Trick Leopard installer into 512MB RAM?

[Giuly]

Hi,
I saw there is a way to trick Leopard into seeing 867MHz, is there something similar to trick the installer into seeing 512MB of RAM?
I know <1GB is not recommended for Leopard, but try to find cheap 512MB PC133 low-density these days, I'm still trying, but I want to install Leopard.

I know that one could modify OSInstall.mpkg, but I rather want to do this another way if possible.

 

[666sheep]

Try to install it via Target disk mode from Leo capable Mac or clone its drive to desired one (if it's platform compatible) or try Xpostfacto. Xpostfacto does not support 10.5, my bad.

You could also try some experiments with maxmem or reg parameters in OF: http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancient/whatismacosx/arch_boot.html but I don't really know if it will work because it's related to existing memory.

 

[mrsir2009]

Well 1GB is the Min amount Leopard will run on, and 1.5GB is recomended... So you can hack it to run on 512MB but it probably won't run well

 

[drewdle]

The installer only checks for the presence of an 867Mhz G4, for which LeopardAssist is the best bypass method. The installer doesn't check your RAM quantity. I installed Leopard no problem on my iMac when I had 512Mb of memory.

It will not be pretty, but it will work. I find Leopard a tad sluggish with 1Gb, and just this side of bearable with 512Mb. But it IS doable. No hack required.

 

[666sheep]

mrsir2009, drewdle you both are wrong Minimum for Leo is 512 MB (see requirements) and installer does check amount of RAM. 1GB+ recommended, not required. I assume (am I wrong?) that OP has less than 512MB and this he want to bypass.

 

[raysfan81]

mrsir2009, drewdle you both are wrong Minimum for Leo is 512 MB (see requirements) and installer does check amount of RAM. 1GB+ recommended, not required. I assume (am I wrong?) that OP has less than 512MB and this he want to bypass.

Right. I had my eMac running Leopard on 512 MBs of RAM and it was a bit slow but it was still usable for most things. In fact I just re-installed leopard on it with the 512mb of ram and I had no trouble. I would look around eBay or other places for a 512 mb stick. Also I think I saw some mac compatible DDR ram from Crucial for a good price.

 

[Giuly]

mrsir2009, drewdle you both are wrong Minimum for Leo is 512 MB (see requirements) and installer does check amount of RAM. 1GB+ recommended, not required. I assume (am I wrong?) that OP has less than 512MB and this he want to bypass.

I have 384MB of RAM installed, right. Instead of messing around with OSInstaller.mpkg, I just bought 2x512MB used RAM, works better anyways, same price as getting a pack of double layered DVD-R. I found an OSInstall.mpkg which bypasses all CPU and RAM checks though, and works with both Leopard and Snow Leopard, if someone ever needs it again. Just make a DMG of the DVD, replace /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg with this one and burn it.

I guess maxram doesn't function, as it limits and not expands.