Mac Os X 10.5 Download For Powerbook G4

admin

Mac os x leopard 10.5.8 powerpc download free download. Leopard-webkit builds of current WebKit frameworks for Mac OS X 10.5 (PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5). In order to revive. Jan 02, 2009  I did a clean install on the Powerbook. I have enabled all services except Mail. The speed running the client was performing better than operating the system. The client is a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.5.6. The server version was 10.5.4. After upgrading to the latest version of the server software it doesn't even start up at all.

Questions I get asked fairly frequently are variations on the general theme of upgrading the operating systems of older Macs to more recent system versions. There is no all-purpose boilerplate answer. The appropriate system to use depends on variables like the speed of your machine, how much RAM you have, what you use the computer for, and how much performance (speed again) you’re willing to trade off in order to have the latest bells and whistles.

There is also the matter of support. For example, PowerBooks prior to the G3 Series WallStreet, which was introduced in May 1998, are not supported by OS X, which means that the original 250 MHz PowerBook G3 (3500/Kanga) has the dubious distinction of being the only G3 model Apple ever made that isn’t supported by OS X. If you’re really determined, you can probably get OS X to install on a Kanga using Ryan Rempel’s XPostFacto installer hack for some unsupported Macs, but is it worth the trouble on a Mac limited to 160 MB of RAM? I’m doubtful.

On the Classic Mac OS side, there is Mac OS 9.2.2, which only officially supports the same machines that OS X does. It seems that a lot of people with older Macs are interested in installing OS 9.2.2, and again, there is an installer hack available (OS 9 Helper) that help them to do so. But is it a wise idea? Not always, in my estimation.

The newest officially supported system is often not the ideal one to use. For instance, OS 9.1 is supported by the PowerBook 5300 and Duo 2300, but you won’t be very happy with the performance on these 100 MHz and 117 MHz PowerPC 603e computers – or, for that matter, on the 117 MHz PowerBook 1400.

In this column I will outline what Mac OS versions are supported by which PowerBook and iBook models back as far as the 680×0-based 190 and 500 series and offer my suggestions as to which I think is the ideal OS for each model. I’m sure there will be those who disagree with my picks in some cases, but here are my OS picks model by model.

MacBooks

All Intel MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models

This one is a no-brainer. Run the latest version of OS X 10.5 Leopard (currently version 10.5.4) and be happy. [Publisher’s note: Better yet, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which is optimized for Intel Macs but wasn’t available when this article was first published in 2008.]

G4 ‘Books

Aluminum PowerBook G4 and G4 iBook (1.33 GHz to 1.67 GHz)

Not as much a no-brainer, especially at the lower end of the clock speed range. Leopard is supported decently. The machine I’m typing this on right now is a 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4, and it supports Leopard reasonably well, albeit with less than scintillating performance. OS X 10.4.11 Tiger will be more lively and more gracefully supported on these last and fastest G4 ‘Books, but I find some of the features in Leopard – notably Spaces, Time Machine, and QuickLook – just too cool to live without if I don’t have to.

My suggestion here is that if you have 1.25 GB of RAM or better, Leopard is well worth seriously considering. With less memory than that, I would find it too compromised. I have 1.5 GB and wish I had 2 GB in my PowerBook.

Aluminum PowerBook G4 and G4 iBook (867 MHz to 1.25 GHz)

These machines are officially supported by OS X 10.5, but it would not be my ideal choice; I would go with OS X 10.4.11. If you do decide to run Leopard, load up with as much RAM as you can afford.

800 MHz iBook G4

The 800 MHz iBook G4 is the newest ‘Book that doesn’t make the Leopard cut, although you can hack the installer to make it work. Use OS X 10.4.11.

Titanium PowerBook G4 (667 MHz to 1 GHz)

These are the newest PowerBooks that will dual-boot OS X and OS 9.2.2. I recommend OS X 10.4.11 with at least 512 MB of RAM.

Titanium PowerBook G4 (400 to 550 MHz)

The first two generations of the titanium PowerBook inherited the Pismo’s 8 MB of video RAM, so they won’t support Quartz Extreme. That limitation noted, go with OS X 10.3.9 Panther on the 400 MHz machine and 10.4.11 on the 500 MHz and 550 MHz models.

