9/22/2020 Mac Os X 10.5 Download For Powerbook G4
The good news is that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard seems to be able to run on any Mac with AGP graphics built around a G4 processor – and even on the 2000 Pismo PowerBook (the first PowerBook with AGP graphics) as long as it has a G4 upgrade.
Question: Q: how to download mac osx 10.5 for powerbook G4. How to download mac osx 10.5 for powerbookG4. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard installation system requirements.
The bad news is that the Leopard installer refuses to let you install it on any Mac slower than 867 MHz. That includes the dual 800 MHz Power Mac G4 as well as Digital Audio and other G4 Power Macs that have been upgraded with processors past the 867 MHz mark.
The good news is that there are ways to get around the installer. We’re getting more field reports of successful “unsupported” installations all the time, and most (but not all) features of Leopard seem to work on older, slower G4 Macs.
There are two ways of getting around installer limitations. The most common one thus far requires that you have a supported Mac. For those who don’t, it’s possible to hack the installer so it will run on slower Macs or to fake out the Leopard installer using Open Firmware (a huge thanks to Dylan McDermond for sharing this technique).
UPDATE: The folks at iCode have taken the information from this article and used it to create LeopardAssist, a free program that automates this process and eliminates the need to fiddle with OpenFirware on your own.
The bad news is that some third-party additions to the System can prevent Leopard from booting – Unsanity’s Application Enhancer (APE) tops the list of add-ons – so you should make sure all of your software is up-to-date and may want to (or need to) disable System add-ons before installing Leopard.
Executive SummaryUnsupported Macs that Can Run Leopard
Unsupported G4 Macs that Can’t Run Leopard
Cautions
Limitations of Leopard on Slower Macs
Before you install Leopard, you should know that some features may not work on older, unsupported hardware. One of the earliest unsupported installations was reported on Engadget.
Thomas Ricker has an AGP Power Mac G4 (a.k.a. Sawtooth) with 512 MB of RAM and a 1 GHz processor upgrade. He did a clean installation on a freshly wiped 20 GB hard drive, and he reports that performance feels comparable to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, which jibes with most of the other reports we’ve heard.
Ricker reports on some things that don’t work on his 1999 Power Mac G4:
Failing DVD Player, Ricker attempted to run VLC 0.8.6c, only to discover it dropping about 25% of frames. Again, a supported video card might fix this. The stock card in AGP Power Macs was the ATI Rage 128 or 128 Pro with 16 MB of VRAM.
Low Cost Core Graphics Video Cards
There are three relatively affordable options for Power Mac G4 users (not counting the PCI Graphics model): Nvidia GeForce 6300 and ATI Radeon 9700 and 9800 Pro. Applemacanix buys PC versions of these cards, flashes them for use on the Mac, and sells them via eBay.
Of the three cards, the Radeon 9700 Pro ($109 in 2007) looks to be the best value, as the 9800 Pro ($149) isn’t any faster and the GeForce 6300 ($99) is considered quite a bit slower. The benefits of the Nvidia card include no cooling fan, low power consumption, and no need for an auxiliary power connector.
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Adding one of these cards to an AGP, Mystic, or Digital Audio Power Mac G4 could be all that’s needed for Time Machine, DVD Player, and Front Row to function. We will update this article if we receive field reports confirming or disproving this.
Hacking the Installer
If you don’t have access to a supported Mac, the first alternative was to hack the installer. You can do this on a dedicated hard drive or by burning a DVD, in which case you’ll need a Mac with a SuperDrive. Mac Rumors has posted instructions, which we’re summarizing here:
The Leopard installer is over 6.5 GB in size, so you need to use a dual-layer DVD unless you’re willing to modify the disk image before burning the DVD. If you don’t have a dual-layer DVD burner, Lionel Faleiro has posted directions for stripping Developer Tools, languages you will never use, etc. and making the Leopard installer small enough to burn to a single-layer DVD.
One reader has also reported success modifying the Open Firmware to report a CPU speed higher than 866 MHz. This is a temporary modification that resets itself the next time you restart your Mac.
Another reader has reported success using a modified installer and NetBoot.
Using a Supported Mac
If you have access to a supported Mac, you can avoid all that Terminal work.
Because Leopard is Apple’s first universal binary operating system, you can create a bootable disk from either a PowerPC or Intel-based Mac.
You have some options here. If you have a Power Mac G4, you can install a second Ultra ATA hard drive inside the computer, install Leopard, and then transplant the drive to your older Power Mac G4, iMac G4, or eMac (which is a tricky beast).
If you have an external FireWire hard drive, you can install Leopard to any partition from a PowerPC Mac. If you’re using an Intel-based Mac, you’ll want to create at least two partitions: one for the GUID partition that the Intel Macs like to boot from and an HFS+ partition that you’ll clone the installation to.
Once you’ve installed Leopard to the FireWire hard drive, move it to your unsupported Mac, choose it as your startup volume, and boot from it. If that works – and it should – you can either choose to keep working from the external drive or clone that drive to your internal drive. We suggest Carbon Copy Cloner 3, although we’ve heard that Disk Utility may work as well. (Our favorite program for this kind of thing, SuperDuper!, isn’t yet Leopard compatible.)
It is also possible to install Leopard to a G4 Mac using FireWire Disk Mode, which may be the simplest way to do it.
Reports from the FieldPower Mac G4
PowerBook G4 (Titanium)
iMac G4
iBook G4
eMac
G3 Macs with G4 UpgradesMac Os X 10.5 Download For Powerbook G4 Windows 7
Download Mac Os X 10.5 For Powerbook G4PowerBook G4 (Aluminum)
These models are fully supported.
Send in Your Reports (Please, Not Any Longer)
If you’ve got Leopard up and running on unsupported hardware, please email with the following information so we can include you in our report:
Thanks in advance for any field reports, as this will help us get a better picture of how well Mac OS X 10.5 works on unsupported hardware.
This article was first published on 2007.10.31 and last updated 2007.12.24.
Keyword: #unsupportedleopard #osxleopard #leopardinstallhack
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