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Mac Mini PowerPC G4 issue

razvanrazy

razvanrazy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 9, 2013
6
0
Hi Guys. I'm new here and i have a problem and hope you can please help me solve it.

I just bought a Mac Mini PowerPC G4, 1.5 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD and ATI Tadeon 9200 (64 MB). It has Mac OS Tiger, 10.4.2. I don't have it's keyboard (so i'm using a windows one), only have it's mouse (the one without scroll).

The issue is:

I want to install Mac OS 10.5.6 Leopard and when i found it, to buy 1GB of RAM. I have the disc with Mac OS Leopard but the 8x Superdrive isn't working that well (i can boot from the disc but after ~5 seconds it freezes). Same goes if i try to copy something from a DVD.

I tried to make a bootable USB drive by following about 10-15 tutorials and using a few programs and i think i manage to create it.

The problem is that i just can't make it appear in the booting screen (by pressing "option" key - alt at my keyboard, i can only see the System option asside that next arrow and that refresh arrow). I tried booting it with LeopardAssist and still nothing.
My only chance for this was to get into OpenFirmware (by pressing Apple+Option+O+F - in my case Windows+Alt+O+F) and i tried that for about 50 times and i just can't get in there in order to follow a tutorial and force boot into the bootable USB.

From what i have read there may be a password that protects this and i don't know it (since i just get this mac) and because of this, all the activation shortcuts are disabled.
One solution is to change the amount of RAM i have inside, but since i have only one slot and that is filled with one 512 MB RAM and i don't find another 1GB RAM DDR1 unit (i'm from Romania) this option i have to pass.

Do you know any other options to get rid of this, to install Mac OS without DVD (i don't have another Mac, only a desktop PC and neither a fire-wire cable) or just how to boot in OpenFirmware ?

Or is there another way to open OpenFirmare from inside the OS 10.4 ?

I tried to share the DVD Drive from my PC to the Mac (they are in the same network with and without the cables) but the drive can't seem to appear in the Finder window. When i try to connect to my PC from Networks i get stopped by the error "The alias "desktop name" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found."

Please help guys :( :apple:
 
- If they had set up an Openfirmware Password, you wouldn't have been able to get into the startup manager (using Option) without typing in the password. See also here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
- I don't understand why you can't get into Open Firmware. Perhaps it's because of your Romanian keyboard (although it looks like Qwerty to me)? Make sure you begin pressing the buttons after hearing the boing-sonund. You can't access OF via Mac OS X.
- You can only boot a PowerPC Mac from USB using OpenFirmware (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20101011105729488).
- If you had a FireWire cable and a second (PowerPC) Mac, that would make installing Leopard easy. Perhaps you should get one... but test FireWire-mode first, you can do this even without the cable.
- I have a Mac mini with 1GB RAM and I really prefer Tiger on it. It's a lot faster and it supports everything I need. So according to me you shouldn't upgrade at all, but naturally this is your choice.
 
The keyboard is QWERTY, is english one.
Regarding to pressing the buttons after hearing the "boing" sound, everywhere i read about it and in youtube clips, they are pressing it before they power it on, and before that "boing" sound.

I just tried now to press it after the sound and still nothing. The OS is loading as usual.

I want to update because i can't install Chrome or other things that i want to use (iPhoto perhaps).

I'm new to Mac OS (although i have an iPhone from the begining and and iPad 2). Unfortunately, in Romania is quite expensive to get a Mac, even a used one and for the moment, this is all i can afford.

I want to upgrade to a dual core mac mini in the future month and (my dream) to buy an iMac 27 i7. But until then, i want to make this work and get used to the mac OS and see what i can do with it.

LE: Also, can you please recommend me some programs that are compatible with Tiger ? Any programs in any domain and i see what i can find.
 
Last edited:
It is true that Leopard supports more software, but to me, the difference doesn't justify the decreased performance. Picasa works on Leopard but only with Intel-processors, so it won't work on your Mac mini. You will find that today more software is Intel-only than Leopard-only.

