Hello group, hope I'm in the right forum. Long story short, I need to install the retail version of Leopard on a 2008 MacPro 3,1. It should work since it originally came with Leopard pre-installed but I don't have the original system discs. I DO have two retail install DVD's, one is 10.5 and the other 10.5.1. On both discs, my MacPro boots, starts reading the DVD and then the death curtain comes down. I've tried many good drives formatted to GUID (not APM) but still fails. Any thoughts? Thanks!
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Leopard on a MacPro 3,1
- Thread starter GreyRockOne
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I know this is linking to PowerPC downloads, but the Leopard installer should be universal: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
Burn to a DL DVD and then try installing from the one you downloaded. There's a 10.5.4 and a 10.5.6 installer in there.
Burn to a DL DVD and then try installing from the one you downloaded. There's a 10.5.4 and a 10.5.6 installer in there.
If it's a 2008 MacPro 3.1, it came preinstalled with Leopard 10.5.1. The 10.5 DVD may not work.
Rather than mess with Leopard, it might be easier to get hold of a retail copy of Snow Leopard (10.6.X) and install that instead.
Why do you need Leopard?
I've booted my 3,1 with my APM based FireWire drive I use on PPC Macs. (Late 2005 PPCs and Early Intel's are able to boot from GPT or APM) It has a full 10.5.8 install and the installer on there is the 10.5.6 retail.
As stated above it may not like 10.5 base. Try the 10.5.6 from the macintosh garden link above. Looks like download #32
As stated above it may not like 10.5 base. Try the 10.5.6 from the macintosh garden link above. Looks like download #32
I can boot Leopard 10.5.8 on my MacPro3,1 with 64 GB of RAM and EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition.
Leopard is 32-bit only kernel. I have to add
SnowLeopard (10.6.8) supports 32-bit and 64-bit kernel. I add
Leopard (10.5.8) and SnowLeopard (10.6.8) support Quartz Debug.app version 4.0 which allows arbitrary scaling up to x3.
Starting with Lion (10.7.5), the GTX 680 supports multiple resolutions and HiDPI (only x2 scaling).
Real support for the GTX 680 begins with Mountain Lion (10.8.5).
Instead of modifying NVRAM, you can put boot-args in the com.apple.Boot.plist file. So different versions of macOS can boot with different boot-args.
Leopard is 32-bit only kernel. I have to add
maxmem=32768 to nvram boot-args to reduce RAM to 32 GB. I also had to remove the NVDAResman.kext to stop a kernel panic at boot. Leopard doesn't have GTX 680 drivers so removing that kext doesn't affect anything. The GPU still works but without acceleration (I guess it's using the GPU's EFI framebuffer in macOS). Taking a screenshot doesn't work.SnowLeopard (10.6.8) supports 32-bit and 64-bit kernel. I add
arch=x86_64 (i386 is the default) to boot-args so it can work with 64 GB RAM. SnowLeopard has same graphics limitation with GTX 680 as Leopard.Leopard (10.5.8) and SnowLeopard (10.6.8) support Quartz Debug.app version 4.0 which allows arbitrary scaling up to x3.
Starting with Lion (10.7.5), the GTX 680 supports multiple resolutions and HiDPI (only x2 scaling).
Real support for the GTX 680 begins with Mountain Lion (10.8.5).
Instead of modifying NVRAM, you can put boot-args in the com.apple.Boot.plist file. So different versions of macOS can boot with different boot-args.
grep "string" /Volumes/*/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist | sed -E '/(.*plist): *(.*)/s//\2 \1/; /<string>mach_kernel<\/string>/d' | sortThanks, That's what I thought, Leopard was universal. I feel the 3,1 may not support 10.5 (one retail DVD I have) but I do have 10.5.1 but there was a problem reading the disc for install or copying, I''ll try to find a download ISO somewhere.
I do have Snow Leopard (retail disc) and use it regularly, along with 10.11, up to 10.15. No real reason to use Leopard, I know it can be done. No REAL reason for wanting it, I just want to have a dedicated drive or partition for the OS's my 3,1 (2 x 2.8 Quad-Core) can run.
Oooh, @GreyRockOne if you're just doing this as a fun project in a spare partition, Tiger may be more interesting to play with. Whereas Leopard feels closer to newer macOS releases, Tiger feels like it belongs to a truly different era.
