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cinecal

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 8, 2007
1
0
New Haven, Ct
I'm relatively new to Macs and I wanted to try a clean install (or erase and install) on my ibook. I recently purchased a MBP and since Leopard is on the horizon, I wanted to do a "trial run" of installing an updated operating system. I know that you can just hit update instead of doing a clean install, but I've been reading that things run better when you do a fresh install. My old ibook still has Panther on it and I figured I could try to install Tiger on it from my MBP disks. I know that this represents a violation of the license, but I thought it would be worth it to ensure that I don't make any major mistakes when I'm doing the same procedure with my brand new MBP when Leopard gets released. When I tried booting from the disk from my ibook I got a kernel panic which I interpreted as a sign that it was not a good idea so I abandoned the project. Now every time I try to start my ibook I get another kernel panic and I'm afraid I just broke my old computer. Any advice on how to fix this, or even an explanation of what went wrong would be helpful. By the way this is my first post, although I read the forums every chance I get. Thank you.
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
macbook pro installation discs are built for the intel processors, the iBook's don't have the intel processor.
 

0007776

Suspended
Jul 11, 2006
6,473
8,170
Somewhere
try reinstallint the old operarting system on the iBook from its origional disks or a retail disk. it can not use the intel code from the MBP disk, so it just kernal panics
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
If you're getting the kernel panic immediately even when the install DVD is not in the drive, then there are only a few possibilities...

1) Hardware has gone bad -- could be a coincidence, might not be.

2) The hard disk in the iBook has a logical error... you can try repairing the disk (boot from a PPC install DVD and then use Disk Utility to Repair Disk, or else use single user mode, etc).
 

synth3tik

macrumors 68040
Oct 11, 2006
3,951
2
Minneapolis, MN
If you had started running the install with the MBP disc then it has some incomplete installers on the system, which is why you may be getting the kernal panics. If you were not having errors before then this will be your issue. If you still have the discs that came with your iBook I would try and use them to recover your iBook. Apple is still selling 10.4 but I am sure you can find it cheaper on ebay if you just anted to see how it runs. If your iBook is a G4 you will be able to run 10.5. It may run slower then desired, but you will be able to do it.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
If you had started running the install with the MBP disc then it has some incomplete installers on the system

I don't think he/she should ever have gotten this far. The disc would refuse to install... possibly even refuse to boot properly (I'm not sure that it contains enough universal components... can it even make it far enough into OS X to allow writing to the drive?). That's why I was leaning to a disk error... the disk structure might have gotten messed up during the initial panic.
 
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