*Update 10/30/07: The final retail version of Leopard is now available. I recommend that you go out and buy it. It’s a deal for $129, and you can get it even cheaper if you’re a student. However, if you still need to make a single-layer disc version for *ahem* “backup” purposes, this guide should still be applicable for the final build. I’m in the process of verifying this now. If you have tried this procedure with the final build, please leave a comment or send me an email verifying whether it still works. Enjoy Leopard!
Want to try out the latest Leopard beta, but don’t have a dual-layer DVD burner? or maybe you’re just too cheap to buy dual-layer DVDs? This guide will help you install Leopard using only a single-layer DVD. You will need a standard blank DVD and roughly 15 gigs of free space on the drive that you will be performing the image manipulation on. All references to time are based on a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook and your times may vary depending on processor and drive speed.
Disclaimer: This process is long and somewhat annoying and as with any beta software, has the potential to go wrong. Anything that may or may not happen to your lovely Macintosh is not my responsibility.
Step 1: Backup, backup, backup. As with any OS installation, you should be sure to backup any important data. This guide is for a *clean* installation of Leopard where your entire disk will be formatted and erased. Please be sure that you have copies of all your applications and whatnot stored externally, otherwise you’ll be SOL (a fancy acronym for “fucked”).
Step 2: If you haven’t already, obtain (through whatever means available ;-]) the OS X 10.5 Leopard beta build 9A559. A Pirate Bay search for “leopard 9A527″ should resolve this issue. It’s a 6.76 GB .DMG or .ISO file. Once you’ve downloaded it, mount it and run the installer, then click on “About OS X Installer” and verify that it’s version 10.5.
[Note: all references to the restoring of image files refer to the list of images inside of the Disk Utility app in the left-hand column, *NOT* the images listed in the left column of the Finder. Unmounted images are aligned left and have the "paper+hard drive" icon. Mounted images are listed below their unmounted counterparts, and indented slightly to the right. They have the white "external-looking drive" icon. It is also important that you choose "sparse disk image" from the Image Format menu when creating the new images, otherwise the size reduction and write capabilities won't work out the way they need to.]
Step 3: Open Disk Utility in the Applications/Utility folder on your existing OS X installation. Create a new sparse image (8.0 GB) and name it “leopard” (without quotes). This will create a file called leopard.sparseimage. Mount leopard.sparseimage, then click on the Restore tab inside Disk Utility. Drag the *original* downloaded image to the “source” field and drag the *mounted* “leopard” image (NOT leopard.sparseimage) into the “destination” field and click Restore. This will take about 10 minutes.
Step 4: Mount leopard.sparseimage. Open the mounted image in the Finder. You must delete a few files in order to have enough space to fit on a regular DVD. If you feel that you will need these files later, back them up on an external drive or disc. We will be deleting the XCode Tools directory which is at the root of the image, all sets of printer drivers (why there is an entire gigabyte of printer drivers on this god damn disc, I will never understand) and all unnecessary language packs. The driver packages have a .dpkg extension and are found in the System/Installer/Packages directory. [Note: in the current build, the System folder is "hidden", so you'll have to use the following trick. Open a terminal, and type "open /Volumes/leopard/System" without quotes. This will open a Finder window with the System folder visible.] Delete all printer driver packages and backup any that you may need onto another disc or external drive. Do the same for all language packs that aren’t English or your native language. *IMPORTANT NOTE*: Do NOT delete AsianLanguageSupport, this is not the same as the language packs. It will cause the installation to wig out. Don’t forget to empty the trash. Unmount the leopard image.
Step 5: In Disk Utility, create a new sparse image (4.7 GB) called “boot” (without quotes). The file created will be called boot.sparseimage. Mount this. Use the Restore tab once again. Use leopard.sparseimage for the source and the mounted “boot” image (NOT boot.sparseimage). Click Restore, wait about 10 minutes for it to finish. Unmount “boot”.
Step 6: Now we will actually burn the DVD. Grab your fabulously economical blank single-layer DVD and insert it into your burner. Using Disk Utility once more, click on boot.sparseimage and click the Duke Nukem-esque Burn button at the top. Wait about 10 minutes, leave the DVD in the drive.
Step 7: Reboot. Hold the “c” key as the computer starts up to boot from the DVD. Booting will appear to take a VERY long time. This is due to the disc being arranged inefficiently because of the files we moved. It took me about 20 minutes to reach the “Choose your language” screen of the installer, so if it appears that things are taking too long, this is probably just normal. Patience, my son. After that, the only additional step besides the normal guided install is to hit the “Customize” button on the “Install Summary” screen. Then, uncheck the Printer Drivers and language packs, hit OK and continue the installation as usual.
Step 8: Enjoy Leopard!
