Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

[Defunct] Native OS X 10.5 on a G3

Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
Gamer9430

Gamer9430

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 22, 2014
2,248
1,405
USA
This project has been determined to not be possible past certain beta builds that do not add any Leopard functionality. Please proceed at your own risk when modifying low-level system files, kexts, or kernels.

Original Post:

Several members on here are all actively working on hacking Leopard 10.5 onto G3s. We are attempting to use the .kext files and kernel from the early OS X Leopard WWDC 2006 Preview (which could be run on a G3 natively) and combining them with the kexts from 10.5.8 to allow it to run on a G3.

So far, we have determined that Build 9A303 is (as far as we know) the last version to boot on a G3. Build 9A231 will boot almost to the login screen, but we're not sure if this is due to using an emulator. We also know that by Build 9A466, G3 support was dropped.

That's all we have for now, and we'd always appreciate any help if anyone wants to join us. We will be updating this thread with any new breakthroughs we reach or any news on the project.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: christiann, B S Magnet, Project Alice and 3 others
While this is a neat project, I do wonder what the purpose is in the long run? I doubt there are many G3s still being used daily, let alone any that would perform even decently with Leopard due to the GPU requirements. That being said, keep up the great work and I look forward to hearing more about it.
 
Altemose said:
While this is a neat project, I do wonder what the purpose is in the long run? I doubt there are many G3s still being used daily, let alone any that would perform even decently with Leopard due to the GPU requirements. That being said, keep up the great work and I look forward to hearing more about it.
Click to expand...
One of the things I look forward to is the fact that I could finally use my printer with my G3 Lombard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
same reason I got tiger working on a 603/604 CPU its for the people who want too regardless of how well it runs or how many are left (for example say some one has a Peforma 5500 and they want to run tiger... well before my kernel they could only run up to 10.2.8 now with my kernel they can run 10.4.11 and run some relatively modern apps heh)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Project Alice
If nothing else, I do at least-at the moment-have the 2006 WWDC preview running on a 900mhz iBook G3. I believe that this was the fastest G3 processor that Apple shipped.

The WWDC preview is interesting-it actually looks and feels a lot more like Tiger than Leopard. The flat, pinstriped dock along with the pinstriping in windows and the general finder layout are all there from Tiger, along with the same default desktop background. I only installed it a little bit earlier this evening, so didn't spend much time playing with it.

Also, Safari crashed every time I tried to launch it. I haven't tried TFF(I'll need to download the most recent G3 build and put it on a flash drive), but am not sure if it will run in the Beta or not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: B S Magnet, Project Alice and LightBulbFun
LightBulbFun said:
...say some one has a Peforma 5500 and they want to run tiger...
Click to expand...

I'll fully concede that as a proof of concept, it's pretty neat... But the thought of actually running any version of X (especially Tiger) on my 5500 makes me cringe. Hell... Despite keeping it on a second partition, I don't even like running 9 on it. 8.5 is useable... 8.1 is even better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
MacCubed said:
One of the things I look forward to is the fact that I could finally use my printer with my G3 Lombard.
Click to expand...

You should look up GuttenPrint. I have got a brand new Samsung Printer working with Panther on my G3 iMac. It is incredible, I just connected the printer to the USB port on an Airport Express downstairs, and selected a generic PLC driver from the GuttenPrint package during setup. Works perfectly! They even have versions for OS 9, so I'll try it on my 8600 soon. Every OS X mac in my collection is now happily accessing a 2015 Samsung Laser Printer.

The driver that came with the printer CD said Leopard was required, but alas Panther is currently working without issue on these GuttenPrint drivers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Altemose
tevion5 said:
You should look up GuttenPrint. I have got a brand new Samsung Printer working with Panther on my G3 iMac. It is incredible, I just connected the printer to the USB port on an Airport Express downstairs, and selected a generic PLC driver from the GuttenPrint package during setup. Works perfectly! They even have versions for OS 9, so I'll try it on my 8600 soon. Every OS X mac in my collection is now happily accessing a 2015 Samsung Laser Printer.

