iMac G5 install woes

[judgejudyandexecutioner]

I'll start off by saying I'm new to this forum so if I break any rules as regards to threads and such I'm sorry.

Okay, so I recently became the proud owner of an iMac G5 and decided it would be a good idea to install 10.5 Leopard. Now, I have faced several problems in attempting to do this. Since my iMac cannot read dual layer DVDs I decided to try firstly to make a bootable USB with the installer on it, however this proved to be a failure as the mac did not see the drive in the boot menu. I tried to use openfirmware to force the mac to boot from the USB drive but despite using the correct startup keys, the mac booted straight into the OS.
Then I tried to reduce the installer to work on a single layer DVD using the most commonly suggested method online. I made several attempts at this but when restoring the final sparse image an error 22 occurs. I don't know what to do anymore. Any suggestions?

 

[eyoungren]

I'll start off by saying I'm new to this forum so if I break any rules as regards to threads and such I'm sorry.

Okay, so I recently became the proud owner of an iMac G5 and decided it would be a good idea to install 10.5 Leopard. Now, I have faced several problems in attempting to do this. Since my iMac cannot read dual layer DVDs I decided to try firstly to make a bootable USB with the installer on it, however this proved to be a failure as the mac did not see the drive in the boot menu. I tried to use openfirmware to force the mac to boot from the USB drive but despite using the correct startup keys, the mac booted straight into the OS.
Then I tried to reduce the installer to work on a single layer DVD using the most commonly suggested method online. I made several attempts at this but when restoring the final sparse image an error 22 occurs. I don't know what to do anymore. Any suggestions?

Do you have another Mac, even if it's an Intel Mac?

You could put the Leopard DVD in the other Mac's drive and then put that Mac in TDM and connect it to the iMac. Then boot the iMac from the Leopard DVD on the other Mac.

 

[judgejudyandexecutioner]

Do you have another Mac, even if it's an Intel Mac?

You could put the Leopard DVD in the other Mac's drive and then put that Mac in TDM and connect it to the iMac. Then boot the iMac from the Leopard DVD on the other Mac.

Thanks a million for your reply, but doesn't TDM require a firewire cable? That's something I don't have.

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks a million for your reply, but doesn't TDM require a firewire cable? That's something I don't have.

Yeah, depending on the Mac either a 800 to 400 cable or 400 to 400. These are cheap though. You can probably pick one up for less than $5 on eBay.

 

[mmphosis]

I just recently managed to boot my PowerBook G4 using either NetBoot (currently typing this running Mac OS X 10.5.8) or NetInstall (Mac OS X 10.5.1 Installer.) bootpd is running on a Mac Mini. I think it took me longer to get NetBoot / BOOTP working than it would take to ship a firewire cable -- just saying: TDM might be better than the tedium of NetBoot.

If you are interested in the NetBoot route: you will probably need a (DHCP) router although BOOTP can do some DHCP but I didn't go there; ethernet cable(s); working and readable install disk(s); the System Image Utility (ServerAdmin10.5.6v1.1); another "working" Mac -- I used a Mac Mini (PowerPC G4) with enough disk for the images, time, patience, and being okay with the knowledge that it may not work anyways.