For my main computer, it is very up-to-date. However, there are many people who are interested in the older machines, for various reasons. And so many of them often have questions or need help.
Most of it already filmed.. expect it within the next week or two. I have another video will be coming out first that is 95% done, then the tiger video, followed by a leopard video.
I'm very please to find such well crafted video about older machines. I am also very curious about the evolution of Operating Systems and Computer Hardware. This is an excellent TH-cam channel, right up my alley! Thank you so much for the post!
Thank you very much for the hints, worked very well on a 10.6.4 install disc, made with High Sierra. Two quick remarks (disregarding the age of this video): - One newer OS(X) versions, one must expand the .pkg files using pkgutil (the context menu was removed). - Instead of adding your Mac model to the list, you could also reverse the return statement (ie. return true instead of false) without touching the list (might save a DVD in case there are typos!). Huge thanks for the video!!!
Hi Louis. I would appreciate your help. I have a 10.6.4 install disk that I copied to a USB stick on an 10.4.11 MacBook. I then plugged the USB stick into my iMac running High Sierra so I could show system/hidden files. I used pkgutil to expand the OSInstall.mpkg file to a folder, but the folder did not contain an OSInstall.dist file that I could edit. How did you manage to do this? I even tried copying the OSInstall.mpkg file back to the MacBook to see if Finder would give me the 'Show Package Contents' option, but it didn't. Looking forward to your reply.
@@tonycraig6150 Hi Tony, hope this isn't too late. Snow Leopard restore DVDs are a little bit different from Tigers, not only the location of some files, but some of the kexts are not even there for a different model Mac. I would recommend using a retail version if you're interested in running SL.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I was pulling my hair out wondering why multiple restore discs were failing to work on my 2006 Intel iMac. I followed your tutorial step by step, and it worked!!!
Its possible you don't need disc 2. Before you start the install you have the option to customize the install. If you uncheck a bunch of stuff you don't need such as printer drivers, etc... In most cases it will not need or ask for disc 2.
Still helpful nearly a decade later! I needed to get Tiger back onto my Mac Mini 1,1 but I couldn't find its discs. I did have the whole kit and kaboodle for the iMac that came out that year, though. Your video helped me get the Mini back up and running, 17 years after I bought it. Thanks! :)
I know your video is old, but thanks for this awesome tip! I just acquired a MacPro1,1 for free and wanted to put Tiger on it since it originally shipped with 10.4.7. I found a MacBook 2006 10.4.8 install disc image at Macintosh Garden. Thanks to your video, I was able to add 'MacPro1,1' to the install script and successfully install 10.4.8 on one of the drives, and then update it to 10.4.11. Worked like a charm!
As long as the Mac you have is up and running and has the ability to burn a dual-layer DVD, it should work fine. In my case, the older Mac Mini I wanted to use could not burn to dual-layer so I had to use a different Mac Mini to modify the disc.
Excellent hack! The basic issue that I see is that new hardware has new features and IIRC Apple has publicly stated that they purposely block old machines from new versions of the OS because the new features won't work, run too slowly or create instability so the user experience is not up to Apple standards. I do wish they would include a button that would allow you to install the OS anyway but then again, I would be the one getting all those support calls from my clients when the features fail to work, or their machine is slow as molasses, and I really don't want to be he one to say, "I Told You So"! LOL This is an excellent tutorial for power users or those that simply like to experiment with their machines and can take responsibility for any crashes or instability that they introduced to their system.
It worked!! Never done anything like this before. This video really helped identify the stages. However, I had to go around the houses a bit, using others experiences in the comments, which guided me back on track. 'Show package content' didn't work for me, had to download Pacifist and then used Package editor to find the distribution folder, changed code. There are youtube vids for this too. Pat on back for me and thanks to all those that gave advice ;not to forget The IBookGuy.
Appreciated. Another option is just to change the function in there to return true in all cases instead of false ;) Then you don't need to know what model your dealing with.
Another way is to insert the install disk into a supported mac (if you have one) and tell it to install to an external hard drive. This external hard drive is actually the "unsupported" mac started in target disk mode and plugged into the supported mac through firewire or thunderbolt. This could also be done by removing the harddrive from the unsupported mac and putting it into a usb drive enclosure but that may be more work than what he demonstrated above. I have used target disk mode to install Leopard on an unsupported 800MHz iMac G4 using a PowerMac G4 MDD as the host for installing. Thanks for the thorough video explaining how to do this if you only have one mac.
and this is precisely why I subscribed to you so long ago. thanks very much. the only thing now is with newer mac os versions, catalina in my case, disk utility doesn't have a disc burning option anymore, so i had to use the "hdiutil burn" command in terminal.
Just brilliant. Thank you. I had a similar problem. I needed an old version of mac OS X to install an old version of pro tools. I could not find an old version of the suitable mac OS X to download. But luckily I found the DVD operating system that I need but my iMac rejected it. So I made a startup disc out of it by using disc utilities.
It’s funny hearing 10 years back about installing Mac on an Intel Mac when power pc was being phased out and now Intel is being phased out for ARM M series processors
Thanks for sharing. I'm not sure if i will ever need this but I have a pile of old gray OS discs that are basically useless to me at this point. Maybe they will come in handy sometime in the future now that I know how to do this. Best tip I've picked up in ages!
Awesome, thanks a lot! I had my PowerMac Dual G5 OS X 10.4 Install Disks at hand and wanted to install it on a Mac mini G4 I was given. Didn't work at first for the well-known reasons. Found your video, created the image from the DVD on my iMac running Sierra. When modifying the OSInstall.dist file I just didn't bother about Mac machine type but instead added the simple line "return true;" as the very first line of the function checkSupportedMachine(machineType). That way this function always returns that the machine type is an allowed one. Burned the image, tried it and it worked! 😀
This is great information. I've got a licensed copy of 10.6 that came with my Mac mini. The mini has gone to the grave, but, the install discs were important to upgrade a 10.5 iMac, which is still able to run the current sierra macOS. It's a crazy convoluted trip to upgrade a compatible system to 10.6.8 then 10.11.6 and then 10.12.5, so, Apple's locking the install DVDs just adds a layer of frustration that is not necessary.
