Leopard On Imac G4imac G4

Leopard On Imac G4 Imac G4 Specs

As you might know from my previous posts, I am looking for some vintage Macs. The iMac G4 was obviously on my list as was the PowerMac G4 Cube. The Cube is still eluding me, but an iMac G4 is quite easy to come by. Except when you look for a specific model like I do.

I assume it will take me quite a while to find a G4 Cube in excellent condition so I figured I grab an iMac G4 that is also capable of booting into Mac OS9, a task previously intended for the G4 Cube. Every iMac G4 can run Mac OS 9 in OS X’s Classic Environment. Basically Mac OS 9 gets loaded within OS X (up to and including OS X 10.4 “Tiger”) allowing you to run Mac OS 9 application within OS X, but some applications and especially games have problems with that approach. That’s why I wanted the real deal where the Mac boots Mac OS 9 rather than launching it within OS X. The first iMac G4 can do that, but I wanted one with a 17” display. Here things got a bit more tricky.

IMac G4 and eMac G4 will run Leopard, 10.5, but will NOT run Snow Leopard, OS 10.6. This is because Apple dropped support for PowerPC processers with 10.6. 10.4 may run the best on a 800mhz machine though, and you still have dashboard! Attempted to install Leopard on my G4 imac; froze with a grey screen and spinning wheel. I have an external HD with Leopard and have tried firewiring, but no luck. I have tried everything from resetting the PRAM and NVRAM, to entering other code, and pressing various keys on reboot. The bottom limit for CPU in Leopard is a G4 867 MHz, so Leopard won't install (without either using a trick to accept a slow CPU - or transferring as a complete image). You also would want to make sure the RAM is maxxed out to 1 GB, still not a lot for Leopard.

Apple introduced the iMac G4 in January 2002. Initially there were 2 models to choose from, both with 15” displays and the cheaper one with a 700MHz CPU while the more expensive one featured a 800MHz CPU and larger HDD. In July the same year Apple added a 17” iMac G4 to the lineup featuring a 800MHz CPU and a GeForce MX4 rather than the GeForce MX2 in the 15” models. This 17” iMac G4 (M8812LL) is capable to run OS X and also able to boot into MacOS 9.

However, in February 2003 Apple replaced the 17” iMac G4 / 800MHz with another 17” iMac G4 / 800MHz (M9105LL). On the hardware side it stayed pretty much the same, but this newer iMac G4/800 cannot boot into Mac OS 9 anymore. Looking for a used one more than a decade later makes it quite tiresome to find the right model when people usually announce their iMacs with CPU speed and display size only.

What Did I Get?

It took me a while to find “my” iMac G4 in a decent condition where the optical drive and the HDD work, the display arm is still firm, the display doesn’t have any scratches or bad pixels and the white of the body is still at least white-ish. I got mine dirt-cheap in a really decent condition. It came without anything except 2 installations disks (out of the 6 it originally came with) which were also really badly scratched and un-usuable in any of the drives I tried them with. Heck, it didn’t even come with a power cord. Thankfully the power cord is the same power cord that goes into the power supply of the old Mac mini so I used that one. Finding a power cord like this somewhere to buy is a lot more difficult that one might think, at least in Europe.

That’s what 80 Euros including shipping got me. Missing a keyboard and mouse is not a problem as any USB keyboard and mouse will do. Apple input devices from that era are usually very cheap, too – if you want to go for the original look.

I got the keyboard (Apple Pro Keyboard) and mouse (Apple Pro Mouse) for it on eBay as there are plenty to choose from. Just to make things a little harder, Apple decided to rename both the keyboard and the mouse some years later to Apple Keyboard and Apple Mouse loosing the “Pro” moniker. That being said, every USB keyboard or mouse will work if you don’t care about “original” condition. And unless you are anal about it, you really shouldn’t. While the keyboard is pretty nice to work with, the Apple Pro Mouse is just awful.

Yes, it’s an optical mouse and works quite well and accurate on all common surfaces, but the whole mouse is basically the mouse button. The lack of left and right mouse button is really unintuitive these days and what’s even worse is the is the absence of any scrolling input. Do yourself a favor and get its successor: Apple’s Might Mouse. While it might not be the best mouse around, it is still very usable from today’s point of view. That being said, don’t buy the wireless Might Mouse like I did. It is just too heavy for comfortable use. The wired model feels so much better and since the keyboard offers two USB ports, you can keep the amount of wires running across your desk at bay.

I also managed to find Apple Pro Speakers on eBay. Some of the more expensive iMac G4s came with those speakers that are pretty darn good for their size. They aren’t really necessary as the iMac G4 has built-in speakers, but due to the size restrains in its body they are mediocre at best. Not to mention the Pro Speakers have quite an unique look. However, you pay for the look with cash as they aren’t cheap these days and they come with a proprietary mini plug rather than the standard headphone jack.

What Do I Need?

I need to get more RAM for this iMac G4. It currently has 512MB and that isn’t enough for OS X Tiger. Yes, Tiger runs quite OK on those 512MB, but an application here and there and a couple of tabs in the browser and it begins to crawl. Unlike other Macs, upgrading to the maximum amount of supported memory on the iMac G4 is tricky. It has two memory slots and that’s where the fun begins. One of these slots is a standard notebook 144-pin SO-DIMM and takes a PC133 memory module with up to 512MB RAM. This memory slot is considered by Apple “user accessible” and you only need to unscrew 4 screws at the bottom of the base to get to it.

The other slot is a standard desktop one: 168-pin DIMM, again PC133 memory up to 512MB RAM. This one however is not easily accessible as it’s located in the upper part of the body and that means taking the entire iMac G4 apart to get to it.

I really don’t feel like taking the whole thing apart just now, so I plan to get a 512MB SO-DIMM and upgrade the memory to 768MB and see it that’s enough. I know Tiger runs really nicely on a PowerBook G4 (yes, I got myself one, but that’s a story for another post) with 1GB RAM, so I hope that 768MB RAM will be close to that experience.

What Do I Do With It?

Well, first I am going to reinstall OS X and then get Mac OS 9 on it. When I get my hands on OS X version before Tiger I plan to install those too to see how OS X evolved over time. Considering the availability and prices this might take a while though.

I expect to spend most of my time on this iMac G4 with Mac OS 9, old games and apps. I was very eager to see how useful a PowerPC Mac can still be these days (or not), but I will use the PowerBook G4 for that purpose.

Without tricks the last OS X that can be installed on this iMac G4 is OS X Tiger (10.4.11). With tricks you can install OS X Leopard (10.5.8) on it, but due to the slow CPU and the amount of RAM it’s not really a good idea. From my experience so far and from what I have been reading you want at least 1.5GB RAM for Leopard. You want 1GB RAM for Tiger and that’s the maximum these older iMacs G4 can be upgraded to (newer iMac G4 models are capable of being upgraded to 2GB RAM).