Recommendation to dual boot Powerbook G4

[DouglasCarroll]

Hi everyone,

I’m interested in being able to dual boot both Leopard and Tiger (and then classic from Tiger) on my 1.67 GHZ 17” Powerbook G4. I currently have Leopard on the internal SSD. Is the easiest way to just install Tiger on an external hard drive for the occasional use, or is there some “nifty” dual boot application I can install on an internal drive so everything is always a available without having to plug in an external drive?

Thanks so much for the help, I appreciate it!

 

[Jubadub]

Simply create 2 partitions on internal SSD. Format one with Tiger, the other with Leopard. Boot from either by holding the Option key when powering it on. You can switch which one to boot from by default on System Preferences > Startup Disk.

 

[bobesch]

A second partion of 10GB for both Tiger and Classic would be fine. You may just create that separate partition through Leopard's "DiskUtility"-application. All files of your Leopards installation won't be touched (but I would make a SuperDuper! or "CarbonCopyCloner" bootable drive-clone before tinkering with the drive).
After creating a separate partition for Tiger/Classic and installing Tiger and Classic (the latter by e.g. using the Classic-os9 disk, that came with any of the G4 hardware) you may run Apps, that are supported by both Leopard and Tiger by just linking an Alias from within Tiger to Leopard's application folder, as long as they are kind of "drag&drop to the application-folder" and as long as there had been no further installation-routine during installation (like with some system- or utiility-applications.) That will save you some space on the Tiger-partition.
You may even use a smaller (6GB) Tiger-partition and put all personal documents and/or "Classic" onto the Leopard-partition.
The PowerBook G4 does not support native booting into os9, so be sure *NOT* to install any os9-drivers through any process within disk-utility (those drivers would be only be useful, if you should run the PB-G4 in Target-Disk-Mode booting into a e.g. G3-machine via fire-wire...) If you start disk-utility from within Leopard, AFAIK those os9-driver-option won't be availabel, but maybe, it might be a choice anytime through the Tiger-installation or within Tiger's disk-utility. The existence of these os9 drivers will cause a lot of trouble, when it comes to modify partitions without erasing all data.
iPartition will be a good help and to solver problems...: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...apm-volumes-on-the-fly.2191184/#post-27585106

 

[Project Alice]

What they said. I've got a 15GB partition on my 15" PB for Tiger and classic. The rest for Leopard. I don't often use Tiger or Classic so the small partition is more than plenty.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

Hey, thanks for the replies everyone, that helps a lot. There are a handful of games that will only run under either Tiger or Classic that I lost access to when I upgraded to Leopard so it would be great if I can get them back. Incidentally, does anyone know what the largest SSD size is that Tiger or Leopard will be able to use in the 17” Powerbook G4?

Thanks again!!!

 

[Project Alice]

Hey, thanks for the replies everyone, that helps a lot. There are a handful of games that will only run under either Tiger or Classic that I lost access to when I upgraded to Leopard so it would be great if I can get them back. Incidentally, does anyone know what the largest SSD size is that Tiger or Leopard will be able to use in the 17” Powerbook G4?

Thanks again!!!

That PowerBook has no limitation on size. APM can only work on a drive 2TB or smaller. However, since you have a 1.67Ghz PB.. It is most likely the latest one they made. If so, that can actually boot a GPT disk. So theoretically you could use any size you want. 2TB is probably enough for most people though.

 

[bobesch]

Incidentally, does anyone know what the largest SSD size is that Tiger or Leopard will be able to use in the 17” Powerbook G4?

Don't know the upper limit, but my 1,67GHz 15" PB-G4 holds a 240GB mSATA (Leopard:128GB; Tiger/Classic: 20GB; Data: 85GB) and everything runs without problems. Tiger/Classic currently uses 80% of the partition, so 10GB might be no enough, but the Data-partition might also be used for e.g. virtual-machines or os9-games-folders.

 

[Jubadub]

That PowerBook has no limitation on size. APM can only work on a drive 2TB or smaller. However, since you have a 1.67Ghz PB.. It is most likely the latest one they made. If so, that can actually boot a GPT disk. So theoretically you could use any size you want. 2TB is probably enough for most people though.

Booting from a GPT-formatted disk, on a PowerPC? I never heard of that being possible before... If that's the case, that's really amazing.

As for size limits, I keep hearing Leopard doesn't have that limit, whether ADB or GPT-formatted. What I do know is that my 4TB ADB-formatted HDD works fine on both Tiger and Leopard, but on a PowerMac G5 with Sonnet drivers installed, and with the drive being connected to a SATA II Sonnet card. Quite specific.

 

[Project Alice]

Booting from a GPT-formatted disk, on a PowerPC? I never heard of that being possible before... If that's the case, that's really amazing.

As for size limits, I keep hearing Leopard doesn't have that limit, whether ADB or GPT-formatted. What I do know is that my 4TB ADB-formatted HDD works fine on both Tiger and Leopard, but on a PowerMac G5 with Sonnet drivers installed, and with the drive being connected to a SATA II Sonnet card. Quite specific.

There are a few other threads about this on here. The very last PowerPCs were capable of booting GPT. Although the installer will refuse, if you install it from an intel mac or do a clone to a GPT disk it will work. Only on the late 2005 models. Known working models are the last 1.33Ghz iBook, the 12" 1.5Ghz PBG4, the 1.67 DSLD PB, the Quad G5s, ect.

The 2TB limit you hear about just comes from APM. If you have a a pre 2005 powermac and want a 4TB drive, you'll just use a smaller disk to boot APM from and a GPT disk for storage.

 

[Project Alice]

Here you go.