I just tried doing it with the aplications CD from an older mac. Ijust searched for the "dlist" pakkage and opened with textedit, used search option (cmd+F) to locate all "MacBookPro5,1" and replaced them with "MacBookPro8.1" without writing the DMG to a disk, just unmounted en mounted again, worked like a charm!
Got the ridiculous Apple ERROR MESSAGE for a Mac Book Pro 2009 even when using original DVDs when purchased. Apple really more frustrating than MS sometimes! Many thanks for this great helpful info
THis is excellent. Reminds me of the hammer into the BIgBrother screen from the original Mac ads. Apple, sheesh. Talk about becoming authoritarian in your old age. I didn't even know you did comp stuff but i've watched loads of your keyboard vids. should've subscribed earlier but i just did
Gonna be trying this on my Mac Pro.........have an OS disk for a later macbook but need the Snow Leopard installer for my studio machine. Huge respect for the vid
Hey man, thanks so much for this tut. I bought an install disk for a MacBook Pro 17 for my used MacBook Pro 15 inch... and got the "cannot install on this computer" message. The Macbook was running Linux on it so I figured that was the prob and formatted the drive to Mac extended (Journaled) but no love.... what the hell Apple?!! it's JUST a different screen size!! I don't have another mac here but will try to us the mini in my office to do this. I'm hoping I can run terminal on the Pro while using the install disk since it won't boot as it is. Thanks again, great vid!
I run 10.4 on my iBook G4 (so I can run my classic games/programs). Print outputs to .pdf and move them to my Mac mini (Late 2014) running 10.11 which in turn prints to my printers. I still use many of the old classic programs as they were easier to use than the new versions that have all those "bells and whistles" that I never use. I am addicted to the original Command & Conquer that was made for the Classic environment, I do wish it could be ported to the new OSX 10.11 but it is old and plays well on the iBook G4.
7 years old video and I didn't know this, I used a different for my iMac mid-2010 and wanted Snow Leopard, but even if it came with 10.6.3, the 10.6.3 Retail does not work (the build number is too old), so I used a DVD for iMac mid-2011 and after patching it on a USB it worked !
That trick plus adding a few drivers that match one's machine will work for installing something like Mountain Lion on a PC... Worked for me although I am having trouble getting my sound drivers to work......
@@drklwo39 yeah? Im actually about to tackle this crap again soon.... Need to wipe my computer and also my dads. Without loosing anything.. Ill probably be rewatching this vid very soon lol the weekend maby..
What if, once one gets into the Contents folder, there is no "OSInstall.dist" file? Is there any remedy from that point on? This is the situation I am in.
Thank you very much! I'm upgrading an old mac mini (1.66ghz 2006) and I couldn't find the install disk, but I have my install disk from my 2010 macbook air. I'm going to give your trick a try! I just wish apple would let me download a legit version of snow leopard. It would be so much easier! Again, thank you!
The retail Snow Leopard is 10.6.3 if I remember correctly. Some newer Macs (Made after Summer 2010 for instance) require a newer version of the Snow Leopard installer or you will get a unsupported CPU kernel error upon booting the installer disc. You could get one of the newer 10.6 gray discs off eBay (10.6.7 should be good enough; zoom in the pictures and look for the version number) and try to follow the video. The System folder is hidden by the way, so just Shift+Cmd+G your way in or find an application like TinkerTool to show the hidden folders.
Awesome! I've got an old Mac Book Pro that I want to wipe and install 10.6 on. The only install disk I have was for my old iMac 27". I am having this exact trouble that you describe. Off I go to hack this install disk. Thanks!
Just upgraded to Windows 10 though it's not supported on my Mac. Apple only supports Windows 7 and 8.1. The Bootcamp drivers I used are the 8.1 drivers so it works for the most part with some caveats, all the things I need it to do work.
Hey, it's Javascript! ... with XML? If Apple uses a format that can be easily manipulated by users, just wow, don't know what to say. BTW, while you were at it, why not empty the badMachines array alltogether? :D
Hi …good instructions and video but it seems this cannot be done on an install disk for 10.6 that came with a MacPro I bought. I don't see anything regarding allowed machines etc. in the install code on it. Any ideas on modifying this code to allow me to create a new install disk for 10.6? Thanks...
iBookGuy: It looks like those that have tried these steps for the grey "Leopard" disks are getting stuck when having to find the "System Folder" within the new dmg. I read further down the thread that you were in the process of creating a video for "Leopard" is this video available yet?
VenturaWeddings you can use an app called tinkerTool!!! I had the same problem, you you set it to show hidden/system files and thats it itll open up the dmg wjust as in the vid
For those posting in this thread wanting to know what version(s) of MacOS X their particular Mac supports, you can go to www.everymac.com and look up your Mac to find out. David's trick is to allow you to use a DVD set you might have from another Mac of the same CPU Architecture (either PPC or Intel. You can't use a PPC version of MacOS X on an Intel and vice versa) or that you might have bought on eBay. Try to buy copies of Retail editions of MacOS X if you can to avoid needing to use this trick. If you don't have a dual layer burner available, you can search on Google how to make a bootable USB stick from your DVD disks (great idea for a video David!). You can also call 1-800-SOS-APPL and order a DVD of the OS your Mac came with for a fee. I was a former Apple Service Tech.
