Upgrading Tiger to Leopard with partition issues...

onkzzz · May 26, 2014

As some of you may know from my last post, I got my old 2005 iBook G4 working. It is on Tiger, but I want it on Leopard. I have the disc for Leopard but here is my dilemma (shortened):

1: Cannot boot from OS X Leopard Disc; won't show at boot manager (option key)
2: iBook doesn't mount disc when booted into Tiger
3: Other discs work fine!
4: Booting from USB isn't supported on it.
5: Saw this: Diskless Leopard Installation
6: Time Machine isn't in tiger.
7: Used Disk Utility instead.
8: Wanted to partition startup disk, but it says its not allowed.
9: Tried using root user, same issue.
10: Spent 10 hours doing all this, decided to come to MacRumors to all you fancy internet wizards of epicness.

So, there you have it. What I want to do is partition my Macintosh HD but I can't, since it won't let me. I want to install Leopard from a 10GB partition.
I EVEN HAVE 10GB FREE!
It just won't do it.
Please help.
-- onkzzz

jrsx · May 26, 2014

Unfortunately, you cannot partition the startup disk in Tiger. Leopard was the first to allow it. You will have to boot from another DVD and use it's partition manager. If you have 10.4.4 or later Tiger disks, you can non destructively partition, I believe.

onkzzz · May 26, 2014

jrsx said:
Unfortunately, you cannot partition the startup disk in Tiger. Leopard was the first to allow it. You will have to boot from another DVD and use it's partition manager. If you have 10.4.4 or later Tiger disks, you can non destructively partition, I believe.

So, could there be another way of installing?
I really want Leopard and I have everything I need to upgrade.

jrsx · May 26, 2014

onkzzz said:
So, could there be another way of installing?
I really want Leopard and I have everything I need to upgrade.

If you have a PowerPC Linux liveCD you could boot up and use its disk utility to partition your startup disk non-destructively, but if you don't have one, don't go to the trouble of making one. I would try your luck at USB booting. It's iffy for me and some people, but many have accomplished it. I would look into it.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=i4LW_PxnBmLkqu5yPRV2_g&bvm=bv.67720277,d.cGU

eyoungren · May 26, 2014

onkzzz said:
As some of you may know from my last post, I got my old 2005 iBook G4 working. It is on Tiger, but I want it on Leopard. I have the disc for Leopard but here is my dilemma (shortened):

1: Cannot boot from OS X Leopard Disc; won't show at boot manager (option key)
2: iBook doesn't mount disc when booted into Tiger
3: Other discs work fine!
4: Booting from USB isn't supported on it.
5: Saw this: Diskless Leopard Installation
6: Time Machine isn't in tiger.
7: Used Disk Utility instead.
8: Wanted to partition startup disk, but it says its not allowed.
9: Tried using root user, same issue.
10: Spent 10 hours doing all this, decided to come to MacRumors to all you fancy internet wizards of epicness.

So, there you have it. What I want to do is partition my Macintosh HD but I can't, since it won't let me. I want to install Leopard from a 10GB partition.
I EVEN HAVE 10GB FREE!
It just won't do it.
Please help.
-- onkzzz

Is your optical drive a combo drive? I.e., a CDROM drive and not a DVD drive?

If it's a DVD drive then know that some DVD drives don't like dual layer DVDs.

Your assumption in #4 is wrong. Some Macs will boot from USB without a problem. Personally, I have yet to find a model that will show a USB drive as a startup disk, but I'm told that this is possible.

In any case there's a way to work around this.

You need a Leopard install disk image and some sort of USB media. An external drive, a USB stick, etc.

1. There are instructions out there about how to get a disk image on to USB media via Disk Utility and the Restore option. Follow those directions. Once you have the USB media ready then do this:

2. Boot in to Open Firmware. CMD+O+F when booting your Mac.
3. Follow these instructions to book from your USB media.

Hope that helps!

onkzzz · May 26, 2014

Update #1

jrsx said:
I would try your luck at USB booting. It's iffy for me and some people, but many have accomplished it. I would look into it.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=i4LW_PxnBmLkqu5yPRV2_g&bvm=bv.67720277,d.cGU

Thank you for the link my friend, I am trying it now.

eyoungren said:
Your assumption in #4 is wrong. Some Macs will boot from USB without a problem. Personally, I have yet to find a model that will show a USB drive as a startup disk, but I'm told that this is possible.

