![]() Nathan Categories News Tags APFS, g4, Mac mini, SSD Leave a comment The question is – will it be possible to make an APFS driver/app to access newer Macs? I wonder. Alternately, keep using things like Dropbox to share files between your computers or have a separated shared file server of some kind. If you are running a mixed bunch of Macs, it may be that figuring out how to stay on HFS+ will sidestep this change. Yes, a newer Mac using the standard can access older shares and hard drives, but this represents another one of those milestones that leave those of us with Macs on 10.5 or before a little bit farther behind. With this new drive format though, it’s time to face the truth – newer Macs using APFS cannot be read by older Macs. Apple has some kinks to work out, especially as the support doc ominously warns “you can’t opt out of the transition to APFS”. ![]() High Sierra did not install correctly when I formatted the SSD in APFS at first – kept booting back to the USB drive – but when I formatted the SSD as HFS+ first, the installer reformatted the drive and the install worked. Speaking of formatting, APFS, Apple’s new hard drive format, is here, initially only working on SSDs. Weird, right? I formatted it to HFS+, moved it back to the iMac, and was off and running. And yeah, it showed up in Disk Utility there. Open up the iMac, pull out the drive, toss it in an old USB hd exclosure I had, and plug it into my Mac Mini G4. ![]() What to do, right? Why wouldn’t it read in this newer machine? What mistake did I make?īefore I panicked though, I decided to the simplest task first. The less I was yanking that drive in and out, the better. And opening up and fiddling with iMacs requires firm but patient hands. The SSD, a Samsung 840 Pro, would not show up in Disk Utility in the High Sierra USB boot drive. With a couple of extra sticks of RAM and an inexpensive SSD, the Mac will likely ease up my back and forth between work and home, so I don’t have to worry about leaving my MacBook Pro behind. Last week, I picked up a super cheap Core 2 Duo iMac that is capable of running High Sierra for under $150. Categories News, Tech Tips Tags arcticfox, distro, g4, g5, linux, lubuntu, mac, Mac mini, macintosh, macrumors, open source, powerpc, screenshot 6 Comments ![]() But since some of the software is newer, it is a nice alternative to throw in the mix and tinker with. It certainly isn’t as fast as OS 9 (which you can install on these old G4s). I won’t say that it is as pleasant to use or speedy as a Leopard or Tiger install. I ended up just pulling mine out, so I was able to get the G4 to boot off a flash drive. The other challenge is figuring out ways to load the OS in the first place since using a CD/DVD is likely the friendliest solution, but in my case and many others, the old slot loading CD/DVD drives in these PowerPC machines have reached the end of their life. Keep all that in mind as you tinker with it. Ultimately, it works, and it’s something nice to mess with on a machine that is old and is limited to 1GB of RAM. I also enable a vnc server, so I can remotely log in and tinker with it a bit. You can browse the web, although webpages are fairly slow to load. It doesn’t take too long to boot into the desktop, and it is decently responsive. In the screenshot above, I am running MacBuntu on an old Mac mini G4. There are helpful guides in the thread, and wicknix does a great job answering questions from newbies. Without doing so, the system will likely lock up. You will need to pay attention to your boot options, as Linux on PowerPC machines often requires making some adjustments to the boot string to make the GPUs function correctly. Oh, and a shiny little bit of Mac friendliness like a faux Dock.Īs you can see from the screenshot, MacBuntu is functional and provides some nice software options right out of the box (including ArcticFox pictured above). ![]() The one I have been utilizing to test some things out is MacBuntu, based off of Ubuntu 12 but with some newer software packages and more modern web browser options. He provides a few different versions, including one that is based off of Ubuntu 16 and works better on G5s. You won’t find this one on the official Lubuntu pages, because it is maintained by “wicknix” over on the MacRumors forum. One of the Linux variants that is available for PowerPC Macs is Lubuntu-Remix. If you are looking to extend the life of your G4 or G5 PowerPC machine, open source software is a valuable tool for interesting software packages that can provide better security and breath some life into our aging computers. ![]()
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