Can 10.3.9 run on the final generation of IBooks?

[cnelson]

Hello,

I have recently purchased a used IBook G4 1.42 Ghz to replace an older G4 Ibook I owned. My intention was to take out the new IBook's current hard drive (OS 10.4.2) and replace it with the hard drive in my previous IBook (10.3.9). When I dropped it in and tried to boot I was met with a flashing ?/Apple Face folder logo.

I would like to stick with 10.3.9 for a while until some of third party vendors catch up with 10.5.

So my questions are:

#1. Is it possible to run the last generation of IBook G4 (1.42) with OS 10.3.x?

#2. If so, should I just erase the hard drive and do a clean restart, or am I doing something else incorrectly?

[iBookG4user]

No, the final generation of iBooks can't run Panther.

[Sherman Homan]

That model shipped with 10.4.2 which means you probably can't go back to Panther.
Edit: (iBookG4user beat me to it!)

[KingYaba]

Could always stick in your Panther disk and try. :p

[cnelson]

That model shipped with 10.4.2 which means you probably can't go back to Panther.
Edit: (iBookG4user beat me to it!)

Does anyone know for sure? I'm kind of surprised there isn't official Apple documentation on this...

[Sherman Homan]

That is the official Apple position. Of course, there are many hacks that very motivated people have come up with. Although I don't know of one that will run Panther on your model G4.

[iBookG4user]

Does anyone know for sure? I'm kind of surprised there isn't official Apple documentation on this...

The last generation iBooks shipped with 10.4.2 and Panther was never a disk included, so it won't be able to run it.