Installing Panther, little space

S

Sledgehammer

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I have an iBook on wich I have a partition for OsX 10.2.8. The partitions' size is 3,41 GB and there is available space 1,22 GB. Is it possible to install Panther?

Thanks!
 
I would recommend a full backup and reformat, then a clean install of Panther. There have been a lot of problems reported from people who upgraded Jaguar to Panther. Reinstalling PhotoShop isn't a big deal -- pop in the CD, hit install, retype serial number. If you have a .Mac account, backing up your Mail, bookmarks and settings is easy with Apple's Backup software.

If you don't wanna do this, when you upgrade Jaguar to Panther, there should be a "Customize" button at the bottom of the install window. Click this and get rid of any packages you don't want. The total size required for installation will be shown, so you can add and remove packages as needed to fit the space available.
 
Panther will fit in 4 gig. if you install everything then it will not leave much room for anything else. You can go in and do a custom install and uncheck things you dont need like printer drivers for printers you dont have. I would recommend to copy the stuff off of the drive you want to keep and then do a clean install of panther on the 4 gig section. and upgrade should work fine, but since i usually do clean installs of my OSes I dont know if it will bark at having only 1.2 gig free for the update. it is a good habit to get into anyways to back up stuff before a system upgrade or install.

Edit: sorry if some of this is a repeat from the above post. I apparently had the window open for a while before i replied to it.
 
Technically, you can install OS X 10.3 in 2,01 GB - minimum install, and everything unchosen. You can't upgrade anything on that size though. And you can't really USE the 10.3 on that size - but yes, you can install that. For the purpose of installing, not for using.
 
So let's assume I do a clean install and format the partition. If I copy my user folder to firewire HD, install panther, and then copy the user folder back to the new panther partition, will it work? I wouldn't want to do the Mails preferences all over, for example...
 
I agree with ElDiabloConCaca your partition is way too small to run OS X comfortably.
  1. Apple says you have to have a minimum of 3 GB free to install Panther
  2. Micromat says they have found 4 GB is the minimum partition size for OS X and TechTool Pro to run allowing some room for future growth
  3. With a 3.4 GB partition you only have 2.89 GB usable allowing for the necessary 15% free space to maintain proper HFS+ file system health.
 
Yes, Sledgehammer, that's how you do it. Just have to do it right.

1.) Backup your home folder, memorise your user's short name.
2.) Backup "/Libary/Application Support"
3.) Backup "/Applications"
4.) Reinstall, reformatting the drive.
5.) Choose the same user short name when setting up.
6.) Copy the stuff from your backups to the new installation. I usually do it one by one rather than trying to replace the home folder (could lead to strange effects, I guess...).
 
OK, I did the backup like "fryke" adviced and then did the clean install. Took about an hour and everything works just fine! Thanks!

Any comment about moving the swapfile to own partition?
 
perfessor101 said:
I agree with ElDiabloConCaca your partition is way too small to run OS X comfortably.
  1. Apple says you have to have a minimum of 3 GB free to install Panther
  2. Micromat says they have found 4 GB is the minimum partition size for OS X and TechTool Pro to run allowing some room for future growth
  3. With a 3.4 GB partition you only have 2.89 GB usable allowing for the necessary 15% free space to maintain proper HFS+ file system health.
Click to expand...

i argued about the 3 GB thing with the technical writers. they were telling that you CAN install OS X in 2,0 GB. so they won -- you CAN install OS X to that size. but not full install, and you cannot install updates, or any languages, or even use the thing.
 
Sledgehammer said:
Any comment about moving the swapfile to own partition?
Click to expand...

Yep -- it's not needed. There wouldn't be any speed improvement by doing so, especially on a hard drive as small as yours.

Back in the day of OS X 10.0, it was so slow people tried to squeeze every last little improvement out of the system, and moving the swap file seemed to help speed it up, oh, about 1%.
 
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