G5 won't accept OS 10.4.2

[MacOldschooler]

I recently picked up a regrettable PowerMac G5 to stand in for my G4 Digital Audio which won't turn on. (I wish I had just replaced the power supply, but I was taken in by the G5's relative cheapness.) My entire purpose has been to maintain access to old files and applications, which I can't do with the included OS 10.5.

After trying the wrong 10.4 install images, I downloaded and burned disc one of the correct 10.4.2 four disc set. (In several variations: Burned on two different drives and from two different sources of the disc images.)

Most of the time all that happens after launching the installer and restarting when prompted is that the machine restarts to the Leopard installer that is on the first partition of the drive in shipped with (a *laptop* drive, 200gb smaller than advertised, rattling around inside the bay).

The most I am able to acheive is an alarming looking error screen that insists I restart.
Physically, this computer looks like it has been abused, and Im hoping it doesn't have some significant and difficult to diagnose issue that is preventing my progress. (I have not troubleshooted the ram yet.)

If anyone has some insight into this, I would appreciate it greatly.

 

[mustagcoupe]

What disk set are you trying to use. Tiger usually came on dvds. If you got it from the macintosh garden they sometimes use multiple zip files. 001,002 etc. You need to put them all in a folder and unzip them. If you only burned a partial disk image it will cause the mac to kernel panic like that. Sometimes unzipping multiple part files hasnt worked on ppc mac and ive had to use my pc laptop with 7zip to unzip them and send the disk image over to the mac to burn it. If you are using a proper tiger multiple cd set i would stop and download the late 05 g5 10.4.2 restore disk. I know that works cause i just used it yesterday. That one is definitely one of those multi part zip files and all 5 parts need to be unzipped to make one working dvd image. You only need to unzip the first one and if it works right it should unzip the other 4 automatically and give you a dvd sized file. Again you might need to use a pc with 7zip or a newer mac or something like the unarchiver to get it to unzip properly.

EDIT: The part number for the late 05 g5 restore dvd is 691-5025-A. If you search that you should be able to find it on the macintosh garden.

 

[DeltaMac]

The 4-disk set is for CDs, when there is no DVD burner to use.
I don't think you can describe that as the "correct" set.
The DVD image is for a single (dual-layer) DVD.
Maybe try a different image to burn from, such as one from this page: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
The best one here for you would be download #32, which gives you a disk image of the last commercial installer DVD -- version 10.4.6
( this is also the same Macintosh Garden site mentioned above )

 

[Amethyst1]

I downloaded and burned disc one of the correct 10.4.2 four disc set.

That set is labelled incorrectly. It’s v10.4.0, not v10.4.2, and is too old for your G5. You need to use the correct machine-specific v10.4.2 disc — or use the retail v10.4.6 disc, which will install on any officially Tiger-compatible PPC Mac.

 

[MacOldschooler]

Thank you for your promising suggestions Mustag, Delta, and Amethyst. Mine is the dual 2.3 (late 2005) G5.

Mustag, I have been using disc images downloaded from macrepository, among other sources (can't recall the other at the moment, probably archive.org). I burned one on a PC laptop before i encountered a set that was in toast format. Some of them appear to be identical, but with minor differences in the size by a handful of bytes. One of them I burned onto a CD, to rule out that as an issue. Another I burned on DVD my pc laptop, another still onto DVD on the G5, and others all burned on the G5. They all load and open and appear valid until actually attempting an install. I will make new attempts based on restore disks.

Thank you Delta, I'll give that version a try.

Amethyst, is that really the case? Why would they do something to produce such agonizing frustration to me, an innocent mac enthusiast!?

 

[Amethyst1]

Amethyst, is that really the case?

Yes, I remember checking disc one of that set. The kernel is version 8.0, which corresponds to Mac OS X v10.4.0. If it were v10.4.2, the kernel version would be 8.2.

Why would they do something to produce such agonizing frustration to me, an innocent mac enthusiast!?

It may just be an unfortunate mistake on their part.

 

[DearthnVader]

Please don't steal Mac OS👹

Plenty of legal copies out there on the cheap.

 

[mustagcoupe]

Please don't steal Mac OS👹

Plenty of legal copies out there on the cheap.

You cant steal something that came with the machine. If that G5 shipped with a copy of tiger it has a license for it and you have every right to put tiger back on it. What you are saying is just as stupid as saying every time you reinstall windows you need to buy a fresh activation key.

 

[DearthnVader]

You cant steal something that came with the machine. If that G5 shipped with a copy of tiger it has a license for it and you have every right to put tiger back on it. What you are saying is just as stupid as saying every time you reinstall windows you need to buy a fresh activation key.

