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Snow Leopard on Unsupported PowerPC Macs
- Thread starter Larsvonhier
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Checked again and it still works using Firefox 78.15.0esr on Yosemite.
Try different browser. Also note that final download link has md5 checksum that expires at some point.
UPD: I've tried downloading with latest InterWeb, SpiderWeb and Firefox Legacy (Nightly) on Snow Leopard MBP2011 and got the same 410 error.
UPD 2: In last step (in my instructions), instead of clicking on download button, try 'Save link as'. Worked for me this time on SL/MBP2011 with Firefox Legacy.
Note to others!
Download from that PC mag site as much as you care ASAP. All that stuff will be gone sooner or later.
Try different browser. Also note that final download link has md5 checksum that expires at some point.
UPD: I've tried downloading with latest InterWeb, SpiderWeb and Firefox Legacy (Nightly) on Snow Leopard MBP2011 and got the same 410 error.
UPD 2: In last step (in my instructions), instead of clicking on download button, try 'Save link as'. Worked for me this time on SL/MBP2011 with Firefox Legacy.
Note to others!
Download from that PC mag site as much as you care ASAP. All that stuff will be gone sooner or later.
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Thanks, it worked on a new Mac with 11.7. It did not on a PowerMac with TFF. Not sure if the browser is at fault or network connection.
Hi all,
I've been reading through this thread on and off so I may have missed an answer to this already. Is there any advantage or the potential for advantage of using PPC SL on over Leopard? Is SL on PPC just more of a hobbyist pursuit? Which I can absolutely see the challenge of getting SL to work as part of the fun.
I think I asked in the past if there is anything from the PPC SL builds that can be brought over to Leopard to improve it and I think the answer was basically no.
I have SL on a 2010 MacBook Pro and I found it to be less useful than modified Leopard on my G5. One advantage I can think of using SL on my MBP is that it can run programs that were designed to run on Intel but don't have PPC compatibility.
I've been reading through this thread on and off so I may have missed an answer to this already. Is there any advantage or the potential for advantage of using PPC SL on over Leopard? Is SL on PPC just more of a hobbyist pursuit? Which I can absolutely see the challenge of getting SL to work as part of the fun.
I think I asked in the past if there is anything from the PPC SL builds that can be brought over to Leopard to improve it and I think the answer was basically no.
I have SL on a 2010 MacBook Pro and I found it to be less useful than modified Leopard on my G5. One advantage I can think of using SL on my MBP is that it can run programs that were designed to run on Intel but don't have PPC compatibility.
1. Well, it depends. For everyday casual usage 10.6 PPC makes little sense: it is clearly less stable system lacking support for some hardware components which are supported in Leopard.
For development it may make sense, since it does have newer features, though not quite as much as 10.6.8 (expectedly so). Some software will build that does not on Leopard, or will have a bit more features on 10.6 PPC. Likely that will require some work, since 10.6 PPC does not fit standard assumptions, falling somewhat in between 10.5.8 and 10.6.8.
However, it lacks support for ppc64, so if that is a primary concern, then even for development it is a no-go.
2. There are things to bring from 10.6.x that can improve Leopard. Perhaps there is no particular reason to bring them from developer builds though (and also it is likely impossible due to no sources for 10A190) – rather bring them from 10.6.8 to 10.6 PPC and/or 10.5.8.
I posted a bit about this about six months ago.
I’ll throw this question back to you: in what ways do you find SL on a 2010 MBP to be less useful than a modified Leopard on your G5?
SL also supports Cisco IPSec VPN connections as of 10A190 (and maybe 10A96?) as opposed to 10.5.8
Good guide.
Had a few hurdles to get it running as I found out the hard way that my Firewire WD My Passport Studio is not a drive this G5 can boot into. Mostly stable with the little I have done so far, minus my copy of TFF compiled in Tiger crashing when I wanted to browse to attach the photo below. Drag-n-drop worked fine, as I am posting in a Tiger compiled TFF on this system.
Anyone able to confirm the video card situation. Am i reading that some Mac PCI cards will support CI / QE via hardware?
Thanks for the fun little side project!!
Had a few hurdles to get it running as I found out the hard way that my Firewire WD My Passport Studio is not a drive this G5 can boot into. Mostly stable with the little I have done so far, minus my copy of TFF compiled in Tiger crashing when I wanted to browse to attach the photo below. Drag-n-drop worked fine, as I am posting in a Tiger compiled TFF on this system.
