Using an Apple USB Superdrive with an eMac

[Keblar]

Hello,

Does anyone know if i can use this external Apple DVD drive to install Leopard? Does it recognize it by Mac OS X 10.4.x ? My eMac does not read DL DVDs, so i can´t install Mac OS X 10.5.

 

[Amethyst1]

It requires more power than a "normal" USB port provides and modifying a kext only present in Leopard and up.

Use the Apple external SuperDrive on (almost) any Mac - Mac OS X Hints

If I had to guess I'd say no.

 

[Keblar]

It requires more power than a "normal" USB port provides and modifying a kext only present in Leopard and up.

Use the Apple external SuperDrive on (almost) any Mac - Mac OS X Hints

If I had to guess I'd say no.

Thanks for your reply

 

[CooperBox]

Hello,

Does anyone know if i can use this external Apple DVD drive to install Leopard? Does it recognize it by Mac OS X 10.4.x ? My eMac does not read DL DVDs, so i can´t install Mac OS X 10.5.

If your eMac is a 700 or 800GHz model you are normally limited to OS X 10.4.x.
If a 1GHz PowerMac4,4 model, or more preferably a USB2 1.0GHz, 1,25GHz or 1,42GHz model you can install OS X 10.5.

 

[Amethyst1]

If your eMac is a 700 or 800GHz model you are normally limited to OS X 10.4.x.

Artificially, not factually

 

[CooperBox]

Artificially, not factually

Hence the addition of my word 'normally'.

 

[Hughmac]

Try the single layer Leopard DVD from Macintosh Garden - https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc - download no. 35 on the page.
It removes languages, printer drivers and extra fonts from the original DL DVD, so these must not be selected at install.
Beware though, it can take as long as half an hour to boot to the installer, but I have used it many a time myself.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Keblar]

Try the single layer Leopard DVD from Macintosh Garden - https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc - download no. 35 on the page.
It removes languages, printer drivers and extra fonts from the original DL DVD, so these must not be selected at install.
Beware though, it can take as long as half an hour to boot to the installer, but I have used it many a time myself.

Cheers

Hugh

Thanks for your reply.

I think I tried it once (Macintosh Garden), but it didn't boot. Any suggestions on how to burn the dvd using either Lion or Catalina? Im downloading the image again from that site, so if you can give me pointers, that would be awesome.

 

[bobesch]

Hello,

Does anyone know if i can use this external Apple DVD drive to install Leopard? Does it recognize it by Mac OS X 10.4.x ? My eMac does not read DL DVDs, so i can´t install Mac OS X 10.5.

You may look for a legacy external FireWire optical drive (e.g. LaCie or LG). The LaCie models allow to swap the inbuilt (standard-internal) CD/DVD-drive, just in case.
A FireWire-optical drives is a swiss-army knife for all the FW-equipped PPC-Macs ... 😌

 

[Keblar]

You may look for a legacy external FireWire optical drive (e.g. LaCie or LG). The LaCie models allow to swap the inbuilt (standard-internal) CD/DVD-drive, just in case.
A FireWire-optical drives is a swiss-army knife for all the FW-equipped PPC-Macs ... 😌

Thanks for your reply man:

Any idea if using a the eMac attached to a firewire 400 cable with a 2006 Intel Mac Pro via target disk mode would do the trick? I can buy the cable, but it would be nice to know if it works before actually going to the store.

 

[Hughmac]

Thanks for your reply.

I think I tried it once (Macintosh Garden), but it didn't boot. Any suggestions on how to burn the dvd using either Lion or Catalina? Im downloading the image again from that site, so if you can give me pointers, that would be awesome.

Download Burn 3.03 which is free software. This latest version should run on Catalina, but if you need an older version for Lion try version 2.5.1

If you get the DVD made you need to wait a long time for it to boot. Seriously, it can take 15 minutes up to ½ hour to boot, so leave it and get some lunch rather than watch and worry.
This is probably because whoever made this disc removed some of the software from the original dual layer to make it single layer, but it has always worked for me in the end.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[bobesch]

Thanks for your reply man:

Any idea if using a the eMac attached to a firewire 400 cable with a 2006 Intel Mac Pro via target disk mode would do the trick? I can buy the cable, but it would be nice to know if it works before actually going to the store.

The Mac hosting the "donor" optical-drive & OSX-installation-DVD has to be booted in TargetDiskMode.
Then both Macs are to be connected via FireWire-cable.
Then the other Mac has to be booted into boot-screen by holding the ALT(option)-key.
Normally both the drive and the optical-drive of the Mac in TDM should be displayed as a booting drive.

 

[Keblar]

Download Burn 3.03 which is free software. This latest version should run on Catalina, but if you need an older version for Lion try version 2.5.1

If you get the DVD made you need to wait a long time for it to boot. Seriously, it can take 15 minutes up to ½ hour to boot, so leave it and get some lunch rather than watch and worry.
This is probably because whoever made this disc removed some of the software from the original dual layer to make it single layer, but it has always worked for me in the end.

Cheers

Hugh

Thanks Hugh.

So this is the current situation. The eMac is just sitting with a grey screen and Apple logo (no DVD loading noise), and no spinning wheel. Its been that way for the last 30 minutes.

Should the DVD drive be making some kind of reading noise?
Ill wait awhile to post if it boots the installer.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Hughmac]

Yes, there should be some sounds of activity from the DVD, and a flashing light from the drive door, plus a spinning wheel on the screen with the Apple logo. It could take longer if you don't have a lot of RAM - Leopard requires at least 512mb but works better with 1gb or more.
Maybe leave it a little longer and hope?