This is my major complaint about Apple. Apple goes out of their way to make changes to the OS and the developer packages that force perfectly good machines that are fast enough for most things you want to do, to be trashed. It generates massive amounts of e-waste and causes the collective user base to spend billions of dollars that they don't need to spend. Instead of adding hundreds of 'features' that nobody even knows what they are, let alone uses, Apple/MS should be optimizing their software to run faster on the same hardware. For example, there is NO REASON AT ALL for any G5 machine, particularly dual core machines to be "out of date". For 90% of users, a G5 would do everything they need to do and to do it quickly. Even my lowly 700mhz G4 eMac, when properly programmed can do pretty much everything I need it to do. If I were editing video or really high resolution professional printshop work, it might not be very good. But outside of deliberate obsolescence and poorly written software, most machines are trashed prematurely. Apple users pay a large premium to use a Mac and they should be rewarded with long term support. The G5s are a perfect example of how Apple rips off it's customers. When it comes to the iPod and iPhone, they do the same thing. A simple change of a website can mean that your app that accesses that website can no longer fetch the data and when you try to update the app, it says you need to upgrade the IOS. As you yourself noted, Windows XP a 13 year old OS still works fine for nearly all software. There is very little you cannon accomplish on an XP machine. Apple, IMHO, needs to settle on the latest OS (and IOS)and simply continue to optimize it and NOT lock out older hardware. When it comes to Apple, in most cases it's not your hardware that is lacking, it's Apple's rotten treatment of it's customers.
The reason Snow Leopard was so fast was because they stripped it of ALL PowerPC code, therefore removing the need to translate sections. If you want a fast modern OS for a G4/G5 you should try Lubuntu or Xubuntu PPC.
commentmachine1 If you are willing to do a little work and workarounds, even a lowly eMac can still do a lot. But the point is that Apple doesn't support it's hardware long enough.
***** I think Apple has decided for lots of good reasons that they will never break into government and big corporations and are targeting education and consumers and some small business, especially creative types. Since they are essentially stuck with consumers as their base, consumers who do not understand electronics or computers in general just accept that "it's old" and therefor no longer usable, they will milk it for all it's worth. You could take your core-2 duo mac and put windows 8 on it (god forbid, go with 7) and it would work fine. I am running a AMD-64 3000+ at 1.8GHZ single core with XP and it does everything I need it to do and most new software works fine with it.
Having worked in high tech for decades I can tell you that the support system for Windows is overloaded. Yes, you can slap a copy of Windows on any machine you want to, no it does not work correctly (or at all) with "all" software. The support departments are inundated with support calls for OS features or application features that just don't work, or run so slowly that it seems broken. Apple is draconian in how they restrict the install discs to only work on the hardware that "fully" supports it. That way, if the macOS install discs runs, then you know that all features are supported and will be stable. Its a tough choice, I've had to support both and have nearly ripped my hair out trying to get Windows users to understand that their machine is just not going to do what they want because the hardware and software are sop terribly mismatched, and yes, there have been times that I feel sorry for a macOS user that wants to upgrade their OS and does not care about support for new hardware features. I wish I had a solution for both those cases but the actual reality behind it all is that technology does improve at a rapid pace, users that say they can live without new features are usually the ones that complain when they try and use the new features so there is just no way to make them happy.
I have a Snow iMac (circa 2001?) the 600mhz G3 iMac all-in-one. It's been sitting in my closet for... oh, 5 years now. It had developed a screen glitch when I would first fire it up, and then it would operate just fine. But, when I moved (and I was careful with it), I plugged it in, and nothing... not any indication at all that it was getting any kind of power. Now, I ran both OSX (Snow Leopard, I think?) and OS9 on it. I loved its beautiful Trinitron screen. I recently began thinking I should either get it fixed or get rid of it. I would like to use it, however, for word processing, and especially to run classic MacOS software, especially games. Based on what little info I've provided can you tell me if it's practical to fix it or have it fixed? Would it be cheaper / easier to get another, similar Mac? Say a Macbook from the same era running OS9? Could you advise on what would be the best Mac to play old MacOS games on? I'd prefer an all-in-one, or a laptop/notebook Mac for space saving and mobility. I'd like to be able to hook it up to my network to transfer files and such, but accessing the internet isn't mandatory (though I'll probably try since I try to access the internet on *everything* lol). You did a video I watched on the best PC laptop for playing DOS games, maybe you could do the same for MacOS? Thanks for any advice or info you can share!
I did the same to install Mac OS X 10.4.6 on my newer MacBook (actually I changed the Logic-Board, it was a MacBook1,1 first and now it's a MacBook2,1). In my case (Intel-Mac) it was ok just to dd the image to an USB stick and boot from it. Actually, the fans were running high, until the older version of 10.4 didn't come with the power-management drivers for the Intel Core !2! Duo kind of chipset. Anyway, after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.11 via the Software-Update, the MacBook2,1 ran very well with this OS. Actually, Mac OS X 10.4.8 was the first to support the Intel Core 2 Duo (correct me if I'm wrong), and so did 10.4.11 (and its Darwin 8.11.0 kernel).
Hi I like the video. Question: can I instead of burning it on DVD put it on a flash drive? I have snow leopard on my iMac and wan to install that on an 2009 MacBook pro. Thanks 🙏
Hello, when the disc opens on my Mac there isn’t an option to view the package content . There’s a different window with “more ways to install” or something similar to that. Can’t seem to get into the part to change the model numbers around.
Is there a way to add a new application and documents in the documents folder? So a particular program and its files does not have to be installed separately?
i tried to do this with a mac pro 10.5.4 instal disk. They are both grey like the one in this video. I need it to go on a Mac Mini G4. Can you tell me how to go into the files on this one. The file system is very different from yours on this video. Are you able to help me?
