Upgrading from 10.3 on my iBook G4 800mhz

Question

Hi all,
I would like to be able to use Flash 10 on my iBook, so I need to upgrade to 10.4 or 10.5. I'm having trouble getting either installed from the disks I have.
I have a 10.5 retail install disk, but it refuses to install on the iBook (it's apparently 67 mhz too slow).
I also have a set of Mac mini system install disks with 10.4 on them. (I bought a mini with 10.4 on it, then got a 10.5 upgrade for it.)
When I boot the iBook from the mini install disks, I get a kernel panic ("Can't find <something> for Powerbook6,3"). Not really surprising.
The next thing I tried was to put the iBook in disk target mode and hook it up to the mini via FireWire. It shows up on the desktop just fine. However, the 10.4 installer says it can't install the OS to that drive. It doesn't say why, it just shows a stop sign badge on the iBook's drive.
I guess I have a couple of questions.
1) Can anyone come up with some suggestions for getting either 10.4 or 10.5 installed on the iBook G4 with this setup? I also have a 30 gig iPod with Firewire and an external Firewire 250gb drive that might be helpful. There's also a 500gb USB drive on the mini which I use for Time Machine, but it doesn't work on the iBook (the iBook thinks it isn't formatted).
2) Are there any licensing issues? I know I shouldn't run 10.5 on the iBook without a second copy of the software, but what about the 10.4 software? I'm not running a copy of that on any machines anywhere, so it seems like I should be able to legally put it on the iBook. Can anyone confirm or deny?
Thanks,
Doug

Answer 1

Information about singular models among the iBook and other Macs
available in MacTracker as a free downloadable database, shows
the different processor and bus speeds, supported OSX versions and
details on what kinds of optical drives were available for each series
run. These were often package or configuration dependent options.
MacTracker: http://mactracker.ca
So, not having a Combo or Superdrive in an early iBook may limit
the ability for it to have Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard 10.5.x installed.
Limited availability of Tiger 4-CD installer sets as part of Apple's
exchange program keeps some demand on the few out there high;
but a bootable FireWire optical superdrive could be used to install.
This would require a full retail installer; not a machine specific one.
And some machines which shipped with a Combo drive, but did not
have their original OS on DVD won't boot from OS X installer DVDs.
This is a limited occurrence, but I have found it to be true in some.
Or the later system may require a superdrive to burn featured content
to DVD media, such as some iLife & other apps need to for support.
Another issue, a machine specific installer is a limited version of the
OSX in question and can't adaptively put the correct parts into another
computer series or model than the one it was intended for.
Depending on the iBook's specifications, and those of the Mac Mini,
you could use an optical DVD drive to put a correct full retail install
of Tiger on the iBook, that has been documented online, where a
PPC machine has been able to install to a FireWire TDM PPC from
a PPC, by using correct full retail install discs. Not machine-specific.
Some of the hack-type of blogs and web sites out there have noted
some workarounds where the appropriate software installers were
used and correctly among suitable hardware configurations; many
of these kinds of articles would be fairly old, unless revisited by new
questions by those attempting these same steps three years later.
In any event...
Good luck & happy computing!