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Early Intel Tiger Installer?

alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 24, 2020
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While waiting for my new to me mac mini C2D 2.0GHz Late ‘06 to come in, I’ve been looking around at what Tiger installers I can find. I found this (ISO?) that claims to be compatible with any Intel Mac (I know there is not a real unmodified retail release that works on every Intel Mac).
archive.org

OS X 10.4.5 Tiger Intel Installer DVD (Retail) : Apple : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Retail installer DVD for the Apple Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger Operating System for Intel Macs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a_sVNEfUbU
archive.org

Anyone find anything better? I will let y’all know how this works for me on the Mac mini…
 
I've never actually tried the one you linked, I've seen it but not sure what the success rate is. I know many things will be busted until you update. I myself have always used the only 10.4 Universal installer that was officially released, the 10.4.7 Server disc, but this is probably not appealing to you. If you want I can find it as well though.

There was also this link that was shared with me almost 3 years ago: https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4990524 It's all in Russian and I'll leave it up to you what to make of this but it may be worth a try. Hopefully my post doesn't get hit for sharing this but we'll see...
 
retta283 said:
I've never actually tried the one you linked, I've seen it but not sure what the success rate is. I know many things will be busted until you update. I myself have always used the only 10.4 Universal installer that was officially released, the 10.4.7 Server disc, but this is probably not appealing to you. If you want I can find it as well though.

There was also this link that was shared with me almost 3 years ago: https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4990524 It's all in Russian and I'll leave it up to you what to make of this but it may be worth a try. Hopefully my post doesn't get hit for sharing this but we'll see...
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I figure anything as old as Tiger wouldn’t be hit, as even leopard appears OK on the PowerPC forums.

I really just want Tiger for this Mac mini, if I can’t find an Installer I’ll probably end up just paying for some Tiger DVD and modding it myself to make it work on every Intel mac, then upload it…
 
I'd use a 10.4.6 or later grey disc (the Mac mini requires a machine-specific build of 10.4.5 at minimum) and remove the machine check. 10.4.10 is as new as the grey discs got.

Code: 
https://archive.org/details/MacOSX10.4.10-iMac-2Z691-6104-A_2Z691-6113-A

Alternatively, as mentioned, Tiger Server 10.4.7 is universal and installs on any Intel Mac released in August 2006 or earlier without the need to patch anything.
 
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The reason it’s like this, btw, is because since every Intel Mac came with at least Tiger preinstalled, there was no reason for Apple to release a retail installer. Who would have bought it?
 
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Amethyst1 said:
I'd use a 10.4.6 or later grey disc (the Mac mini requires a machine-specific build of 10.4.5 at minimum) and remove the machine check. 10.4.10 is as new as the grey discs got.

Code: 
https://archive.org/details/MacOSX10.4.10-iMac-2Z691-6104-A_2Z691-6113-A

Alternatively, as mentioned, Tiger Server 10.4.7 is universal and installs on any Intel Mac released in August 2006 or earlier without the need to patch anything.
Click to expand...
Honestly from what I can find the 10.4.7 disc will work on any Tiger-supported Intel Mac, even the 2007 iMacs and the 2008 iMacs work with it. A lot of stuff is busted but updating seems to fix the majority of them, it's a case-by-case basis. The only problem is that sometimes installing the update to 10.4.8 or higher will make it unbootable, I found no solution for this other than installing the update via Target Disk Mode on an older Intel Mac, such as a Core Duo.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
I'd use a 10.4.6 or later grey disc (the Mac mini requires a machine-specific build of 10.4.5 at minimum) and remove the machine check. 10.4.10 is as new as the grey discs got.

Code: 
https://archive.org/details/MacOSX10.4.10-iMac-2Z691-6104-A_2Z691-6113-A

Alternatively, as mentioned, Tiger Server 10.4.7 is universal and installs on any Intel Mac released in August 2006 or earlier without the need to patch anything.
Click to expand...
That linked iMac Mac OS X 10.4.10 disk is what I used for my MacPro3,1 Tiger installation.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-tiger-thread-mac-os-x-10-4.2134451/post-30121861
 
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Code: 
https://archive.org/details/MacOSX10.4.10-Mac-2Z691-6089-A_2Z691-6113-A

Here's another 10.4.10 - that disc should work OOTB on your C2D Mini :)

(That For Mac Computers bit is interesting, indicating that the installer recognises several model IDs as valid rather than being specific to just one. I have a multi-machine 10.4.8 disc.)
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Code: 
https://archive.org/details/MacOSX10.4.10-Mac-2Z691-6089-A_2Z691-6113-A

Here's another 10.4.10 - that disc should work OOTB on your C2D Mini :)

(That For Mac Computers bit is interesting, indicating that the installer recognises several model IDs as valid rather than being specific to just one. I have a multi-machine 10.4.8 disc.)
Click to expand...
Thank you guys, after work I'll be buying a few DVD-Rs and the Mac should be here and ready to go!
 
