Then follow this procedure: Put the unsupported Mac in Target Disk mode and plug it into a Lion supported Mac. Run the Lion installer and make sure to choose your unsupported Mac's hard drive. Let the install finish. Boot back into the supported Mac's OS, and put the unsupported Mac back to target disk mode. There is a small gotcha to this, is that you need to install Lion to a supported platform first (such as a Core 2 Duo), then migrate that installation to the unsupported platform. During or immediately after the migration, the file above should be removed, so the migration will live happily on the unsupported hardware. Theres always a reason why i choose to let the user have a Install partition. Its does the same thing as Apples 'Recovery Partition' 2. It doesn't overwrite onto you're perfectly fine Lion partition. You can't buy ML from the app store if you hava an unsupported mac. IMessage & FT is working.
Mac News Review
This Week's Apple and Desktop Mac News
Compiled by Charles Moore and edited by Dan Knight - 2012.02.24
You may not remember the name of the security software thatplayed a huge role in TheNet, the 1995 Sandra Bullock thriller, but our own Dan Bashurdid, posting a note about it to our Facebook pagelast weekend. Maybe you've guessed by now - it shares a name with a newOS X 10.8 feature: Gatekeeper.
Instead of providing security against malware, the fictionalGatekeeper instead provides a back door to any computer on which it isinstalled, as intended by the cyberterrorists behind it. I'm sure thatApple's choice of a name is merely coincidental. I certainly hope itis!
Mac notebook and other portable computing is covered in The 'Book Review. iPad, iPod, iPhone, andApple TV news is covered in iOS NewsReview. All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Desktop Mac Deals
News & Opinion
It's Relatively Easy to Install Mountain Lion onUnsupported Macs
Hardmac's Lionel reports that he's successfully installed OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on a Core 2Duo MacBook that is officially unsupported based on Apple's list, usinga a procedure similar to the one described by Jamie Cruickshank and used for the Mac Pro2006.
Lionel cautions that with the lack of drivers for the GMA X3100graphics processor, there is no accelerated graphics, but he will tryto find some workaround, possibly grafting in the driver from Lion, andif that works he'll publish the procedure in detail.
Publisher's note: OS X Daily has a report of Mountain Lion installed on an even older MacBook, onewith GMA 950 graphics, along with instructions on how to do ityourself, stating, 'Not only does OS X 10.8 run on the old MacBook, itreportedly works very well and with full graphics acceleration.' You doneed a supported Mac to make this method work. dk
Link: It's RelativelyEasy to Install Mountain Lion on Non-Supported Mac Models
Dropbox: 'A Feature, Not a Product' (but What aUseful Feature!)
Yankee Group blogger Pim Bilderbeek notes that the late Steve Jobstold Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox, 'You're a feature, not aproduct.'
Dropbox was a feature Jobs very much wanted, but Houston turned downhis offer, so Apple went on to create iCloud, which Apple positions asa feature. But, says Bilderbeek, 'Dropbox is a product for those thatwant their cloud content synchronized independent of device, operatingsystem and browser vendor.'
Editor's note: I am a big Dropbox fan. I can't imagine how I managedwithout it, and it's become a structurally key element of my workflow,by which I synchronize and access work in progress among my three Maclaptops and my iPad 2. iCloud, not so much, although that's a partlyvicarious observation. My iPad will support iCloud, but I've beensticking with OS X 10.6Snow Leopard on my newest (Late 2008) Intel Mac laptop,and the other two are PowerPC machines running OS X 10.4 Tiger. While iCloudrequires OS X 10.7 Lion oriOS 5, Dropbox supports all four devices, including the two ancient butstill very useful and serviceable Pismo PowerBooks from 2000, andit works reliably and flawlessly on all four. cm
Publisher's note: I'm in the same boat. My production Macs are a2002 Power Mac G4 runningOS X 10.4 Tiger, a 2001 Power Mac G4 runningOS X 10.5 Leopard, and a2007 Mac mini - my onlyIntel-based Mac - running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Thanks toDropbox, not only can I sync files on these three Macs, as well asothers should I feel the need, but I can also make old freeware andshareware apps and utilities available for download that are otherwisedifficult to find. All this for free and with no need to deal withOS X Lion. Even though I can't use Apple's iCloud feature on myMacs, since I have no need for Lion, I can use Dropbox. dk
Link: You're a Feature,Not a Product
Mountain Lion Will Be Available Only at the Mac AppStore
Pocket-Lint's Stuart Miles says Apple has confirmed that OS XMountain Lion, will be available only via the Mac App Store when itgoes on sale this summer.