G3 ‘Books

Dual USB iBook G3 (500 to 900 MHz)

Max out the RAM at 640 MB and run OS X 10.4.11 – or use OS 9.2.2 and you can get along with less memory.

Pismo PowerBook G3 (400 and 500 MHz G3 or 500 to 500 MHz G4 upgraded)

I’m running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on my 550 MHz G4 Pismos (with 640 and 384 MB RAM). These computers are in regular use for production work, and I am quite pleased with Tiger’s performance. Note however that OS X Quartz Extreme graphics acceleration is not supported by the Pismo’s Rage Mobility 128 graphics card with its paltry 8 MB of video RAM.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how lively Tiger was on the most recently acquired Pismo with the 500 MHz G3 processor it came with (before I installed the 550 MHz G4 upgrade). Performance would be better with a gig of RAM, but I’m satisfied enough with what I’ve got that I haven’t moved on that. For a 400 MHz G3 Pismo I would suggest OS 10.3.9 Panther.

And, of course, the Classic Mac OS 9 just flies on any Pismo model.

FireWire Clamshell iBook (366 and 466 MHz)

I would go with Mac OS X 10.3.9 with the 366 MHz unit (even though it is supported by Tiger) and OS X 10.4.11 with the 466 MHz – or OS 9.2.2 with either.

Early Clamshell iBook (300 and 366 MHz)

These iBooks will support up to OS X 10.3.9, which would be my OS X version of choice, but the 300 MHz model especially will be a lot happier camper in Mac OS 9.2.2.

Lombard PowerBook G3 (400 and 500 MHz)

I consider the Lombard the threshold machine for reasonable OS X performance unless you have one of the rare Daystar G4 433 MHz upgrades, in which case I would recommend OS X 10.3.9. You can run up to OS X 10.3.9 on a 333 MHz Lombard, but you’ll find it pretty sluggish. A 400 MHz unit – or a 500 MHz G3 or a G4 upgraded Lombard – will give you decent OS X performance in Panther, but the 8 MB of video RAM and mediocre graphics card in these machines hobbles Finder responsiveness.

Mac OS 9.1 or 9.2.2 will give you lots of speed on a Lombard.

WallStreet PowerBook G3 Series (233 to 300 MHz)

WallStreet was available in 233 (no cache), 233 (512 KB cache), 250, 266, 292, and 300 MHz versions, and it could also be upgraded to 500 MHz G3 or G4 power. It is the oldest PowerBook officially supported by OS X (up to OS X 10.2.8 Jaguar) and will run all Classic Mac OS versions from 8.1 through 9.2.2. My favorite system for my 233 MHz (512 KB cache) WallStreet was OS 9.2.2 .

As for OS X, my personal recommendation would be to stick with OS 9 unless you have a 500 MHz G3 or a G4 processor upgrade installed on the WallStreet. The 292 MHz and 300 MHz units will give you marginally tolerable performance in OS X if you’re very patient. Some folks profess to be happy with running X on 233 MHz to 266 MHz WallStreets, but I wouldn’t be. You will also want to max out your RAM at 512 MB for running OS X on these machines.

PowerBook G3 3500/Kanga

The original PowerBook G3 is the only G3 Macintosh not officially supported by OS X. OS 9.1 would be my system of choice for this model, or perhaps 9.2.2 with a hacked install. XPostFacto should get OS X installed, but I personally would not be interested in running OS X anything slower than a 333 MHz Lombard with at least 512 MB of RAM.

PowerPC 603e ‘Books

PowerBook 2400c

The little, IBM Japan-designed and built PowerBook 2400 subnotebook had pretty much the same motherboard architecture as the PowerBook 3400, but it had its processor mounted on a removable daughter card and was thus processor upgradeable. G3 upgrades were available for these machines. Go with Mac OS 8.6, OS 9.1, or OS 9.2.2.

PowerBook 3400c

The 3400 originally shipped with Mac OS 7.6, but these machines will comfortably support OS 8.6 and up to 9.1, any of which will work well provided you have enough RAM installed. You can apparently install OS X on a 3400 using XPostFacto, but I would advise against it. The old 603e just doesn’t have the muscle to run OS X decently. However, OS 9.2.2 should run fine via installer hack if you need it for application support.

