Installing OS X with Linux

Hello,

I recently thought I'd try out Linux, so I wiped an old G4 Powerbook and installed Yellow Dog 6.1.

However, it immediately became apparent that I had over-reached, in terms of IT skills, and that it would take about as long for me to learn Linux as it would for a herring to learn Old Norse.

Now a friend needs the laptop, and I want to re-install Panther on it. But when I put the CD in and press C, the apple icon appears and then nothing happens. And I have absolutely no idea how to install it (or do anything at all) from within Yellow Dog: when I click on the 'Mac OS X Install Disc' icon I see a load of files but I don't know how to run them.

I don't care whether Yellow Dog is deleted or not, I just want to get OS X working again.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks

You'll need to boot off that disc. If holding the 'C' key doesn't work, have you tried holding down the Option key instead?

That gets me to a screen with 2 icons - a disk and the OS X Install CD. When I click on the Install CD and press the arrow, first I get the Apple icon but then it turns into the circle with a diagonal line - which I take it means I have disk problems?

Thanks for your help cwa

Sounds like it's having trouble reading the disc. I assume you've already tried to clean it? Is it scratched?

Yeah I've tried that, it looks fine. But I guess it could be faulty, it's an old Panther one. Ah well, never mind.

Naso said:

Yeah I've tried that, it looks fine. But I guess it could be faulty, it's an old Panther one. Ah well, never mind.

Click to expand...

I'm assuming that it is, but any chance is the Disk you are using not the one that originally came with your PowerBook?
If not, you will need to either find the original OS Disk or a retail disk for a compatible version (like Tiger OS X 10.4 for example).

Oh really? That could well be it, I have no idea what the original version was for this laptop.

Naso said:

Oh really? That could well be it, I have no idea what the original version was for this laptop.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the gray "system discs", are machine-specific. If you don't have the ones originally made for your machine, you'll need a "retail" disc. These can be hard to come by on eBay - make sure you see a picture before you buy anything.

Tiger (10.4) would probably be the best bet for that machine, assuming you have 512MB of RAM or better. 10.5 may work as well, but you'll find that it's in hot demand and can be pricey.