Mac OS X 10.1.5 Puma on original 12in PowerBook: GeForce 4 MX kexts

[LightBulbFun]

generally OS X installs are machine universal

but there are some edge cases (mainly on machines that shipped with an out going OS X version) where this is not the case, and you need the specific disks for that machine to get full driver support

another example would be Tiger on the GeForce 8600M GT Mid 2007 MBPs and Radeon 2400 XT/2600 Pro iMacs, even a fully updated 10.4.11 install does not contain the GPU drivers for those machines, luckily apple did put out a GPU driver update specifically for those machines, that if system update detects MBP3,1/iMac7,1 it will offer up those updates, but otherwise you dont get them

 

[DearthnVader]

Hi all, have been following this and similar threads in the forum with interest lately. I figured I would try tossing out an offer on the 10.1.5 discs mentioned earler. After a little back and forth with the seller I was successful and will have them in a few days. Once received, I will send disc images over to Amethyst1 and can also upload them to the Macintosh Garden if it would be useful to others.

Haven't spent much time trying this sort of thing myself, so excuse my ignorance. Is each installation of MacOS X customized to the hardware it is installed on? If so, does this only apply to system specific install discs or is it the same with retail discs as well? This surprises me somewhat because of the way it is possible to clone a drive from one computer to another and boot off it. I have done this many times over the years and sometimes between very different machines. Are there any downsides to doing this that are not obvious?

Some install discs are hard coded to only allow the install on specific models, but in the case of PPC Mac's it's pretty easy to use Open Firmware to fool the installer into thinking you are using another Mac, allowing the install.

It's was true of some Mac OS install discs too, I even have some application install discs for a MacMini2,1 that will not install unless you fool the installer. I did this on a 1Ghz G4 iMac, using Open Firmware to fool the installer.

Most of the time these OEM discs just install a normal version of the Mac OS that is bootable on any machine, but may have drivers or a later build number than the last Combo Updater for the specific OS.

 

[DearthnVader]

Try placing this 'NDRV' into the AppleNDRV folder with the stock nVidia .kext.

 

[Amethyst1]

Try placing this 'NDRV' into the AppleNDRV folder with the stock nVidia .kext.

Thanks. I did that and booted - once with all the kexts present and the 4MX's device ID added to GeForce2MX.kext to make it load, and once more with the 4MX's device ID removed so that GeForce2MX.kext wouldn't be loaded. The result was the same in both cases - it hung at the Happy Mac screen.