Bootable Leopard Images...

[dgdosen]

Hi all;

I'm in Apple's developer community, and I'm trying to load the latest copy of Leopard available (9A559) on an old Powerbook (one that should be supported) it's a G4 PPC.

I've got a few questions:

1) the Powerbook only has a single layer DVD - and the image is dual layer - should a single layer DVD drive be able to read a double layer DVD? The one's I've burned can't be read on the Powerbook. I've tried to whittle down the image, as noted on other web sites to fit an image onto a single layer dvd, but the old G4 still won't see it at boot time...

2) If I use the Mac Disk Utility app, should that image be bootable? I don't see any options when burning the DVD from Disk Utility - but to me, it almost looks like the G4 can't read the DVD.

3) I'm creating DVDs on an Intel Mac Book Pro - with a dual layer DVD, and an EFI boot partition. Should DVDs burned on this hardware have any affect on creating a bootable DVD for the G4?

Thanks in advance for any advice! I know this should all work, because the G4 is already running the Leopard Build from the developer's conference...

 

[mkrishnan]

1) No, from what I understand, pretty much all DVD drives should be able to read dual layer media. DVD videos have been DL from almost the start.

2-3) No, Disk Utility is the right thing to use, and it shouldn't matter what you burnt from, Intel or PPC.

Start with reading the disc at all... when booted off the HD, can the PB see / read the DVD you burnt, or does it spit it back out?

 

[dgdosen]

1)
Start with reading the disc at all... when booted off the HD, can the PB see / read the DVD you burnt, or does it spit it back out?

The Intel Mac Book Pro can read both DVDs (One a full DL version, and one a whittled SL Version). They both also show up during the boot process.

On the G4, however - It can't read the DL DVD at all, and while it reads the SL DVD, and I can start the install process where it says "Click the button below to start...", it still only boots up into the image on the hard drive.

Bad DVDs? Bad DVD drive on the G4?

 

[Sun Baked]

You can look under system profiler on the Powerbook, to see what is supported.

Cannot remember but DVD+R wasn't always supported by the superdrives, nor has DL been. And the combo drives were likely a little more restrictive.

http://support.apple.com/specs

 

[mkrishnan]

Hmmm, I don't know. I'm not sure if it's possible to boot the DL disc off the MBP and then install onto the PB by FW Target Disk Mode? But then I'm not sure how it would know to install the PPC version of OS X....

 

[nownot]

here is another option http://gwhiz.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/installing-leopard-from-dmg/
as you can see from teh url its installing leopard from dmg, catch is you have to have 3 partitions. but i did it and it worked. 10.4, external usb, and partitioned my hd to make a 15gb partition to install.

 

[twoodcc]

you could try a regular dvd to see if the powerbook's drive is working.

your other opinion is booting off an external hard drive, and installing off of that

 

[compuwar]

Hi all;

I'm in Apple's developer community, and I'm trying to load the latest copy of Leopard available (9A559) on an old Powerbook (one that should be supported) it's a G4 PPC.

I've got a few questions:

1) the Powerbook only has a single layer DVD - and the image is dual layer - should a single layer DVD drive be able to read a double layer DVD? The one's I've burned can't be read on the Powerbook. I've tried to whittle down the image, as noted on other web sites to fit an image onto a single layer dvd, but the old G4 still won't see it at boot time...

2) If I use the Mac Disk Utility app, should that image be bootable? I don't see any options when burning the DVD from Disk Utility - but to me, it almost looks like the G4 can't read the DVD.

3) I'm creating DVDs on an Intel Mac Book Pro - with a dual layer DVD, and an EFI boot partition. Should DVDs burned on this hardware have any affect on creating a bootable DVD for the G4?

Thanks in advance for any advice! I know this should all work, because the G4 is already running the Leopard Build from the developer's conference...

I burned a dual-layer DVD on my MBP and loaded it just fine on my single-layer Powerbook G4 (DVI.) I think it might have taken me two tries, but it was one rev before 9a599.

 

[weckart]

I had a Powerbook G4 1.5GHz. That thing could burn DVD±R/W, so a burnt DVD should not present a problem in theory. However, there has not been a firmware update for these older drives for a while, and current disks are using newer dyes that may be fooling the laser. I know that my Powerbook was quite fussy about what make of disk it would burn, and it never reached its stated 4x burn speed, ever, though legend had it that this might happen with Apple's own horrendously overpriced media.

Pressed DL disks are of better readable quality than home made burnt disks, which is probably why bought DL DVDs work, but your Leopard disk cannot be read.

You would probably be better off asking this question in the Developers forums at Apple, though.

Alternatively, if you have a spare external firewire disk...