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reinstalling OSX for my PPC on an Intel machine

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NakedLunch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 19, 2009
11
0
Hello all, thank in advance for your time.

I've reformatted my G5 PPC hard disk in my roommates Mac Pro and I was wondering if it's possible to install Tiger on this disk FROM the Mac Pro but FOR the PPC G5.

I ask because the logic board went out on the PPC and I'm afraid it won't stay booted long enough for me to do a full install on my own machine.

Again, thanks.
 
mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
I think the answer is no, in general, but particularly with Tiger. Tiger came in three kinds of discs...

- 1) PPC system restore discs and 2) PPC retail discs -- neither of these have Intel code on them and AFAIK they won't boot up on an Intel Mac to do the installation to begin with (Rosetta lets Intel Macs run PPC code, but it has to run on top of the Intel kernel, which isn't on the discs).

- 3) Intel system restore discs -- these will boot Intel Macs, but AFAIK they don't have the PPC kernel on them to install onto the PMG5, so they don't work either.

I don't think you can do it with Leopard, either... you don't have any working bootable clones or anything? Can you borrow someone's PPC Mac to make the boot disc?
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
pdjudd said:
That won’t work for sure - restore discs are machine specific.
Click to expand...

It's not biggest problem. It was proven, that with some fiddling (modified OSInstall.pkg) it will work. There is PPC kernel on Intel machine specific disks.

Main problem is, that Installer which will running on Intel Mac (Mac Pro in this case), will install Intel kernel only (because it "sees" Intel CPU) and default partition type will be GUID instead APM (required for PPC). Simply: OS installed that way will be non bootable on PPC.
 
N

NakedLunch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 19, 2009
11
0
Thanks all. Here's the update:

Formatted the drive on a friend's intel machine. Luckily, using the hair dryer to warm up the front of the logic board, I was able to keep the machine running long enough to clean install OSX. It was kind of like a miracle and pretty funny seeing the "Welcome to OS X" presentation after all these years.

It was an inconvenience, but success. Now if only I could find someone to reflow this thing locally that won't charge me an arm and a leg.
 
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