Upgrade OS X 10.3.9 to 10.4.9 Issues

[nykiordan]

I have a PowerBook G4 867 MHz Processor, 640 MB DDR SDRAM. I'm currently running OS X 10.3.9 and thinking about upgrading to 10.4.9.

Is anyone aware of possible issues due to this upgrade?

Will the scroll function be possible on the trackpad after upgrade? (there's no such function on the machine currently).

Will the applications run as well?

Will the overall speed of the machine be compromised or improved?

Are there any secrets to know before and after upgrading?

I appreciate any opinions.

Chris.

 

[MisterMe]

I have a PowerBook G4 867 MHz Processor, 640 MB DDR SDRAM. I'm currently running OS X 10.3.9 and thinking about upgrading to 10.4.9.

Is anyone aware of possible issues due to this upgrade?
...

Will the applications run as well?
...

Your PowerBook G4 will do fine. I recently upgraded my PowerBook G3 (Pismo) with 384 MB RAM from MacOS X 10.3.9 to MacOS X 10.4.10. There are no issues. Beware that the newer OS and bundled apps require much more hard drive space. Also, OnyX has separate versions for the two. These two caveats notwithstanding, you have nothing to worry about.

 

[nykiordan]

...same

Thanks MisterMe,

What about the scrolling function on the trackpad? Does it have anything to do with the hardware or it's possible to enable by upgrading the software?

 

[mkrishnan]

What about the scrolling function on the trackpad? Does it have anything to do with the hardware or it's possible to enable by upgrading the software?

Tiger will not enable scrolling on your trackpad. You can use either of these options, though:

iScroll2 for Apple-style scrolling, but actually scratch that, I don't think your Powerbook supports it (neither the Titanium PBs nor the Rev. A Aluminum ones support iScroll2, and if you have an 867MHz processor in a Powerbook, it should fall into one of those two categories).

Sidetrack for Windows-style scrolling (I use this) -- this does appear to work on your Mac. I'm a big fan of it.

 

[nykiordan]

It Works!~!!

Thanks a lot mkrishnan!

The Sidetrack soft works perfectly!!! I haven't tried iScroll2 but the Sidetrack does great!

Thanks again!

 

[mkrishnan]

No prob! I <3 Sidetrack. I've been using it since about 2003.... I tried iScroll briefly (my laptop does support it; they're pretty clear on their list that yours probably will not), but I personally thought Sidetrack had better physics and felt better.

 

[dazzerj]

Is there a PowerBook/Desktop version of Tiger?

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum, as most people I came here in search of assistance with a problem from those who know more than me!

History: 867MHz G4 PowerBook. 640MB RAM (128+512) ex-work machine, that is I got another job and acquired this Mac in the process of departing so I don't have any install disks.

I had installed Tiger prior to leaving and had no problems at all. Recently the HD (30GB original) failed, so I bought a new WD 80GB drive fitted it and installed 10.4 from a disk at my new employer. This worked fine for 2 months then during a restart I received "Cannot find root user. Restarting and trying again" continually. I booted to the install disk and tried a disk repair, but then at the next restart it had totally lost the HD. It appeared (as I tried it in an external USB enclosure) as if the disk had died, so I returned it and got a replacement under warranty.

I fitted this last week, it ran for 2 days, then I got the same message again and it lost the system disk once more!

Does anybody have any idea what might be causing this? I wondered if the motherboard battery might have failed so I tried rebooting and zapping the pRAM, no joy.

With the HD removed the MAC boots to the 'missing system folder' icon, but won't see or boot to the disk when it is connected via USB. Checking the disk on another Mac works okay it seems to be healthy enough. Everything is present and accessible.

I will try an Archive and Install when I get the install disk again, but does anybody know if there might be a hardware issue using 10.4 from a Desktop machine on my PowerBook? As it was a very early model should I stick 10.3 do you think (assuming I can find some install disks)?

I really do miss my Mac and don't mind committing it to the grave if it's truly dead, but this feels to me like a software issue rather than hardware.

I'm not knowledgeable in Unix so the thought of entering the dark world to sort this worries me slightly, as even navigating the file system is a mystery to me.

Any hints or better still first hand experience would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Daz

 

[esspee1200]

i'm also going to buy the disk to upgrade from 10.3.9 to 10.4.9

do i need to have 10.4.0 disk as opposed to the 10.4.9 disk since i'm currently running 10.3.9?

thanks in advance!