It's currently 2016, I've researched a bit and I found and app can El Capitan which is the latest OS X. I think that if your selling macs you might want to update them to the latest is. Requirements: updated safari and iTunes Store and I suggest over 4 gigs of ram or the os won't survive. Thanks!
Where so you get those restore disks? I just got an old Mac mini MA206ll/a to upgrade for fun. I bought it used but not too sure how to restore it to original factory settings. Also what's the highest I can upgrade it operating system? I'd love it to run mavericks like my new Mac mini has.. Doubt that'll happen though. Would love to have it stream to my apple tvs
You can still get the full version of the MacOSs on apple support if you need them. Do not go through App Store, they were removed. Also a tip, if your Mac says it only can go to 8gb of memory. You can go to 16gb. just make sure its the same speed as the existing. its an undocumented . its a hidden secret.
Do you know how to do it with a Windows XP Recovery Discs? I have Sony_Vaio_PCV-W30 Recovery discs and I am trying to install these on a Sony_Vaio_PCV-W20; only difference would be the CPU Hertz and HD capacity 60 vs 80 GB, then I received a message "this Sw cant be installed on this Machine". Do you how to override this using Microsoft Orca Sw? Or any other ideas? Thanks in advance.
I recently inherited an eMac (USB 2.0) with an empty 40 GB hard drive. I have install DVD's of Tiger from an iMac G5 that I bought new back in 2005. I've made images of the two install DVD's, partitioned a thumb drive, and dumped them on. I edited the OSInstalls file, added in the eMac 'PowerMac 6,4', but I get a kernel panic when it tries to boot from the thumb drive. Did I miss something?
what if you found all compatible machines for that os, and deleted all unsupported machines and added everything into the supported list. would it give you a universal install cd?
I have a Leopard restore disk that works on my MacBook Pro (early 2008, 15 inch, 2.6ghz), and boots up on my PowerBook G4 (April 2004, 1.5ghz), and if I do this trick to make it compatible, will it work properly?
I ordered the tiger 10.4.7 grey apple install disks. The picture of the one I ordered actually said imac core 2 duo but when I got it in the mail it was completely different. I deleted the imac from bad machines since I don't have the supported machines at the bottom. Prayerfully that works. I'm burning the new disk now. Bought it from an auction and it didn't have os so I bought snow leopard then it told me to buy leopard so I bought leopard then it told me I needed tiger so I ordered the tiger install disk and that gave the alert message hopefully this works
Ok I have a question. I have a Mid 2007 MacBook. At least I believe it's Mid 2007. I can't install Mac OSX 10.8. Will this trick help me to be able to install it? I saw somewhere that I should technically be able to install it, but when I try I get the message that it's not allowed. Will this trick work?
dang. tight shit. ure a pro. man, any thoughts why i cant boot from any of the 2 os x.5 dvds i have here. im using external usb drive. try boot by dvd got nothing but an os x up in safe boot. try to install by the installer in os x and the os just come up after restart as turning on usually.
Hmmm, well not so fast. Here's what I have: install disk for an iMac 27" with OS X 10.6.1, a Mac Book Pro that is compatible with 10.6, a MacBook Pro that is slightly newer with a DVD drive connected which I have the install DVD in. I launch disk utility, select Create Disk Image.... It starts and then abruptly cancels it. Whats the deal, do you think? Thanks!
For my main computer, it is very up-to-date. However, there are many people who are interested in the older machines, for various reasons. And so many of them often have questions or need help.
I'm coming here to comment on your video 10 years later just to say that you saved my 2006 MacBook, thank you very much
Most of it already filmed.. expect it within the next week or two. I have another video will be coming out first that is 95% done, then the tiger video, followed by a leopard video.
The 8-Bit Guy Link please
I'm very please to find such well crafted video about older machines. I am also very curious about the evolution of Operating Systems and Computer Hardware. This is an excellent TH-cam channel, right up my alley! Thank you so much for the post!
Thank you very much for the hints, worked very well on a 10.6.4 install disc, made with High Sierra. Two quick remarks (disregarding the age of this video):
- One newer OS(X) versions, one must expand the .pkg files using pkgutil (the context menu was removed).
- Instead of adding your Mac model to the list, you could also reverse the return statement (ie. return true instead of false) without touching the list (might save a DVD in case there are typos!).
Huge thanks for the video!!!
Hi Louis. I would appreciate your help. I have a 10.6.4 install disk that I copied to a USB stick on an 10.4.11 MacBook. I then plugged the USB stick into my iMac running High Sierra so I could show system/hidden files. I used pkgutil to expand the OSInstall.mpkg file to a folder, but the folder did not contain an OSInstall.dist file that I could edit. How did you manage to do this? I even tried copying the OSInstall.mpkg file back to the MacBook to see if Finder would give me the 'Show Package Contents' option, but it didn't.
Looking forward to your reply.
@@tonycraig6150 Hi Tony, hope this isn't too late. Snow Leopard restore DVDs are a little bit different from Tigers, not only the location of some files, but some of the kexts are not even there for a different model Mac. I would recommend using a retail version if you're interested in running SL.
You should have 1M subs. You deserve them. Nice videos, keep up the good work!
.75m now
.80m now
0.95m now
@Mert Dede beat me too it, but yeah, 0.915mil
@@ScienceAlliance I'm sorry, man, I wrote it on average.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I was pulling my hair out wondering why multiple restore discs were failing to work on my 2006 Intel iMac. I followed your tutorial step by step, and it worked!!!
Yes it is. There are two different mac minis shown. One of them is used to create the disk for the other. The white one is the Macmini1,1.
Its possible you don't need disc 2. Before you start the install you have the option to customize the install. If you uncheck a bunch of stuff you don't need such as printer drivers, etc... In most cases it will not need or ask for disc 2.
