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I need help...

phreakout

Well-known member
I will be very soon getting a new laptop (PowerBook G3 Pismo) and it may not include the OSX Install disc(s). I know I have a spare set of PowerBook G4 12" Install CDs with OSX Panther included with it. I was hoping someone out there knew of a way to successfully extract the OSX install from off of these discs and rewrite them to blank CDs. Otherwise, I'll just spend the $$ and purchase a Universal OSX Boot DVD from someone online. Are there any OSX gurus out there whom have been able to attempt the above?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

73s 8)

 

Bolle

Well-known member
you can easily use the discs to install osx on the pismo, can´t you?

i don´t know if it works with panther, but jaguar definetly let me do that. (my g4 mdd cd´s contain jaguar and i installed it on a yosemite, pismo, 9500 and another g4 from these cd´s)

 

The Macster

Well-known member
you can easily use the discs to install osx on the pismo, can´t you?i don´t know if it works with panther, but jaguar definetly let me do that.
Quite often the discs that come with machines are locked to that particular Mac and/or have a customised version of the OS eg with G4 or G5-specific bits. It wouldn't hurt to give it a go though - with the Classic-based Mac-specific discs at least, some will work on any Mac while others only work on the Mac named on the disc.

Just out of interest, what is actually on the discs - are they structured like a normal OS X disc? Is there an osinstall.mpkg package that may work even if the main Setup program refuses to work? It could be worth looking in the distribution packages inside the OS X packages on the disc - this is how they block installation of applications on older OSes and G3 processors, and if you remove the relevant lines you can make it install regardless of these artificial limits, though with the entire OS it's probably more complicated than that.

 

phreakout

Well-known member
I appreciate the speculations, but I need to hear from anyone who has successfully attempted this feat. Sorry.

73s 8)

 

MacMan

Well-known member
A possible route could be to find someone with a PowerBook G4 12", link it to the Pismo with a Firewire cable then start the Pismo in Firewire disc mode. Run the OS X installer on the G4 and select the Pismo's drive as the destination. As far as the installer program is concerned it is installing OS X onto a drive on the PowerBook G4.

This workaround of model-specific install discs does work, I've tried! ;)

 

equill

Well-known member
Using one PowerBook-specific set of Install CDs to install onto another PowerBook may be less fraught in at least one respect: the specific PowerBook requirements (eg, battery charge and maintenance, sleep, power and memory management) may have a better chance of being installed than would be the case from a desktop-specific CD.

The point is, however, easily tested. Try it.

de

 

Big Bird

Well-known member
As for someone who's attempted this feat, I've successfully installed the version of Panther that came with my PowerBook G4 15" onto my Lombard. So that's close, but not exactly the same. It was a completely unmodified installation; I just popped the DVD into an external drive and ran the install.

You can also use Pacifist to extract the installers and installer files from the packages (.pkg).

 

quinterro

Well-known member
A coworker gave me a set of Panther CDs for his iBook after he upgraded to Tiger.

I installed it on my B/W G3 without any problems.

Later I bought an upgrade DVD for Tiger and it likes it!

 

phreakout

Well-known member
I'll leave Tiger on the 'Book for now, but if a problem comes up (Hard drive crash, hard drive upgrade, etc.) I would be able to reload OSX on it. Personally, I think Panther has a much faster operation on a G3 than Tiger, but I'll probably shut off some stuff I won't need running, like Spotlight or Widgets. I don't know. I'll wait and see when it gets here, first.

73s 8)

 

phreakout

Well-known member
Time to post an update:

I found the install discs for a PowerBook G4 12" 1Ghz and discovered they are actually DVDs instead of CDs. I placed Disc 1 in the optical drive and rebooted the PBG3. Surprsingly, it booted right off the DVD and was ready to install OSX. I haven't done the install yet, since I have to switch hard drives that are in the computer. The one in the laptop currently is a 60GB with Tiger and I have a spare blank 40GB hard drive. I'll just swap them and see if it'll install Panther. More still to come.

73s 8)

 

phreakout

Well-known member
Time for another update:

OK, I placed an empty 40GB hard drive in the Pismo, created 2 partitions, formatted the partitions and installed OS 9.2.2 on one of the partitions. After installing all OS9 updates, I then placed Disk 1 of 2 of the PowerBook G4 12" 1 Ghz Software Install and Restore disks in the optical drive.

I booted the computer off of that DVD and was able to install Panther on the Pismo. As for the remaining software on those disks, well, I would need to have a PowerBook G4 12" 1 Ghz to install them on. But at least this confirms that you can use that disk to install Panther on a Pismo. And I didn't even need to use Pacifist to do it. [:D] ]'>

I am typing this update using that laptop with Panther installed as proof. Now I'm off to install all the required updates for Panther.

73s 8)

 
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