Note that if you are installing Mac OS 9.1 on a PowerBook 3400 running Mac OS 9.04, you must perform the installation without updating your hard disk drivers or your computer may stop responding during installation. To prevent the Installer from updating your hard disk drivers, click Options in the Install Software panel of the Mac OS 9.1 Installer and deselect the option to update your hard disk drivers.

PowerBook 1400

The 1400 was sold in 117, 133, and 166 MHz models and is also processor upgradeable to as fast as a 466 MHz G3, so one can’t generalize about the ideal OS version for this machine, which originally came equipped with System 7.5.5 or 7.6. For the 117 MHz model, go with OS 8.1 or OS 8.6 (I have both installed on my 117 MHz 1400 with 40 MB of RAM, but I use OS 8.6 most of the time, and I think it’s the most optimum compromise, although System 8.1 is faster). The 133 MHz and 166 MHz models work well with OS 8.6, and if you have your RAM maxed out, you may find that OS 9.0 or 9.1 will work reasonably well, although I think OS 8.6 is still the best choice, since the OS 9s want 40 MB of RAM just to support the system, and the 1400 is limited to 64 MB total RAM.

If you have a G3 processor upgrade installed in your 1400, you certainly have the processor speed to support OS 9.1, a but the RAM limitation still applies. If you only run a few applications at a time, OS 9.1 will be satisfactory. If you need more RAM for running applications, stick with OS 8.6 or even OS 8.1.

Incidentally, Password Security is not supported on PowerBook 1400s with Mac OS 9.1. If you have Password Security installed on a PowerBook 1400, you should turn off password protection before installing Mac OS 9.1.

PowerBook 5300

The much maligned PowerBook 5300 came with System 7.5.2, which was the worst build of System 7.5. You should definitely upgrade to System 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 at minimum, and those systems will get you the best speed performance out of a 5300, but this computer will support up to OS 9.1. I would suggest going no higher than OS 8.6 with a 5300, and OS 8.1 will give you the best compromise between speed and features on this model.

System 7.5.5 was largely a bunch of PowerBook 5300 reliability patches added to System 7.5.3 and is recommended as the ideal System 7.5 version for these ‘Books. I tried OS 8.5 on our 5300 and was not happy with the performance (note, however, that we only had 24 MB of RAM in that 5300). If you have more RAM in your 5300, you might want to try up to OS 8.6, but I’ve found that System 7.5.5 or OS 8.1 seem to be the most successful Mac OS X versions for the 5300.

PowerBook Duo 2300

What I noted above for the PowerBook 5300 pretty much applies to the Duo 2300 as well. Introduced along with the PowerBook 5300 and 190, the 2300 was the last of the Duos and inherited much of the internal architecture of the original 68030 Duo models, which hobbled its performance as a PowerPC machine, making it even slower than the 5300, so System 7.5.5 is probably the ideal choice.

Mac os x 10.5 download for powerbook g4 laptop

68040 ‘Books

PowerBook 190

The 68040-based 190 was more or less a PowerBook 500 in a PowerBook 5300 case in terms of performance. For the best speed performance, go with System 7.5.3 or System 7.5.5 on these machines, but OS 8.1 will give you support for HFS+ disk formatting and is a decent performer as well.

PowerBook 500 series

The PowerBook 520 and 540, introduced in May 1995, were the first PowerBooks that in my estimation could serve as one’s “only” computer without imposing substantial compromises. With their 25 MHz and 33 MHz 68LC040 processors, full-size keyboards, comprehensive array of ports, built-in ethernet, optional built-in modem, and stereo speakers, the 500 offered unprecedented power, versatility, and connectivity in a PowerBook form factor. They originally came with System 7.5 installed and will support up to OS 8.1. I would recommend the same systems as for the 190 series for the 500s.

Deals on Mac OS X and the Classic Mac OS

  • Best Classic Mac OS Deals. Best online prices for System 6, 7.1, 7.5.x, Mac OS 7.6, 8.0, 8.1, 8.5, 9.0, 9.2.2, and other versions.
  • Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 Deals. Best online prices for Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3.
  • Best Mac OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ deals. Best online prices for Mac OS X 10.4.
  • Best Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard’ deals. Best online prices for Mac OS X 10.5.

Short link: http://goo.gl/X6AEZk

searchword: bestbookos

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.