That means Apple has finally abandoned all forms of hard media todistribute its operating systems and is likely to spell the end of theCD or DVD for software in the future as well. Miles notes that the MacApp Store is now the home for all Apple software, as well as forsoftware from companies such as Adobe and Intuit, and that Apple hasconfirmed to Pocket-lint that customers were not remotely interested inthe USB drive offering, commenting , 'It was an interesting test, butit turns out the App Store was just fine for getting the new OS.'
The new OS, which has been released as a developer preview, isexpected to be available for customers at a yet unspecified datesometime over the summer.
Editor's note: D'ya think the failure of the USB drive Lioninstaller might have been due to it costing costing twice as much asthe download? cm
Link: OS X Mountain LionWill Be Mac Store Only, Apple Tells Us USB Key Will Not BeAvailable
Messages Beta Available for OS X 10.7.3
PR: OS X10.7 Lion users can download Apple's Messages beta and get a taste ofwhat's coming in OS X Mountain Lion. When you install Messages, itreplaces iChat. But iChat services will continue to work. And Messagesbrings iMessage to the Mac, just like on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touchrunning iOS 5.
Here are the features you can expect with Messages:
- Send unlimited iMessages to any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touchrunning iOS 5.
- Start an iMessage conversation on your Mac and continue it on youriPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
- Send photos, videos, attachments, contacts, locations, andmore.
- Launch a FaceTime video call and bring the conversationface-to-face.
- Messages supports iMessage, AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, and Jabberaccounts.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.7.3 or later
Link: MessagesBeta
Messages Beta Will Stop Working When Mountain LionLaunches
The Register's Anna Leach reports that the beta build of Apple's newMessages app for Macs, released as a free download last Thursday, willself-terminate unless you buy Mac OS X Mountain Lion when it comes outin the summer.
'So,' Ms. Leach warns, 'don't get too used to it if you're not goingto upgrade your operating system,' noting that a French blogger spottedthe beta app's expiration date in the software code of thedownload:
'Thank you for participating in the Messages Beta program. With theinclusion of Messages in OS X Mountain Lion, the Messages Beta programhas ended. To continue using Messages, please visit the Mac App Storeand purchase OS X Mountain Lion.'
Link: Apple's MessagesBeta Will Self-Destruct on Mountain Lion Launch
Gatekeeper in OS X Mountain Lion Is Cause forWorry
AppleTell's Patrick Lutz says ifyou've checked out the new features to be included in OS X MountainLion, you know about Gatekeeper, the new security system that preventsusers from unintentionally installing malware. This new systembasically keeps apps that weren't downloaded from the Mac App Store oran identified developer outside of the App Store from launching unlessusers change Gatekeeper's default settings to allow them.
Lutz observes that with Gatekeeper, Apple is ramping up emphasis onhaving OS X apps distributed more within the Mac App Store rather thanthrough outside sources - albeit in the name of security - noting thatApple will be imposing these limitations (and your ability to changethem) within System Preferences under Security & Privacy, in whichyou'll be able to manage all of Gatekeeper's settings.
Users can bypass the Gatekeeper check (for now, at least, asMountain Lion is only in developer preview and Apple can easily changethis), but while Lutz appreciates Apple's efforts to fight againstmalware in OS X, he wishes they'd take a different approach, contendingthat telling users that they want them to only go through Apple'sapproved channels for their software is a pretty scary move that hashim a bit worried.
Editor's note: Me too. cm
Link: Gatekeeper in OS X Mountain Lion &emdash; Why It Has MeWorried
Security Experts Suspicious of Gatekeeper
The Register's John Leyden notes that security watchers areexpressing reservations about whitelisting security that Apple plans tointegrate with OS X Mountain Lion this summer with a feature dubbedGatekeeper that restricts installation of downloaded applications basedon their source.
