Installing Leopard on my Ibook G4

Hi everybody !
I have recently bought a late 2004 Ibook G4, 1,25 gb RAM, and so on, which is running under Tiger OS (10.4).
In my home, I also have (and to be honest, that was my first mac) an Imac, whole aluminium shaped, early 2008 I think, on which Leopard was installed with, and upgraded to Snow Leopard.
My question is than can I Install on my Ibook G4 Leopard OS with the installation CDs (well, the grey/green ones) which were in the box with my Imac ? (Possibly not as an upgrade, but from O).
Thank you a lot for your answers,
Best Regards,
T.

Hey all,
I have a quick question, looking for some support. I have an iBook G4 with my specs listed below:
Machine Model: iBook G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 933 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 640 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
I am currently running OS X 10.3.9 and am wondering if my situation is sufficient enough to upgrade to Leopard. From what I understand it should be fine, I am just looking for a second opinion..
Thanks for any insight

Similar Messages

Should I install Leopard on my iBook G4?

I have read some of other people's experiences in these Apple discussions but want pose the question again with the specs of my own computer. I have an iBook G4, purchased in early 2005, running 10.4.11, with a 1.33 GHz processor and 1.25 GB of RAM (I just upgraded from 768 MB of RAM). I am liking Leopard on my new iMac and would like to upgrade to Leopard on the iBook, especially since I could then use Time Machine to back it up easily to an external hard drive. Should I take this step? How much free space on my 80 GB hard drive should I have in order to make this move? (I now have only 11.75 GB, which I know is not enough, as Leopard takes 9 GB, but I use the iBook for work and could conceivably take off some personal items such as music and photos. By the way, I purchased the iBook myself for work, so I am not breaking any work rules to have personal stuff on the computer.)

Thanks to all of you who gave me the confidence to install Leopard on my iBook G4. I did it very methodically. First, I purchased 1GB of RAM, which, when installed, gave me the maximum of 1.25GB of RAM. Then I pared down my music and photo libraries so that I had a much bigger chunk of free space on the 80GB hard drive. Then I installed Leopard. First I waited for the DVD to be verified (a longish process), but then the installation went very smoothly. All in all, it took under 2 hours. I realize I won't have some of the graphic animations in Dashboard, but I think the advantage of having Time Machine will outweigh that. Thanks again, folks, for your advice.

Installing Leopard on an iBook with a CD-ROM only

How can I install Leopard on my iBook that only has a CD-ROM? Can I request Leopard on CDs, or can I use an external USB DVD-ROM drive?

James Orlowski wrote:
How can I install Leopard on my iBook that only has a CD-ROM?
Can I request Leopard on CDs,
no.
or can I use an external USB DVD-ROM drive?
you can if your ibook is intel. if it's PPC then you need a firewire DVD drive not USB. also, if you have another Mac, you can boot your in target mode, connect it to the second computer and install leopard from there. The second mac has to have the same architecture as yours (both intel or both PPC).

Question about installing leopard on my iBook G4?

I purchased an iBook G4 in very good condition. It came with leopard already installed on it but the seller didn't include any discs with the iBook. Therefore I purchased a family pack (Retail Version) of Leopard off the of ebay for $60. I only have 1 Apple computer but I bidded and luckily won this Leopard Family pack.
Anyways, my question is if anything goes wrong with ibook and have to reinstall the Operating System, will the Family pack of leopard work?
Also will I have to reinstall all the other programs that are already on the computer as well; MS Office 08, iLife 08 etc. ?

cornelius wrote:
pblazen:
if anything goes wrong with ibook and have to reinstall the Operating System, will the Family pack of leopard work?
Yes. You can legally have Leopard installed on up to any five computers at a time.
will I have to reinstall all the other programs that are already on the computer as well; MS Office 08, iLife 08 etc. ?
Yes, you will. Some iLife apps are included on a Full Retail Version installer, although it is usually earlier versions of those apps. The full suite of iLife apps comes only on the original disk shipped with the computer, or by purchasing iLife separately. There is not a computer specific version of Leopard for the iBook G4, so iLife would have had to be purchased separately. While a new computer wwould have to be purchased separately.
I recommend that you purchase an external firewire HDD and clone/backup your entire computer to it. If you use a utility like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner you can make a bootable copy of your HDD, which you can update regularly. For more information on external HDDs and cloning please post back and ask.
cornelius
Thanks for replying to my post. Yeah I did purchase a 250GB (Firewire) external hard drive, downloaded Carbon Copy and saved my entire internal hard drive to it. So since I made a copy of my hard drive, do I still need this Retail Copy Leopard Disc?

I'm trying to install leopard onto my ibook G4...why won't it work?!