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 Summary

Unsupported Macs that Can Run Leopard

  • Pismo PowerBook G3 with a G4 upgrade
  • Sawtooth/AGP Power Mac G4
  • Mystic/Gigabit Ethernet Power Mac G4
  • Power Mac G4 Cube
  • Digital Audio Power Mac G4, including one dual 533 MHz model
  • Quicksilver Power Mac G4
  • Quicksilver 2002 Power Mac G4
  • PowerBook G4/400 and 500 MHz, slow graphics
  • PowerBook G4/550 and 667 MHz (VGA), better graphics
  • PowerBook G4/667 and 800 MHz (DVI)
  • 700-800 MHz G4 iMacs
  • 700-800 MHz eMacs
  • 800 MHz iBook G4

Unsupported G4 Macs that Can’t Run Leopard

  • one dual 533 MHz Digital Audio Power Mac G4, may be due to old firmware
  • one Cube failure, which could be due to old firmware
  • two users have failed to get Leopard running on Blue & White Power Mac G3s with G4 upgrades

Cautions

  • reports of white screen after sleep on G4 iMacs with Nvidia GeForce 2 and GeForce 4 graphics (reportedly solved with OS X 10.5.2 and Leopard Graphics Update 1.0)
  • GeForce 6200 AGP video card may add up to 5 minutes to startup time

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:

  1. Time Machine: It runs. It does backup. But you can’t get backed up files back, at least not with the older, unsupported video card in his computer. Time Machine appears to require Core Animation.
  2. DVD Player: No luck, not even with a better SuperDrive installed. Again, possibly due to an older, unsupported video card.
  3. Front Row: It appears that the program is running, but you can’t see anything on the screen, making it useless. Once again, probably because the video card doesn’t support Core Graphics.

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.

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:

  1. Install DarwinPorts [archive link] and restart your Mac.
  2. Make a sparse disk image of the Leopard install DVD. Mac Rumors suggests Carbon Copy Cloner 3 as the best tool for this, but Disk Utility will do as well.
  3. Open the Terminal and follow the posted instructions to the letter. You will either be modifying the code by choosing a minimum CPU speed below 867 MHz (300 MHz is a safe bet, as the slowest G4 systems ran at 350 MHz) or by making it only work on Macs slower than 867 MHz. Either choice is fine.
  4. Burn the hacked disc image to a blank dual-layer DVD-R or DVD+R.
  5. Run the installer to see if it works.

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.

