[geeks] DVD install of MacOS 10.5.3 or 10.5.4

[Phil Stracchino]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> If you are talking about a Bondi Blue iMac, I thought 10.3 was the last
> version that would run on them. To get Tiger to run, you have to install
> OS9, copy the firmware updates to the hard disk and run them from the hard
> disk. Then you install XPOSTFACTO on the OS9 hard disk.

I am.  I've already done the update-OS9-to-latest step, already have
XPostFacto installed; not sure about firmware upgrades.  Got a pointer
for those?

> I've never tried it, but I think XPOSTFACTO will install OSX from a USB
> DVD drive. It always boots OS9 (or an early version of OSX), fakes the
> firmware and then boots OSX with the faked firmware. If it does not work
> with a DVD drive, try a hard drive. 

I don't have a USB DVD drive.

> As for installing a DVD drive, forget it. The original iMacs used a laptop
> type CD drive with a strange interface cable. Some of them had the same
> IDE controller chip that could not support 66mHz DMA, so PC hard drives
> bigger than 10 gig, or IDE CD drives faster than 16x, or DVD drives
> faster than 4x will not work on those models. 

"Oh, bugger."  I increasingly find myself thinking this Bondi is a black
hole that consumes time and effort to no avail.

> Apple drives had special firmware that was fixed at 33mHz DMA. 
> 
> BTW, it also needs to be upgraded to 256m RAM, which is two 128m PC100 SODIMMS.

384MB.  1x128MB, 1x256MB.  It works as long as the 256MB module is the
correct architecture and in the correct slot (the bottom slot, if memory
serves), but is officially unsupported.  The RAM upgrade is confirmed
working on ours.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.