PowerBook G4 run Leopard?

[eyoungren]

It certainly is a mystery because all of your good advice is what I always do after any installation. At first instance I disable Spotlight, do all the updates, install apps, repair permissions then turn Spotlight back on and leave it to finish. In the Powerbook example, I formatted the drive each time and that Debian install was by itself, not alongside Tiger.

I also sometimes get that recurring problem where the Leopard combo update freezes or if I'm lucky, just hangs for 30 minutes.

At least I now know a sluggish Leopard is cured by a reinstall

I had the processor for my QS once that Bunns is now using. Tempermental thing, it would prevent the 10.5.8 combo update from validating packages and so the update would fail. There were always other little quirks that popped up as well such as Disk Utility telling me I could not repair permissions.

I had to pull the drive and do the update from an external case connected via USB to my laptop.

I mention this because it may just be some piece of hardware in your Mac that is just not functioning correctly. Enough to cause problems like this, but no so much that normal use is affected.

Pure speculation on my part.

 

[bunnspecial]

I had the processor for my QS once that Bunns is now using. Tempermental thing, it would prevent the 10.5.8 combo update from validating packages and so the update would fail. There were always other little quirks that popped up as well such as Disk Utility telling me I could not repair permissions.

I had to pull the drive and do the update from an external case connected via USB to my laptop.

I mention this because it may just be some piece of hardware in your Mac that is just not functioning correctly. Enough to cause problems like this, but no so much that normal use is affected.

Pure speculation on my part.

Based on your advice, I did a fresh Leopard install and ran all of the updates with a factory processor before installing the Gigadesigns.

I'll be interested to see how the Sonnet dual 1.8 works when it gets here. I think it will require a similar ROM flash to what the Giga requires, as both use 7447A processors that will not work with stock G4 ROM. Hopefully, though, it will at least give a stable 1.8ghz.

 

[Altemose]

Based on your advice, I did a fresh Leopard install and ran all of the updates with a factory processor before installing the Gigadesigns.

Since you have so many PowerPC Macs, did you ever consider a PPC Mac boot image server? In eighth grade, I would constantly reimage Macs and so I was given my dual 800 MHz QuickSilver with dual hard drives so I could prepare disk images of operating system images. When needed, I just fired up the Mac using Target Disk Mode and could restore the images right in Disk Utility. It would probably save you a lot of time doing that rather than reimaging manually, especially if you are like me and want to start fresh every two weeks or so.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I had the processor for my QS once that Bunns is now using. Tempermental thing, it would prevent the 10.5.8 combo update from validating packages and so the update would fail. There were always other little quirks that popped up as well such as Disk Utility telling me I could not repair permissions.

I'd love to get to the bottom of such anomalies.
I had a similar issue with my Dual G5 - the fans used to go crazy just hitting play on Garageband and Logic, even when there were no tracks in the file and the CPUs weren't being tasked. Using the ASD utility revealed one of the CPUs was defective, so I carried on for a while expecting it to break before long. However, after reinstalling the OS, the Garageband bug went away and running the ASD again showed everything was 100%. Incredible, bearing in mind the ASD functions without loading the OS.
Obviously some low level issues going on - I just count everyday my G5 turns on as a bonus

 

[bunnspecial]

Since you have so many PowerPC Macs, did you ever consider a PPC Mac boot image server? In eighth grade, I would constantly reimage Macs and so I was given my dual 800 MHz QuickSilver with dual hard drives so I could prepare disk images of operating system images. When needed, I just fired up the Mac using Target Disk Mode and could restore the images right in Disk Utility. It would probably save you a lot of time doing that rather than reimaging manually, especially if you are like me and want to start fresh every two weeks or so.

I actually had plans of doing that with the Xserve...perhaps with my new-found post-thesis(temporary) freedom I'll work on that today. It would certainly save a lot of time-especially with Leopard.

If the Xserve won't work, there's always the rackmount G4.

 

[eyoungren]

I'd love to get to the bottom of such anomalies.
I had a similar issue with my Dual G5 - the fans used to go crazy just hitting play on Garageband and Logic, even when there were no tracks in the file and the CPUs weren't being tasked. Using the ASD utility revealed one of the CPUs was defective, so I carried on for a while expecting it to break before long. However, after reinstalling the OS, the Garageband bug went away and running the ASD again showed everything was 100%. Incredible, bearing in mind the ASD functions without loading the OS.
Obviously some low level issues going on - I just count everyday my G5 turns on as a bonus

Yeah, it's strange. Up until I got that specific CPU, I never had any issues with Leopard on any of my Macs that were not caused by bad ram, a bad drive, or hardware failure of some sort (such as a failing USB PCI card).

I guess when Leopard acts wierd, it ACTS wierd.

I will state that Tiger is solid - if it's not in a mixed PC/Mac/Server environment. I used it without problems on my Macs for a couple of years and ultimately had no real issues. In that regard, it was never quirky like Leopard can seem to be from time to time.

I just won't ever use it in a mixed network environment again however. If I can avoid it. I do have Tiger on one Mac at work in that environment, but it's not been stressed or used beyond it's normal duties so it plays nice - relatively.

