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How to install Mac OS 10.1 on iBook G4 mid-2005

Hi. I have just bought a vintage copy of Mac OS 10.1 for my iBook G4, not realizing that I can't strictly speaking install the OS on the machine. I read that some people have done it, but I am running 10.4.11, and I was wondering how I can dual boot and install 10.1 on a different partition, as the earliest OS was 10.3 Panther. Thanks!

-jonasfromwa

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 28, 2013 10:04 AM

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10 replies

Dec 29, 2013 3:19 AM in response to jonasfromwa

Rather unlikely Puma 10.1.5 would be able to support booting a later model mid-2005 iBook G4 that shipped with Tiger 10.4.x -- As Puma was intended to run on G3 PPCs, that often would have booted in OS 9 by default. And used rather different firmware in specific hardware for the old PPC G3 to use OSX on vintage chips. A real headache zone. I'd rather have seen some more parallel development of OS 9.2.2... Almost as good as Tiger 10.4.11 as a fine OS.


I vaguely remember Puma as a 'vast improvement over the OS X Public Beta of Sept 2000' which some foolishly installed on their workstations.


Use older Vintage hardware with partitioned hard disk drives, and watch for those which supported FireWire (iMac400DV was a good one) because you could use an external hard disk drive. Maybe even boot clones, etc from there. With all the limitations on the early hardware that made first practical use of OS X nearly impossible, a newer machine at the other end won't support an antique operating system readily if at all. Not without writing some code; and there probably are firmware considerations beyond the scope of reason. Better to get the correct hardware for the vintage experience.


Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Dec 29, 2013 3:16 PM in response to jonasfromwa

now you're getting somewhere. most g3 ibooks came from the factory as dual boot machines capable of booting from osx AND os9 and if you like playing around with older operating systems then os9 is where you should be. some g3 ibooks have had os9 removed by previous owners and reinstalling it without the original discs can be problematic so ask before you buy. 10.1 in most everyones opinion ain't worth even looking at.

How to install Mac OS 10.1 on iBook G4 mid-2005

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