installing Leopard on PowerBook

Yes, if the processor is slower then 867 MHz
Faster G4s require no such 'trick', other than using one of the commercial Leopard installers (on a black DVD with the big X across the label.
A grey DVD, for example, won't install on your G4.
 
My Powerbook G4 is at 1.67Ghz so i take it that it would be fine!

Now, if i remember correctly the guy that gave me that Powerbook had told me that he installed Leopard on it by some special way and not normally. Can this be true?

Also while the OS is starting, the screen looks like a DOS screen with a lot of text/commands running through it... why is this happening?


DeltaMac: plz tell me more about the black and gray dvd, what are their difference? why gray will not install?
 
There is no special procedure needed to install Leopard on that machine.

The DOS-like text on the screen could be the computer being set to start up in "verbose mode." Instead of hiding all the technical mumbo-jumbo and status messages behind a nice white screen with an Apple logo and spinning gear, it's exposed to the user... typically for troubleshooting. You can start up your computer this way by holding command-v at startup, or you can set it to permanently start up in verbose mode:

http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/25/always-boot-mac-os-x-in-verbose-mode/

The difference between a gray, system-specific DVD and a black, retail DVD is that the former can only be used to startup and install Mac OS X on the specific model of Mac printed on the front of the DVD, while the latter can be used to boot and install Mac OS X on any compatible Mac computer that shipped with a system version equal to or less than the version contained on the DVD.
 
Ok thanx for the carefully explained info, now let me ask this... supposedly i have the gray disk, if i try to boot using it in a different mac, other than the one i came with, will it boot?
 
Nope, not unless the model of Mac printed on the DVD is identical, down to the part of the year in which it was released, to the computer you're trying to boot.

There's no harm in trying, if you're simply curious about the error message it gives you.
 
The grey disk is specific for only one Mac model. It will boot another Mac, but the installer won't allow the install to work on a different model. You can use the utilities on that disk, but you can't use it as an OS X install on another model Mac.
That grey disk is intended to stay with the Mac that it originally came with. It also has a hardware test, that again, will only run on that original model, or another identical Mac.
 
so that is the only problem i might face when making the installation? or might there be another issue when Leopard meets Powerbook G4 1.67ghz?
 
If you have a grey disk, and not a black one - then you can't install Leopard on that PowerBook with that disk. The other issues would be making sure that you have enough RAM, and enough free space on the hard drive. Those are not important if you only have a grey installer, which will not install on your hardware.
You can always try the grey disk, and see that it reports "This software cannot be installed on this computer" or very close to that message.
 
enough free space? but why would free space be an issue? i will erase all the data on the disk anyway, cant i do that while beeing in the installer?
 
You did ask about "other issues", and you do need space enough for the install. Your solution to that issue would be to erase the hard drive, and you are correct, you can choose the option to erase and install.
As I said, other issues are not relevant if you don't have a usable installer disk...
 
So far I have never had any problems restoring a cloned copy (Superduper in my case) from a system running any given version of OS X onto another model of Apple computer.
So there are ways of getting it done if a person is determined enough.
 
Well, yes, but you have to install it on something first. It's a common misconception that the install from grey disks is somehow different, like missing some drivers - but that's not accurate. The OS X system that gets installed is the same - but the installer will not run unless you're booted to the Mac model that disk supports. The final install will boot other Mac models. So - once installed, you can clone (or just use Disk Utility Restore) to an external drive, and use that to boot most any other Mac that supports that OS X version.
 
You're right, DeltaMac, although some restrictions apply. For example, using a Mac Pro to install a system on a notebook will name the AirPort Card "Ethernet 2" or something like that. It just ain't as clean as it could be. Plus: That way you can only ever use a _newer_ system, because older ones simply won't contain bootable builds for a newer machine. Missing drivers and all those things... You could, of course, update the system before booting it on the machine it's meant to be on at the end. Also: This simply won't work when the machines are different architectures (x86/ppc). Since we're talking about a PowerBook here, this might be an issue if all you find are intel Macs.
 
Hold on guys, we have taken this issue to another level, very very professional. ok i think my questions have been answered, so a clean Leopard installation by erasing/formatting the drive, can be done and without any issues whatsoever, because nothing strange can appear in such installations (provide that there is enough disk space, existence of appropriate cpu, enough RAM, black disk installer!) Do we all agree on that?

btw. is 1GHz ram enough?
 
Yep, that's all that's needed.

1GB of RAM is adequate, but may leave you wanting a bit more.

Nowadays, 2GB is pretty much the minimum I would recommend for a pleasant experience, but 1GB will definitely get you by.
 
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