Well, after two days of trying, I finally got OS X to install on my Dell Dimension 4600.
In the end, it seems my installation DVD was slightly corrupted, enough to fail on trying to install a particular package. Which, it turned out, was the one that stops kernel panics on boot. Kinda handy. The way I got around it was to use Pacifist to unpack the package on the iMac, and copy the files across using my iPod. This was after countless reboots. I wish I’d thought of it earlier. Like yesterday morning.
So, now I’m typing this from the lovely place that is OS X.
I managed to get Sound working, just by changing the plug location. Only in-built AC97 sound works, but that’s mainly what I’ve been using anyway. I had been using the PCI soundcard for TeamSpeak, but not for actual system sounds. At the worst, I can just build a cable double adaptor and leave it plugged into both locations.
Networking required the download of an extension - AppleIntel8255x.kext, and that worked fine too. In the short term, I just plugged in a Firewire cable to the iMac, and used Internet Sharing to build the network. But this is better, and it even picks up the same IP address (and hostname) from my DHCP server.
Graphics still isn’t perfect, but I’m only a few minutes away from downloading a potential driver. In fact, it’s just finished now.
Yay! The driver worked. It wouldn’t install, but I did the Pacifist trick, and that worked.
Now I can use the ScreenSaver, and actually move windows around, and resize them, etc, without losing the ability to see what I’m doing.
23 minutes after the fact.
All I need to do now is get File Sharing to work. And be able to change the machine name properly.
30 minutes after the fact.
But is it worth the effort? I have contemplated it but not sure how well it will go, seems like such a pain in the arse getting all those drivers working.
Are you dual booting at the moment?
15 hours, 26 minutes after the fact.
For me, it is well worth it. My iMac G4 is rather long in the tooth, and OS X is much cooler than Windows.
After the hassle of getting it actually booting (which I quite enjoyed), it’s super smooth to use. My PC, although the same age as the iMac, has 2x the RAM, 2x the Processor speed, and 2x the # of cores. So it’s a bit improvement.
I’m about to fiddle with Parallels, too.
1 day, 3 hours after the fact.
Parallels works great. Crossover is okay, but neither will run Eve Online for me. I’ll keep trying with Crossover, as that apparently works.
2 days, 3 hours after the fact.