Need to upgrade an older iMac 7, 1 (mid-2007) from Tiger 10.4.11 to Leopard 10.5

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Need to upgrade an older iMac 7, 1 (mid-2007) from Tiger 10.4.11 to Leopard 10.5

Good Morning,

I am hoping someone can help me out. I recently inherited an older iMac. It has the Intel 2.4 ghz Duo core processor, 320 gig HDD and 1 gig of memory. I upgraded the memory to 4 gigs and did a factory re-install of the OS. I can only get the OS to 10.4.11. I was able to download Yosemite and El Capitan (which I have read will run on this Mac) but they won't install. It says I need 10.5 to upgrade to them. So, that's my dilemma. I cannot find a downloadable version of Leopard that works. The web browsers are so outdated that they won't run most webpages. I tried downloading Leopard on my Windows based machine and copy the .DMG over but they fail. I have tried to do a .ISO and run it but it gets about 1/3 of the way through and fails. I am finally looking to purchase the discs but can't find them on Apples website and Ebay they want crazy money. Does anyone have some suggestions?

Posted on Jul 26, 2020 9:03 AM

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Answer 1

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tod302 Author

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Jul 28, 2020 12:53 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for all the good information. I had to purchase a Snow Leopard install disc from Ebay. Once that arrives I will get up to date as far as I can with the Mac OS and then install Mint. I downloaded version 20 Cinnamon. That seems to be the most popular.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

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Jul 29, 2020 6:41 AM in response to tod302

tod302 wrote:

and then install Mint. I downloaded version 20 Cinnamon. That seems to be the most popular.

All of the variations of Linux Mint have the same core, but just different graphical Desktop Environments and default apps. If the Linux Mint installers are actually Live USB/CDs, then you can just boot the USB to see how they differ (of course it will run much slower from the USB drive, but you get to examine it before actually installing.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,452 points

Jul 26, 2020 9:11 AM in response to tod302

You will have to buy Snow Leopard 10.6 from EBay and upgrade from Tiger to that, once SL is upgraded to 10.6.8 which will have the Mac App Store you can begin upgrading to 10.11.x. That is the ONLY way it will work.

A 14 year old computer is completely worthless and the hardware could fail at any time so honestly I’d forget about it and use Tiger until the thing completely dies.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

68,636 points

Jul 26, 2020 1:57 PM in response to tod302

macOS 10.11 is now outdated and Firefox will stop supporting it this year. It won't be long before Chrome does the same.

You may want to consider installing Linux Mint on this iMac since it has 4GB of RAM. Linux isn't for everyone and it requires you to learn a new OS, but it would also give you an OS receiving security updates and the use of all the common web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Vivaldi) plus access to a lot of free open source software easily installable from the Linux distribution's repositories. Just something to consider as it costs nothing to try it out.

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Answer 5

tod302 Author

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Jul 26, 2020 9:33 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thank you for the quick reply and I appreciate your input. I gentleman I received this from hadn't used it in years! I am guessing the last time it was turned on was 2012. He purchased a Mac laptop and iPad never used his iMac. So, if you look at it that way the hardware is still has few miles on it. And, just so I am clear. I can jump over Leopard and go straight to Snow Leopard?

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Answer 6

tod302 Author

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Jul 27, 2020 7:31 AM in response to HWTech

Nice, thank you. I never would have thought about putting Linux on this Mac. I played around with Ubuntu years ago on a Windows based machine. I would assume I can do the dual boot option like in Windows? Just repartition the drive and install?

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Answer 7

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,452 points

Jul 26, 2020 12:19 PM in response to tod302

That is correct.

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Answer 8

HWTech

Level 9

68,636 points

Jul 27, 2020 9:26 AM in response to tod302

Yes it is possible to dual boot. Just make sure to use Disk Utility within macOS to resize the partition first to give Linux space to use. Then let Linux manage/use the new partition/free space.

I recommend making sure to have a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer handy at least until everything is set up so you can easily reinstall or repair macOS if necessary.

You can use Ubuntu instead of Linux Mint, but I recommend not using the default Ubuntu since it uses the Gnome3 Desktop Environment which really needs a powerful computer to use (CPU & memory). Most of the other Desktop Environments will probably be Ok especially KDE (Kubuntu) or Mate (Ubuntu Mate) since they only use about 300MB - 400MB of RAM when booted to the desktop.

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Need to upgrade an older iMac 7, 1 (mid-2007) from Tiger 10.4.11 to Leopard 10.5

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