Mac users, you're being paged! G5 PPC question

[Topcat]

I was given a G5 PPC dually @ 2GHz, 16gb RAM; model A1117. It had OSX Server 10.4 on it when I got it, no disks. I got it from the original owner. I wanted to remove the server OS and run 10.5.8 on it, the last version of OSX that supported the PPC platform.

This is the tank in question:





I pulled the HDD with OSX Server on it, leaving it intact and installed a blank HDD. After seemingly all day hunting, I found the media to install 10.4.2, which is what originally came on this... After updating it, it's now running 10.4.11....and now here's the problem....this system never came out with 10.5, so there's no OEM install media for it....but people are getting it running on these...but I haven't figured out what media they're using to do it.

The only install media I have for 10.5.8 is what came with an iMac, "Gray label" media, it sends it into a kernel panic when attempting to boot from it (the gray label 10.4 that came with an iMac did the same thing, which is why I had to hunt down a different version of 10.4); the gray label media is intended for only specific models and won't work on all.....so the question is, which of the gazillions of OSX medias do I need to use to get this thing up to 10.5.8?

[ratdude747]

I have the image you need (DL DVD needed)... or at least what I used from scratch on my iMac G5. I think there are separate intel and PPC images but otherwise I didn't recall anything else amiss. I'm pretty sure I torrented it years ago... but I don't remember.

My church upgraded their two clones of yours to 10.5.8... but I don't have any of the discs aside from an old copy of iWork '08.

Let me know if you want me to FTP it to you.

[stj]

if thats the twin-G5 that model had a safety notice issued.
if the liquid cooling system leaks, bag it up and run away.
no, seriously, they had some that started leaking and whatever it uses was seriously toxic - so watch for stains near the tubing.

[piernov]

I got a DMG called "Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4 9E25 Retail.dmg" (so not quite 10.5.8 but same thing, can apply combo update later). Pretty sure that's the one I used on my PowerMac G5 (sadly missing a lot of bits and pieces, if ever someone in EU is getting rid of that stuff…), my PowerMac G4 and my eMac G4.
I created another partition to restore the DMG on it and boot from that since I don't have any DVD DL. On the PowerMac G4 I put the installer on a second HDD, works too.

Also, I'd highly recommend you to take care of the northbridge heatsink. The U3 northbridge is already pretty unreliable, but over time the plastic mounting pins of the heatsink weaken and don't apply enough pressure, or even detach entirely, and U3 will cook itself.
This will lead to the system being unstable, booting less and less often, to finally not POSTing at all anymore, and power LED also often blink with RAM error pattern. Once U3 starts dying the motherboard is good for the landfill.
Also a good opportunity to put some fresh thermal paste on there.
Unfortunately it's on the back of the motherboard so it's quite annoying to disassemble.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by stj

if thats the twin-G5 that model had a safety notice issued.
if the liquid cooling system leaks, bag it up and run away.
no, seriously, they had some that started leaking and whatever it uses was seriously toxic - so watch for stains near the tubing.

Liquid cooling is an option... and his doesn't appear to have it (since I saw fans). The two at church don't have it either. It was primarily an audio recording booth feature (where such silence does matter).

[diif]

Originally Posted by stj

if thats the twin-G5 that model had a safety notice issued.
if the liquid cooling system leaks, bag it up and run away.
no, seriously, they had some that started leaking and whatever it uses was seriously toxic - so watch for stains near the tubing.

They were known for leaking and you wouldn't want to drink the coolant but toxic as a gas lol ? you have a link ?

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by piernov

I got a DMG called "Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4 9E25 Retail.dmg" (so not quite 10.5.8 but same thing, can apply combo update later). Pretty sure that's the one I used on my PowerMac G5 (sadly missing a lot of bits and pieces, if ever someone in EU is getting rid of that stuff…), my PowerMac G4 and my eMac G4.
I created another partition to restore the DMG on it and boot from that since I don't have any DVD DL. On the PowerMac G4 I put the installer on a second HDD, works too.

Also, I'd highly recommend you to take care of the northbridge heatsink. The U3 northbridge is already pretty unreliable, but over time the plastic mounting pins of the heatsink weaken and don't apply enough pressure, or even detach entirely, and U3 will cook itself.
This will lead to the system being unstable, booting less and less often, to finally not POSTing at all anymore, and power LED also often blink with RAM error pattern. Once U3 starts dying the motherboard is good for the landfill.
Also a good opportunity to put some fresh thermal paste on there.
Unfortunately it's on the back of the motherboard so it's quite annoying to disassemble.

Thanks for the Northbridge advice, I will do so. I think that DMG will do the trick. Once I get it to the 10.5 platform I can use the combo upgrade or just let software update take it from there. Just let me know how you want to do it; I imagine it's pretty large.

I don't know why I wasted so much time on this....it's not worth a whole lot; if I were smart, I'd have sent it to the shredder...I just always liked how well these were built....they're tanks!

[piernov]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Thanks for the Northbridge advice, I will do so. I think that DMG will do the trick. Once I get it to the 10.5 platform I can use the combo upgrade or just let software update take it from there. Just let me know how you want to do it; I imagine it's pretty large.

