More than an interesting thought experiment or project, the idea suddenly returned when I saw two USB-A to USB-C style adapters at a convenience store of all places and thought: “Why not”..?

For a while I’ve thought about adding USB-C ports to my Power Mac G5, although I never thought to pick up or lookup USB-A to Type-C adapters until recently. This experiment and foray into a bit of practicality is part of a seemingly never ending saga of upgrading my Power Mac G5, as well as wanting to see what modern day devices would (and wouldn’t) work in Leopard.

To my surprise, there were a number of things properly named in system profiler which I didn’t expect at all for the system to recognize. What struck a chord with me, however, is what ended up working completely unexpectedly.
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How does USB-C work on USB 2.0?

USB-C is a reversible-connector that is universally used on almost every modern device, whether it’s a smartphone, a Mac, PC, etc; the connector port is a widely used industry standard in 2025. Although the connector port was designed long after USB 2.0 or the release of any PowerPC Mac, it was implemented with USB 2.0 baked right in. There are missing features versus USB 3.0, but it still works.

“All Type-C cables except the minimal combination of USB 2.0 and only 3 A must contain E-Marker chips that identify the cable and its capabilities via the USB PD protocol.”

• “This ID data includes info about: Product, vendor, cable connectors, USB signaling protocol, passive or active construction, use of VCONN power, available VBUS current, latency, RX/TX directionality, SOP controller mode, and hardware/firmware version.”
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• “It also can include further vendor-defined messages (VDM) that detail support for Alt modes or vendor specific functionality outside of the USB standards.”

Image below was made on Adobe Photoshop CS4 using a USB-C receptacle as a reference.

How a USB-C 2.0 cable connects to a PowerPC Mac

See more: USB-C (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)

Source for “How does USB-C work on USB 2.0?” section in quotations: “USB-C” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, May 17th 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C.
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1: Satechi USB-C 3-Port hub + Realtek 8135 Ethernet Adapter

It’s no surprise a USB hub works (but the ethernet doesn’t). We won’t ever get USB 3.0 speeds but this isn’t about having the speed, it’s about functionality! The device fully shows up in system profiler the way it’s supposed to and I’m willing to bet some terminal commands/a kext file/something can make the ethernet work too. This is a Realtek adapter after all..
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When doing some digging it appears there is some Snow Leopard software as well as Mountain Lion software. I haven’t at all tried installing any drivers, just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Considering Snow Leopard for PowerPC is being developed at MacRumors, I wonder what the implications are for more drivers allowing more USB-C devices to work on PowerPC Macs.. just a thought. The Ethernet adapter portion alone is worth revisiting to get going under Mac OS X and Linux.

• USB drives show up A-ok, all three of them on all three USB ports. Transfer speeds seem correct.
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• Ethernet shows up in System Profiler but not in System Prefs

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2: Plugging an M4 MacBook Air in

Alright I’ll admit it, this was an outlandish idea however fun nonetheless. The Air doesn’t really charge (if at all) but it’s hard to tell what it’s doing. If I use it it’ll drain the battery but if I shut it and leave it, the battery very slowly charges?

• (Click on images to see full size, you will be directed to a new page – (1) – (2) – (3) – )

3: A TB3 to TB2 adapter, Gigabyte Gaming Box, and USB-C to DVI Adapter

• I’ll save you the time and energy: All those do is show up in System Profiler as the right name.
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• I also tried a USB-C to HDMI 1.4 cable directly into the same Samsung monitor plugged into the G5. When in System Prefs > Display > Detect Displays the mouse would freeze for a moment as if it found something, but it doesn’t display anything.
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Magic Keyboard 2

TB 3 to 2 adapter

USB-C Video Adapter.

4: Target Disk Mode..? No. Macintosh? Yes.

It’s not detected at all when in target disk mode, and when plugged in while booted, it does show up as “Macintosh” in system profiler.
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5: iPhone 14 Pro and iPad mini 6 do the same thing

• Recognize they’e plugging into a computer and ask “Trust” or “Don’t Trust”
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• Asks for password every time you plug it in
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• Charge slowly, Mac launches Image Capture and it either freezes or crashes.
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6: Magic Keyboard 2

It works wired but not wirelessly, the Bluetooth pairing doesn’t let it type the numbers to pair. I’m willing to bet a Magic Trackpad 2 works on here too.
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7: 8BitDo Pro 2 Controller

This is the one which really surprised me in that it worked! The 8BitDo Pro 2 Bluetooth Gamepad is a current device being made which doesn’t officially support Mac OS X Leopard. While this cannot at all connect properly via bluetooth, it does connect properly and work when in wired mode and on “D” for Mac OS computers. I used an official Apple Thunderbolt 3 cable for this.
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According to official documentation, macOS 13.2 Ventura is required, however, I was able to map out the keys in several different apps and properly use the controller across different games in the system. When you map the keys in the individual apps the settings are retained within the apps themselves, and you can use GamePad Companion to create profiles for different games.

• Download: GamePadCompanion (418 KB, Low End Mac Mirror)
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• Above is a brief example of using GamePad Companion for Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 on a Power Mac G5 to properly map the 8BitDo Pro 2 Controller so it can play Minecraft 1.8.9 on PowerPC.
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• GameCompanion allows you to create multiple profiles with custom names so each different game with a different set of controls can be mapped out and selected before “activating” in Sys Prefs.
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• Since the controller works across a variety of circumstances I believe it’s worth doing a followup article detailing how to configure it on a PowerPC Mac. This is a controller that already works on alot of platforms as-is.. adding PPC Macs to the list only makes it nicer.
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In Conclusion

I find it fascinating how in 20 years’s time technology standards have retained strongly enough you can do something like this. USB-A to Type-C adapters are cheap enough to where entertaining this is reasonable (Under $10-20 usually), they’re available on eBay, and can be found in some convenience stores also.

Considering how more and more USB-C devices/cables are made each successive year, it’s only going to make a PowerPC Mac slightly more flexible in what it can do. Interesting to see what does and doesn’t work in Mac OS X for those of us still hanging to our AIM-Alliance silicon – enough seems to work to make a case to revisit this in Linux and see what can really be made to work. Perhaps it’s worth looking into Leopard or PowerPC Snow Leopard kexts to get even more things working, too.