Leopard to Mountain Lion Upgrade

No. All you need to do is get a Snow Leopard DVD and install that

Then after upgrading to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to get the App Store for Mountain Lion, Purchase and install Mountain Lion.

Allan

Hello jjbakker,

Just curious. Your post says you are operating Leopard, but the detail at the bottom suggests you are on 10.6 ... which IS Snow Leopard. If that is accurate you need to software update via 10.6.3 and then the combo updater to 10.6.8.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399

You also need to check out that your machine is capable of accepting an upgrade to Mountain Lion.

Minimum specs for Mountain Lion. http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

Hope this adds to Allan's help.

Is the only way to upgrade from 10.5.8 with a DVD? My cd drive has been jammed for like 2 years, I had it fixed once before and it cost me like $300, I've been avoiding getting it fixed again but I'd really like to upgrade... I can probably get an external drive for cheaper than the cost to fix mine.. but just wondering if it's possible to upgrade without the DVD?

2 possible options

if you know someone with a firewire mac and snow leopard dvd you should be able to 'hijack' the install via target mode. take a look at this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4307737?tstart=0

Otherwise. if someone you know has SL, they could make a bootable copy to a hard drive and you can install from the hard drive rather than dvd. here's a link: http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/02/install-snow-leopard-from-external-firewire-or-us b-hard-drive-or-how-to-upgrade-to-106-without-a-dvd-drive/

good luck

So basically the answer is no, no way to get around it. I need to have access to Snow Leopard somewhere somehow, to run the installer. I've read all these articles and tips and tricks, and sure there are ways to get around the actual need of the DVD itself, but I do need Snow Leopard regardless. Guess I'm getting an external disc drive!

Thanks for the replies everyone, greatly appreciated.

YES YOU CAN!

I just did it for my MacBook running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 and installed Mac OS X Mountain Lion - bypassing Snow Leopard. Please note I have bought a copy of Snow Leopard and ML but didn't want to waste one hour doing to upgrades ... Just went straight from Leopard to ML. Also I spent a week trying to source a copy of SL to buy (eventually bought from Apple Customer Care) which was frustrating so hope this method helps. You need to buy snow leopard for the legal licensing requirements but physically you can install ML straight over Leopard.

To upgrade direct from Leopard to ML:

1. Look for —/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

2. Using a text editor that lets you enter an admin-user name and password to edit system-level files— I used TextMate because TextWrangler didn't work in Leopard—open the file called SystemVersion.plist.

3. Locate the ProductVersion key (not the ProductUserVisibleVersion key). Just below that is a string of numbers indicating the OS version; for example, on a Mac running OS X 10.5.8, it will read 10.5.8.

4. Change that number to 10.6.8, save the file (providing your admin-level username and password when prompted), and then shut down your Mac. Note only change the "ProductVersion key" line, not the xxxVisibleVersionxxx key

Now you need to make a bootable Mac OS X USB stick install drive.

1. Use either Lion Diskmaker (I couldn't get it to work in Leopard) or

2. follow these instructions http://www.macworld.com/article/1167857/how_to_make_a_bootable_mountain_lion_ins tall_drive.html

to make a USB boot installer using Disk Utility.

Then, reboot your Mac, while holding down Option key and start the upgrade to ML!