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Booting Intel iMac from old Tiger DVD's

L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
I have an external Firewire drive that I want to install Tiger onto in order to use as a boot drive for a G4 I have. Problem is, I can only install Tiger from my iMac (boot from DVD, install on external FW drive) because if I try it from the G4 it hangs and crashes.

So, my dilemma is this. I have an Intel iMac, so it won't let me boot from the regular Tiger DVD I have for the G4, because it's not compatible (can't install regular Tiger on an Intel Mac). Is there a way around this? I can't even boot off of my older Panther CD's or anything.

Edit: I also can't boot from my Ubuntu 5.10 CD!
 
cant you just install tiger onto the fw drive without booting off the disc?
 
The Intel iMac requires Rosetta to run binaries that were not compiled with Intel support. Since both Ubuntu and your old (pre 10.4.4) Tiger disc are not compiled with Intel support, you will not be able to boot from them.
 
I think the DVD drive is bad, it spins up loudly halfway through the install and just goes freezes. It does this with Tiger, Panther, and my Ubuntu CD.

And no, I can't install straight to the drive without booting from the DVD, when you click the "install" icon, it tells me the computer won't support the OS.

Seeing as the Intel Mac won't take anything but 10.4.4 that's made for it, and the G4 won't accept the Intel iMacs version of 10.4... am I out of luck?
 
I don't know whether this will work or not, but make an image of the PowerPC Tiger DVD and LAN it across to your G4. Then mount the image (lock it first to be on the safe side) and run the installer from in there.
 
Nermal said:
I don't know whether this will work or not, but make an image of the PowerPC Tiger DVD and LAN it across to your G4. Then mount the image (lock it first to be on the safe side) and run the installer from in there.
Click to expand...

Okay, hold on, I'm not 100% if I follow... I have a network hard drive... so could I make an image of the DVD onto that and boot from that? I can't boot from the G4 hard drive at all right now, as it's a new one I just got for it, and it's blank.
 
Sorry, ignore my previous post, I just thought of something better :)

Put the PowerPC Tiger DVD in your Intel system and reboot into target mode (T at the chime, I think). Then connect your G4 using a FireWire cable and reboot while holding Option. The DVD should pop up in the list and you should be able to boot from it :)
 
Nermal said:
Sorry, ignore my previous post, I just thought of something better :)

Put the PowerPC Tiger DVD in your Intel system and reboot into target mode (T at the chime, I think). Then connect your G4 using a FireWire cable and reboot while holding Option. The DVD should pop up in the list and you should be able to boot from it :)
Click to expand...

Dang, great idea! I'll try that right now!

Edit: My girlfriend informs me that by "now", I mean "whenever she's done looking up recipes on the iMac". I stand corrected.
 
Well, the idea worked, up until I got another kernel panic. I'm pretty sure now that it's not the DVD drive on the computer, it's the new G4 CPU I bought used and put in it today.

Thanks for your help, I guess I'l have to try again once I swap this out!
 
livingfortoday said:
I have an external Firewire drive that I want to install Tiger onto in order to use as a boot drive for a G4 I have. Problem is, I can only install Tiger from my iMac (boot from DVD, install on external FW drive) because if I try it from the G4 it hangs and crashes.
Click to expand...

Woah, woah, woah... hold on there. If your G4 is /hanging/ and /crashing/ while trying to boot/install an OS, you have MUCH larger problems that need looked at by a tech. Simply dodging the problem one way isn't going to make this stuff go away if the problem is more serious than a faulty DVD drive.
 
The Intel iMac's Tiger install CD should be universal. Developers could use the Tiger cds from their Transition Development Kits to install onto older Mac hardware.
 
Krevnik said:
Woah, woah, woah... hold on there. If your G4 is /hanging/ and /crashing/ while trying to boot/install an OS, you have MUCH larger problems that need looked at by a tech. Simply dodging the problem one way isn't going to make this stuff go away if the problem is more serious than a faulty DVD drive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure (99%) that it's the new G4 CPU I popped in there yesterday.
 
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