On Nov 5, 2010, at 3:12 PM, Anand Holtham-Keathley wrote:
I have grey 10.4 disks label for an iBook G4. I am having difficulty putting the new system on an iBook G3. I do not know if it is because the disks will not work with that machine or if it is because I am using an external firewire DVD drive. The disk does mount from the external DVD drive but there is a warning saying the disk can not be used on this machine. Any ideas.
This is an artificial system check by the installer. There are ways to get around it if you're creative. One way is to fool the installer into thinking you're on the correct model of Mac by changing the model in firmware. Another way is to create a modified installer (either a new DVD or clone on HD or USB stick) that doesn't have this check. The easiest way is if you have access to the correct Mac model that the disc is made for, then boot the incorrect Mac into Target Disk mode and use the correct Mac to install onto the incorrect Mac HD.
There are even other methods that will give you a bootable system, but they have some minor drawbacks. For example, you can often mount the installer disc on another Mac, and mount the incorrect Mac via Target Disk mode, and then navigate to the file system of the installer disc and double-click the "OSInstall.mpkg" file, which will launch Installer and will allow you to install an entire System without any "extras" or "clean-up". Use this carefully, and NEVER install onto your working System, only install onto OTHER partitions or HDs. After it installs, you'll need to install any "extras" manually by double- clicking their various install packages or downloading them. You may also need to clean-up the installation manually by using a utility like Pacifist to "update pre-binding for entire system...". This method may leave a couple files that are normally invisible as visible, so you might need to change back to invisible if you're picky.
It can be done, it's just a hassle. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
