Snow Leopard on PowerPc Macs??

[maflynn]

Once upon a time, there was a mere PPC processor in all Macs, and no Intel in sight.
Some enterprising individuals got together and used the open source Darwin project to hack together an Intel compatible version of OS X. The Hackintosh was born, and everyone ahhhhh'd.

wrong because Darwin is just the lower level, it did not contain cocoa and carbon frameworks or anything else like quartz. You could not configure OSX to run on a PC (back when macs were PPC only) just with darwin.

IS it possible to get Snow Leopard running on a PPC Mac?

No, impossible since apple didn't include the binaries.

 

[cube]

NO. And it sucks to have machines running different OS versions.

 

[old-wiz]

IS it possible to get Snow Leopard running on a PPC Mac?
Probably, but so few people have G5 Towers it would hardly be a worthwhile project. While it might run badly on lesser systems, it would just be a huuge cluster @^#$.

You would need the source code for OSx to do that. Apple is not going to give out copies of the source code.

 

[enberg]

You would need the source code for OSx to do that. Apple is not going to give out copies of the source code.

I doubt even having the source would be enough. PPC support has probably bitrotted severely now than no one at Apple works on it anymore.

 

[Sydde]

Did they sell it to Jobs then so he can start working on Intel hardware?

No, OS X is based on a system developed in the early 90s, called NeXT. Originally it ran on the 68040, but Steve Jobs became unsatisfied with the performance and had the NeXT OS port to intel. So, OS X on intel had a head-start.

But Apple changes their trousers rather often. By the end of the teens, Mac OS will be running on an Apple-specific variant of ARM, wit the bottom-end Mac having an 8-core CPU. The transition from x86 will be much smoother, though, because the new processor will also have an IACTCP that will allow it to run x86 code at better than 80% native speeds, which will be more than enough.

 

[TAJones99]

Just get a intel mac and you will be happy

 

[roadbloc]

No chance. It's like trying to run a PS3 game on a PS2.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Short answer: no.

Long Answer: NO!
100% no possible way to put SL on a PPC. Zero, ziltch, nada, No Way Jose.

 

[billib]

Only a Noob could come up with this!!!

For whatever its worth, I've gone in the other direction.
I have a Mac mini with Snow Leopard and a PPC iMac
with Leopard and AppleWorks 6. I use AppleWorks on
occation but not enough to spring for it on the mini.
The iMac (20" w/1.25 Proc.) now feels so slow I don't
enjoy using it like I use to.

So what I did was clone Leopard from the PPC iMac
onto an external Firewire HD. I then attached the ext.
FW HD clone to the SL Intel mini via FW. When the HD
Icon popped up on the desktop I opened the HD and
opened the App's folder, doubled clicked the AppleWorks
Icon. AppleWorks launched so I chose "Keep In Dock".

Now whenever I need AppleWorks, I simply launch it
from Snow Leopards Dock. Yes, it's running from the
PPC Leopard ext. FW HD clone.

I apologize for taking the long way around the barn
BUT, wouldn't this suggest that installing
SnowLeopard on a PPC IS possible?

Please excuse my EXTRAORDINARY ignorance.
Wouldn't this suggest that we (I, you ?) could
format an external HD using the APM format
then install Leopard onto an HFS+ layer on that
APM partition. Then.......wait for it.........install
Snow Leopard onto Leopard. And lastly use
Carbon Copy Cloner to clone it to the iMac's
HD. Does this seem possible? Does anyone out
their with a day to kill want to try it?

I'm a noob, be gentile. I know I'm not as smart
as you. Thats why I'm asking Be kind.

 

[Darth.Titan]

For whatever its worth, I've gone in the other direction.
I have a Mac mini with Snow Leopard and a PPC iMac with Leopard and AppleWorks 6. I use AppleWorks on occation but not enough to spring for it on the mini. The iMac (20" w/1.25 Proc.) now feels so slow I don't enjoy using it like I use to.

So what I did was clone Leopard from the PPC iMac onto an external Firewire HD. I then attached the ext. FW HD clone to the SL Intel mini via FW. When the HD Icon popped up on the desktop I opened the HD and opened the App's folder, doubled clicked the AppleWorks Icon. AppleWorks launched so I chose "Keep In Dock".

Now whenever I need AppleWorks, I simply launch it from Snow Leopards Dock. Yes, it's running from the PPC Leopard ext. FW HD clone.

I apologize for taking the long way around the barn BUT, wouldn't this suggest that installing SnowLeopard on a PPC IS possible?

Please excuse my EXTRAORDINARY ignorance. Wouldn't this suggest that we (I, you ?) could format an external HD using the APM format
then install Leopard onto an HFS+ layer on that APM partition. Then.......wait for it.........install Snow Leopard onto Leopard. And lastly use
Carbon Copy Cloner to clone it to the iMac's HD. Does this seem possible? Does anyone out their with a day to kill want to try it?