Still helpful nearly a decade later! I needed to get Tiger back onto my Mac Mini 1,1 but I couldn't find its discs. I did have the whole kit and kaboodle for the iMac that came out that year, though. Your video helped me get the Mini back up and running, 17 years after I bought it. Thanks! :)
There is such thing as torrenting the shit
I know your video is old, but thanks for this awesome tip! I just acquired a MacPro1,1 for free and wanted to put Tiger on it since it originally shipped with 10.4.7. I found a MacBook 2006 10.4.8 install disc image at Macintosh Garden. Thanks to your video, I was able to add 'MacPro1,1' to the install script and successfully install 10.4.8 on one of the drives, and then update it to 10.4.11. Worked like a charm!
This still works with modern macs
That use optical drives I assume?
As long as the Mac you have is up and running and has the ability to burn a dual-layer DVD, it should work fine. In my case, the older Mac Mini I wanted to use could not burn to dual-layer so I had to use a different Mac Mini to modify the disc.
its not working for me with Snow Leopard, can you help?
GabeNewell1337 Me too
Excellent hack! The basic issue that I see is that new hardware has new features and IIRC Apple has publicly stated that they purposely block old machines from new versions of the OS because the new features won't work, run too slowly or create instability so the user experience is not up to Apple standards. I do wish they would include a button that would allow you to install the OS anyway but then again, I would be the one getting all those support calls from my clients when the features fail to work, or their machine is slow as molasses, and I really don't want to be he one to say, "I Told You So"! LOL
This is an excellent tutorial for power users or those that simply like to experiment with their machines and can take responsibility for any crashes or instability that they introduced to their system.
It worked!! Never done anything like this before. This video really helped identify the stages. However, I had to go around the houses a bit, using others experiences in the comments, which guided me back on track. 'Show package content' didn't work for me, had to download Pacifist and then used Package editor to find the distribution folder, changed code. There are youtube vids for this too. Pat on back for me and thanks to all those that gave advice ;not to forget The IBookGuy.
Actually, more than trying to modify an install disc, i came here to see how to extract a dmg from a real cd for VirtualBox. Thanks bro
Appreciated. Another option is just to change the function in there to return true in all cases instead of false ;) Then you don't need to know what model your dealing with.
Probably not. The main issue there is that Mountain lion requires a 64-bit CPU and your machine probably has a 32-bit CPU.
Another way is to insert the install disk into a supported mac (if you have one) and tell it to install to an external hard drive. This external hard drive is actually the "unsupported" mac started in target disk mode and plugged into the supported mac through firewire or thunderbolt. This could also be done by removing the harddrive from the unsupported mac and putting it into a usb drive enclosure but that may be more work than what he demonstrated above.
I have used target disk mode to install Leopard on an unsupported 800MHz iMac G4 using a PowerMac G4 MDD as the host for installing.
Thanks for the thorough video explaining how to do this if you only have one mac.
and this is precisely why I subscribed to you so long ago. thanks very much. the only thing now is with newer mac os versions, catalina in my case, disk utility doesn't have a disc burning option anymore, so i had to use the "hdiutil burn" command in terminal.
Just brilliant. Thank you.
I had a similar problem. I needed an old version of mac OS X to install an old version of pro tools. I could not find an old version of the suitable mac OS X to download. But luckily I found the DVD operating system that I need but my iMac rejected it. So I made a startup disc out of it by using disc utilities.
It’s funny hearing 10 years back about installing Mac on an Intel Mac when power pc was being phased out and now Intel is being phased out for ARM M series processors
Thanks for sharing. I'm not sure if i will ever need this but I have a pile of old gray OS discs that are basically useless to me at this point. Maybe they will come in handy sometime in the future now that I know how to do this. Best tip I've picked up in ages!
Awesome, thanks a lot! I had my PowerMac Dual G5 OS X 10.4 Install Disks at hand and wanted to install it on a Mac mini G4 I was given. Didn't work at first for the well-known reasons. Found your video, created the image from the DVD on my iMac running Sierra. When modifying the OSInstall.dist file I just didn't bother about Mac machine type but instead added the simple line "return true;" as the very first line of the function checkSupportedMachine(machineType). That way this function always returns that the machine type is an allowed one. Burned the image, tried it and it worked! 😀
I don't own a mac but thought that if I did, this video would be pretty helpful.
im pretty sure theres a way to do it on windows with TransMac
Could you do a video on "Is Leopard Obsolete" or even Snow Leopard? Maybe as a part of the Tiger video?
This is great information. I've got a licensed copy of 10.6 that came with my Mac mini. The mini has gone to the grave, but, the install discs were important to upgrade a 10.5 iMac, which is still able to run the current sierra macOS. It's a crazy convoluted trip to upgrade a compatible system to 10.6.8 then 10.11.6 and then 10.12.5, so, Apple's locking the install DVDs just adds a layer of frustration that is not necessary.
I just tried doing it with the aplications CD from an older mac. Ijust searched for the "dlist" pakkage and opened with textedit, used search option (cmd+F) to locate all "MacBookPro5,1" and replaced them with "MacBookPro8.1" without writing the DMG to a disk, just unmounted en mounted again, worked like a charm!
Got the ridiculous Apple ERROR MESSAGE for a Mac Book Pro 2009 even when using original DVDs when purchased. Apple really more frustrating than MS sometimes! Many thanks for this great helpful info
THis is excellent. Reminds me of the hammer into the BIgBrother screen from the original Mac ads. Apple, sheesh. Talk about becoming authoritarian in your old age. I didn't even know you did comp stuff but i've watched loads of your keyboard vids. should've subscribed earlier but i just did
Gonna be trying this on my Mac Pro.........have an OS disk for a later macbook but need the Snow Leopard installer for my studio machine. Huge respect for the vid
I succesfully installed Mavericks on my early 2008 MacBook thanks to your help I appreciate it a lot thank you!