I've been spending all day trying to get Leopard onto my iBook G4, and everytime it gets to the screen "preparing installation" and freezes. Nothing ever happens. What is wrong with it and how can I fix it? Help please!
Message was edited by: oukatielee

Does your computer meet the requirements for Leopard?
System requirements
You must have a Macintosh computer with:
an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor
a DVD drive
built-in FireWire
at least 512 MB of RAM (additional RAM is recommended for development purposes)
a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
at least 9 GB of disk space available, or 12 GB of disk space if you install the developer tools

Unable to Install Leopard on G4 iBook 1.2Ghz

I have a 15" G4 1.2Ghz iBook with 1.2MB of Ram. I have 13GB of available disk storage.
I get an error of "Unable to install 10.5 on this computer" when I run the Leopard installer. According to the specs I should have no problem installing it.
Any ideas??
TIA,
Jack

Hi Jack
"Apple makes me buy another version for each machine??"
Apple don't 'make' you buy anything, as do Microsoft or anyone else for that matter. If you want Leopard functionality on an older mac model that meets the minimum qualifying specification that's up to you. For that you are going to have to buy the Universal Leopard Installer. This was true for 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4.
As for Steve Job's Ferrari requirements (which could be seen as speculation and therefore not allowed by the rules of these forums to which you've agreed) that's neither here nor there. You can't with a good conscience blame him or Apople for your lack of understanding? As Kiraly points out its all there in the EULA.
Tony

Errors installing Leopard on iBook G4 (Late 2004)

I apologize for the long post but it seems like a good idea to provided some good background:
My friends iBook started freaking out a couple of months ago (e.g. kernel errors and all the fonts on the desktop icons/menu were "AAAAAAAA"). I helped him run Disk Utilities. I installed and ran Applejack and this "seemed" to help, but the drive still had errors that neither could repair. Last week, it started to persistently crashing and producing kernel errors. I took his iBook home to see if I could help. It stopped booting and Disk Utility could not repair the errors, so I wiped the drive and repartitioned and the drive still had several errors. I assumed that the drive was bad.
I replace the HD and installed a 250 GB, WD Scorpio Blue PATA, Model WD2500BEVERTL. Oh, the iBook is a G4, 1.33GHZ and 256 MB Main Ram plus 512 MB of RAM added. I followed the instructions from iFixIt <http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/iBook-G4-14-Inch-933-MHz-1-33-GHz-Hard-Driv e-Replacement/189/1> and faqintosh <http://www.faqintosh.com/risorse/en/guides/hw/ibook/g4hd/>. Both sites were almost correct. After I removed and replaced the HD, put everything together I had to remove the firmware password, which required a couple of RAM removals and Command-Option-P-R resets. I performed a few commands from terminal to verify that the firmware password was gone. See <http://www.fif3.com/howto/archives/001983.html>.
I installed the Leopard disk, setup the new disk using the Disk Utilities on the Leopard disk and proceeded with this installation. It failed to install. I played around with this and that and made several attempt to perform the installation via the optical drive in the iBook. It did not work. I started to read the installation log and tried to figure out what the problem was and found a few errors and tried to find a solution online. I was suspicious that the optical drive was acting up <http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10470660&#10470660> , <http://www.hackint0sh.org/f147/68876.htm> so I investigated how to install Leopard using Target mode. Simple, right, connect the iMac to the iBook, restart the iMac in Target mode so the iBook can share the opticle drive in the iMac, unless.... Leopard cannot see a drive via Target mode if the "Target" is running Snow Leopard. grrrrr!
Well, I found lots of talk about imaging the Leopard installation disk to an external firewire HD, and performing the Leopard installing using the "option" start and select the external firewire drive. I found some great instruction <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10329117-263.html> that walk me through the steps required to make an image of the Leopard disk and then restore the file to an external drive. An hour and a half later, I had the image restored to a 500 GB USB/Firewire external HD with one partition Apple Partition Map and connected it via the firewire to the ibook... Ran the installation again and the same errors occurred. I tried again, freeze. Tried again same errors.
Well, I had a crazy idea, install Leopard on the External Drive. This time the errors occurred at the same points; however, it was verbose and if I am reading it correctly the information that the installer is looking for on the Leopard disk that is missing or corrupt. The interesting thing with this is "Bad" Leopard disk came up several times during my searches. I have use my Leopard disk once on the iMac (now running Snow Leopard), why would I suspect the installation disk? Right? Well, the error that displayed on the last attempt pointed to the installation disk missing information and to contact the vendor.
Yesterday, I obtained another retail copy of Leopard from a coworker and the same errors occurred. I tried again, it froze. I tried a disk image to the external drive using the new disk which resulting in the same errors.
I don't really think there is a hardware issue (e.g. RAM) but who knows at this point. All I can really say is that my friends iBook is still dead. Actually, worse that when I got it. At least before it would boot Tiger... sometimes. Does anyone have any recommendations? Or a source for a retail copy of Tiger?

