Installing Mac OS X on an iMac G3

Hi,

I'm from Portugal, so, first of all, sorry for my spelling errors.
I have a very old Mac, an iMac G3 (M5521). It has 64mb of RAM and 20 GB of hard drive. It's OS is Mac OS 9 and I want to install Mac OS X just for fun. I've searched around and almost everyone said that Mac OS X 10.2 could run on this machine. But, when i'm trying to install it, the Mac was very laggy. The mouse move smoothly, but the install menu was very laggy and I've waited 1 hour and the installation didn't moved. My question is, do I need to buy some RAM for the Mac? This Mac can run the Mac OS X? Do I need to do something else?

Thanks and waiting for an answer

Bye

Apple iMac G3/233 Original - Bondi (Rev. A & B) Specs (iMac - Original - M6709LL/A*) @ EveryMac.com

I would up the ram to its max, and get a better hard drive (thought it wont be able to use a hard drive bigger than 128 gig)

But it is possible to run the Mac OS X on it's original specs?

Yes, have a look at the link I posted to everymac, it gives the full spec for that machine and links to related articles on upgrades and more

An original iMac will run OS X up to Panther (10.3), but I would have at least 256 meg of ram, more if you can

freaky_man said:

But it is possible to run the Mac OS X on it's original specs?

Click to expand...

Your 20 gig hard drive is fine...although an installation of Mac OS X may take up 10 gigs.

64 meg of ram is really not enough...you should really (as "louishen" mentioned) max out the ram to something like 512 meg.

By the way...I'm not 100% sure exactly what model G3 iMac you have...but I have a 400mhz G3 iMac that I have OS 10.4.11 installed on it.

Hope this helps, good luck,

- Nick

p.s. By the way...your English is great!!!

You have to upgrade the firmware first...for a slot load Imac to boot rom 4.1.9
In order to have classic if you want it you must install OS 9.2.2 first before OS X. Do not install OS X until you check the boot rom..look in Apple System Profiler.

He has been a busy boy chasing this info all around the world:-

Installing Mac OS X on an iMac G3 - MacTalk Forums

Would it sort of help to let him know I'm running a 500mHz Power Mac G4 with OS 10.4.11? Either way, Every Mac's website is a great place to start. I plan on doing a few more upgrades (if at all possible) to my Power Mac.

Also, there is software out there called "Mac Tracker". Requires an internet connection to update the line however.

I own a 233MHz iMac Bondi Blue with 80GB HD, 256MB RAM and 6MB vRAM. It has 10.4 on it and runs okay for it's age. The only thing it cannot do is internet video like Quicktime trailers or Youtube videos. Great as an iTunes jukebox!

Note: you must partition the HD in two so the OS sits on 4GB by itself.

Here's the page that helped me upgrade. May it serve you well.