Mac Os X 10.5 Download For Powerbook G4 Pro

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 Field

Power Mac G4

  • suneohair reports successfully hacking the installer and running Leopard on a dual 500 MHz Power Mac G4 with 1 GB of RAM and Radeon 9000 graphics on Mac Rumors.
  • Macs Only! has it running on a 450 MHz Cube and a 1.4 GHz upgraded Cube. They used an external FireWire drive, ran the Leopard installer on a 12″ PowerBook G4, and then used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the FireWire drive to each Cube’s internal hard drive.
  • Peter Brockie reports running Leopard on a 400 MHz AGP Power Mac with 1 GB of RAM. He reports successfully running DVD Player and included a screen shot (left) to bolster his claim.
  • Brian Deuel has Leopard running on an upgraded Dual Processor 500 MHz Mystic. He modified the installer on a hard drive. Brian has a flashed Nvidia GeForce 6200 video card, which scared him when it took about two minutes to show the desktop after startup – but it’s working fine now. He says it’s easily faster than Tiger. Jerome Littleton wrote to note that slow booting is associated with the GeForce 6200 video card, sometimes taking up to five minutes.
  • Paul C. Harvey is running Leopard on his Digital Audio G4 upgraded with a 1.42 GHz Sonnet G4 and a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB Mac Edition video card, which is fully supported for Core Image. He installed Leopard on his 1.2 GHz iBook G4 and cloned the drive to his Power Mac using FireWire Disk Mode. He says, “Other than some minor problems, it performs better than Tiger.”
  • David Pollock successfully installed Leopard onto his Sawtooth 450 MHz Power Mac using a G5 iMac and Target Disk Mode. His Sawtooth has 1.25 GB of RAM and a Radeon 9800 Pro video card, and he says, “it appears all functions work, a bit slow, but it does work.”
  • Henry Harrison is running OS X 10.5 on hit 450 MHz Power Mac G4 with 512 MB of RAM and the original video card. He used SuperDuper and FireWire Disk Mode to clone Leopard from his 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4.
  • Anthony Elliott has Leopard running on his 466 MHz Digital Audio Power Mac G4 with 1.125 GB of RAM, the stock ATI Rage Pro AGP video card, and an ATI Radeon PCI video card. He installed from his Xserve using FireWire Disk Mode. He reports that his Power Mac would not boot into Leopard with his Apple Pro Speakers attached. He says graphics are a bit slow, but everything seems to be working.
  • Scott Buckner has an 800 MHz Quicksilver Power Mac G4 with 1.5 GB of RAM and an ATI 9600 Pro AGP video card. He first installed Leopard to a USB 2.0 hard drive from his MacBook, then connected the drive to his Quicksilver to copy over the operating system – slowly, as G4 Power Macs only have USB 1.1 ports. He says everything is working well.
  • Vy Tri Truong has Leopard running on a 1.0 GHz upgraded Sawtooth Power Mac that was originally 350 MHz. He has 1 GB of RAM, a Radeon 9800 Pro video card, and says the installer ran just fine from the internal SuperDrive.
  • Frank McHugh has Leopard running on his 533 MHz Digital Audio Power Mac with the original CPU and GeForce 2 video card. Memory is 768 MB. He used a modified installer. He also tells of a friend with the same model but a 1.4 GHz upgrade – the stock installer ran just fine.
  • FAILED: Larry Martin reports that his dual 533 MHz Digital Audio Power Mac will not boot from a FireWire drive or from a transplanted internal hard drive with Leopard installed.
  • James Little has Leopard on his dual 533 MHz Digital Audio Power Mac thanks to a hacked installer.
  • Jeff Plourde has Leopard running on a 400 MHz Sawtooth and a dual 800 MHz Quicksilver, using a modified installer to get OS X 10.5 installed. He notes that the ATA-HI_CAP driver, which supports drives over 128 GB in size on Macs that don’t natively support them, is not compatible with Leopard at present. Except for that, all works well.
  • Eje Hultén used a G4 Mac mini and FireWire Disk Mode to install Leopard to a dual 533 MHz Digital Audio Power Mac with 1.5 GB of RAM. Everything works well, and boot times are faster than they were with Tiger.
  • FAILED: Mark F tried to get Leopard running on his Cube using Target Disk Mode and running the installer on his 20″ iMac G5. He also tried cloning the iMac’s hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. There was no Apple logo at startup, no activity indicator, and the Cube refused to launch Leopard. We speculate it could be firmware issue.

PowerBook G4 (Titanium)

  • Ryan used FireWire Disk Mode to install Leopard on his 400 MHz PowerBook G4, but with no support for the ATI Rage 128 graphics, video performance is best described as “choppy”.
  • Jan Lukens also used FireWire Disk Mode to put Leopard on his 667 MHz PowerBook G4 (the DVI model), which has 512 MB of RAM, a 30 GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon 7500 graphics. He says that everything works, it runs as quickly as Tiger, and he’d go to 1 GB of RAM if this were his main computer. He says, “Why isn’t this machine supported? It really is perfectly capable of running Leopard, in fact running it comfortably.”
  • Mike Rocus reports running Leopard on his 667 MHz PowerBook G4 (VGA). He first installed Leopard on a blank FireWire drive using his supported 1.25 GHz dual Power Mac G4, verified that it would boot the PowerBook, and then used Carbon Copy Cloner to put it on the PowerBook’s internal hard drive.
  • Richard Jordan has Leopard on his 550 MHz PowerBook G4, installed from his 12″ 1.5 G4 PowerBook using FireWire Disk Mode. He says video playback is “a little choppy sometimes” and the Dock can be “a bit jerky”, probably due to an overworked graphics processor. He also reports poor WiFi reception, worse than in Tiger.
  • Mark Benson cloned Leopard from his iMac onto the hard drive from his 667 MHz TiBook (VGA/Gigabit Ethernet), as he couldn’t use FireWire Disk Mode with a dead FireWire port. He calls performance “more than acceptable” and has not tested DVD Player or Time Machine.