It is obvious the this is the wrong forum OR no one is interested in installing Leopard on an iBook G4. Regardless, I continued to investigate and found many posts related to bad or suspect RAM. So, I purchased a 512MB stick of Crucial RAM PC 2700 from a local PC and Apple repair shop. I would have purchased a 1GB stick, but this was not available.
I reset the RAM via Command-Option-P-R upon restart, ran the Leopard installation. This time it was successful. Everything was working great and then I had to install the updates... Note: I Should have made an image of the installation on the HD and Time Machine back up... but I didn't. This was a bad call because the 10.5.8 combo update didn't finish and crashed during install... then it provided an error message that it could not be installed, restart.
Subsequent attempts to reinstall Leopard via the DVD/CD drive have failed. I ran Disk Utility and the HD volume now had errors. I tried to repair these with Applejack & TechTool Deluxe. It could not repair... so I gave up.
Upon my returning to a challenge, I used Disk Utility to erase and setup one partition on the HD. I ran Leopard install. It failed. Ran Disk Utility again, erased the HD this time with zeros (just for fun) and the installation is hanging. I am going to let it sit over night. Any ideas out there?

Anyone managed to run Leopard on an iBook G3?

I would like to know if there are people who succeeded installing Leopard on an iBook G3? I know that with the current system requirements its not done, but with some magic anything is possible.
If someone managed to install it, please share your experiences of Leopard on an iBook G3 so other people can learn from it.
Thanks in advance

Steven:
Next... I'm going to really push the limits and try installing Leopard on my Bondi Blue G3...
Wow! That's really pushing it! Let us know how it goes.
Those of us who have older hardware know that there are many users who run later Operating Systems on non-supported hardware using helper utilties like XPostFacto. There are always those who push the limits, and I expect it will be done again. For me, I see no other reason for wanting to intall Leopard at this time.
Cheers
cornelius

Installed Leopard, G4 will not go past the start up screen

I installed Leopard on my iBook G4 (I think I have OS X 10.4.10). After it installed, the computer began to restart. But in the startup screen (with the Apple and swirling circle), it does not go past there. I ejected the disk (using Option + Apple + O + F) thinking that was the problem that it was still in there. I also tried to remove application enhancements, using that single user screen. But every time I try to restart the computer (holding down the power button), the computer does not go past this apple screen. PLEASE HELP!!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
What method did you use? Upgrade, Archive and Install, or Erase and Install? I know I had trouble with the Archive and Install on my MBP, and had to go back and do an Erase and Install to resolve them.
However, this may be a better place for you to start:
Mac OS X 10.5: Troubleshooting installation, startup, and login issues:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307005
If nothing helps, try posting you question on the Leopard forum. There seem to be issues with Leopard which transcend the individual machine you install it on. You might find more help there.
Good luck!

Setting up an external drive before installing Leopard

I have just purchased a new MacBook and a stand alone version of Leopard to put on my iBook. I have an OWC external drive as well. I want to set up the external so that I can have a bootable copy of Tiger and OS9 (my kids need OS9 to run some of their games) The external is configured as MacOS extended right now with no partitions. I am guessing that I should partition this drive with four partitions? One for Tiger, one for OS9, one for Time Machine, and one for other data, music, movies, documents, etc. My question is what would be good sizes for these partitions? Also if I use Carbon Copy to clone my existing OS, is the clone bootable or do I have to do something else to make it bootable? Will it save all my current files too?
I have been reading the discussions group for several hours trying to figure out what steps to take to install Leopard on my iBook so it has the least amount of problems and this is what I have come up with.
1. repair permissions, run Apple Hardware Test, back up my current OS and any other documents, files, etc. using Carbon Copy
2. Install Leopard using Archive and Install option, with save network preferences box checked.
3. repair permissions again after install
4. enjoy Leopard, (hopefully)
Have I left anything out?
thanks in advance for everyone's help.
Jennifer

I believe you can have OS 9 on the same partition as Tiger, and use "classic" to run the kid's games under Tiger. That will prevent you from wasting disk space with to many partitions. I would definitely recommend putting Time Machine on its own dedicated partition as you indicated.
OS 9 can be installed on a single gigabyte. I'd not install OS X on less than 10GB (this would be for Tiger...and I'm assuming it wont be heavily used beyond running the OS 9 games in classic mode). I'd then put as much as you think you can into the Time Machine volume....as a rule of thumb, having the TM volume be double your Leopard installation is plenty, but it really depends on your uses (file size, frequency of creation/editing, etc).
The clone will be bootable if you restore it to a working partition. As a clone, it will "clone" everything on your drive...files and system...everything.
Those install steps seem right to me. The only thing I'd suggest is to give Leopard a "break-in" period where you set up all the system preferences the way you want and let it run (boot it up and shut it down a few times). Run all the applicaitons that came with it (textedit, photobooth, etc) and see if then open and behave corretly. Then move on to third-party applications you've installed and be sure they work as well. When all that's done and things seem to be ok, migrate your files back to the drive if it's needed, though in the archive and install there's teh option to preserve user data, and this will do the copying for you.
One potential problem is if programs behave funky and settings dont get saved, etc., you might have corrupt preference files, in which case try removing the preference files from your ~/Library/Preferences/ folder for the affected applications.
Hope it goes well!