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alex_free said:
Thank you guys, after work I'll be buying a few DVD-Rs and the Mac should be here and ready to go!
Click to expand...
If you have some free space (in an extra partition) on another Mac and a FireWire cable I’d suggest restoring the image you want to try onto that other machine, putting it into TDM and installing on the mini from there. Much faster and less of a hassle than burning DVDs (especially if the mini's drive turns out to be dead LOL). :)
 
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Amethyst1 said:
If you have some free space (in an extra partition) on another Mac and a FireWire cable I’d suggest restoring the image you want to try onto that other machine, putting it into TDM and installing on the mini from there. Much faster and less of a hassle than burning DVDs (especially if the mini's drive turns out to be dead LOL). :)
Click to expand...
291B4D94-70B6-4B70-8E3B-CFE2FAF9CC00.jpeg

The Mac mini tower has begun. So great I don’t have to get another DVI to HDMI cable just yet.

Still somehow don’t have anything FireWire but thanks for the reminder that I need to at some point! Usually I would just restore the image to a partition on the main HDD and boot that, but I’ve been meaning to get some DVD-Rs for awhile now. Now I have 2 hours to kill until that dmg you linked is ready.
 
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alex_free said:
View attachment 1823302
The Mac mini tower has begun. So great I don’t have to get another DVI to HDMI cable just yet.

Still somehow don’t have anything FireWire but thanks for the reminder that I need to at some point! Usually I would just restore the image to a partition on the main HDD and boot that, but I’ve been meaning to get some DVD-Rs for awhile now. Now I have 2 hours to kill until that dmg you linked is ready.
Click to expand...
And I’m off to the races! This thing is FAST on 10.4.11 I’m truly blown away.
 
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alex_free said:
And I’m off to the races! This thing is FAST on 10.4.11 I’m truly blown away.
Click to expand...
Wait till you see it on an SSD, it's incredible. One thing I always remember is there is usually a pause when you click a track in iTunes but with an SSD it starts playing instantly. Depends on whether you want to crack it open to do the SSD job as it is quite involved, just tedious.
 
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retta283 said:
They're nearly the same process, seems like the internal layout of the two is identical.
Click to expand...

This is why I was curious because I've replaced my Mini's HDD with an SSD. :)

retta283 said:
It's not hard but it's just tedious to crack it open with a putty knife or other tool.
Click to expand...

A putty knife is my tool of choice for whenever I need to venture inside and initially, I was worried about damaging the casing but over time it became more or less straightforward. Getting access to the RAM/HDD is certainly more tedious than a G4 PowerMac or a MacBook Pro but nowhere near the hassle of working on an iBook. :D
 
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TheShortTimer said:
This is why I was curious because I've replaced my Mini's HDD with an SSD. :)



A putty knife is my tool of choice for whenever I need to venture inside and initially, I was worried about damaging the casing but over time it became more or less straightforward. Getting access to the RAM/HDD is certainly more tedious than a G4 PowerMac or a MacBook Pro but nowhere near the hassle of working on an iBook. :D
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Those iBooks are a major pain. Same with the 12" PowerBooks. I'd love to pick one of those up but with their age the Drives have to be worn out, and if they fail it would be some time before I got it running again, if I ever did...
 
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Amethyst1 said:
You need a 2009 mini now to complete it. :D


What image did you use?
Click to expand...
How did you read my mind?!

It’s kinda insane how much faster the late 2006 is compared to the mid 2005. GCC 7 compiled in hours compared to multiple days (~3 days I think).

I used the last thing you linked and it’s perfect on 10.4.11:

archive.org

Mac OS X 10.4.10 - iMac Restore DVD - 2Z691-6104-A - 2Z691-6113-A : Apple Computer, Inc. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Mac OS X 10.4.10 - iMac Restore DVD - 2Z691-6104-A - 2Z691-6113-A
archive.org

I was able to only use install disc 1 as well by unselecting install bundled software. Otherwise it would say before installation that I had chosen to install software that would require install disc 2.
 
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alex_free said:
I think Tiger was the peak Apple OS (and not snow leopard)…

Also, all my Macs have original drives now that I think about it. Lol one day soon I always say…
Click to expand...
I agree with this. SL had a few things that really irritated me such as the removal of font smoothing options requiring Terminal commands for everything. I also thought that the SL Front Row was a big downgrade from the Tiger one, if I wanted the Apple TV interface I'd have an Apple TV.

It also runs like garbage on GMA Minis, at least on my 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 monitors. Tiger runs fine 95% of the time. It's especially Stacks that are affected. They have that black transparent background that lags the system hard, I have not yet found a way to turn this off. I always use Stacks even if just in list mode.
 
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alex_free said:
I think Tiger was the peak Apple OS
Click to expand...
I agree but to me it's on par with SL most of the time (apart from the UI which is a million times better on Tiger). I am so glad we have an Intel version of Tiger!

alex_free said:
It’s kinda insane how much faster the late 2006 is compared to the mid 2005. GCC 7 compiled in hours compared to multiple days (~3 days I think).
Click to expand...
Well, the switch happened for a reason...
 
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