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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Installing MB Leopard on Mini

RobinS - Jul 29, 2008 - 10:19 pm

I've got an Intel Mini and bought the original Leopard discs for an upgrade on Ebay but they're for a Macbook. I didn't realize OS X 10.5 cared what machine they are used on. Silly me. So now I"ve paid all this money for useless discs. Is there any way of installing a Macbook version of Leopard on my Intel Mini? It says it can't install. I was wondering if I moved the data from the DVD's to an external hard drive would it work? Then maybe I could delete the files that check for the machine type? Or something....

DeltaMac - Jul 29, 2008 - 11:34 pm

Robin, you could have asked here before you wasted your money, as your situation is quite common.
The set of grey disks that you have are always the restore disks that ship with a Mac. You got a similar set originally with your mini, except, of course, they were an older 10.4.x set. The real Leopard disks are black with a purple starburst under a big X. The disks that came with new Macs at the time that Leopard was released, would be that same purple on black, but have the text 'drop-in upgrade' or simply 'system upgrade', and don't have the limitation for the system hardware that the grey disks have. The only limitation of the drop-in Leopard upgrade disk, is that 10.4.x has to be already installed.
Those upgrade disks were either provided free of charge, or a nominal shipping charge. If you paid more than $10, then you really got taken.
I use an external hard drive with a partition that I ran Disk Utility/restore, to copy the installer drive for use when installing Leopard. It works well. I suppose you can prowl through the installer files to discover where the hardware check is located, and modify it. I don't recall ever reading of someone that did that, and the OS X install might have it buried, so it's not as simple as removing the hardware check in an app install, for example. I've just never come across that info.
It would then be a good question on the public forums, if you want to put up with the folks who will tell you that's misusing the software license.
Good to talk to you again!
- Dale

RobinS - Jul 30, 2008 - 12:21 pm

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize there was 3 types of discs out there.

On a similar note, I've got a Leopard version on my hard drive that was downloaded off the net. Its an ISO. When I open the ISO it looks like the same type of files that would be displayed when one highlights the DVD.

etc (2k)
Install Mac OS X (702k)
Instructions (125.8mb)
Optional Installs (402k)
tmp (2k)
var (2k)

I added the sizes of each for reference. When I burn this it won't boot. I burnt it in Toast. Can you think of something I'm doing wrong? Of course the files could be fautly. The title is Leopard_SL_DVD so I guess they removed the fonts, languages and X11 stuff to squeeze it on a single layer DVD. Total size is 4.27gb.

I've got another that I probably renamed (I'll never do that again!) with a total size of 7.11gb. There are 3 files.

Install Mac OS X (812k)
Instructions (126mb)
Optional Installs (1.14gb)

Bringing up hidden files we have these:

System (5.5gb)
usr (125.8mb)
Applications (43.6mb)
bin (9.1mb)
sbin (5.3mb)
private (819.7k)
library (708.4k)
.fseventsd (100.9k)
var
tmp
etc
Volumes
dev
.HFS+ Private Directory Data
mach_kernel (9.7mb)
.DS_Store
._Optional Installs
._Instructions
-------------------
If you can suggest which is better to work with, let me know. If this is a gray area and you'd rather not discuss it, I understand.

TechSupport - Aug 2, 2008 - 12:30 pm

We apologize for not being able to resolve the issue you asked of us. It is the absolute worst case scenario for us to do this. In our review of why this happens, it generally is related to either the particular issue being addressed or frequently, incomplete or incorrect information provided. We hope by moving your request to the public forums that you will be able to get a solution without leaving you empty handed.

Your ticket has been closed with our support team. Your request has just been posted to Mac OS X System & Mac Software and is available for your viewing at:

http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302325

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