OS X Leopard on G3s?

[128keaton]

Hello. I've read about the ability to boot Leopard on a G3 CPU. I've also heard you need certain files from the WWDC '06 preview, can anyone confirm that this works?

[after64k]

Seems that after over a month I'm the only one here that would really want to answer this question for you. The simple answer is yes, certain really early builds of Leopard (10.5) should work with the G3 with luck. But later on, and with the final release, only G4 processors are supported.

The thing is, if you *really* want to get a later Leopard to run on that processor, and waste a lot of time ripping into the system and replace, patch etc. things, then I can tell you now that it's seriously not worth it. Back then, (because I seriously love tinkering with and just love Apples altogether), I challenged myself and spent several days at this (whenever I wasn't working) and tried to 'upgrade' a Snow G3 by backporting/slipstreaming several pieces of Tiger into the system for fun, and the extensions, etc. were all hosed. Even when I finally did get it the Frankenstein to boot (and it barely worked at all!), various applications wouldn't even launch, and my concoction was as unstable as a green alpha on a bad day. It quickly went corrupt after crashing repeatedly; in short, mixing and matching two systems with their own sets of kexts, etc. is simply not meant to be; in short, don't try it. There are videos on YouTube, etc. that brag and claim they did it; from my adventures, I wouldn't believe the majority of them, as a clever power user can meticulously change the icon set, modify SystemVersion.plist and install Liger/ShapeShifter. The exception would be unless they truly, seriously have either found a way to patch or backport pieces from Tiger and made it work stable for more than a day, or are running an early build and can prove it. 10.4.11 still runs Classic and TenFourFox anyway, so I really don't see why bother with 10.5 anyway, as I never really cared for it. It's much more exciting and rewarding to spend time building a Hackintosh instead, as you can get that to work and run well. On the safer side, you could simply play inside qemu or PearPC to tinker with early Leopards (PearPC does not run Leopard, afaik) and see how that goes for the fun of it, or find a really early build.

(And as an extra tidbit to get the most out of Leopard on slow G4s, you can either fake a CPU value through OpenFirmware to get through the clock check if you need to (it only lasts until you reboot)... or as for permanently: (Various sites say you can get upgrade cards or do hardware-based overclocks on G3/G4 processors. As for a gentler approach, OF uses a Forth-like syntax, and I used to know how to do it, but can't remember now. I boosted a G4 to 1.67 GHz from 1.33GHz once just for fun and it appeared to work, though the machine ran hot when I pushed it. Resetting the PRAM removes your modifications, but you need to be really careful if you try that).

I hope all this info helps you find what you were searching for on here. Have fun beta testing!

[MSUser2013]

There are videos on YouTube, etc. that brag and claim they did it; from my adventures, I wouldn't believe the majority of them, as a clever power user can meticulously change the icon set, modify SystemVersion.plist and install Liger/ShapeShifter. The exception would be unless they truly, seriously have either found a way to patch or backport pieces from Tiger and made it work stable for more than a day, or are running an early build and can prove it.

There's a possibility that they're using G4 CPU Upgrades in *some* of those videos, AFAIK Someone made a video of running Leopard on a PowerMac 9600 with a G4 CPU Upgrade. I agree, I don't see a need for Leopard since Tiger works for what I do on my PowerPC Macs. Did you backport files from an early Leopard Beta to 10.5.0? I think that would be more stable than using files from Tiger on 10.5.8 which I assume is what you did.

[after64k]

Yeah, I attempted to use Tiger for that (10.4.11; somewhat new then) and crunch the two felines together. It was definitely not a good experience I'd wish on anyone; perhaps using an early build of Leopard on Leopard as you mentioned may have yielded better results, (and at this point, I wouldn't care to try it) but anyone else is free to tinker with that project if they want. I'm just mentioning both in the earlier post and now that it's not recommended to even attempt it, because it can very easily lead to a huge mess -- fast. In any case, as I mentioned, the best bet is for the OP to find an old build before "G3" was forgotten about. I don't think I have any working/running G3s anymore outside of a Lombard, but it would be interesting if anyone could play with early builds of it.

[Jimbles Notronbo]

I could see this working on one of the ibook G3s because they went up to 900 MhZ ( i think, i only have a 600 mhz model)

[Dandu]

It works on Power Mac G3 with a G4 CPU on it, and driver from the preview for the graphic cards