I've never had the hardware to run it natively, but in a VM it was really quite neat. Snappy too, even compared to the mythical Snow Leopard.
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True but the GPU isn’t supported.
You could probably put a supported one in but it would be lesser than whatever is in it now.
What's the install method? Copy it from a Power Mac G5?
New Mac Pro 8 Core and Tiger 10.4??
Does ANYONE know if the new Mac Pro 8 cores will run Tiger? I have been told many many different things. The deal is I have a recording studio and over half the plugins I use are not Leopard compatible yet and would really love to buy a new Mac but can't if I can't run Tiger. If indeed I can't...
forums.macrumors.com
Nope. Either use the universal Tiger Server 10.4.7 or the grey discs shipped with an Intel Mac. And update to 10.4.11 before booting on the 3,1.
One of the GPUs available with the 3,1 was the Radeon HD 2600 XT and @LightBulbFun has confirmed it works in Tiger.
Tiger on Intel rules. Running it in a VM doesn't do it justice.
The main reason I got a 2007 MBP was to run Tiger.
Interesting, good to know. I was only stating that there wouldn't be graphics support from The Tiger Thread. If that GPU works this thread should probably be updated to reflect it.
My 3,1 actually had the 2600 XT. It has a GT 730 in it at the moment because I was running Mojave on it. But I haven't used it in months. It might be a fun project for me to stick the 2600 back in it and install Tiger, and run it like I run the PPC Macs.
Mine's an 8 core with 20GB of ram. I was using it as my main machine til I got my 4,1>5,1. The 3,1s still have a lot of power lol.
indeed
I THINK the Quadro FX 5600 should also work once the appropriate drivers are installed (via the MacBook Pro Graphics update, or by starting with a MBP3,1 restore disk)I know from old hackintosh stuff that those early NVIDIA Tesla GPU generation drivers do support G80 GPUs as I know 8800 GTS and 8800 GTX could be made to work in Hackintoshes of the time via those MBP drivers
and the Quadro FX 5600 is a G80 GPU so should work in theory! would be neat if someone could test
one thing to keep in mind with tiger, especially the later builds, is they are a little bit machine specific, for example if you start with a 10.4.7 install and updated it to 10.4.11 it will Crash on a MBP3,1 because the GeForce 8600M GT drivers are not installed by the 10.4.11 update (although you can manually install them via the aforementioned graphics update)
and also a 10.4.11 MBP install wont boot on a GMA 950 or GeForce 7300 GT Mac for example, from what I can tell its something about how they tweaked the OpenGL framework breaks things with older GPUs
I dont know if the iMac 10.4.10 install for its Radeon 2400 XT/2600 Pro also breaks things in this manner with other GPUs
sadly not one I have been able to test (as I dont currently have a functioning GMA 950 Mac LOL)
not sure where this should go, so figured id plonk it here, but thanks to @r6mile I recently got my hands on an ATI Radeon 2600 XT from a MacPro3,1 I have wondered for a long time if they would work in Tiger/if I could make it work, and the answer is yes I can
View attachment 954731
started with a 10.4.10 iMac7,1 install DVD, installed that to an SSD via a VM, slotted it into my MP1,1 and it booted right up!, then installed the 10.4.11 (non Combo) update and it kept working
I will test in the coming days if it will work without the 10.4.10 iMac7,1 install DVD (but it is downloadable on the internet, its where I got my images from!)
with this working you could on say a MacPro3,1 or Xserve2,1 multiboot every intel version of OS X with graphics support on one mac! (although im not sure what the status on big sur is... , but you could do 10.4.11-10.15.6 for sure)
(sadly I dont have a MP3,1/XS2,1 so someone else can do that, can also be done a MBP4,1 or iMac7,1/8,1)
and here is tiger on a MacPro3,1 (this is not my doing, sadly I dont own an Xserve2,1 or MacPro3,1 id love to get one to play around with, see if I can get E0 stepping CPUs working it for X5492 goodness and all that Jazz)
Indeed. Fixed.
Definitely. Would feel just like a G5 but way faster. It's a lot of fun on my SSD-equipped MBP. I just need to bring that puppy up to the full 6 GB RAM.
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