Just being a little tongue and cheek👍

But really, factory install discs give much less issues.

 

[weckart]

Thank you for your promising suggestions Mustag, Delta, and Amethyst. Mine is the dual 2.3 (late 2005) G5.

Mustag, I have been using disc images downloaded from macrepository, among other sources (can't recall the other at the moment, probably archive.org). I burned one on a PC laptop before i encountered a set that was in toast format. Some of them appear to be identical, but with minor differences in the size by a handful of bytes. One of them I burned onto a CD, to rule out that as an issue. Another I burned on DVD my pc laptop, another still onto DVD on the G5, and others all burned on the G5. They all load and open and appear valid until actually attempting an install. I will make new attempts based on restore disks.

Your install disks for your machine are to be found here

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/powermac-g5-restore-medias

The first 5 downloads on the right should be the ones you need but if you are going to update to 10.4.11, you might as well start with 10.4.6 retail.

 

[MacOldschooler]

Your install disks for your machine are to be found here

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/powermac-g5-restore-medias

The first 5 downloads on the right should be the ones you need but if you are going to update to 10.4.11, you might as well start with 10.4.6 retail.

I downloaded those as well as the one suggested by DeltaMac, and they both WORKED for me. I ended up going with the 10.4.6, because the restore disk said that the second disk (comprised by the last 10 links in that list, oddly) would've required a dual layer DVD, and I don't have that blank media on hand. (Target disk mode is out, because I dont have another mac on hand from the same era, and I didnt want the hassle of creating a bootable flash drive.) That second disk appears to be a big bundle of good looking software, but nothing crucial to my immediate goal.

Thanks very much to everyone. It was looking doubtful the last couple days, but I finally found success, and Im extremely appreciative for your help.

 

[Macbookprodude]

You cant steal something that came with the machine. If that G5 shipped with a copy of tiger it has a license for it and you have every right to put tiger back on it. What you are saying is just as stupid as saying every time you reinstall windows you need to buy a fresh activation key.

Apple wouldn’t care anyway.

 

[mustagcoupe]

Apple wouldn’t care anyway.

Yeah but if you say something like that they go something like "REEEE, yOuR BReAkiNg THe LaW, ItS IlLEgaL".
If you point out that the machine is already licensed and their point is incredibly stupid they have no response and just end up making a lame excuse to save face.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Yeah but if you say something like that they go something like "REEEE, yOuR BReAkiNg THe LaW, ItS IlLEgaL".
If you point out that the machine is already licensed and their point is incredibly stupid they have no response and just end up making a lame excuse to save face.

Well, it’s deeper than that - their extreme hatred of PowerPC (Cook and the new generation of Apple employees) is the reason why they wouldn’t give a s*** about it. As for Snow Leopard ? Maybe because we caught them in a lie that Snow Leopard doesn’t run on PPC Macs when in face it does, just they deactivated the code.

 

[Amethyst1]

Well, it’s deeper than that - their extreme hatred of PowerPC (Cook and the new generation of Apple employees) [...]

Can you point out one - just one - example of "Cook and the new generation of Apple employees" actually hating PowerPC, rather than just not caring about it?

 

[eyoungren]

Apple wouldn’t care anyway.

This is the wrong approach. You may be right, but if you keep that attitude in life you will eventually become that ONE test case exception that some company somewhere chooses to crack down on. It's the people that flaunted things, thinking they could do whatever the hell they wanted and that nothing would happen to them that end up with legal issues.

 

[eyoungren]

As for Snow Leopard ? Maybe because we caught them in a lie that Snow Leopard doesn’t run on PPC Macs when in face it does, just they deactivated the code.

Maybe you should explain that? I've seen the project and it seems to be a lot of CREATING code to make it run - not activating code that was already written and turned off. And even if there was deactivated code, it seems to have only been in betas or at most an early release.

Otherwise, if this is true, where's 10.6.8 PowerPC?

 

[TheShortTimer]

This is the wrong approach. You may be right, but if you keep that attitude in life you will eventually become that ONE test case exception that some company somewhere chooses to crack down on. It's the people that flaunted things, thinking they could do whatever the hell they wanted and that nothing would happen to them that end up with legal issues.

Quite right. There's always the straw that breaks the camel's back. Apple seemingly do not care but you'd be surprised at the people who do care about piracy under the most incomprehensible of circumstances.

I've seen situations where publishers and programmers have requested that their software be removed from the Internet even though their software hasn't been commercially available since the 90s - sometimes the 80s and crucially, they have no intention to commercially distribute the software themselves within an emulation package or an updated form etc. They just don't want anyone to have it.