iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor):Mac OS X cannot be instlled on this computer

what kind of leopard install DVD are you using? is it a retail DVD or is it an install disk that came with another computer? the latter will not work.

1. The iMac G5 ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) model CPU speed is 2 GHz, not 1.8 GHz. Are you sure of the model you have?

2. Do you mean that you get a message saying the OS can't be installed when you run the Installer's copy of Disk Utility or something else?

3. Where do you get the Kernel Panic message?

4. What is the title & version number printed on the Installer Disk? What color is it? Where did you obtain it?

no, I told you that won't work. You can't use gray install disks. those came with a different new mac and are hardware specific. they will not not work with another mac beside the one that came with. It's also against ULA to use them on on any mac other than the one they came with. you must use a retail version of leopard DVD. it's purple with a big X on it.

harewood1 wrote:
I purchased a license and was told Dual Layer DVD burner & media required to create install disk.

what do you mean??
I repeat, you need to use the retail leopard DVD. you don't make a leopard DVD yourself.
and as I said, you can't use the gray install DVD that came with another mac.

harewood1 wrote:
I purchased a license and was told Dual Layer DVD burner & media required to create install disk. I created the disk, and it fails to install with kernel panic.

If you are using a DVD not made for your computers, copying it won't help.
You need the correct Leopard DVD. Latest version is 10.5.4
You also need to buy the family pack version.

harewood1 wrote:
My employer sells OS X, so I purchased x# of licenses to install in one of my labs. I choose to install OS X on 3 of my iMac G5's first. Maybe I need to contact our software license manager to verify if they gave me the correct version of OS X for my systems.

I suspect that it the problem. There are as many versions of Leopard as there are different machines, each version shipped with the appropriate machine, plus the commercial versions.
One caveat is that even the commercial version will most likely not install on a machine made after the DVD release. But those machines come with their personalized version, so it's a moot point.

As should be obvious by now, your problem is caused by using a model-specific grey installer disk with another Mac model. Not only will it cause technical problems because is it not designed for this purpose, it is a violation of the license that comes with the Mac to use its disks to install the OS or other included software on another Mac.

You must obtain a retail copy of Leopard to install that OS on your iMac G5. You must have a license for each Mac you install it on, either the license that comes with that OS pre-installed on a Mac or the one that comes with the retail copy of the DVD.*

Also note that the grey disks for each Mac you own should be retained, as they include installers for the bundled software that comes with it & a model-specific Apple Hardware Test ("AHT") that must be run from that disk. You cannot easily duplicate the grey disks, in part because the AHT partition is not a conventional boot volume & a disk image file of the entire DVD must be written in a specific way to the duplicate to work like the original.

However, even if you manage to do this, the duplicate still cannot be used with another model, so the only reason to make a duplicate of a grey disk is as a backup for the original.

\* A site license or bulk license also meets this requirement, but you still must obtain a suitable installer disk.

Message was edited by: R C-R to include the footnote.