iBook G4 Tiger Discs on Power Mac G5

[AmazingHenry]

Recently, I've been wanting to put Tiger on my Power Mac and test it out. Maybe even switch from Leopard and start using Tiger as my main OS. But the only Tiger discs I have are for my iBook G4. I have a trick that involves target disk mode that will allow me to install Tiger on the Power Mac (if you don't know what it is, feel free to ask). Here's my question: Is the iBook G4 version of Tiger optimized in any way? Will I need to modify anything to get full performance on my Power Mac? Thanks for any help.

 

[eyoungren]

The install disks for the iBookk will just check that it's an iBook and will install the specific drivers for the iBook specifically and the drivers for all other Macs in general.

Your other Mac will function fine. This is how I got Panther on our G4s at work back in the day - using the install disk from our G5 and TDM.

 

[MysticCow]

I know you used to be able to bypass the restore checks by manually installing everything. This involves making the Finder show hidden files. I know on my old iBook, I could pull things off of the restore discs this way.

However, for a full OS install, you'll likely have to use the other system as a target disk.

 

[0248294]

No, the OS always installs all kexts, since they take up little space yet make the OS universal. If you take a HDD from one PowerPC Mac to the other, it will work fine if the OS is able to run on both systems. All they changed with the iBook discs is the start up script, which contains a "badmachine" sequence. It checks for the system identifier and prevents booting of the disc on any system that's "bad". Store bought discs do not have this, except for unsupported Macs, unlike the iBook specific discs. You could do TDM, or copy the disc to an ISO, change that file, and burn said modified ISO as an universal Tiger disc. Only the first disc in case of the 4 CD set needs to change, since it only boots from that. The 8-bit Guy has a video on it on his channel, IIRC.

 

[AmazingHenry]

I know you used to be able to bypass the restore checks by manually installing everything. This involves making the Finder show hidden files. I know on my old iBook, I could pull things off of the restore discs this way.

However, for a full OS install, you'll likely have to use the other system as a target disk.

No, the OS always installs all kexts, since they take up little space yet make the OS universal. If you take a HDD from one PowerPC Mac to the other, it will work fine if the OS is able to run on both systems. All they changed with the iBook discs is the start up script, which contains a "badmachine" sequence. It checks for the system identifier and prevents booting of the disc on any system that's "bad". Store bought discs do not have this, except for unsupported Macs, unlike the iBook specific discs. You could do TDM, or copy the disc to an ISO, change that file, and burn said modified ISO as an universal Tiger disc. Only the first disc in case of the 4 CD set needs to change, since it only boots from that. The 8-bit Guy has a video on it on his channel, IIRC.

What I'll be doing is booting the iBook G4 from the install disc, and then attaching the Power Mac. When I get to the part where it asks for a hard drive, I'd pick the Power Mac's. It always works, even for installing on unsupported Macs.

 

[AmazingHenry]

Thanks everyone! I have the G5 running Tiger now and it's really fast. I may even switch to it as my main OS, but I'll have to make sure all of the software I use is compatible.