The driver that came with the printer CD said Leopard was required, but alas Panther is currently working without issue on these GuttenPrint drivers.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, I'll be sure to try it once I get home at 3:30
 
Hey - I assume this all concluded that it wasn't possible to shoe-horn in an older kernel to 10.5 and / or not possible to compile own kernel?
 
Also, as a side note, since someone mentioned the Lombard earlier in the thread...

Since this thread was started, I have obtained a G4-upgraded Lombard. I'm firmly convinced that there's simply no possible way to run Leopard on a Lombard, although @LightBulbFun MIGHT have better luck if he had it in his hands. Still, though, he's walked me through a lot on the system and we've never been successful.
 
bunnspecial said:
Also, as a side note, since someone mentioned the Lombard earlier in the thread...

Since this thread was started, I have obtained a G4-upgraded Lombard. I'm firmly convinced that there's simply no possible way to run Leopard on a Lombard, although @LightBulbFun MIGHT have better luck if he had it in his hands. Still, though, he's walked me through a lot on the system and we've never been successful.
Click to expand...
Hey, I'm sure it will work. It's just working out what kexts are updated/missing support.

As I've got Leopard booting on a PowerMac 8500 and the Lombard is a much later era motherboard (akin to Beige G3s) I'll accept the challenge that it can boot. I reckon the issue is that the graphics card is could be an issue. First step would be getting it to boot everything but the GUI system.... However on the g4 upgraded Pismo (more like a B&W/Yikes!) Leopard works and that has a piddly Rage Mobility 128.

Want to PM/DM to discuss further or carry on conversation here?

What errors kept coming up?
 
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
indeed I do think a G4 Lombard can boot Leopard, sadly @bunnspecial only gave me a few minutes with the system at the time

(using an image i put together and tested on a G3 beige at the time, as you have seen in my other threads :) )

I suspect his issue was with how he was cloning it

but been a few years since we tried, but it kernel panicked mid to late in the boot process

one of these days ill get a Lombard and a spare Lombard CPU and solder a G4 in place of its PPC750L and give leopard a go :)

(or maybe @dosdude1 will :) )
 
  • Like
Reactions: AphoticD
LightBulbFun said:
indeed I do think a G4 Lombard can boot Leopard, sadly @bunnspecial only gave me a few minutes with the system at the time

(using an image i put together and tested on a G3 beige at the time, as you have seen in my other threads :) )

I suspect his issue was with how he was cloning it

but been a few years since we tried, but it kernel panicked mid to late in the boot process

one of these days ill get a Lombard and a spare Lombard CPU and solder a G4 in place of its PPC750L and give leopard a go :)

(or maybe @dosdude1 will :) )
Click to expand...
Remember, I've had it booted and fully working on an iMac G3 tray-loader, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    1.8 MB · Views: 818
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    2 MB · Views: 431
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    2.7 MB · Views: 370
  • Like
Reactions: Project Alice, LightBulbFun, Traace and 1 other person
Sorry for the bump, but I have been working on achieving Leopard on a G3..

A while back I worked with someone on a shell script to get it working..

I don't remember if it booted.

If someone wants to help me finish it, I have kexts and the builds all ready, I just can't do shell..

If you are interested, please feel free to reach out to me
 
christiann said:
Sorry for the bump, but I have been working on achieving Leopard on a G3..

A while back I worked with someone on a shell script to get it working..

I don't remember if it booted.

If someone wants to help me finish it, I have kexts and the builds all ready, I just can't do shell..

If you are interested, please feel free to reach out to me
Click to expand...
Btw, I saw someone say something about a Lombard PB.. I have one
 
Are we talking about the final build, or one of the basically useless betas?
 
Last edited:
Yeah the only build I’ve managed to boot is 9A241... I got ahold of 343 but that didn’t work (sat at the Apple logo, just spinning)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back