Irving Freeman
Level 1 (9 points)
Classic Mac OS

Q: can a powerbook G4 12” boot OS 9.2

I know that my Powerbook G4 12” can boot OS X 10.4.11 and then run Classic (OS 9.2) from within 10.4.11, can it boot OS 9.2 directly?  I would like to upgrade to OS X 10.5 and I know that it cannot boot Classic from within it.  But my PowerMac G4 Quicksilver can boot OS 9.2 directly and I was wondering if the PowerBook G4 can do that also.

 

Thanks   irvingbf

Posted on May 7, 2016 9:09 PM

Close
Irving Freeman

Q: can a powerbook G4 12” boot OS 9.2

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit May 7, 2016 9:14 PM in response to Irving Freeman
    Level 10 (119,384 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 7, 2016 9:14 PM in response to Irving Freeman

    I responded to you here > Does OS X 10.5 support Classic OS 9?

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel May 7, 2016 9:23 PM in response to Irving Freeman
    Level 10 (311,446 points)
    May 7, 2016 9:23 PM in response to Irving Freeman

    No.

     

    Carolyn: This isn’t the same question as the one in the other thread.

     

    (142135)

  • by Irving Freeman,

    Irving Freeman Irving Freeman May 7, 2016 9:37 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    May 7, 2016 9:37 PM in response to Niel

    Thanks for the NO reply.  It was worth a thought.  I need to be able to used OS 9 to view some CD prograns so quess I will stay with OS X 4.11.

    Can my PowerMac G4 boot OS X 10.5?  I don’t think so but have heard that there might be a workaround?

    Your comments>

     

    irvingbf

  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit May 7, 2016 9:38 PM in response to Niel
    Level 10 (119,384 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 7, 2016 9:38 PM in response to Niel

    Ok.

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel May 7, 2016 9:41 PM in response to Irving Freeman
    Level 10 (311,446 points)
    May 7, 2016 9:41 PM in response to Irving Freeman

    Yes, but if its CPU is slower than 867MHz, an additional step is needed to install it. Your best option is likely to use the Mac OS X 10.5 install DVD to partition the PowerBook’s internal drive and install Leopard onto the blank volume.

     

    (142136)

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe May 7, 2016 9:46 PM in response to Irving Freeman
    Level 8 (38,071 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 7, 2016 9:46 PM in response to Irving Freeman

    Technically, a Mac with a G4 can run Leopard (10.5).  Officially, it needs to be a Mac that came with a G4 at 867 MHz or faster, with at least 512mb RAM.  The Leopard installer will not do the install useless supported.  I tried it with my PowerBook G3 "Pismo," with a 550 Mhz G4 upgrade.  I installed Leopard on an external FireWire drive, using an officially supported Mac.  Then used that external drive to start up my PowerBook.  It works, but it's a bit slow (and the system probably did not have an optimized video driver for my PowerBook).  Tiger is a better fit for slower G4 Macs.

  • by Irving Freeman,

    Irving Freeman Irving Freeman May 7, 2016 10:21 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    May 7, 2016 10:21 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    My Power Mac G4 has a speen of 933 Mhz and a memory of 1 GB ram.  Do you think it will better with 10.5 or 10.4.11?

     

    irvingbf

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe May 7, 2016 10:55 PM in response to Irving Freeman
    Level 8 (38,071 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 7, 2016 10:55 PM in response to Irving Freeman

    What do you want to do with it?  With Leopard, you get Time Machine and some interface features like Spaces (multiple desktops) and Dashboard, more recent versions of Mail, iTunes (10.6.3), iLife apps, iWork apps...  With Tiger, you have the Classic environment, which is no longer present in Leopard.  And 1GB of RAM is a lot for Tiger; it is average (at best) for Leopard.  Tiger has less "overhead" for the OS.  Leopard has more modern features.

     

    Both work with the TenFourFox web browser, which (for me) is the #1 thing that keeps old PowerPC Macs useable.

  • by Irving Freeman,

    Irving Freeman Irving Freeman May 7, 2016 11:24 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    May 7, 2016 11:24 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    It would be nice to have some of the new features but I have an old email program which has all my old emails and it doesn’ t run in Snow Leopard so maybe it won’t run in Leopard.  I suppose I could install 10.5 on an external drive and try it out.  The main thing is that I can still boot into OS 9.

    Thanks for your help and advise.  At least I know that 10.5 should work on the PowerMac G4.

     

    Thanks again and I will leave the Powerbook as is for it is not fast enough or has enough memory.

     

    irvingbf

  • by Irving Freeman,

    Irving Freeman Irving Freeman May 10, 2016 9:24 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    May 10, 2016 9:24 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    Hi again.  I got a 10.5 Install disc and tried to install 10.5 on an external firewire drive using the Power Mac G4 with 933 Mhz and 1GB of memory and ports on the back and it said I could not install 10.5 on the system.  I created a 10.5 bootable install partition on the firewire drive and booted to it and tried to install and got the same message.  Is there any way to trick the system to let me install 10.5 onto the external or any drive.  It never gets to the place of asking what drive to install it on.

     

    Any thoughts?

     

    Thanks,   irvingbf

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel May 10, 2016 9:26 PM in response to Irving Freeman
    Level 10 (311,446 points)
    May 10, 2016 9:26 PM in response to Irving Freeman

    You need to use a retail DVD instead of a Mac's original one.

     

    (142203)

  • by Irving Freeman,

    Irving Freeman Irving Freeman May 10, 2016 10:47 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    May 10, 2016 10:47 PM in response to Niel

    I Was woneeding about that. I guess I am out of luck as I see prices of $120.00 plus for a set of disks, unless you know of a better price somewhere.

    Thanks  the info.

    Irvingbf