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I actually had plans of doing that with the Xserve...perhaps with my new-found post-thesis(temporary) freedom I'll work on that today. It would certainly save a lot of time-especially with Leopard.

If the Xserve won't work, there's always the rackmount G4.

I just may have some space where we can set up all your Macs here in Phoenix as a Mac museum.

You pay to ship them all here of course and I will set them up. You can boot from the X-Serve through the internet!

Of course visiting the museum will be by appointment only, so let me know when you want to visit your Macs.

I'll take very good care of them all.

 

[bunnspecial]

I just may have some space where we can set up all your Macs here in Phoenix as a Mac museum.

You pay to ship them all here of course and I will set them up. You can boot from the X-Serve through the internet!

Of course visiting the museum will be by appointment only, so let me know when you want to visit your Macs.

I'll take very good care of them all.

Sounds good.

How does $10 for admission sound, with me taking 75% for assembling the collection and you taking 25% for housing it?

I assume you'll pay my plane ticket to see them anytime I want-from museum proceeds of course

 

[Dronecatcher]

I will state that Tiger is solid - if it's not in a mixed PC/Mac/Server environment.

I agree - I used to work in a studio that attempted to mix Intel/PPC Macs and PCs, XP, DOS & Tiger...and just for good measure half the designers were using CS2 and the others CS - with Indesign saving directly to a Windows server That's what you get when an 'expert' is allowed to manage a department.

 

[eyoungren]

Sounds good.

How does $10 for admission sound, with me taking 75% for assembling the collection and you taking 25% for housing it?

I assume you'll pay my plane ticket to see them anytime I want-from museum proceeds of course

Deal!

I'll send the paperwork over to your lawyer today!

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I agree - I used to work in a studio that attempted to mix Intel/PPC Macs and PCs, XP, DOS & Tiger...and just for good measure half the designers were using CS2 and the others CS - with Indesign saving directly to a Windows server That's what you get when an 'expert' is allowed to manage a department.

Or a small business makes purchases based on price and not quality or connectivity.

Then, since you're the "computer person" you're the one told to make it all "work".

 

[bunnspecial]

Deal!

I'll send the paperwork over to your lawyer today!

Deal-just wait for my people to contact your people

 

[adamisapple]

Sorry to bring back the thread...
The following PowerBook G4s Cant Run OS X 10.5 Leopard:
3,2 (2001)
3,3 (2001-2002)
3,4 (2002)
However all other PowerBooks Can run Leopard.
The recommended specs for Leopard are:
867MHz G4 or G5 or faster
512MB Ram
9GB Hard Drive Space
Cheers,
Adam

 

[jbarley]

You're obviously not familiar with LeopardAssist.
This utility allows Leopard to be installed on the models you listed.

 

[adamisapple]

I did forget that, I was kinda going by memory of the factory specs. Sorry.
Cheers,
Adam

 

[eyoungren]

I did forget that, I was kinda going by memory of the factory specs. Sorry.
Cheers,
Adam

LOL.

Adam, I ran Leopard for years on my TiBook/400. 1GB ram, 2001 vintage. Other than LeopardAssist you can also just install via TDM on a Mac that can run Leopard, or swap drives.

It's running right now on a G4/450 AGP at work with 192mb ram at the moment too.

 

[redheeler]

It's running right now on a G4/450 AGP at work with 192mb ram at the moment too.

Leopard on 192 MB RAM, are you serious? How well does it run?

 

[adamisapple]

That would run a bit laggy, Id defiantly recommend a Mac with at least 512MB installed.
Cheers,
Adam

 

[eyoungren]

Leopard on 192 MB RAM, are you serious? How well does it run?

Originally, it had 1.75GB ram and I installed Leopard using TDM. My coworker used that Mac from Sept. 2008 to about mid-2013 when she got the G5.

Only then did I pull most of the ram for other purposes. Since Leopard was already installed I just left it. It does nothing harder all day then function as a print server for the Mac Pro so the MP can print to our Appletalk printers as well as running Chicken of the VNC so I can see the desktop of the G4/400 sitting right next to it running Tiger (that Mac is headless (no video card)).

Ocasionally I will use it for some specific purpose (such as breaking locked/encrypted PDFs so I can edit them) or saving out a lower version of PDF with Acrobat 6.

It functions very well in this roll. In fact, I think in the last two years or so I've only restarted it maybe a total of 3 times.

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That would run a bit laggy, Id defiantly recommend a Mac with at least 512MB installed.
Cheers,
Adam

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you. However, the main function of this Mac is as a print server so the Mac Pro can print to Appletalk printers.

It doesn't need a whole lot of ram to do that.

 

[bunnspecial]

Sorry to bring back the thread...
The following PowerBook G4s Cant Run OS X 10.5 Leopard:
3,2 (2001)
3,3 (2001-2002)
3,4 (2002)
However all other PowerBooks Can run Leopard.
The recommended specs for Leopard are:
867MHz G4 or G5 or faster
512MB Ram
9GB Hard Drive Space
Cheers,
Adam

All Macs with a G4 processor can run Leopard. All with AGP Graphics(including the Powerbooks listed along with the Sawtooth and later towers) are really easy and only require using Leopard Assist or TDM to install. Those with PCI graphics are more complicated but can be done.