Easiest way: installing leopard on ibook

hi,
i got a ibook g4 (1.33ghz,1.25gb,cd-r/w) from a friend and im looking for the easiest way to upgrade the os to leopard. i found several ways in the inet, but none of them sounds quite easy or cheap (e.g. runninga tftp server, changing the internal cd drive with a superdrive,...). so ive the leopard dvd next to my ibook and couldnt install it...
is it possible to use an external dvd-drive connected via firewire to install leopard? i already tried an external drive with usb, but i the ibook sadly wont boot from usb devices.
thanks for help!

Hey iBookChris,
is it possible to use an external dvd-drive connected via firewire to install leopard?
Yes that's the way I do it to avoid any variance in internal drives.
Richard

Installing Leopard on iBook

Will installing Mac OS X Leopard on my iBook running Mac OS X Tiger cause it to slow down, like if you installed Windows Vista on a Windows XP PC?

Since you both advise on improving the amount of RAM I currently have, do you know of any good websites where I could get it from?
I would begin with ramseeker where you will find several vendors and competitive prices. You can also check out Other World Computing as they are a very reputable and reliable source.
As for the hard drive, would it work if I used a portable hard drive for all of my music and documents etc, and just kept the hard drive in the iBook purely for OS and any software?
You do not tell us the size of your HDD so I am not sure why you are thinking of keeping you data on an external HDD. Here is what I suggest:
• On your internal drive you will have the OS and applications.
• I suggest keeping your Documents folder on the internal HDD.
• If you have sufficient room on the internal HDD you can keep your iTunes and iPhoto libraries there, too. If you do not have sufficient room to accomodate your music and photos, they are the best candidates for an external drive. The following articles will be helpful:
Moving your iTunes Music folder
How to move the Library folder to a new location
• Be sure to maintain a full backup of all your data and keep it updated at all times. The best way to do it is to get an external firewire Hard Disk Drive and clone your entire volume from the internal HDD using a utility like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This is the best insurance for your data at any time, but is especially important if you have an aging drive.
cornelius

Cannot install Leopard 10.5.4 on iBook G4, MacBook

Hello,
I have a retail DVD of the Leopard 10.5.4 install disk, and I cannot get it to install on my machine (iBook G4, 1.0 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM). After inserting the disk and restarting the computer, I never get to the "select language" screen - it just stalls on the boot screen with the gray apple logo and the gray pinwheel. I tried the DVD on a friends' MacBook and encountered the same problem. Next, I tried it on an old eMac that I have and did NOT have such a problem. What gives? Could this be a faulty DVD? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

This is the original DVD, not a copy? It sounds like a bad DVD, or bad drives.

Help - tried to install leopard over tiger on iBook G4 and cannot boot up

My ibook G4 apparently does not have enough disk space to enable me to install leopard; shame, BUT in process of finding this out I cannot restart in Tiger - machine spends 3-4 mins trying then powers down to black screen.
Any help/advice gratefully received...
Thanks, Bob

Hi Bob, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Do you have a Backup?
Do you have a bootable external drive?
Do you have another Mac around so you could use FW Target Mode to clear some space...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
If none of the above, then using your Install Disk to Erase everything and start over completely is about the only ting left.
Due to temporary files, RAM Discs, VM, you need twice what they say minimum to install... 20 GB free.

Unable To Install Leopard to ibook G4

I'm currently using mac os 10.3.9 and I would like to install the new leopard using firewire. After i restart the mac it shows a dialog box stating that i could not install the leopard. Why?
My ibook specs:
G4 933Mhz
600+ RAM
No DVD Rom but installing from my friend's mac book via firewire

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
A MacBook can't be used to install Leopard on a G4/933 unless your MacBook predates Leopard, and you follow these directions exactly with the Leopard retail installer disc which looks like *:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1418365&tstart=10
MacBook installer discs labeled as such can't be used on a G4/933.
MacBooks newer than Leopard's release date of 10/26/2007 can't use the retail installer for Leopard unless it was revised since that date, and is newer than the MacBook in question.
- * Links to images hosted on my website may give me compensation.

Installing Leopard on my Ibook G4

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