A few tips for software:
- Update everything, so Mac OS X to version 10.4.11 etc, using apple software update.
- Update iTunes to the latest supported version using this link http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1056
- For browsing, install Safari 4.1.3 (last version for Tiger), or Tenfourfox (newest but unofficial version of Firefox). Camino is nice as well.
- Don't use Flash while browsing! In my experience, it will only slow things down.
- Try to use Mobile websites when avaiable. For instance m.facebook.com instead of facebook.com
- For Youtube, use MacTubes and in the preferences of that app, select Quicktime.
- For Office work, use Microsoft Office 2004 (or 2008, which is newer but slower). You can also use Libreoffice, Beamer and off course TextEdit.
- You can install iPhoto '05, '06 or '08 on Tiger (iPhoto is part of iLife). But Photoshop CS2 can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website...
- Dropbox is great and works on Tiger.
- You can download older versions of VLC and many other apps for Tiger.
- Games I can recommend: Age of Empires 2, Age of Mythology, Unreal Tournament, Halo...
 
I just hope is not part of that quarter :(

In the meantime, i'm trying to find a friend who has an external DVD drive to borrow. I hope it works this way.
 
I recommend trying with a different keyboard. I've seen bizarre stuff before, wit a Mac mini Intel that didn't respond to an Apple keyboard at startup.

----------
Intell said:
A little over half of all PowerPC Macs made will boot from a USB device via the boot menu (option at boot) or the Startup Disk pref pane. And about a quarter of PowerPC Macs will not boot from a USB device via OpenFirmware.
Click to expand...
Aren't the ones that do support it all USB 1.1-only? How could I find out if a model supports USB, other than trying myself?
 
ResPublica said:
Aren't the ones that do support it all USB 1.1-only? How could I find out if a model supports USB, other than trying myself?
Click to expand...

All PowerPC Macs that are USB1.1 and USB2.0 can boot via USB. The USB 1.0 and PCI USB cards cannot be booted from. About half of the USB1.1 Macs cannot be booted from USB via Openfirmware and about half of the USB2.0 PowerPC Macs can be booted via the boot menu.
 
Mine has an USB 2.0. I've tried with another windows keyboard. I don't have a mac keyboard. And i'm thinking that as long as the "alt" option button works to get me in boot screen, this should work too...
 
Intell said:
All PowerPC Macs that are USB1.1 and USB2.0 can boot via USB. The USB 1.0 and PCI USB cards cannot be booted from. About half of the USB1.1 Macs cannot be booted from USB via Openfirmware and about half of the USB2.0 PowerPC Macs can be booted via the boot menu.
Click to expand...
Doesn't seem very logical to me. But thanks for the explanation.
 
Hi guys. I manage to install Leopard on my Mac but i see that youtube works horrible. The whole PC is moving ok, but youtube just isn't watchable. What can i do ?

I tried installing Chrome, Firefoxe, Adobe Flash but they still aren't supported :(
 
Youtube isn't watchable. End of story. You can't fix that. There is a ton of information on this forum about why flash is garbage on these PowerPC machines.

Download the latest version of MacTubes and only use YouTube.com as a search engine for the videos you want to watch. Copy the link into MacTubes, and watch it there.
 
Thanks. I did that now and it works great :D

Now i'm trying to see which movies can i see on this, using VLC. What format is working better ?
 
razvanrazy said:
I tried installing Chrome, Firefoxe, Adobe Flash but they still aren't supported
Click to expand...

MisterKeeks said:
Chrome will never work on that. You can use iPhoto '08 with Tiger.
Click to expand...

For Firefox you can use Aurorafox or Tenfourfox. For Flash, use this. It is the last compatible PowerPC version of Flash. Macrumors user Wildy changed the version string so it tells websites that you are using Flash 11.5 while the plugin is in fact 10.1.
 
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