Apple Mac OS
28 July 2008, 11:42 PM
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Apple Mac OS
Does Mac OS have a product key or an activation procedure? Ive bought a relatively late (but pre-Intel) Mac which came with OSX (possibly 10.3 originally, but running 10.4 presently), but is missing its original system discs. This is rather embarrassing: Im an extremely experienced PC user, but I know next to nothing about Apple products.
28 July 2008, 11:54 PM
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No such thing on the Macs.
Most machines shipped with specific installers for that system so for example I can't install the OS from my G5 on a G4 but you can get generic installers.
For example I just bought Leopard that would install on anything (supported)
System update doesn't do any checking either so it is technically possible to install on multiple machines using the same discs.
If your machine is more than a 867mhz G4 or newer then get Leopard on it if you can. It is good but Tiger is excellent if you can't.
Most machines shipped with specific installers for that system so for example I can't install the OS from my G5 on a G4 but you can get generic installers.
For example I just bought Leopard that would install on anything (supported)
System update doesn't do any checking either so it is technically possible to install on multiple machines using the same discs.
If your machine is more than a 867mhz G4 or newer then get Leopard on it if you can. It is good but Tiger is excellent if you can't.
29 July 2008, 12:40 PM
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I dont think it will install, it does some hardware checks I believe. You also might need a DVD drive and firewire, but not 100% on that.
I suspect there are cracks out there to get it on lesser machines but I've not bothered trying, it would run quite slowly I would expect.
Tiger (10.4) is good and runs quite well on my old 333mhz laptop but doesn't run some apps very quickly.
I suspect there are cracks out there to get it on lesser machines but I've not bothered trying, it would run quite slowly I would expect.
Tiger (10.4) is good and runs quite well on my old 333mhz laptop but doesn't run some apps very quickly.
29 July 2008, 12:43 PM
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What G3 are you trying to put 10.3 on?
I would definitely go for 10.4, it was quite an improvement of 10.3.
Only problem might be, 10.3 came on CDs but 10.4 was mostly available on DVD, you *could* get it on CD but I think you had to request it from Apple or something...
I would definitely go for 10.4, it was quite an improvement of 10.3.
Only problem might be, 10.3 came on CDs but 10.4 was mostly available on DVD, you *could* get it on CD but I think you had to request it from Apple or something...
29 July 2008, 01:44 PM
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29 July 2008, 01:47 PM
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I didn't know 10.4 could go on it, i'll put anything on it that's better than 9! I couldn't even find anything that worked on torrent sites 
29 July 2008, 01:57 PM
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I have a 450MHz G3 iMac too, which I bought a few years ago to learn about Macs. Its difficult adapting from being an 'expert' with a PC, to not knowing your **** from your elbow with another type of desktop computer..... Long before Id managed to install OSX Id put it away at the back of a cupboard.
29 July 2008, 02:03 PM
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The only Apple OS product that currently has a serial number and checks this is OS X Server, the client OS does not have any kind of activation/serial number, so yes, you could take someone else's install media and install from it without issue, unlike XP and Vista.
As said by others, the discs that ship with machines are usually specific to that type of machine, a "generic" disk is the full retail version of the OS, as that is designed to install on any Mac, providing it supports that version of the OS.
I would recommend against putting 10.3 on the machine, as it's very outdated, 10.4 would be the earliest OS I'd put on a machine these days, and if possible I'd go with 10.5 as it's the latest OS and will be updated, whereas 10.4 probably won't, bar a few security updates if required.
The Leopard OSInstall.mpkg file in /Library/System/Installation/Packages/ on the DVD contains a file called Distribution which, amongst other things contains checks for "bad" machines (older powerbooks and such like, probably those without on-board USB and Firewire), plus a check for RAM (≥512MB) and also a check for processor speed. If your machine fails to pass these checks, 10.5 won't install.
If you edit this file then you can change the requirements to whatever you want, which is what I've done to get it to install on G4's whose processor is less than the 867MHz. When it comes to the RAM requirement, you really do want more than 256MB, as the installer will not actually operate fully with that low a memory requirement.
Obviously you'd need to have the installer on read/write media to allow you to edit the file in the first place, and mikes suggestion about the installer on a firewire drive/partition is a good way to go and it's how I install the OS on my machines as the dev seeds are disk images and not physical media, and some of my machines do not not have DVD drives.
As said by others, the discs that ship with machines are usually specific to that type of machine, a "generic" disk is the full retail version of the OS, as that is designed to install on any Mac, providing it supports that version of the OS.
I would recommend against putting 10.3 on the machine, as it's very outdated, 10.4 would be the earliest OS I'd put on a machine these days, and if possible I'd go with 10.5 as it's the latest OS and will be updated, whereas 10.4 probably won't, bar a few security updates if required.
The Leopard OSInstall.mpkg file in /Library/System/Installation/Packages/ on the DVD contains a file called Distribution which, amongst other things contains checks for "bad" machines (older powerbooks and such like, probably those without on-board USB and Firewire), plus a check for RAM (≥512MB) and also a check for processor speed. If your machine fails to pass these checks, 10.5 won't install.
If you edit this file then you can change the requirements to whatever you want, which is what I've done to get it to install on G4's whose processor is less than the 867MHz. When it comes to the RAM requirement, you really do want more than 256MB, as the installer will not actually operate fully with that low a memory requirement.
Obviously you'd need to have the installer on read/write media to allow you to edit the file in the first place, and mikes suggestion about the installer on a firewire drive/partition is a good way to go and it's how I install the OS on my machines as the dev seeds are disk images and not physical media, and some of my machines do not not have DVD drives.
29 July 2008, 10:32 PM
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So: as far as I am aware I am entitled to re-install OS-X (10.4.x) onto this machine. The original user has replaced it with an Intel-based Mac running 10.5.x and the original system discs have been lost, as opposed to used elsewhere. Where can I find a suitable replacement?
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