
long before I should have ever needed to.   ;-)

peace
aaron



> On Nov 1, 2010, at 3:03 PM, Dylan Northrup <ale at doc-x.net> wrote:
>
>> You shouldn't need a PPC specific DVD.  The install version of  
>> Leopard I have worked fine on my G5 tower (as well as my intel  
>> MBP).  I'd suggest finding someone who has a copy of the DVDs as  
>> opposed to torrenting, but I'm a little paranoid about foreign  
>> install media.
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Joe Knapka <jknapka at kneuro.net>  
>> wrote:
>> Hmm, OK.  But it no longer appears possible to obtain official  
>> Leopard
>> PPC DVDs from Apple. I'm having trouble finding a usable 10.5 PPC
>> installation DVD.  There are many dozens of torrents out there that
>> sort of look right, but the one I actually downloaded so far was not
>> bootable.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 11:04 AM, Richard Bronosky <Richard at bronosky.com 
>> > wrote:
>> > 10.5 is the last of the PPC compatible OSes. The first Intel only  
>> OS
>> > is 10.6. You have indeed missed something.
>> >
>> > On 11/1/10, Joe Knapka <jknapka at kneuro.net> wrote:
>> >> Hi folks,
>> >>
>> >> My ex-wife has a G4 Mac Mini that refuses to work with her new  
>> iPod
>> >> until it's upgraded to OSX 10.5.  Is it even possible to do this?
>> >> Apple doesn't seem to provide 10.5 for G4 machines, unless (as is
>> >> likely) I'm missing something obvious.  I also tried torrenting a
>> >> "Universal" 10.5 installation DVD, but it wouldn't boot on her
>> >> machine.
>> >>
>> >> Any advice appreciated.
>> >>
>> >> -- JK



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