Absolute minimum spec for OSX

bookem · #1 May 16th, 2002, 10:43 AM

I know this has been discussed before, but i can't fnd the post. Can anyone tell me what the absolute minimum spec for OSX is?

benpoole · #2 May 16th, 2002, 11:36 AM

See http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html

Well, Apple say that "all iMacs" can run OS X. So, why not use the original Bondi blue iMac (1998) as a start?

233 MHz G3 processor
66 MHz bus (I think)
ATI Rage (?) graphics card with 2MB of SGRAM to start
4 GB hard drive
512 KB L2 cache
32 KB L1 cache

Oh yes... 128MB RAM would be a requirement too.

But I'd hate to actually have to use OS X on that spec...!

ksv · #3 May 16th, 2002, 01:32 PM

It's also possible to install and run OS X on older and unsupported Macs (7300-9600 including some clones) using a utility called XPostFacto. You can find it on http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/

Krevinek · #4 May 16th, 2002, 02:01 PM

Beware that if you attempt to use Jaguar on an older machine, you will not get XPostFacto to load the kernel in its current state (BootX just stops, and you can only restart, the SCOD doesn't even show up... Apple made some changes that broke support with the 10.1 BootX that Ryan modified)...

10.1 is usable, and I would bet that 10.2 is fairly bearable on an 8600 once I get around the BootX issue.

thedbp · #5 May 25th, 2002, 01:54 PM

i was wondering if anyone had tried 10.2 on older "unsupported" hardware. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of X on my 8600. I mean, obviously, QuickTime and 3D were a no-go (as they would be on an original iMac, beige G3, etc.), but the OS itself wasn't too bad, even with the stock 300MHz 604 and 128MB of RAM ...

It would be great if Apple would release a version of OS X tweaked to run on older hardware a little faster. I doubt it would take that much effort, and it would enable people to take legacy networks of Macs up to an entire OS X affair. Yummy.

Krevinek · #6 May 25th, 2002, 02:04 PM

Well, I TRIED to get Jaguar working, but because of a major change or two in BootX and the kernel... it just won't boot. Verbose mode gives me nothing, which hints at something going bad before the kernel is even ready to go... not fun.

Hopefully someone (Ryan Rempel is the best bet right now) will figure out what is going on and un-break the un-support.

TommyWillB · #7 May 25th, 2002, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krevinek
Well, I TRIED to get Jaguar working, but because of a major change or two in BootX and the kernel... it just won't boot. Verbose mode gives me nothing, which hints at something going bad before the kernel is even ready to go... not fun.

Hopefully someone (Ryan Rempel is the best bet right now) will figure out what is going on and un-break the un-support.

Because Jaguar is supposed to offload all of the Finder 2D video to the video card, and because this requires a modern video card, I would not expect it to EVER work on your 8600...

Krevinek · #8 May 25th, 2002, 05:49 PM

That isn't true, and even if it was, it would crash MUCH later in the boot process. Acceleration isn't even loaded until the blue screen. I would be getting some info from the kernel otherwise.

Plus if you are telling the truth, then Apple also dropped support for all non-AGP Macs in 10.2, which isn't.

Your argument doesn't exactly hold any water. Hell, Apple apparently didn't change how graphics drivers work from 10.1 to 10.2 either, which further proves otherwise.