Leyden notes that while that's a laudable aim from a system securityperspective, there may be less palatable consequences, notably thatGatekeeper could be a step along the road to making OS X as closed tounapproved developers as iOS is already, making it, ironically, a bitof a Trojan itself in another, more traditional context. To wit,extending the garden wall to surround OS X by stealth.
Leyden cites F-Secure security advisor Sean Sullivan commenting thatit's not much of a reach to imagine revoking third-party peripheraldrivers in order to 'secure' the Apple user experience on Macs, andobserving that while Gatekeeper is being touted as offering 'Morecontrol for you' - 'I keep reading it as: more control over you.By 2014, I expect somebody out there will be jailbreaking theirMac.'
And apparently Gatekeeper 'security' is pretty leaky as well.
Link: Security BizScoffs at Apple's Anti-Trojan Gatekeeper
The Tools You Need to Repair a Mac mini
Amsys' Russell Harris says that one of the most important day-to-daytasks for Apple Certified Macintosh Technicians (ACMT) is making sureyou have the correct tools to carry out repairs at hand. With the vastrange of models, knowing what tools to set out for each repair isn't aseasy as it sounds. Over the coming weeks, Harris will take brief looksat the list of tools required for Qualified Technicians to repair eachMac model, starting with the Mac mini.
He notes that most of the tools needed are available from mosthardware/DIY stores, although a small range are Apple specific toolsthat can be purchased direct from Apple.
You may find the need for some additional tools, which are optional,but Harris lists the minimum required to do the full range ofrepairs
Publisher's note: The Mac mini has some very small, easily lostscrews. Be sure to keep track of them! dk
Link: How to Repair aMac mini: The Tools You Need
Apple Extends Mac App Store Sandboxing RestrictionDeadline to June 1
AppleInsider Staff report that Apple yet again extended the deadlinefor developers to make their applications compliant with the new MacApp Store sandboxing restrictions, moving it back to June 1. Theprevious deadline was March 1.
Link: Apple Extends MacApp Store Sandboxing Restriction Deadline to June 1
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| Click here to return to the '10.4: Install Tiger on older unsupported Macs' hint |
I've found it easiest to take the hard drive out of your older computer, put it in a firewire enclosure, and use a newer computer to install the OS to that drive. When it's done installing, put the drive back into the older computer and away you go!
That's what I did with my stripped-down graphite iBook (now running on a 3.5' drive). I didn't realize that firewire supposed to be required, I've just been installing stuff on that computer that way because the computer's optical drive died long ago.
---
I was offered a penny for my thoughts, so I gave my two cents... I got ripped off.
Many of the older, non-iBook/Powerbook machines use the same type IDE drives. I've taken a number of hard drives out of iMacs and put them into my G4 tower as slave drives, installed Tiger, and put them back in their home bodies. No problems. Even did it to my mother's 350MHz non-firewire iMac. It runs like a charm.
---
MacAddict
Vermont USA
Tiger always let you install on a Blue & White PowerMac G3. The 'PowerMac' in that file probably refers to the old beige G3 machine.
However, does anyone know how well Tiger would run on an iMac/333 with 256 MB of RAM? Better than Panther or worse? Will certain features not run well on an 'unsupported' machine?
i've installed it, at a client's insistance. it didn't do well compared to panther. maybe flooding it with ram would have helped. but apples to apples it seemed much worse.
I'm running Tiger on an iMac my school gave me (333 mhz). Things run noticeably slower than my iBook but I have not seen much reduced functionality. You are only limited by the system requirements of the software you are trying to run.
bdog is correct. Much easier.
I put the drive back into a Bondai 233 with 128megs and it failed to boot first time. After that it has ran just fine. Doesn't seem slower than 10.2 or 10.3 but I do avoid Dashboard. If you have anything beyond a base install of the OS you probably want to stop Spotlight from indexing.
Makes a nice sever though.
I was able to install Tiger on my wifes' B&W 400Mhz but I had to replace the old cd-rom with an original RAM-drive that was in my G4 sawtooth. It works fine.
I just checked the requirements at Apple, and B&W G3s are supported. The Powermac that is in the file is probably a beige G3.
I don't have access to a firewire case but it sounds like it can work.
I tried this some time ago, using essentially these same instructions
I had found on the net somewhere, on my lombard powerbook g3. I got
it installed, and then the machine began crashing all over the
place. Make sure you back up everything first, and have a
clar plan to revery back to 10.3 before you try this.