Sir, I am officially hooked on your channel.
I'll try this with OS 10.8
Oh man! this is probably the work around i've been looking for!!! Thanks!
Hey man, thanks so much for this tut. I bought an install disk for a MacBook Pro 17 for my used MacBook Pro 15 inch... and got the "cannot install on this computer" message. The Macbook was running Linux on it so I figured that was the prob and formatted the drive to Mac extended (Journaled) but no love.... what the hell Apple?!! it's JUST a different screen size!! I don't have another mac here but will try to us the mini in my office to do this. I'm hoping I can run terminal on the Pro while using the install disk since it won't boot as it is. Thanks again, great vid!
Very good and clear video. I have one problem: I'm trying this with a Tiger disk and there is no line of code showing supported machines
Very handy! Least it should make life easier if I have to restore an older Mac for clients!! Thank you!
Great video! I love the information you share. You have helped me so much!
I just noticed, your channel got verified.
This video helped me out man, thank you for putting it together, great work!!!
I run 10.4 on my iBook G4 (so I can run my classic games/programs). Print outputs to .pdf and move them to my Mac mini (Late 2014) running 10.11 which in turn prints to my printers.
I still use many of the old classic programs as they were easier to use than the new versions that have all those "bells and whistles" that I never use. I am addicted to the original Command & Conquer that was made for the Classic environment, I do wish it could be ported to the new OSX 10.11 but it is old and plays well on the iBook G4.
7 years old video and I didn't know this, I used a different for my iMac mid-2010 and wanted Snow Leopard, but even if it came with 10.6.3, the 10.6.3 Retail does not work (the build number is too old), so I used a DVD for iMac mid-2011 and after patching it on a USB it worked !
I’ve used a Mac for 35 year and did not know this.
Thank you fo this. I've referred back to you and this video on more than one occasion.
That trick plus adding a few drivers that match one's machine will work for installing something like Mountain Lion on a PC... Worked for me although I am having trouble getting my sound drivers to work......
I am not able to view the package contents for the dmg file after it loaded to the desktop. Help?
ME EIGTHER :(
@@joshuanorris5860 use pathfinder
@@drklwo39 yeah? Im actually about to tackle this crap again soon.... Need to wipe my computer and also my dads. Without loosing anything..
Ill probably be rewatching this vid very soon lol the weekend maby..
Joshua Norris yeah use pathfinder, and use view hidden files. You should be able to find the packages folder that way
What if, once one gets into the Contents folder, there is no "OSInstall.dist" file? Is there any remedy from that point on?
This is the situation I am in.
I didn't see the .dist file too ,I'm on Snow Leopard btw
Thank you very much! I'm upgrading an old mac mini (1.66ghz 2006) and I couldn't find the install disk, but I have my install disk from my 2010 macbook air. I'm going to give your trick a try! I just wish apple would let me download a legit version of snow leopard. It would be so much easier! Again, thank you!
The retail Snow Leopard is 10.6.3 if I remember correctly. Some newer Macs (Made after Summer 2010 for instance) require a newer version of the Snow Leopard installer or you will get a unsupported CPU kernel error upon booting the installer disc. You could get one of the newer 10.6 gray discs off eBay (10.6.7 should be good enough; zoom in the pictures and look for the version number) and try to follow the video. The System folder is hidden by the way, so just Shift+Cmd+G your way in or find an application like TinkerTool to show the hidden folders.
Thanks David, you helped solve my problem
Very useful video. Thanks very much! I love your tutorials! Keep up the good work.
Thank you very much! I dont have any DL-DVDs so i have to remove most of the optional languages and xcode tools stuff to make the replacement.
Awesome! I've got an old Mac Book Pro that I want to wipe and install 10.6 on. The only install disk I have was for my old iMac 27". I am having this exact trouble that you describe. Off I go to hack this install disk. Thanks!
Just upgraded to Windows 10 though it's not supported on my Mac. Apple only supports Windows 7 and 8.1. The Bootcamp drivers I used are the 8.1 drivers so it works for the most part with some caveats, all the things I need it to do work.
0:49 there's a woman sneezing in the background just after he says "expect it to take a while"
That's probably his wife. that's halarious XD
thats so creepy i never that before
Did you just assume its gender?
thekenmatax he probably did
+zach “techy guru” schwanke Well, as a human that makes me feel insulted
Awesome! I can now get OS X on my pc!
You may have just saved my bacon. Thanks
Very nice trick 8-Bit Guy!
Thanks a bunch!
oh man thank you! that looks promising 😳 ...can you pls tell me where do i find all the places that i need to put my computer model??🙏
Hey, it's Javascript! ... with XML? If Apple uses a format that can be easily manipulated by users, just wow, don't know what to say.
BTW, while you were at it, why not empty the badMachines array alltogether? :D
it might check for a significant file size difference, or for the badMachines column
Hi …good instructions and video but it seems this cannot be done on an install disk for 10.6 that came with a MacPro I bought. I don't see anything regarding allowed machines etc. in the install code on it. Any ideas on modifying this code to allow me to create a new install disk for 10.6? Thanks...
REALisation: 72 dislikes are Apple employees
iBookGuy: It looks like those that have tried these steps for the grey "Leopard" disks are getting stuck when having to find the "System Folder" within the new dmg. I read further down the thread that you were in the process of creating a video for "Leopard" is this video available yet?
VenturaWeddings i would like to know this as well
VenturaWeddings you can use an app called tinkerTool!!! I had the same problem, you you set it to show hidden/system files and thats it itll open up the dmg wjust as in the vid
For those posting in this thread wanting to know what version(s) of MacOS X their particular Mac supports, you can go to www.everymac.com and look up your Mac to find out.