iMac G4

  • Michael Davis has Leopard running on an 800 MHz G4 iMac with 1 GB of RAM. He installed it from an Intel-based Mac mini using FireWire Disk Mode.
  • Ben Barsh, has Leopard running on his 700 MHz G4 iMac with its original 4200 rpm hard drive and 320 MB of RAM. He says everything works – and he’ll try it on his titanium PowerBook as well.
  • Mark Benson hacked the installer and ran it from an external hard drive to install Leopard on his 800 MHz iMac G4. “Most everything works okay,” he says, but there’s a serious bug when the machine comes out of sleep – the screen goes flat white, making it impossible to use without restarting. He says users with supported G4 iMacs that also have Nvidia GeForce graphics are reporting the same thing, so this may be addressed in the 10.5.1 update.

iBook G4

Mac Os X 10.5 Download For Powerbook G4 Laptop

  • Ryan and Theresa Johnk have Leopard running on their 12″ 800 MHz iBook G4, the only unsupported model. They used a hacked installer that they ran from an iPod.

eMac

  • Pete LeDoux installed Leopard on a 700 MHz eMac with 640 MB of RAM using a hacked install disc. He says Time Machine doesn’t work, and he’s disabled Spotlight to free up RAM and keep the system more responsive.
  • Alberto Crespo has it running on a 700 MHz eMac with 384 MB RAM, an 800 MB eMac with 768 MB, and a 1 GHz eMac (supported) with 640 MB. He used the 1 GHz eMac and FireWire Disk Mode to install Leopard on the slower eMacs.
  • Matt overclocked his 700 MHz eMac to 900 MHz and had no trouble running the standard installer. He says it seems 90-95% as responsive as Tiger, and DVD Player works great.
  • Jeremy Taylor hacked the installer to put Leopard on his 700 MHz eMac, which he says “works great”.

G3 Macs with G4 Upgrades

  • Vic Mabus managed to boot his Pismo PowerBook G3 from Leopard on a FireWire drive. His Pismo has a 550 MHz G4 upgrade and 640 MB of RAM. He says its stable, but far from snappy.
  • Adem Rudin also got Leopard running on his 550 MHz G4-upgraded Pismo and says it’s about as responsive as Tiger on the same hardware. DVD Player does not work, and although 10.5 works with both batteries, it doesn’t recognize the left battery bay.
  • Matt has Leopard running on his slot-loading G3 iMac with a 550 MHz G4 upgrade. He installed using Target Disk Mode and cloned the boot drive from his G4 iBook with Disk Utility. Even with 1 GB of RAM and a 7200 rpm hard drive, he says it seems slower than Tiger.
  • FAILED: Ed Hurtley tried to boot his Blue & White Power Mac G3 with a G4 upgrade and failed.
  • FAILED: Mark Benson modified the installer and tried to put Leopard on the hard drive of his Blue & White G3 with a 500 MHz G4 upgrade from Sonnet. The installer did a kernel panic, reporting that this class of Power Mac is not supported.

PowerBook G4 (Aluminum)

These models are fully supported.

  • Ed Hurtley reports that it only took 20 minutes to install Leopard on his MacBook Pro – and two hours on his 867 MHz 12″ PowerBook G4 with 640 MB RAM and its original 4200 rpm hard drive. He reports that screen sharing and video iChat are not supported on his hardware – and the iChat “Connection Doctor” reports his gigabit ethernet network and 8/1.5 Mbps internet connection are too slow.
  • Jack Curry says Leopard performance on his 867 MHz 12″ PowerBook is comparable to that under Tiger.

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:

  1. What unsupported Mac(s) have you installed it on?
    1. How much RAM?
    2. How fast a CPU, and what brand, if it’s an upgrade?
    3. What video card does your Mac have?
  2. Which installation method did you use, a modified installer or installing from a supported Mac?
    1. If so, what Mac did you use to run the installer?
    2. Did you install to a second internal hard drive, an external FireWire hard drive, or using FireWire Target Disk Mode?
    3. If you used a FireWire drive, did you clone it to your Mac’s internal hard drive? If so, what program did you use to do this?
  3. What doesn’t work? Especially check out Time Machine (which requires a second hard drive at least as big as your main one), DVD Player, Front Row, and VLC.
  4. How does performance compare with Tiger subjectively and objectively?
    1. If you have a chance, run Xbench and Geekbench (before and after would be nice) and let us know the results.
    2. Have you made any changes to your Mac since installing Leopard – more RAM, a better video card, a faster hard drive? How has that improved things?

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

Short link: http://goo.gl/aE1Pu2

Mac Os X 10.5 Download For Powerpc G4

searchword: unsupportedleopard