Upgrade Unsupported Mac
Well, that same script checks for a valid ROM version too, and I'm surprised it finds what it needs on the older machines.Anyway, a ROM mis-match would explain why it crashed a lot.
On a related matter, installing the standard version of Tiger on a Mac without a DVD...
Isn't it possible to make an image of the Tiger install DVD on another Mac, and then transfer that file (e.g. via ethernet) to the non-DVD Mac? Will that work?
Actually for $9.95 you can get the cd version by exchanging in you dvd install disk with apple.
to get the form mailed to you or faxed to you, call
1-888-840-8433
What wasn't mentioned by the original posting or its followups is that these original instructions are useful instruction for opening a iMac G5 Install disc (eBay, $45) to work with any system that can use the OS X binaries. Myself, I went through the file mentioned by the original poster and instead of commenting out regions, I forced a return (true) result whenever it might have returned false for the sections that blocked my Powermac G4 from installing the iMac G5 install disks. I was able to install everything, including iLife '05, Quicken 2005, etc., without any problems.
I'm glad someone brought this up, so I could mention this technique without being the one who first breached the topic.
Here's a couple notes:
1. The iMac G5 install disks are dual layer. You will need to use a dual layer capable system, with dual layer DVDs. You only need to edit Disk 1. Ritek (memorex, etc.) DL DVDs work fine.
2. OS X versions prior to Tiger cannot natively burn dual layer disks. If this is a problem for you (ie, Toast is too expensive) then you can download the trial version of Dragonburn 4.0 from NTI(?)'s website -- you get ten trials, and 30 days in which to do your stuff after which you can use Tiger with its dual layer support. If you've already got Toast or Dragonburn, nevermind.
Maybe this works with older G5 Install disks, or perhaps there's a step missing, but when I try this with the Install disk from the G5 iSight iMac I get the following error when attempting to copy the modified file onto the new disk image:
'OsInstall.dist cannot be moved because 'Contents' cannot be modified.'
Any suggestions? Tried checking 'ignore ownership' in get info, but no luck there either.
Same here. Somehow Apple has made the Disc and any copied image not writable. I notice that in the 'Get Info' window for the mounted Disc Image under Permissions it says that the Owner is 'System'.
Ok so I have a G5 tiger disc as well and i went through the original process burned back to dvd, Im running Tiger x86 on my Sony Vaio :) so i can burn DL disc's (works great btw) but anyway now i can get passed the machine id check when it looks for a g5 and i have a g4 sawtooth but it stops at the OSX install screen and says 'this software cannot be installed on this system' So i went back into the osinstall.dist and went a little farther in the code and found a spot where it listed 'var hwbeSupportedMachines = ['PowerMac8,2'];' obviously to check for a G5 I assume. So I had to change that to my machine id which was PowerMac3,1. Im burning it AGAIN so im gonna try and see if this works. Wish me luck
This didnt seem to work for me.. I might be chastized for this but i was using the install disks from my newer 1.6ghz TI pb and using it on my older 1ghz TI pb (older model with the black keyboard).
Popped up with the same error message after removing everything in the original post. Then tried it again by commenting out everything in that function except the 'return true;'
Mabye this installation disc does something different than the retail version of Tiger. This was an OEM disk.
I am having a similar problem to this.
I have just bought an install disc for tiger osx but it says it is for iMac G5 and I have a G4; and for this reason it doesn't work.
Is what was mentioned in a previous post helpful to making this it work on my system{see below}:
'What wasn't mentioned by the original posting or its followups is that these original instructions are useful instruction for opening a iMac G5 Install disc (eBay, $45) to work with any system that can use the OS X binaries.What wasn't mentioned by the original posting or its followups is that these original instructions are useful instruction for opening a iMac G5 Install disc (eBay, $45) to work with any system that can use the OS X binaries.'
If anyone has any ideas on how to get this working any help would be appreciated,
Shaun Lawler
I am trying to Install Tiger on an iMac G4 from my powerbook instalation disks. When I try to drag the OSInstall.dist to the window containing OSInstall.mpkg i get a message saying ' The item 'OSInstall.dist' could not be moved because 'Mac OSX Install Disc 1' cannot be modified ' I followed the instructions exactly as followed. Please help
You made a disk image that is read only.
