iMac G5 OS X 10.5 Leopard Clean Install From a USB Drive

[@BloodShotChrome]

I got one of these iMac G5's for free and slapped an SSD in there and tried following this guide to do a complete fresh install using TransMac on Windows to create a bootable usb drive using a Mac OS X Leopard DMG file but I ran into an issue where devalias could not find the usb drive as UD or anywhere really that I could see and I made sure the drive was an Apple Partition Map'd drive and everything. What helped me boot from it was a forum post on the MacRumors forums: Here's what works for me. 1. Open OF 2. dev usb1 3. ls (if this doesn't work, try dev usb0 or dev usb2, then ls again) 4. dev disk@1 5. pwd 6. boot [COMPLETE PATH YOU FOUND IN STEP 5]:3,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX If this doesn't work, make sure your USB disk is properly formatted with Apple Partition Map and the Tiger files are on the 3rd partition. Also worth noting that the SSD wasn't found by the OS X Installer at first. I had to open Terminal from the utilities tab, use "diskutil list" to find all drives and made sure the system saw the SSD, then when I confirmed the drive, used "diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ CleanDrive /dev/disk0" (Where CleanDrive will be the name of the formatted drive and disk1 being the SSD found in diskutil list) to format the drive and then the Mac OS X Installer saw the drive. Hope this helps anyone who might be in my same boat. :)

[@damiendoesit3126]

Thank you for posting this great comment!

[@damiendoesit3126]

I’ve pinned this in hopes it helps someone!

[@mikewells9866]

This was extremely helpful. After hours of trying and failing. I finally was able to reinstall. Thank you.

[@elstivo]

It works great !!!@@damiendoesit3126

[@joshuat502]

Thanks if i ever get stuck i will refer to this!

[@julianmellor5081]

This is great - thank you. I had two Mac Minis from c.2005 to set up afresh prior to sale, but no installation DVDs. Lots of advice online saying that G4/G5s can't be reinstalled from USB stick, but this proves them wrong. Fortunately I already had .dmg file for Leopard. One Mini set up exactly as described in the film, the other needed the instructions provided by @BloodShotChrome below. The other link to the Ben Collins blogspot somewhere in the comments was also interesting, although ultimately wouldn't work for me (the process froze with the 'prohibited' sign), it needed the BootX instruction from BloodShotChrome to work. Thank you Damien for helping make sure old Macs never die!

[@JAN_SOLO_WING]

Can you share that DMG image, please? Thanks!

[@thoughtsauce7225]

So I followed every step up until 3:22... I cannot drag the Mac OS X Install DVD onto the disk utility. Anyone have a clue why that might be? Edit: found out you have to make sure the partition isn’t highlighted but the entire USB drive in order to drag the mounted install disk.

[@WeMuckAround]

When I type the UD command it goes to the error screen. I don’t see it on the list of devices either

[@niislav]

Oh, thank you very much! I install Mac OS 10.5.8 on my iMac G5!)) Hello from Russia! Sorry for my English, friend. :)) P.S. For a user Power PC processor need a click Options button when you click Partition 1 and erase, and click Apple Partition Map. Without it my iMac don't boot on USB Drive. And write "boot ud:,\\:tbxi" on console.

[@jlindborg1105]

That devalias helped me as I couldn’t choose the USB as startup. Thank you!

[@julienbazin2366]

Thank you the Internet for having the PERFECT vidéo, for what i was lookin for ! Huge thanks ! Perfectly helpful

[@simpsonboy2198]

I did everything said and I checked the actual “choose the hard drive to boot off of” in settings and it saw it but when I did the reset boot menu it wouldn’t see it, so I did the devalias thing and did not see it but I tried the command, it then showed the not permitted symbol so can anyone help?

[@Fred_Raimer]

Wow, I can't thank you enough for this awesome post! If I may, I would like to add a comment about setting up the USB drive on a later Mac - be sure to select Apple Partition Map when doing the erase in Disk Utility. Otherwise it will default to GUID which does not work on a Power PC Mac.

[@damiendoesit3126]

Good tip! Thank you for commenting! I appreciate you checking out my video!

[@maus75]

I have a G5 PPC 17 - 1,8 Ghz with 10.3.9 Panther on it. I wanted to erase the usb drive by selecting APM option but it does NOT show on the utility disk. I checked many times but nothing. This way my usb bootable drive is not recognized by the G5 open firmware. Any help, please? Thank you

[@sprantozz503]

Sir i am havin a 2009 imac running leopard 10.5.8 but unable to acess boot menu in it plz tell me how can i upgrade it i request

[@RChobbyofficial]

Thank you for helping me😃

[@damiendoesit3126]

You are very welcome!

[@joegoldman3537]

Thanks for this !! Vey helpful. Much appreciated!

[@damiendoesit3126]

Happy to help! Thanks for dropping comment!

[@9bytehub]

I kind of want to do this just to learn hands on but im worried ill mess things up and end up with a huge paperweight lol.

[@damiendoesit3126]

I was quite nervous when I reloaded the OS as well. The most nerve wracking part was determining that path to the HD. It took me a few tried, but I don’t think I ever got to a point where it was irreversible. I could always exit out and the computer was as It was before. In my case it was running so poorly it essentially was a giant paper weight already!

[@9bytehub]

@@damiendoesit3126 unfortunately i messed up the safari app and some keychain access certificates trying to upgrade the computer for modern day use so i was looking this video up, im going to play it safe and buy the disk but seriously informative video will attempt usb style if i score a cheap g5

[@mohammedelazery5310]

Hi. How can I know where my drive is connected.? Or it's always ud?

