What can I do to install Mac OS X Leopard on my Mac Mini G4

[vixeko_]

I recently acquired a mac mini g4 for my collection but the hard drive is empty and I don't have any recordable DVDs on hand.
So I tried to install Mac OS Leopard from a USB drive and after several attempts the only thing I could do was make the progress bar advance a little but right after that it gave me the error that the "Essentials" package is needed. I don't know what else to do, I don't have any firewire device or any DVD and I don't even know if the DVD drive on this Mac mini is working. I tried with Mac OS Tiger but it also gave me an error and it was very tedious to have to boot the USB from open firmware. I tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 but when starting the installer it gave kernel panic, what can I try to install some OS on this Mac?

 

[TheShortTimer]

I recently acquired a mac mini g4 for my collection but the hard drive is empty and I don't have any recordable DVDs on hand.
So I tried to install Mac OS Leopard from a USB drive and after several attempts the only thing I could do was make the progress bar advance a little but right after that it gave me the error that the "Essentials" package is needed. I don't know what else to do, I don't have any firewire device or any DVD and I don't even know if the DVD drive on this Mac mini is working. I tried with Mac OS Tiger but it also gave me an error and it was very tedious to have to boot the USB from open firmware. I tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 but when starting the installer it gave kernel panic, what can I try to install some OS on this Mac?

Bienvenido!

The easiest option might be to just buy some blank dual-layer DVDs and burn a disc. Do you have another Mac with FireWire ports? If so, you could use Target Disk Mode to install Leopard that way.

 

[vixeko_]

Bienvenido!

The easiest option might be to just buy some blank dual-layer DVDs and burn a disc. Do you have another Mac with FireWire ports? If so, you could use Target Disk Mode to install Leopard that way.

Gracias por la bienvenida! :]

I have a Powermac G4 but the power supply died and I have not found a replacement, plus I do not have a firewire cable and they are a bit difficult to find locally 😔, so I will see if I can find a double layer DVD to try the installation

 

[davisdelo]

It sounds like a bad USB image if the essentials package is missing. You might try to remake that. Also, I recommend https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/sorbet-leopard

 

[pipetogrep]

You could also install OS X under QEMU PowerPC and use a USB to IDE adapter to dd it to the Mac Mini's hard drive. You would want to make sure to create the QEMU disk image to match the size of the hard drive, but it should work.

 

[Doq]

Even better:
Partition the drive into two (using another machine if you must), with one of them being just large enough to fit the Leopard install media. Write the Leopard install media to that partition. Forgo the USB shenanigans and just run the installer from disk.

Bonus: Now you have a de facto recovery partition just in case something goes wrong.

 

[juanstdio]

Ey Amigo,
Welcome!

Try to have a working OS X first, make it work fine.. then try to max it out.. Lookup into the Garden for OS X Images

 

[vixeko_]

Even better:
Partition the drive into two (using another machine if you must), with one of them being just large enough to fit the Leopard install media. Write the Leopard install media to that partition. Forgo the USB shenanigans and just run the installer from disk.

Bonus: Now you have a de facto recovery partition just in case something goes wrong.

I managed to restore the dmg of the leopard installer to a partition on the hard drive, but now how do I start the installer from the hard drive? When I turn on the Mac I get the question mark and if I turn it on by holding down the option key, no options appear.

 

[vixeko_]

I managed to restore the dmg of the leopard installer to a partition on the hard drive, but now how do I start the installer from the hard drive? When I turn on the Mac I get the question mark and if I turn it on by holding down the option key, no options appear.

I managed to start the leopard installer from the open firmware but the thing is that it keeps loading on the apple logo, I don't know why it gets stuck but now I will try to restore a partition with the sorbet leopard installer to see if it works

 

[Doq]

I managed to restore the dmg of the leopard installer to a partition on the hard drive, but now how do I start the installer from the hard drive? When I turn on the Mac I get the question mark and if I turn it on by holding down the option key, no options appear.

Sounds like the disk layout is incorrect. Did you make sure it was Apple Partition Map?

edit: I literally just noticed the post immediately below the one I quoted. Anyway,

I managed to start the leopard installer from the open firmware but the thing is that it keeps loading on the apple logo, I don't know why it gets stuck but now I will try to restore a partition with the sorbet leopard installer to see if it works

Try verbose mode (hold <Cmd>V on poweron) and see where it gets stuck.

 

[vixeko_]

Sounds like the disk layout is incorrect. Did you make sure it was Apple Partition Map?

edit: I literally just noticed the post immediately below the one I quoted. Anyway,


Try verbose mode (hold <Cmd>V on poweron) and see where it gets stuck.

When should I do the verbose mode key combination? since to start the installer I had to do it from open firmware and I was not able to start the partition with the installer any other way. I should also add that when trying to restore the sorbet leopard dmg it gave me an input/output error. It should be noted that I did all this restoring the dmg from the leopard installer since I have a USB with the installer and that USB is the one that gave me the essentials problem when trying to install so I only use it to use the utility tool of disks and the terminal. to summarize I start the leopard installer from my green usb > I plug in my gray usb containing the leopard and sorbet dmg > I use disk utility and restore the leopard dmg to a hard drive partition > I start the installer from the hard drive from open firmware > it gets stuck on the loading screen > I try to restore the sorbet dmg but it gives an input/output error, until that is done

 

[Doq]

When should I do the verbose mode key combination? since to start the installer I had to do it from open firmware and I was not able to start the partition with the installer any other way.

Right after hitting Return on the OF command.

I should also add that when trying to restore the sorbet leopard dmg it gave me an input/output error.

Known issue. Workaround is to mount the DMG and then restore the mount, not the file.

 

[pipetogrep]

Even better:
Partition the drive into two (using another machine if you must), with one of them being just large enough to fit the Leopard install media. Write the Leopard install media to that partition. Forgo the USB shenanigans and just run the installer from disk.

Bonus: Now you have a de facto recovery partition just in case something goes wrong.

This is the way.

 

[vixeko_]

Right after hitting Return on the OF command.


Known issue. Workaround is to mount the DMG and then restore the mount, not the file.

Ok I'll try all that. Right now I'm going to buy some double layer DVD+Rs, so what advice would you give me to burn the leopard dmg successfully on the DVD?

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

If it were me, since I have a bazillion SL dvds, I’d make sure my process produces a bootable dmg with Tiger because it fits on one SL dvd before I start throwing more expensive DL dvds at a Leopard dmg. If you have SL dvds around and uou intend to upgrade to sorbet, you might not even need to buy the DL dvds. I assume since your mini and Powermac are non-functional, you’re doing this on something like a windows 10 box so use an app like powerISO to burn a bootable Tiger dvd in windows and install it to the mini via its superdrive. From functional Tiger you can then produce bootable dvds via disk utility or download sorbet and again using disk utility, restore the mini to the Sorbet image.

If you are interested in Linux on PPC, alot of folks have had good luck with 16.04 lubuntu remix over the years. Repositories are dead nowadays but the os itself has alot of apps baked into it and fits on a SL dvd.

 

[barracuda156]

You could also install OS X under QEMU PowerPC and use a USB to IDE adapter to dd it to the Mac Mini's hard drive. You would want to make sure to create the QEMU disk image to match the size of the hard drive, but it should work.

Does the reverse work btw? Can I make an image of an existing installation and import it into Qemu?

 

[pipetogrep]

Does the reverse work btw? Can I make an image of an existing installation and import it into Qemu?

Probably yes.