Also, you haven't answered one of the questions above - which model eMac do you have?
If it's the 700 or 800 MHz version then there will be a little more to do before you can install Leopard.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Keblar]

Yes, there should be some sounds of activity from the DVD, and a flashing light from the drive door, plus a spinning wheel on the screen with the Apple logo. It could take longer if you don't have a lot of RAM - Leopard requires at least 512mb but works better with 1gb or more.
Maybe leave it a little longer and hope?

Also, you haven't answered one of the questions above - which model eMac do you have?
If it's the 700 or 800 MHz version then there will be a little more to do before you can install Leopard.

Cheers

Hugh

its a 1GHz with 768MB of RAM.
I used the app that you mentioned (Burn) in Catalina.
Clicked the Copy tab, dragged the image, and clicked burn.
Restarted pressing the C key...and the grey screen with Apple logo appears (no audible DVD drive activity, no spinning wheel).

 

[Keblar]

The Mac hosting the "donor" optical-drive & OSX-installation-DVD has to be booted in TargetDiskMode.
Then both Macs are to be connected via FireWire-cable.
Then the other Mac has to be booted into boot-screen by holding the ALT(option)-key.
Normally both the drive and the optical-drive of the Mac in TDM should be displayed as a booting drive.

Thanks! It worked flawlessly.
Any idea if i can install Leopard on a 800MHz PowerMac G4 via target disk mode? I read 867MHz is the cutting line for that OS.

 

[Amethyst1]

Any idea if i can install Leopard on a 800MHz PowerMac G4 via target disk mode?

Yes. That cutoff is purely artificial. Either install on a supported Mac and clone over or play around in OpenFirmware to temporarily change the reported clock speed.

 

[repairedCheese]

Thanks! It worked flawlessly.
Any idea if i can install Leopard on a 800MHz PowerMac G4 via target disk mode? I read 867MHz is the cutting line for that OS.

LeopardAssist

Download LeopardAssist for free. Install OS X Leopard on some unsupported Macs. LeopardAssist assists in the process of install OS X Leopard on machines that did not meet the minimum system requirement of an 867MHz or faster processor. It achieves this by temporarily writing a script into the...

sourceforge.net

I would suggest using this, I've used it on my 700Mhz eMac.

 

[bunnspecial]

If installing via TDM installing Leopard from a supported system, you don't need to "trick" the installer. Just select the HDD in the computer in TDM as your install volume and off you go.

Fundamentally, on a G4 with AGP graphics(Sawtooth and newer, plus upgraded Pismos and all PowerBook G4s) all that's needed to install Leopard is just to bypass the system requirement check in the installer. LeopardAssist works, or you can also change it manually in open firmware(or install from another system, which is my preferred route). Installing on something like a B&W with a G4 upgrade requires a lot more work .

Re: the OP's issue:

1. All DVD drives should read DL disks. If yours won't, try cleaning it. A dirty lens often first shows on the more difficult disks to read like DLs or burned DVDs.

2. eMacs can boot off USB. Use a newer computer to image the installer onto a USB stick. If it's USB 1.1, hold option when booting and it should show up in boot picker. Just sit back and relax since it will take a LONG time to install. If it's a USB 2.0 model, you'll probably need to boot it via open firmware.

 

[MysticCow]

What I did for my G4:

1. Partitioned the disk with about a 10 GB partition to be used in a second and everything else on the other part. THIS WILL ERASE YOUR MAC, so it's best to do this in Target Disk Mode and work from another Mac.

2. Using Restore (or maybe the ditto command, I can't remember), I transferred the entire install disk over to that 10 GB partition. This gives you an advantage of also gaining an emergency fix or a reinstall point without the troubles.

3. Hack the Leopard installer file to accept any G4. It's literally lowering one number from 867 to, say, 200, to make sure any G4 works. This has to be done from a different Mac and the eMac will still be a target disk. It's not hard at all to do this step, but you will have to look it up or find the hacked file somewhere on the internet.

4. Reboot your eMac. It will force itself to the installer partition because there's no other OS.

5. Install to the other partition and you're done.

 

[bobesch]

What I did for my G4:

1. Partitioned the disk with about a 10 GB partition to be used in a second and everything else on the other part. THIS WILL ERASE YOUR MAC, so it's best to do this in Target Disk Mode and work from another Mac.

2. Using Restore (or maybe the ditto command, I can't remember), I transferred the entire install disk over to that 10 GB partition. This gives you an advantage of also gaining an emergency fix or a reinstall point without the troubles.

3. Hack the Leopard installer file to accept any G4. It's literally lowering one number from 867 to, say, 200, to make sure any G4 works. This has to be done from a different Mac and the eMac will still be a target disk. It's not hard at all to do this step, but you will have to look it up or find the hacked file somewhere on the internet.

4. Reboot your eMac. It will force itself to the installer partition because there's no other OS.

5. Install to the other partition and you're done.

Wow, brilliant idea to have that extra-partition with the hacked-Leopard install (I finally did that with any of the dosdude1-patches for Sierra/HighSierra/Mojave too, to have always the patched macOS at hands, if any macOS-update should corrupt the running system).
But how do you patch/hack the Leopard-installer into accepting a lower CPU-speed?
I'd put the 10GB partition to the "end" of the partition-list. So if you don't want to keep it as a further rescue-option, it can be deleted/fused with the previous partition.

 

[Amethyst1]

But how do you patch/hack the Leopard-installer into accepting a lower CPU-speed?

Guide: Install Leopard on unsupported Macs

Things you will need A Mac Decent DVD burner, DL is best A clean Leopard disc or official dmg A decent image manipulator, Carbon Copy Cloner or disc utility Darwin Ports with xar installed, if running Tiger or below. Don't need this if running Leopard. Terminal knowledge, helps, but I will...

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