I'm a noob, be gentile. I know I'm not as smart as you. Thats why I'm asking Be kind.

How many times does it need to be said? Snow Leopard is Intel only. The code will not work with a PPC processor no matter how you think you could "sneak" it on there. It won't work. Period. You might as well try installing Windows XP on that PPC iMac. The architectures aren't compatible.

As to all the trouble you went through to use AppleWorks, you would have gotten the same end result from just copying the AppleWorks app folder from the old Mac to the new. No need to clone the old hard drive considering none of the system files on that drive are being used when you're running AppleWorks from Snow Leopard. I do find it interesting that AppleWorks functions at all in Snow Leopard though.

 

[billib]

Wow, thanks for your reply. Your Windows XP
analogy was perfect. I get it NOW.

Also, I didn't realize copying ONE folder was all
it would take to import AppleWorks. I thought
that wouldn't copy other necessary components
that I didn't know how to find.

I'll take your GREAT advice and copy the folder
instead of running it off of an Ext. HD. And thanks
again for your XP analogy!!!

 

[flopticalcube]

BUT, wouldn't this suggest that installing
SnowLeopard on a PPC IS possible?

No. What you are doing is running PPC code (Appleworks) on an Intel machine. This is possible becuase the Intel machine uses a program callled Rosetta to translate PPC programs to Intel instructions. To do this the other way around (run Intel code on PPC machines) would result in a machine 10x slower than it already is.

 

[Techhie]

No. What you are doing is running PPC code (Appleworks) on an Intel machine. This is possible becuase the Intel machine uses a program callled Rosetta to translate PPC programs to Intel instructions. To do this the other way around (run Intel code on PPC machines) would result in a machine 10x slower than it already is.

Not to mention requiring a self-compiled "inverse Rosetta" of sorts

 

[billib]

No More Tethered HD

Your brilliant Darth Titan, I copied the AppleWorks
folder to the mini's HD and its works great! No more
external HD mombo. Its nice being able to run
AppleWorks without the Ext. HD. Its amazing
how simple that was.

Thanks again.

 

[benjamin747]

Apple Dev. here to save the day!

Hey guys I am a certified Apple Dev., (Yep, the ones with the source code) and I have worked with Apple. In this field I am an expert. I have OSX installed on an Acer Aspire One and so on... (Whoops that must have been a typo. I would never do that! )

But that isn't the point. I am just here to correct a couple things. First of all there is always a possibility of some anxious hacker (Or shall we call then developers as well?) made a 10.0 Kernel for the PPC. Please keep in mind there are tons of people running OSX on AMD processors. Apple never made a code for that. Snow Leopard is no exception. Rosetta is for running PPC applications on an Intel processor. Not to be confused QEMU (http://wiki.qemu.org/Index.html) which is being modified for running Intel only apps on PowerPC.

In theory it IS possible to install Snow Leopard on a PowerPC. Through Emulation (Which again, in theory, someone could apply on a SL iso. Or they could apply it to VMWARE then run the ISO) The other option would be having a devoted team develop a PowerPC kernel.
WHICH IS VERY POSSIBLE! IT JUST TAKES SOME WILL POWER AND MONEY!

Long time watcher, now glad to be part of the community!

A couple things: The Hackintosh is not illegal. Yes it is in violation of the EULA which results in Apple terminating support for your disk.

Making a modified 10.0 Darwin (SL) kernel for the PowerPC would not terminate the EULA as it is a Macintosh Machine. Oh wait, your editing the software... But like I said it is not illegal.

 

[jdm111]

Please keep in mind there are tons of people running OSX on AMD processors. Apple never made a code for that.

AMD processors are still x86 though. PowerPC is a completely different architecture. AMD Is just a brand of processor.

 

[madwolf]

First of all there is always a possibility of some anxious hacker (Or shall we call then developers as well?) made a 10.0 Kernel for the PPC

No need to. The 10.0 kernel is already PPC compatible. 10.6 is not.

Please keep in mind there are tons of people running OSX on AMD processors.

AMD processors are 100% compatible with x86 intel processors. The x64 technology that intel uses was created by AMD. PPC are completely different. Do you know what you're talking about? And it's not only the kernel that would need recompiling (source code of which is public) but also ALL of the kernel extensions (drivers) and apps for which the source code is NOT available.

Apple never made a code for that.

Wrong, Apple HAS made code for AMD processors. It's exactly the same as for intel because they're compatible. PPC code is completely different.

In theory it IS possible to install Snow Leopard on a PowerPC.

In the same way as it is possible to install windows on PPC mac.

WHICH IS VERY POSSIBLE! IT JUST TAKES SOME WILL POWER AND MONEY!

Yes, the kernel is possible. What about all the apps and kexts?