I wasn't assuming, I was saying it because I tried it countless times.

eyoungren · May 26, 2014

onkzzz said:
I wasn't assuming, I was saying it because I tried it countless times.

Soyou're saying that you have booted in to Open Firmware and tried to get your iBook to boot from USB following the instructions I linked toand have failed every time?

Altemose · May 26, 2014

eyoungren said:
Soyou're saying that you have booted in to Open Firmware and tried to get your iBook to boot from USB following the instructions I linked toand have failed every time?

In my experience, some USB drives will not work at all with PPC Macs. Also, if this had some "enhanced software" coupled with it like the U3 Cruzer drives by SanDisk, it probably won't work. On my G4s and G5s I only ever got a PNY USB drive to work.

tom vilsack · May 26, 2014

I had a hard time getting my ibooks to boot from usb...did a ton of research and personal trial and error...this now works for me,

-command + option + O + F (to boot to open firmware)

now depending what usb port you have usb drive plugged into...

-boot usb0/disk@1:3,\\:tbxi
-boot usb1/disk@1:3,\\:tbxi

eyoungren · May 26, 2014

Altemose said:
In my experience, some USB drives will not work at all with PPC Macs. Also, if this had some "enhanced software" coupled with it like the U3 Cruzer drives by SanDisk, it probably won't work. On my G4s and G5s I only ever got a PNY USB drive to work.

OK, I can see that. It works for me though simply because my externals are simply USB cases and bare hard drives and generic USB sticks.

I even had Leopard booting off an SD card inside my old Windows Mobile phone once.

onkzzz · May 26, 2014

Success

Update #2:

SUCCESS!
I used another USB drive, flashed it with Leopard and it works through Open Firmware.
Using:
boot usb1/disk@1:10,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX

But now, another issue!
It won't install because it
"could not locate installer data"
I get past the "Select HDD" screen and press install, and a big yellow warning sign comes up with that error.
Do you think this is due to me deteting all other languages from the DMG?

(I did that to save space)

jrsx · May 26, 2014

onkzzz said:
SUCCESS!
I used another USB drive, flashed it with Leopard and it works through Open Firmware.
Using:
boot usb1/disk@1:10,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX

But now, another issue!
It won't install because it
"could not locate installer data"
I get past the "Select HDD" screen and press install, and a big yellow warning sign comes up with that error.
Do you think this is due to me deteting all other languages from the DMG?

(I did that to save space)

Great! I would leave everything from the ISO on the .DMG to be honest. Just to avoid any complications.

Btw, what USB are you using?

eyoungren · May 26, 2014

onkzzz said:
Do you think this is due to me deteting all other languages from the DMG?

(I did that to save space)

I think so. You need a USB stick (or drive) that at minimum is 8GB. You want all the data on it, as jrsx mentioned.

onkzzz · May 26, 2014

eyoungren said:
I think so. You need a USB stick (or drive) that at minimum is 8GB. You want all the data on it, as jrsx mentioned.

Okay. It's getting a bit late here in the UK now so I will try tomorrow. Thanks for all the help guys! I really have had a solution every time I use these forums!

jrsx said:
Great! I would leave everything from the ISO on the .DMG to be honest. Just to avoid any complications.

Btw, what USB are you using?

8GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro (non U3)

----------

Altemose said:
Also, if this had some "enhanced software" coupled with it like the U3 Cruzer drives by SanDisk, it probably won't work...

Since I like tinkering with different OS's from time to time, I decided to get a SanDisk drive for reliability, but without the U3.
It really was worth the money.

onkzzz · May 27, 2014

Update #3:

jrsx said:
I would leave everything from the ISO on the .DMG to be honest. Just to avoid any complications.

I have just flashed the USB with the FULL DMG and it is installing perfectly. Great advice, thanks

jrsx · May 27, 2014

onkzzz said:
Update #3:

I have just flashed the USB with the FULL DMG and it is installing perfectly. Great advice, thanks

No problem!

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Upgrading Tiger to Leopard with partition issues...

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