what are my options for installing 10.5 on my powerbook g4

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hi i am new to macs so i dont know a lot.
i have a powerbook g4 1.5ghz 512mb that i was given for free from a friend.
it was fully working running 10.4.11 until the previous owner tried to install 10.5 by restoring from an iso directly to the hd in use. i have no idea why he tried to do it like that.
so now im getting a question mark on start up.
i have read that you cant install 10.5 from usb on ppc's because they dont support it. i have also read that some people have had success in doing so.
buying a firewire optical drive is more of a last resort.
so is there any other way of getting any working os x onto my powerbook.
thanks in advance.

p.s. i have 10.5 on a flash drive ready for install.

cheers.
 

chscag

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Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
First, you need a legal version of Leopard, not one that has been copied to a flash drive or from a disk image. In other words, you need the retail DVD set which is black. You may be able to find a set on eBay or Amazon but it's likely going to cost over $100.

Second, it's probably a good idea to beef up the memory on the G4 to max it out. I'm not sure which exact model you have but according to Mactracker you should be able to install 2 GB.

If the optical drive on the G4 is not working, you'll need to buy a Firewire capable external optical drive as that machine will not boot from a USB optical drive.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
And thirdly keep friends, even well meaning ones, away from your computer. Was this friend a PC user not knowing about install discs for Macs?
 

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