David's trick is to allow you to use a DVD set you might have from another Mac of the same CPU Architecture (either PPC or Intel. You can't use a PPC version of MacOS X on an Intel and vice versa) or that you might have bought on eBay. Try to buy copies of Retail editions of MacOS X if you can to avoid needing to use this trick.
If you don't have a dual layer burner available, you can search on Google how to make a bootable USB stick from your DVD disks (great idea for a video David!).
You can also call 1-800-SOS-APPL and order a DVD of the OS your Mac came with for a fee.
I was a former Apple Service Tech.
Eres lo máximo, muchas gracias, ¡Saludos desde México!
This is my major complaint about Apple. Apple goes out of their way to make changes to the OS and the developer packages that force perfectly good machines that are fast enough for most things you want to do, to be trashed. It generates massive amounts of e-waste and causes the collective user base to spend billions of dollars that they don't need to spend. Instead of adding hundreds of 'features' that nobody even knows what they are, let alone uses, Apple/MS should be optimizing their software to run faster on the same hardware. For example, there is NO REASON AT ALL for any G5 machine, particularly dual core machines to be "out of date". For 90% of users, a G5 would do everything they need to do and to do it quickly. Even my lowly 700mhz G4 eMac, when properly programmed can do pretty much everything I need it to do. If I were editing video or really high resolution professional printshop work, it might not be very good. But outside of deliberate obsolescence and poorly written software, most machines are trashed prematurely.
Apple users pay a large premium to use a Mac and they should be rewarded with long term support. The G5s are a perfect example of how Apple rips off it's customers. When it comes to the iPod and iPhone, they do the same thing. A simple change of a website can mean that your app that accesses that website can no longer fetch the data and when you try to update the app, it says you need to upgrade the IOS. As you yourself noted, Windows XP a 13 year old OS still works fine for nearly all software. There is very little you cannon accomplish on an XP machine. Apple, IMHO, needs to settle on the latest OS (and IOS)and simply continue to optimize it and NOT lock out older hardware. When it comes to Apple, in most cases it's not your hardware that is lacking, it's Apple's rotten treatment of it's customers.
The reason Snow Leopard was so fast was because they stripped it of ALL PowerPC code, therefore removing the need to translate sections. If you want a fast modern OS for a G4/G5 you should try Lubuntu or Xubuntu PPC.
commentmachine1
If you are willing to do a little work and workarounds, even a lowly eMac can still do a lot. But the point is that Apple doesn't support it's hardware long enough.
***** I think Apple has decided for lots of good reasons that they will never break into government and big corporations and are targeting education and consumers and some small business, especially creative types. Since they are essentially stuck with consumers as their base, consumers who do not understand electronics or computers in general just accept that "it's old" and therefor no longer usable, they will milk it for all it's worth. You could take your core-2 duo mac and put windows 8 on it (god forbid, go with 7) and it would work fine. I am running a AMD-64 3000+ at 1.8GHZ single core with XP and it does everything I need it to do and most new software works fine with it.
2 Words: Closed Source.
xD if you dont want this shit
move to linux
Having worked in high tech for decades I can tell you that the support system for Windows is overloaded. Yes, you can slap a copy of Windows on any machine you want to, no it does not work correctly (or at all) with "all" software. The support departments are inundated with support calls for OS features or application features that just don't work, or run so slowly that it seems broken. Apple is draconian in how they restrict the install discs to only work on the hardware that "fully" supports it. That way, if the macOS install discs runs, then you know that all features are supported and will be stable. Its a tough choice, I've had to support both and have nearly ripped my hair out trying to get Windows users to understand that their machine is just not going to do what they want because the hardware and software are sop terribly mismatched, and yes, there have been times that I feel sorry for a macOS user that wants to upgrade their OS and does not care about support for new hardware features. I wish I had a solution for both those cases but the actual reality behind it all is that technology does improve at a rapid pace, users that say they can live without new features are usually the ones that complain when they try and use the new features so there is just no way to make them happy.
I have a PowerMac G3 B&W and I couldn't install any OS on it till now.. But maybe I stand a chance with this knowledge :D
I have a Snow iMac (circa 2001?) the 600mhz G3 iMac all-in-one. It's been sitting in my closet for... oh, 5 years now. It had developed a screen glitch when I would first fire it up, and then it would operate just fine. But, when I moved (and I was careful with it), I plugged it in, and nothing... not any indication at all that it was getting any kind of power.
Now, I ran both OSX (Snow Leopard, I think?) and OS9 on it. I loved its beautiful Trinitron screen.
I recently began thinking I should either get it fixed or get rid of it.
I would like to use it, however, for word processing, and especially to run classic MacOS software, especially games.
Based on what little info I've provided can you tell me if it's practical to fix it or have it fixed?
Would it be cheaper / easier to get another, similar Mac? Say a Macbook from the same era running OS9?
Could you advise on what would be the best Mac to play old MacOS games on? I'd prefer an all-in-one, or a laptop/notebook Mac for space saving and mobility. I'd like to be able to hook it up to my network to transfer files and such, but accessing the internet isn't mandatory (though I'll probably try since I try to access the internet on *everything* lol).
You did a video I watched on the best PC laptop for playing DOS games, maybe you could do the same for MacOS?
Thanks for any advice or info you can share!
Will be looking forward to it!
Awesome video as always.
I did the same to install Mac OS X 10.4.6 on my newer MacBook (actually I changed the Logic-Board, it was a MacBook1,1 first and now it's a MacBook2,1). In my case (Intel-Mac) it was ok just to dd the image to an USB stick and boot from it. Actually, the fans were running high, until the older version of 10.4 didn't come with the power-management drivers for the Intel Core !2! Duo kind of chipset. Anyway, after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.11 via the Software-Update, the MacBook2,1 ran very well with this OS. Actually, Mac OS X 10.4.8 was the first to support the Intel Core 2 Duo (correct me if I'm wrong), and so did 10.4.11 (and its Darwin 8.11.0 kernel).