[@damiendoesit3126]

For me it was trial and error

[@mohammedelazery5310]

@@damiendoesit3126 My damn iMac G5 was a stupid Education Only model. Which is basically a brick, a white huge brick that I can do nothing with. Thank you anyways.

[@bluespring2746]

This was exactly what I needed. Worked like a charm! Thank you!

[@damiendoesit3126]

Glad to hear it helped! Thank you for watching!

[@mikebreler9724]

Will the 10.5 on a G5 still be able to run classic apps in classic environment? Thanks for any guidance on this.

[@lajospapp5727]

Hi. Windows 7 Starter not be onto this to install?

[@jirizverina6306]

Hi, is it possible to make the bootable USB (follow the steps mentioned in video) on other MAC or do I have to create it direct on the MAC which I want to reinstall?

[@javihernandez7326]

I have install the OS, but now, Im unable to connect to app store, its says not able to connect, check internet connection. I clearly I'm connected to internet. Any help?

[@scrippi90]

Everything seems to work good till the end of installation but, after the restart, i’ve only a black screen with the fans going crazy. Anyone know how to solve this? I’d rather not throw my old mac in the trash 😢

[@thefusee998]

hi, thx for ur video. Do u know where I can find MacOS Leopard online ?

[@damiendoesit3126]

Hi! Thanks for watching! I got my copy of leopard off of eBay for $10.

[@Rectangle101]

Ill be the one to say it pirate bay

[@ofh666]

Try MacintoshGarden[.]org instead and just search for Leopard. Also, just as a side note in case anyone finds it useful in the future... For whatever reason using a USB simply did not work for me using this, or any other number of guides. However, burning the DMG directly to a new partition that I made on the internal HDD worked like a charm for me! (Much the same as the video here shows in other words). Also, thanks for making the vid, DDI. Stuff like this and other reliable info online for these good old machines is getting harder and harder to find.

[@gilbertgreen2355]

@@ofh666 That's right!!. Reliable info online for these good old machine does really get harder and harder to find these days.

[@Z-life-online]

@@ofh666 Hi, I realize I'm replying to your comment almost 7 months later, but maybe I'll catch your attention. How did you partition the start up disk? When I try to partition it won't let me saying "This disk contains the startup volume and can't be partitioned."

[@techfantc8289]

Hi, I know this is an old vid but I'm hoping someone can help me out. I've followed up to Command+Option+O+F but it can't see the USB drive. I've also followed Chrome Aftermath's comment and had no luck. I've gone into terminal and it can see the USB drive with the right partition map. Note I bought a used iMac G4 (PowerMac 6,3,3) and it's got some weird version of 10.5.8. There's no System Preferences, No Mail. When I choose System Preferences from the drop down Apple logo, nothing happens. It won't save the wireless network either Plus a bunch of other weird things. I managed to create a second user account (mine) but that's as far as I've got. It's like there's a lock on the HDD and it won't let me install a clean version of Leopard. Any help would be appreciated.

[@joshuat502]

Did you put the usb in before turning it on?

[@voornaam3191]

Great! I have such an iMac. And installing Ubuntu or MacOsX from a dvd takes like forever. A usbstick is far better. So thanks for explaning. One question. You say "slash slash" in the OF boot command, but you show us "backslash backslash" and now it is a fifty fifty gamble the very first time. Did you notice this glitch already?

[@voornaam3191]

@Damien Elder Thanks a lot, I found an update dmg file online. So I built my bootable stick, and I found it typing devalias. There is a ud, and also an eject-key. But the boot ud:,\\:tbxi doesn't work. Is \\:tbxi some network drive perhaps?

[@damiendoesit3126]

There’s some good info in this thread: hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060301112336384. The long and short of it is that different people on different computers have different results on which boot command will succeed. Good luck! Keep trying, it does work!

[@damiendoesit3126]

This thread is the best source for all the possible combinations. Read through the post and comments and see the variety of commands that worked for different people. ben-collins.blogspot.com/2010/08/booting-your-ibook-g4-from-usb-stick.html

[@voornaam3191]

@@damiendoesit3126 Yes, your video proofs it is posible. Now I just need to learn the details. Perhaps then installing some usb 3 ports is an option. It would speed up booting and any usb data access. We'll see. This dvd installing is slow slower slowest. Weep kggg weep weep weep for almost an hour, just for getting a small Ubuntu installed... if I did it right. If not, try again and find out what was wrong. But it is fun. My first Apple and I really like small old systems. That PowerPC concept was a very smart idea. Those leaking water cooled Apples drowned it, didn't they?

[@damiendoesit3126]

Voor Naam I agree, they are cool computers! When this computer came out it was amazing that they fit all the components and monitor in such a small amount of space!

[@Audie1957]

Hi, his work for me thanks your are good.

[@grillin_w_chris]

will this work if I did the reset to factory setting thing? (erase the drive)

[@damiendoesit3126]

Hi Chris, this should work regardless of whether you have a bunch of stuff on an aged system or if you have done a system restore. It’s really just a clean install of the OS. It’ll wipe everything out to a fresh start. I don’t think you even need to have an OS on the Mac since it boots from the thumb drive and installs from there onto the hard drive.

[@grillin_w_chris]

Damien Does It thank you I will give it a shot.

[@damiendoesit3126]

Good luck! I hope it works for you!

[@pepijndebruijn738]

Ugh why dies apple make it so fucking hard to just resset ny device

[@damiendoesit3126]

I don’t know, but it definitely is a pain in the rear

[@TitoCarl0]

white screen with a crossed out circle

[@sprantozz503]

Sir i am havin a 2009 imac running leopard 10.5.8 but unable to acess boot menu in it plz tell me how can i upgrade it i request