 

[old-wiz]

Hey guys I am a certified Apple Dev., ...
WHICH IS VERY POSSIBLE! IT JUST TAKES SOME WILL POWER AND MONEY!

It would require that you have the source code for OSx. Apple is not going to allow anyone to do this; their legal team would go nuts. No developer team is going to even attempt this as they would know Apple would never permit it.

The OP's original question is basically asking "can I do some kind of simple hack to allow SL to run on PPC?" The answer to this is simply NO.

When I was working I did porting of kernel stuff from 1 processor to another and it is not trivial. Apple has most likely removed all of the PPC specific code from OSx, and putting it back would be beyond the resources of any individual. I can't believe that "Apple developers" have full access to all of the source code for OSx, unless they actually work FOR Apple.

 

[Max(IT)]

ya it would work as charm, well enough to run google search engine website + youtube

Definitely not YouTube

 

[scaredpoet]

well the older PowerPc Emac you had to boost up the processor speed so will there be a way to make it bypass the intel chip in the installer

There's a huge difference between merely "boosting the processor speed" and making the Snow Leopard kernel think your PowerPC is an Intel chip.


Installing Leopard on older PowerPC machines wasn't so hard because Snow Leopard supported PowerPCs. The older chips still behaved in a lot of ways like the newer ones, but were just slower.

But with Snow Leopard, PowerPC support ended. As in, it will not run on a PowerPC processor of any age or any speed. Intel chips are different architectures with different command sets and different ways of running programs. And once you remove the couple gigabytes of instructions and drivers in OS X for the PowerPC - which is exactly what happened - then a few little tweaks aren't going to change that.

In theory it IS possible to install Snow Leopard on a PowerPC. Through Emulation (Which again, in theory, someone could apply on a SL iso. Or they could apply it to VMWARE then run the ISO) The other option would be having a devoted team develop a PowerPC kernel.
WHICH IS VERY POSSIBLE! IT JUST TAKES SOME WILL POWER AND MONEY!

I think if you were truly an Apple dev with the access that you say you have, you wouldn't have made this statement and expected it to actually be plausible. You MAY be right that with lots of developers and lots of money, you could get some modicum of G4/G5 support back for Snow Leopard. But then... with a lot less money and zero developers, you could just buy an intel mac.

 

[mabaker]

But Apple changes their trousers rather often. By the end of the teens, Mac OS will be running on an Apple-specific variant of ARM, wit the bottom-end Mac having an 8-core CPU. The transition from x86 will be much smoother, though, because the new processor will also have an IACTCP that will allow it to run x86 code at better than 80% native speeds, which will be more than enough.

Agreed. But only and ONLY if they won’t discontinue 90% of their computer line. The transformation is going into the Macbook Air/iPad direction clearly.

 

[old-wiz]

well the older PowerPc Emac you had to boost up the processor speed so will there be a way to make it bypass the intel chip in the installer

There is no such thing as an Intel chip in the installer; the OS code itself is Intel x86. Any basic CS student would know the difference between code written for one processor and code written for another processor. The instruction set is different PPC is RISC and Intel x86 is CISC. Go look at wikipedia for some basic differences.

 

[elppa]

I imagine Apple has 10.6 code which compiles on the PPC, for the “just in case” scenarios.

I wouldn't be shocked if they had code which compiles for ARM either (well, technically they already do…, but I mean Mac OS X, not iPhone OS). When announcing the intel transition Steve Jobs made the point that they have rules and one of those rules is that every design decision must be where possible processor independent.

 

[benjamin747]

I imagine Apple has 10.6 code which compiles on the PPC, for the “just in case” scenarios.

I wouldn't be shocked if they had code which compiles for ARM either (well, technically they already do…, but I mean Mac OS X, not iPhone OS). When announcing the intel transition Steve Jobs made the point that they have rules and one of those rules is that every design decision must be where possible processor independent.

The 10.0 Snow Leopard kernel is NOT PPC Compatible.

An AMD processor is not the same as an Intel, hence it has its on kernel.
First of all, devs like me have the source code. 2nd of all, the source code it out in the wild. Snow Leopard is basically Leopard-PPC support so it could work easily.

 

[old-wiz]

The 10.0 Snow Leopard kernel is NOT PPC Compatible.

An AMD processor is not the same as an Intel, hence it has its on kernel.
First of all, devs like me have the source code. 2nd of all, the source code it out in the wild. Snow Leopard is basically Leopard-PPC support so it could work easily.

So the entire source code for OSx is available in the wild? I don't think so. Maybe the darwin kernel code, but OSx internal code is tightly guarded by Apple. It is ridiculous to say that Apple would allow the entire OSx code to be available to anyone who does not work for Apple.

You can't build an OS simply with a kernel - you need hundreds of thousands of lines of source code.