Im still using a PowerBook g4 12 inch thx for the help
Hi I like the video. Question: can I instead of burning it on DVD put it on a flash drive? I have snow leopard on my iMac and wan to install that on an 2009 MacBook pro. Thanks 🙏
That's sort of what I have in mind.
Hello, when the disc opens on my Mac there isn’t an option to view the package content . There’s a different window with “more ways to install” or something similar to that. Can’t seem to get into the part to change the model numbers around.
does this also work with a usb drive? ( wich has the os on it to be upgraded or recovered)
no you will have to make a bootable usb flash drive using the osx dmg file
Is there a way to add a new application and documents in the documents folder? So a particular program and its files does not have to be installed separately?
i tried to do this with a mac pro 10.5.4 instal disk. They are both grey like the one in this video. I need it to go on a Mac Mini G4. Can you tell me how to go into the files on this one. The file system is very different from yours on this video. Are you able to help me?
I reckon the thought process at A was "Sometimes we feel a need to do something stupid, so what if it makes no sense or is extremely anti-consumer ?".
It's currently 2016, I've researched a bit and I found and app can El Capitan which is the latest OS X. I think that if your selling macs you might want to update them to the latest is. Requirements: updated safari and iTunes Store and I suggest over 4 gigs of ram or the os won't survive. Thanks!
Where so you get those restore disks? I just got an old Mac mini MA206ll/a to upgrade for fun. I bought it used but not too sure how to restore it to original factory settings. Also what's the highest I can upgrade it operating system? I'd love it to run mavericks like my new Mac mini has.. Doubt that'll happen though. Would love to have it stream to my apple tvs
Trying this at the moment. Now I need to find a dual layer dvd writer
Looking forward to the "Is Tiger Obsolete" video. Any release date in mind?
one question , by doing this and installing the os x on your system and that , will you still get mac updates ?
Would this trick work with a macbook 2008 with core2duo other than the most one can do OS X Lion?
you have to have the *r a m*
You can still get the full version of the MacOSs on apple support if you need them. Do not go through App Store, they were removed. Also a tip, if your Mac says it only can go to 8gb of memory. You can go to 16gb. just make sure its the same speed as the existing. its an undocumented . its a hidden secret.
Thanks! I'll try this tomorrow. I have a 2008 MacBook Pro 15" and the grey dvd I have is marked "MacBook Pro 15" and doesn't work
Do you know how to do it with a Windows XP Recovery Discs? I have Sony_Vaio_PCV-W30 Recovery discs and I am trying to install these on a Sony_Vaio_PCV-W20; only difference would be the CPU Hertz and HD capacity 60 vs 80 GB, then I received a message "this Sw cant be installed on this Machine". Do you how to override this using Microsoft Orca Sw? Or any other ideas? Thanks in advance.
I recently inherited an eMac (USB 2.0) with an empty 40 GB hard drive. I have install DVD's of Tiger from an iMac G5 that I bought new back in 2005. I've made images of the two install DVD's, partitioned a thumb drive, and dumped them on. I edited the OSInstalls file, added in the eMac 'PowerMac 6,4', but I get a kernel panic when it tries to boot from the thumb drive. Did I miss something?
Out of curiosity would I be able to do this with a unsupported version of Mac OS on an older machine? e.g. Macbook 4,1 running Mac OS 10.8?
what if you found all compatible machines for that os, and deleted all unsupported machines and added everything into the supported list. would it give you a universal install cd?
Does Mac OS really stack new windows as you go thru the file tree?
It's an option, or you can have it opening in the same window like MS Windows does
dont waste your time, Macs are useless
I have a Leopard restore disk that works on my MacBook Pro (early 2008, 15 inch, 2.6ghz), and boots up on my PowerBook G4 (April 2004, 1.5ghz), and if I do this trick to make it compatible, will it work properly?
Also iBook guy what is your main machine is it a 2012 Mac mini or iMac or Mac Pro?
you deserve a medal.
I ordered the tiger 10.4.7 grey apple install disks. The picture of the one I ordered actually said imac core 2 duo but when I got it in the mail it was completely different. I deleted the imac from bad machines since I don't have the supported machines at the bottom. Prayerfully that works. I'm burning the new disk now. Bought it from an auction and it didn't have os so I bought snow leopard then it told me to buy leopard so I bought leopard then it told me I needed tiger so I ordered the tiger install disk and that gave the alert message hopefully this works
Ok I have a question. I have a Mid 2007 MacBook. At least I believe it's Mid 2007. I can't install Mac OSX 10.8. Will this trick help me to be able to install it? I saw somewhere that I should technically be able to install it, but when I try I get the message that it's not allowed. Will this trick work?
Is it possible to get my late 2006 White iMac to run Mountain Lion? The only thing that is blocking it is the GPU.
dang. tight shit. ure a pro. man, any thoughts why i cant boot from any of the 2 os x.5 dvds i have here. im using external usb drive. try boot by dvd got nothing but an os x up in safe boot. try to install by the installer in os x and the os just come up after restart as turning on usually.
I own 20 of of those disks that I picked up for free from school when they were trowing out new disks
Thanks.. excellent production it worked
Hmmm, well not so fast. Here's what I have: install disk for an iMac 27" with OS X 10.6.1, a Mac Book Pro that is compatible with 10.6, a MacBook Pro that is slightly newer with a DVD drive connected which I have the install DVD in. I launch disk utility, select Create Disk Image.... It starts and then abruptly cancels it. Whats the deal, do you think? Thanks!