Sometimes OS X 10.2 Is Better than a Newer
Version
From Jeffrey Kafer
Hello Charles,
I've been reading with great interest the various articles
regarding how much Mac is recommended in order to run the various
versions of the Mac OS. I appreciate the value of different
opinions on the subject.
With regard to that, I thought that I'd share some of my
experience with Mac OS X on older hardware. Of particular
interest is a Power Mac 7300 that has
run several versions of OS X via
XPostFacto (10.1.5 then 10.2.8 then 10.3.9, then back to
10.2.8).
Why did I go backwards, you may ask. Well, the 7300 is currently
doing children's duty and is primarily tasked with Classic
applications. Since I want it to be easy on the youngsters, I
really don't want to deal with dual-boot issues. Since the machine
has sufficient RAM (544 MB) and processing power (500 MHz G3) to
run Classic under OS X, that's my preferred approach. But
numerous Classic applications, especially animation-rich
educational software, do not run acceptably under Classic in 10.3.9
- but run just fine in Classic under 10.2.8.
That change characteristic alone forced me to back up one
version. If it weren't for Classic software, perhaps 10.3.9 would
have been acceptable or even preferred. So when folks ask me about
what version to use, my first question is how they use Classic.
I am curious if you have heard anything similar.
Regards,
Jeffrey Kafer
Hi Jeffrey,
I have now. ;-)
It's a point I hadn't previously considered, and
what you say makes perfect sense.
I still use Classic, and haven't run into any
compatibility issues with the applications I need - even using
Classic Mode in OS X 10.4.8, but if that becomes an issue, it
makes sense to run OS X 10.2.
Thanks for the information.
Charles
Installing Tiger on a B&W Power Mac with No
DVD Drive
From John Morris
Hi,
I read your two articles on the Low End Mac site about
installing Tiger on Macs that lack a DVD drive and decided to try
it (Using FireWire Target Disk Mode to
Install OS X on Macs without DVD Drives and Installing OS X 10.4 'Tiger' on DVD-challenged
Macs Using FireWire Target Disk Mode). I'm in the process of
upgrading my family to Tiger and knew that this would be an issue,
because we currently use a MacBook
Pro (came with Tiger), a Power
Mac G5 (running Panther), an iMac
FPD (running OS 9 with just a CD drive), and a Power Mac G3 B&W (running Panther with
just a CD drive).
So I picked up a Family Pack and a 15' FireWire cable on eBay.
Of course, the test install on the G5 went smoothly. I have test
booted the iMac FPD from the install DVD using the G5 in Target
Disk Mode, and that seems to work fine. (That's my wife's main work
machine, so I'll work the kinks out on the other machines before I
install Tiger on it.)
However, the
B&W refuses to boot from the G5's DVD drive even though the
drive shows up on the desktop through the Target Disk Mode. It just
skips right over the DVD and boots from the next device when I set
the DVD as the startup device. Of course, the B&W does not boot
to Target Disk Mode, so I can't go the other way to run the
install.
That left me wondering how I would get Tiger on the B&W. I
tried imaging the CD and restoring it to an appropriately sized
partition, but it refused to boot from that as well; no surprise
there. I was able to select the drive as the startup device, but it
covered the screen with low-level messages and then hung during the
boot. I did find that I could image the test install from the G5
and restore that to a partition on the B&W. That seems to have
worked perfectly, but I wonder if I'm missing some subtle but
important components since the two machines are not exactly close
cousins.
The other option I'm considering is to temporarily install a DVD
drive in the B&W. Of course, as I'm doing this on a shoestring
budget, I can't go out and buy a drive, but it occurred to me that
I've got a perfectly good one here in my G5. That got me to
wondering if that would be safe. Do you know if the optical drive
from the G5 (2.0 GHz from late 2003) will work in, not harm, and
not be harmed by the B&W?
Thanks,
John
Hi John,
Thanks for the interesting empirical report.
Your technical question is outside my range of
experience and expertise.
Generally speaking, if your DVD drive is of a type
that is compatible with the B&W's internal bus (was the B&W
still SCSI based?), it seems unlikely (but I can't say for sure)
that it would be either damaged or cause damage simply from
attempting to hook it up. However, proceed at your own risk.
Perhaps someone in readerland will be able to help
shed more light on this.
Charles
From John Morris
Hi Charles,
Thanks for your note. Much to my chagrin when I first looked at
buying it, the base B&W did not sport a SCSI bus. The CD and
Zip were attached to one IDE bus, and the hard drive was attached
to a second. I think it may have been the first machine without a
SCSI bus; the Beige G3 had one, although it and a few earlier
machines had IDE for the hard drive and SCSI for the CD drive. My
Power Mac G5 has an SATA bus for the hard drive, but the the
optical drive is on a regular ATA bus. I've confirmed that, because
I attached an older 40 GB drive to it for a while.
Anyway, that suggests that I would be able to do a proper
install using the G5's optical drive on the B&W. However, with
a working Tiger install on the machine, the project has fallen way
down on my list of things to do.
Thanks,
John
Hi John,
Thanks for the follow-up.
Where there's a will there's a way. My daughter's
iMac died (just wore out), and she has resurrected her old Umax SuperMac S900 with a Sonnet 500
MHz G3 processor. She has succeeded in getting Tiger to install and
with the cache enabled and is finding it a decent performer. Even
got it to boot from her iPod via FireWire,
Charles
Salvaging an iBook G4's Hard Drive
From Ruffin Bailey
Charles,
I just read the latest Mailbag
(1/29), and if you put two of the letters together, you've got my
predicament. As Jon, I've dropped my iBook G4, but now mine won't
completely boot. Any attempt to boot from DVD gives me the infamous
"press the power off button" error.
Unfortunately, my last complete backup was in November, and I'd
like to get to the contents of my iBook's drive - and David's
letter got me thinking about a transplant.
Any easy ways to do this? What are the chances I can transplant
the iBook 10.4 drive directly into a Lombard? Access it by tossing it into a
less expensive G3 PowerBook and booting from DVD/CD?
I do want a new host that has a relatively easy to access hard
drive bay. I found replacing a hard drive on an earlier iBook to be
a real bear of a task.
Thanks a million!
Ruffin Bailey
Hi Ruffin,
The drive from the deceased iBook should work fine
in a Pismo or Lombard, and the biggest challenge is getting the
drive out of the iBook, although that is rendered a lot less
troublesome if you have no plans of putting the iBook back
together.
As for booting from the system on the iBook drive,
I can't say for sure. I know that the OS X 10.3.9 install I
have on my external FireWire drive happily boots all three of my
current OS X 'Books - the 17"
PowerBook G4, the G4 upgraded Pismo, and the G3 iBook. A Lombard may be pickier about
this than a Pismo.
Dropping the drive into a PowerBook G3 is pretty
easy, as I outlined in the reply you referenced.
Charles
Mac Service in Bogotá, Colombia
From Daniel Prieto
Hi Charles
Although I think that it would be better for our dropped iBook friend to buy one, it
might be helpful to know that in Bogotá, Colombia, there are
several authorised retailers and some authorised repair shops as
well. I will mention some repair shops which are my personal
favourites:
dp
Hi Daniel,
Thanks so much for the helpful information, which
I have forwarded.
Charles
Go to Charles Moore's Mailbag index.