Anyone able to confirm the video card situation. Am i reading that some Mac PCI cards will support CI / QE via hardware?
Thanks for the fun little side project!!
Interesting.. Which model of WD My Passport Studio?
I suspect it is because of either drive being encrypted (by default, btw.) or drive spindown settings or both.
Or old firmware, although that's highly unlikely.
I learned after I did a fresh install of 10.5 to it, in order to have a live copy to build SL.
Found the following thread on Apple discussions.
Booting Powermac G5 from External Firewir… - Apple Community
Read through the discussion @840quadra linked to on Apple’s support discussions. All the information you need is grouped and itemized there.
Huh? I was asking which specific model from my list he have, as there are many. It has nothing to do with Apple’s support discussions from 2012.
They already gave you that answer — well before you asked. All the WD My Passport Studio revisions use the same Oxford chip set.
But not the same firmware, smarty.
OK, I'll stay out of this discussion, it's counterproductive.
Sounds good. Let us know when you find and can link to a reference on different WD firmware revisions and their confirmed ability to boot (or not boot) OS X, as firmware wasn’t something you asked @840quadra specifically. 🤷♀️
(I own a My Book Studio Edition II, and your remark is the first I’ve heard a firmware revision will somehow make it a bootable FW drive for Power Mac G5s — especially interesting because the drive is RAID 1-configured.)
Model is wdbk8a0010bbk-00 which is a My Passport Studio which was originally formatted for Mac.But not the same firmware, smarty.
OK, I'll stay out of this discussion, it's counterproductive.
No idea what firmware it has, and honestly have moved onto using a different Firewire drive that helped me get a test bootable SL OS onto this G5.
The WD drive is back in use as external storage for my B&W G3 tower.
Does anyone know how to use variables from xnu in the code to make conditional macros?
I refer to these: https://opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-2050.18.24/libkern/libkern/version.h.template.auto.html
They are supported from 10.4 onwards: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/kernel/version_stage (as an example).
Why this is relevant: if we find a way to unambiguously distinguish 10.6.0 Release from 10.6 DPs (it is not essential to differentiate between DPs), then all 10.6 PPC-specific fixes can be done with upstream (subject to upstream considering such a fix, but at least the technical obstacle will be removed).
AvailabilityMacros.h does not have developer builds defines, so the usual way does not work. But needed defines exist with the kernel. The only question is how to employ them.
I refer to these: https://opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-2050.18.24/libkern/libkern/version.h.template.auto.html
They are supported from 10.4 onwards: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/kernel/version_stage (as an example).
Why this is relevant: if we find a way to unambiguously distinguish 10.6.0 Release from 10.6 DPs (it is not essential to differentiate between DPs), then all 10.6 PPC-specific fixes can be done with upstream (subject to upstream considering such a fix, but at least the technical obstacle will be removed).
AvailabilityMacros.h does not have developer builds defines, so the usual way does not work. But needed defines exist with the kernel. The only question is how to employ them.
Awesome work! Did you have any issues compiling the 1.67 / 1.70 RGUI app? You had to compile gcc7 and obviously R 4.1.2, right? How long did it take? (I had compiled R 4.1 for Ubuntu ppc and it had taken a couple of hours, similar ballpark I guess, but gcc10 before was much longer if memory serves)
I have added support for old systems here, and it sorta automates the process: https://ports.macports.org/port/R-app/details/
Unfortunately, on 10.6 PPC for an unclear reason it fails to compile 1 xib file when done this way, so it won’t work now. Given that it does build outside of Macports, it is fixable. I will try to get back to fixing that soon.
As of now, anyone wishing to build R-app on 10.6 PPC may either do the whole thing manually or do sudo port patch R-app and then copy build directory somewhere – and just build with Xcode.
I do not really remember which version built without replacing xibs now. It was something of 1.6x.
R builds quite fast on G5. Definitely less an hour, I think about 30 min. Need to try. gcc takes around 3+ hrs for a single arch in Macports. If you hack stage 1 flags, can be built faster, like 2.5 hrs (this is on Quad).
On a very brief note for folks who don’t want to throw themselves into testing SL-PPC due of a lack of hardware AGP CI/QE support:
I’ve tested iChat, via Bonjour, between two of my Macs — a C2D MBP running 10.6.8 and my SL-PPC “mule” (an A1138 PowerBook G4) with an attached FireWire iSight camera, to see how well video “chatting” between the two Macs went. I’m happy to share the PowerBook running Build 10A96 handles it fine — with estimated ranges of 18–24 FPS.
