Mac Boot

Do you know what model G4 you have? Older G4's (under 800MHz) wont run Leopard without Open Firmware CPU speed spoofing or helper tools.

Are you sure your G4 has a DVD drive?

 

All G4's, except the PCI graphics PowerMac G4, will at least boot to a retail Leopard disc. Some machines with ATI Rage 128 video cards may have trouble as Leopard doesn't have the drivers for that GPU.

 

As an aside, I managed to use Rage 128 kexts from Tiger in my Leo install

Cheers

Hugh

 

Interesting! Can you detail the steps you took? I ask because I have a Rage 128 AGP in the Leopard G4/450 at work and a Rage 128 PCI card in my QS running Leopard at home.

Both cards work, so I don't know what drivers they are using under Leopard, but if I can make it better, I'm all for it.

 

I loosely followed the guidance here for my Pismo G4 - http://nanchatte.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/installing-old-ati-rage-pro-128-video-drivers-from-tiger-into-leopard/ - using the kexts from my Tiger installation.
It's probably a Pismo only thing, but I get screen artifacts every time the cursor changes from the pointer to the hand, and DVD player only shows a black screen. Before applying ATI kexts I was not getting artifacts, but DVD player wouldn't open up at all. The graphics have otherwise improved greatly so I'm not that bothered.

I still have the kexts if the website's download link does not work.

Cheers

Hugh

 

Thanks! I'll try this when I get home. Right now, I have no issues. If a web page is loading the monitor that's connected to the Rage card will have the cursor flicker in time with the loading. But that's the only issue. I put it down to the fact that that monitor is actually an HDTV though. But, I will give this a try.

There's no issues with the monitor at work, so again, no idea what driver is being loaded, but if I can get better options and this works at home I will try it on the Mac here at work.

Thanks!

 

Tiger ATI kexts attached for those who need 'em

Cheers

Hugh

 

To ejack63, sorry to be seemingly ignoring you, but is the Leopard disk full retail (black with large X on it), or a grey one?

Cheers

Hugh

 

Well, since you provided it right here I just had to try it on the G4 at work, I don't notice any difference as far as the Mac operating. The display is the same as before.

But, I booted in Verbose mode and this time the system indicated that the Rage drivers loaded, instead of the warning about it being too old. Performance (speed in doing things) seems to have picked up, even with only 256mb ram on this G4.

Now I have something to look forward to with my Quicksilver when I get home from work! Thanks very much for this!

 

Good to hear !
I feel it's always important to share those little titbits around for others and keep the PPC flag flying.

By the way, I have found reference to some ATI drivers from a Leopard beta, but haven't managed to get at them yet. They're probably the same as the Tiger ones though.

Cheers

Hugh

 

Let us know if you find them.

To reciprocate, one of the users here mentioned once that the kexts for the PowerBook G4 fans under Jaguar are better performing than the ones under Leopard. I've replaced them on one of my PowerBooks (the dead one I think, but maybe not). Anyway, see what I can find when I get home tonight. The PB is at home.

Should that be useful for anyone anyway.

 

Great, something for me to play with tomorrow morning before work.

Cheers for that

If this carries on shouldn't we start a new thread?

Hugh

 

If I can find the thread about this, I'll either repost to it or open a new one. Good idea.

EDIT: I just reread my post and it sounds as if I'm meaning that ALL the kexts are better. I edited the post. What I meant was the kexts for FAN control for PowerBooks, not just Albooks. And the one from 102.8, not Tiger. Sorry to mislead anyone.

 

OK, good so far, it seems Apple sent you a 'Media Replacement' disk which is basically a retail version.
One of these?
So, if your G4 is above 867MHz it should boot, if below the threshold there will be some work to do to get it going.

Cheers

Hugh

 

Yes, it's the C key for booting to CD/DVD, or better still, hold down the alt (option) key immediately after the power button. That will give a list of bootable sources.
Here's how to find out your specs in OS 9 - http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1048893

Cheers

Hugh

 

Some of the early stock G4 DVD Roms can't read the Leopard DVD. This problem only ever showed up as a problem for some early G4 iMacs because they were the oldest G4 that could run Leopard without modification.

 

Yes there is, use LeopardAssist http://sourceforge.net/projects/leopardassist/ written by iMacC2D a member here - see http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1685169&highlight=leopardassist.
I think you need to have a version of OS X installed before running it though.

Cheers

Hugh

 

That machine can still boot Leopard without any modification, it's the Leopard installer that does the checks. LeopardAssist isn't needed to modify your machine to allow Leopard to install on it. All you need to do is search for the instructions that are done through OpenFirmware.