Installing Leopard (OsX 10.5) on G4s slower than 867mhz

[riffer]

If you're like me, and own an older G4 macintosh and were pissed that you couldn't run Leopard on it, here's a solution.

You see, the installer checks to see if your CPU is at least 867Mhz. And it does that by querying the mac bios, Open Firmware. If Ope Firmware reports "400 mhz" like in my Sawtooth G4, then no go.

Well, there is an answer to this.

The easiest way to install Leopard on unsupported G4s is to spoof the clock speed in Open Firmware before installing. Spoofing will have Open Firmware tell OS X that your G4 is up-to-speed until you reboot. This will allow you to install without hacking an install disc or working in Target Disk Mode. You will still need to meet the 512 MB of RAM requirement, but I wouldn't suggest using less anyway.

To install Leopard on an "unsupported" G4 clocked under 867 MHz:
1. Reboot your Mac and hold down the Cmd-Opt-O-F keys until you get a white screen with black text. This is the Open Firmware prompt.
2. Insert the Mac OS X Leopard Install DVD.
3. Type the following lines exactly as shown below into the Open Firmware prompt. Be mindful of capitalization, spaces, zeros, etc. If the command is properly typed and understood, Open Firmware will display "ok" at the end of each line after you hit "return". What these lines do is set the CPU speed reported by Open Firmware to OS X as an 867 MHz G4 processor system. They then continue the boot from the DVD drive.
For single CPUs, use the following three lines:
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
d# 867000000 encode-int " clock-frequency" property
boot cd:,\\:tbxi
For dual CPUs, use the following five lines:
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
d# 867000000 encode-int " clock-frequency" property
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@1
d# 867000000 encode-int " clock-frequency" property
boot cd:,\\:tbxi
4. Continue the install normally.

This hack will only last until you reboot the mac, and then it will return to its original value.

[smoky]

That's an awesome tip

I found I couldn't update to the new ipod or iTunes, & other programs on the old G4
I just went and got a new Mac (mini) - 2GHz intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Nice machine.

If you up date the G4 like you say (still have it), can you update programs like the most recent iTunes?

[RantyDave]

You can also:

* Copy the DVD onto an external drive
* Fuck about with the javascript that tests for processor speed
* Install off that

HOWEVER: I did this on a dual G4/500 (with 1GB) and it was as buggy as hell. Point is that while the duallie was quite able to run 10.5, the OS was never tested against the hardware so it kept mucking up. Shame, I know, but 10.4 is actually OK.

Dave

[riffer]

You can also:

* Copy the DVD onto an external drive
* Fuck about with the javascript that tests for processor speed
* Install off that

Yes, you can do that Dave. But what you are doing there is ILLEGAL.

My way is legal.

[nosebleed]

nice tip...

i personally saw the OS upgrades as being part of the PC psyche - they must have the latest software coz they're continuously fiddling with their bloody machines.
my G4 Quicksilver has worked like a charm for years (yeah WE all know -- 'they just work') and i've been running Panther and iTunes 7.x since ages ago and never saw the need to upgrade since i don't have an iPod and all the latest updates were iPod/ movie related.

my intention was to put off major upgrades to go Mac Pro - if/when the time comes.
recently tho, my cell phone pussed out on me, so i grabbed an iPhone - bundled with the 'just plug into iTunes to run it' sales pitch.
fuckin thing needs iTunes 8.x - which won't install on Panther, so I'm 'forced' to upgrade the OS, so i can install iTunes 8.0, so I can run this phone.

Anyhoo, Its as i thought, Tiger OS, so what?
Whats your need to go to Leopard? and is it worth it?