Go to the Disk Utility application select your disk image you created and use the convert button on top. You will then get a save as window and in the pull down setings you can choose 'read/write'. Then save as a new image and continue with your patching of the file.
Hope this helps
OK so I had the same problem but i went into the disc utility and under the convert menu you can convert the dmg to read/write and then you can copy the modified .dist back into the image then burn as usual, works
Just in case this problem hasnt' been solved yet, the workaround I found was in changing the permissions. Once I had created the image, I still couldn't edit the file, so I changed the permissions for the package that includes the file to my username. You'll have to authenticate to do this, but once it's done, it's able to be saved as written. For consistency, I changed the permissions back to system once I'd edited them.
There are conceptually two distinct hints here: A software hint on how to modify the installer to play nice with older systems, and a hardware hint on how to physically use the installer with older machines. These are entirely separate questions, and anyone who confuses these questions will experience unnecessary aggravation. The software hint is priceless, and the virtues of following the hardware hint are controversial. Rather than reburning the DVD, I would recommend instead following the related hint
10.4: Install OS X without first rebooting from DVD
It turns out (I successfully tested this) you can just run theOSInstall.mpkglocated in /System -> Installation -> Packages on the DVD.
I now save OS installers in a folder, containing the disk image(s) and an alias to OSInstall.mpkg. After copying physical media to my frequently backed up 'Sources' folder, I put it away and never touch it again. One can install from disk images to any volume except the startup volume; I always have multiple startup volumes available, to avoid ever having to revert to optical media.
I've got a beige g3 mt 333mhz 384MB Ram, and I have tried EVERYTHING to get Tiger installed. I use xpostfacto 4, I've modified OSInstall.dist and reburned the dvd, and I've tried running install.mpkg directly from the disk image. I've made many changes to the OSInstall.dist program; right now, the machine checker and the rom checker both just return true.
The last dual-layer cdrom I burned went WAY into the install cycle before telling me I can't install on my machine. One stupid question just popped into my head - do I have to have 10.3 installed to install 10.4? I've got 10.2.8 on the beige, and I assumed a full-install of 10.4 wouldn't care what OS I have installed.
Any ideas out there? I would really love to have 10.4 on my beige.
Thanks!
Mark M. Hart
Install Mountain Lion On Unsupported Mac
i did what was told: deleted everything between the 'bad machines variable'. But my pb 667 mgz with 256 megs 'a ram got error msg upon installing. So i decided to erase the HD & try to install back jaguar & got kernel panic....
I just had a success with putting Tiger on a Blueberry iBook.
Configuration:
Blueberry iBook G3 300 MHz.
64 MB Ram soldered in, 512 MB in expansion slot
80 GB hard drive (upgraded, yes.)
A friend of mine actually had Tiger install in 4 CD-ROMS. He told me that he had taken the DVD's, and split the packages up into 4 CD-roms -- NOT sure how he did that, that's the only mystery to me.
Problem was that none of these CD-Rom's would even mount or get read on my iBook when inserted. (Because they were burned too quickly, I suppose.)
SO, knowing that I would have to burn new copies of the media ANYWAY, I followed the above procedure for disk 1, burning brand new media of all 4 disks, and I burned them at 4X on an iMac Intel running Tiger.
The installer ran beautifully on my iBook with NO issues :-)
Now for the impossible -- upgrade the video ram. 4MB is a *censored* for video performance. So is 800x600. Oh well. You can only do so much I suppose :-)
Install Os X Lion On Unsupported Mac
iMac G3 users Beware, If you are using an IDE cord that is from a windows computer, it will have one less pin than the mac's port, and in the cable that I used it was sealed in solid plastic, so you have to count pins [9 on one side 10 on the other] and that middle pin is the one that you need to pull out. QUADRUPLE CHECK THAT ITS THE RIGHT PIN!!! Use small needle nose pliers, and twist the pin back and forth until it cleanly breaks. This pin is pretty much a tamper deterant so you cant hook up a different cord that would allow you to hook up a second
HDD or A different CD/DVD drive on the IDE bus. The hard drive I used had a hole where the useless pin went, but if your drive has all 20 pins DO NOT break the pin, it could be used for something.