Granted, the CPU does hit the high 90 percentile range, as the CPU is handling in software what the GPU isn’t in hardware, but this is on a single G4 CPU (a note to all who have a dual-CPU Power Mac G4 or G5).
Lastly, I ought to add how SL-PPC on the PowerBook handles inline YT video (specifically, this clip) just fine, as well — so long as your browser knows to not use hardware video decoding:
I’ve tested iChat, via Bonjour, between two of my Macs — a C2D MBP running 10.6.8 and my SL-PPC “mule” (an A1138 PowerBook G4) with an attached FireWire iSight camera, to see how well video “chatting” between the two Macs went. I’m happy to share the PowerBook running Build 10A96 handles it fine — with estimated ranges of 18–24 FPS.
Granted, the CPU does hit the high 90 percentile range, as the CPU is handling in software what the GPU isn’t in hardware, but this is on a single G4 CPU (a note to all who have a dual-CPU Power Mac G4 or G5).
Lastly, I ought to add how SL-PPC on the PowerBook handles inline YT video (specifically, this clip) just fine, as well — so long as your browser knows to not use hardware video decoding:
Sorry, followed every step in the "getting started" of the first post multiple times now and i just can not get things to boot! ☹️
Have some 32GB USB Flash Drive, which boots perfect via OF-command with some "normal" 10.5.6 installer ISO restored to it. But with SL it just does not!
I've been working with 10.6_snowleopard_10a190_clientdvd.iso. What i tried so far:
- restoring the ISO as is with Disk Utility => No boot
- mounting the ISO with Toast (which mounts two volumes while a normal installer only mounts one)
cloned the volume, named "Mac OS X Install DVD" to USB via CCC => No boot
I don't like to give up anymore. But now i'm a bit out of ideas.
Also there is one point, i do not understand:
"OSInstall.mpkg (attached) must be copied to /System/Installation/Packages (replacing original .mpkg). Verify file ownership and permissions! Another Mac running OS X is needed here."
Why is there "another Mac needed" just to verify/fix the privileges of this package? Can't this easily be done via terminal on the same machine?
Any help/enlighting highly appreciated.
Edit: Machine is a Quad G5, running Sorbet Leopard as main-system.
Have some 32GB USB Flash Drive, which boots perfect via OF-command with some "normal" 10.5.6 installer ISO restored to it. But with SL it just does not!
I've been working with 10.6_snowleopard_10a190_clientdvd.iso. What i tried so far:
- restoring the ISO as is with Disk Utility => No boot
- mounting the ISO with Toast (which mounts two volumes while a normal installer only mounts one)
cloned the volume, named "Mac OS X Install DVD" to USB via CCC => No boot
I don't like to give up anymore. But now i'm a bit out of ideas.
Also there is one point, i do not understand:
"OSInstall.mpkg (attached) must be copied to /System/Installation/Packages (replacing original .mpkg). Verify file ownership and permissions! Another Mac running OS X is needed here."
Why is there "another Mac needed" just to verify/fix the privileges of this package? Can't this easily be done via terminal on the same machine?
Any help/enlighting highly appreciated.
Edit: Machine is a Quad G5, running Sorbet Leopard as main-system.
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Pre-installed image works perfectly, provided hardware is standard. (I was able to install from original DVD, however the system behaved strange after I installed Xcode. Was too fed up then and didn’t pursue it any further. Should try perhaps. And yeah, instructions are anything but clear in that regard.)
Yes, tried this on a G4 Sawtooth and it worked perfectly fine. But sadly not on the Quad. I got kernel panics when booting, stating "Platform Powermac 11,2 not supported".
Thanks for confirming, this wasn't only me!
I found a few things quite confusing:
- What exactly to do with the downloaded ISO. Create USB-flash? Burn DVD (after performing the edits to the ISO)? Or even running from a second HD in the machine?
- Which OSInstall.mpkg should/must be used? The one included in the 10.6PPC-archive or the one attached to first post as a single file? (abot 70K the one, 700 the other)
- hint to use BatChmod.app (attached), which is neither attached to the post nor to find anywhere on the Forum
In all i was a bit lost, but keep trying.