Unfortunately, I'm on unstable ADSL or unstable LTE, so uploading something like that can take quite a long time… You can probably find it somewhere on the web, here's the MD5 of the one I got: 492a9b56ae43a98bc01f51a0f0e3ba88
I also have something else in my 10.5 folder called "Mac OS X Install DVD.iso", not sure what it is. MD5 of this one is: 152eedc24e79c84f05ad09b2e722abf4

Originally Posted by Topcat

I don't know why I wasted so much time on this....it's not worth a whole lot; if I were smart, I'd have sent it to the shredder...I just always liked how well these were built....they're tanks!

You don't even imagine the time I wasted on mine. Original motherboard had a (surprise) dead U3, wasted a lot of time working on a lost cause.
Someone generous sent me a "working" replacement board. Had trouble getting it to boot at first, blamed my RAM sticks, finally got it to boot into ASD, but then it only got worse until it finally got stuck on RAM error forever. Tried to reball U3 manually, which I already knew wouldn't do any good, and of course it didn't work.
So I bought another board and thankfully this one is still in good enough shape. Immediately replaced the plastic pins of the heatsink with screws (not the best solution but it works) and put fresh MX-2 paste.
But I'm missing a bunch of parts in this machine, like front fans so rear fans are running at full speed. And it's not even a PCIe model.
I just wanted a working G5 even if it's useless. At least now it boots 10.5…

[lti]

Originally Posted by stj

if thats the twin-G5 that model had a safety notice issued.
if the liquid cooling system leaks, bag it up and run away.
no, seriously, they had some that started leaking and whatever it uses was seriously toxic - so watch for stains near the tubing.

From what I've heard, only the 2.5GHz and higher models were liquid-cooled.

I've also heard that the liquid cooler used Dex-Cool.

[Topcat]

No, this one isn't liquid cooled....but it does have the warning label on it.

Originally Posted by piernov

Unfortunately, I'm on unstable ADSL or unstable LTE, so uploading something like that can take quite a long time… You can probably find it somewhere on the web, here's the MD5 of the one I got: 492a9b56ae43a98bc01f51a0f0e3ba88
I also have something else in my 10.5 folder called "Mac OS X Install DVD.iso", not sure what it is. MD5 of this one is: 152eedc24e79c84f05ad09b2e722abf4

I couldn't find it.....

Originally Posted by piernov

You don't even imagine the time I wasted on mine. Original motherboard had a (surprise) dead U3, wasted a lot of time working on a lost cause.
Someone generous sent me a "working" replacement board. Had trouble getting it to boot at first, blamed my RAM sticks, finally got it to boot into ASD, but then it only got worse until it finally got stuck on RAM error forever. Tried to reball U3 manually, which I already knew wouldn't do any good, and of course it didn't work.
So I bought another board and thankfully this one is still in good enough shape. Immediately replaced the plastic pins of the heatsink with screws (not the best solution but it works) and put fresh MX-2 paste.
But I'm missing a bunch of parts in this machine, like front fans so rear fans are running at full speed. And it's not even a PCIe model.
I just wanted a working G5 even if it's useless. At least now it boots 10.5…

I think I just enjoy the challenge. My next idea was to remove the Apple components all together and see what kind of ATX / eATX PC board I could fashion in this case. Case modding has always been a favorite thing of mine....this one could be a fun one for that to see how 'natural' I can make it look in the end.

[piernov]

Here it is for now http://servers.piernov.org/~piernov/...5%20Retail.dmg

[Topcat]

Got it, and thanks! If you want to remove the link/file, you can.

...and uploaded some images by mistake for another thread.....so pay no mind to the images....I don't want to have to delete & re-up them.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

I have the image you need (DL DVD needed)... or at least what I used from scratch on my iMac G5. I think there are separate intel and PPC images but otherwise I didn't recall anything else amiss. I'm pretty sure I torrented it years ago... but I don't remember.

My church upgraded their two clones of yours to 10.5.8... but I don't have any of the discs aside from an old copy of iWork '08.

Let me know if you want me to FTP it to you.

How'd I overlook this post?!? What is iWorks?!

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Topcat

How'd I overlook this post?!? What is iWorks?!

iWork is the Apple's office suite. Had some advantages over MS office (at least in 2008) and there were some things I did that required using both (slideshows with different backgrounds on different slides for example). But ever since I installed libreoffice on the new mac and the acer (I don't have the admin password for the G5s, and nobody at the church can find it ), I've not needed to use either for new creations. FOSS for the win!

I'll have to look when I get home but I think my image is the retail version of 10.5.8 (last version of 10.5). Dunno.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

iWork is the Apple's office suite. Had some advantages over MS office (at least in 2008) and there were some things I did that required using both (slideshows with different backgrounds on different slides for example). But ever since I installed libreoffice on the new mac and the acer (I don't have the admin password for the G5s, and nobody at the church can find it ), I've not needed to use either for new creations. FOSS for the win!

I'll have to look when I get home but I think my image is the retail version of 10.5.8 (last version of 10.5). Dunno.

Id definitely want the iWorks image for sure. I'm about to find out of piernov's DMG is going to work.

[Topcat]

Piernov's disc worked. Installed fine and then used the updcombo for 10.5.8...and software update from there.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Id definitely want the iWorks image for sure. I'm about to find out of piernov's DMG is going to work.

I'll see if I can collect an iWork image this Sunday then.

[Topcat]

All is well, this post created from it with tenfourfox v 13 SPR1