Power Mac G5 & OS 10.4

[winterlight]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to install Mac OS 10.4 on a Power Mac G5 (11,2)

The install disc I'm using is a 10.4 Install Disk with Xcode 2 that I bought from eBay.

When I try to boot from the DVD I get a kernel panic.  The kernel version is Darwin 8.0.0

I then tried to boot into Safe Mode where the topline error is "Unable to find driver for this platform: PowerMac11,2"

Looking further on eBay it appears that nobody differentiates versions of Mac OS that are compatible with the 11.2 hardware revision for the G5.

When I try to boot into single user mode I get a kernel panic again.

Can anyone let me know what I can do?

Is there a special version of 10.4 I can use for a G5 with 11,2 hardware?

Two incidental things:

1 - I'm using a 256GB SSD as the HDD, it is unformatted.  I've tried both Bay A and B.

2 - I'm using a non-Apple USB mouse, not sure if this has anything to do with this.

BTW, I'm trying to do this so that I can use Classic Mode to play games on this thing.  

Hope you guys can help this poor Mac-noob!

 

[360alaska]

For this newer G5 you need at least OS 10.4.2, maybe you can install the drive in another older G5 and do the updates and then move it back. Otherwise, you'll need to find a newer copy of 10.4.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Since Apple isn't really making money selling OSX 10.4 anymore, I think you can just download it somewhere on the internet (e.g. mac garden)

-> download link

Some people prefer buying their own disk, I don't get that. If you collect software that's another thing... but just for one install? Is it really worth it?

It's just as if you HAD to buy an original System 1.1 disk to use your 128k Mac. (most of them are shot anyway ;( )

Tiger_4_6.dmg_.zip should do the trick. You'll have to burn it though (DVD RW is fine with those later drives). If I manage to get my Quad to post, that'll be the image I'll be using to install 10.4.

You can then proceed to update to 10.4.11 (latest update) with Tiger_Updates.dmg_.zip.

 

[winterlight]

Thx for the info BadGoldEagle!!

I'm writing this on a 10.4.11 G5 and it was super easy! I love how macs do everything for you ^^

I'm now trying to get classic mode to run on this thing now

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Glad that it works! 

IIRC, you just need to have an OS9 system folder on your OSX partition. The mac will detect it, and a new system preference pane called "Classic" will pop up.

You can use Sheepshaver to build a Virtual Machine from which you'll extract the OS9 system folder... That's one way to do it.

 

[Themk]

Now I just need to reinstall the OS on my G5, but I think I want to try panther, as I have only 512MB of RAM (I realise though that tiger will work with 512MB or RAM, but I don't want it to be a crunch).

 

[winterlight]

Thx again for the advice on using Classic. Any chance you know about any tutorials on this? The classic icon shows up in preferences but using that environment is a little confusing for me

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Never done it myself but this guide looks comprehensive enough.

http://web.archive.org/web/20121026093607/http://flylib.com/books/en/4.299.1.61/1/

 

[Themk]

That tutorial is spot on, great find!

 

[johnklos]

Use Firewire Target mode and an older computer to install OS X 10.4 on the disk in the Power Mac G5, then update it to 10.4.11. Then it should work with the G5.