-Swabby
If you have any questions, please post them in the comments and I will try to answer them as best as I can.
Update:
Hello, everyone. I see that a lot of you are getting stuck on the blue or grey screen after the first boot. Like I mentioned, I did all of this on a current generation Core 2 Duo MacBook (not Pro) and I can’t guarantee that everyone will be successful. I have added some clarification about the mounted vs. unmounted images. See the note after Step 2. I have also fixed various typos, and made other minor clarifications.
This guide is primarily to produce a bootable single-layer DVD from the dual-layer image that has become available on many P2P sites. If you’ve made it to the blue or grey screen, then you’ve probably followed the directions correctly and it may simply be a bug. The installer is supposedly Universal, aka will run on both Intel and PPC-based machines, but I have only verified it on Intel hardware. As we’re only about a month away from the final release, if you’re having difficulty, you might as well just wait it out for the stable retail version.
For those still having trouble, I would suggest if possible to only use DVDs as the installation media (as opposed to external hard drives, iPods, etc.) and to install to the primary internal hard drive. I know that this may not be ideal for many people, but disk imaging is rather picky and changing the formula can produce unwanted results. This process is also quite time intensive, so I’m sorry for any of you that were not successful after devoting a great deal of time. There are only a few forum posts with incoherent details on how to perform this process and this was my attempt to create a more specific, end-to-end guide that anyone with reasonable experience with OS installations can follow.
It wont let me restore in disk utility.
Noob^
@alex: you have to drag’n'drop mounted disk (not drive) on destination box. don’t drop file.sparseimage, but the icon underneath it.
I was wondering if this version works for PowerBook G4 laptos ?
Did everything as stated & all went as stated. However after I installed and went to reboot the apple grey screen appeared as normal with the animated circle but thats as far as it got. Left it for 1 hr with no improvement. Only thing I did diferent was to install onto my external sata drive (I alway test things there). Maybe thats what the problem is. I have installed other os on there before without problems. To recover I had to disconnect external, reboot from original drive, plug in external via usb, & trash all the installed system files from the disc. Only then would it let me reboot with external connected to sata. Hope this helps someone.
Also after the blue screen nothing happen,
Install off external drive doesn’t work for me either. DVD is neccessary
I did everything too, but after all the wierd noises and the blue screen, I’ve got a dark gray screen with mouse cursor and thats it, any help ? I’m doing this in a powerbook G4
To blah, I didn’t install from external, i installed onto external using the bootable dvd created as per steps above. I’ve just finished installing onto another spare harddrive i had lying around (internal maxtor) with the exact same results. I would advise anyone who needs their mac for more then just fun to be very careful, if i had installed on my everyday harddrive I would be seriously fxxxed today. Always test were posible.
Won’t let me restore to *MOUNTED* leopard.sparseimage
Cool tips though– I’ll play around with it a bit.
I get a blue screen with a working cursor and that’s it!
HELP!
Won’t boot. Lagged for 10 hours last night.
[...] “c” en el arranque. Todo este método es una traducción más o menos literal de este gran artÃculo que encontré por ahà y que es el que me ha sacado del [...]
I was able to install Leopard successfully on my Macbook Pro. I did read elsewhere that the image should should be locked before burning it onto a DVD (not sure what that would achieve though). That was the only additional step in my workflow and it worked for me.
symptom: after 20 min dark gray screen with mouse cursor and thats it.
My secure solution:
1. Mount the original image Mac Os in Disk Uitlity.
2. Press New Image, select sparseimage dual layer 8Gb. Call it Leopard.
3. Restore the original disk to the sparse disk. Check erase destination and check skip checksum. (I got no error messages here)
4. Now, open Leopard, the sparse image delete the printer drivers, find it in the System/Installation/Packages folder. Empty the trash.
5. In disk utility make a new sparseimage single layer 4,7 Gb. Call it Boot. Mount it.
6. Download “Carbon Copy Cloner”. (not beta) Open it. Select the source Leopard (Install DVD) and the destination Boot (both have to be mounted). In preferences verify “make boot file”. Dont touch anything else. Delete the XCode Tools folder and the .XCode Tools file. (with the dot). Click “CLONE”
7. Lock the boot image when done.
8. Burn in disk utility.
After the painful 20 min, you get the gray screen and the mouse, but wait 4 min more and select your primary language.
Good Luck.
For some reason I couldn’t get the “boot.sparseimage” to burn correctly to dvd with Disk Utility…I used Toast 8 instead and it burnt perfectly!! I’m doing this on a PowerPC G4 DA modded with a Quicksilver 867 proc…After 3 install failures, I just decided to do this another way…
Have Tiger installed on 1 harddrive internally
Add another harddrive (10g or better) make this your slave
Use Disk Utility to restore the FULL (Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard 9A466.dmg) to your slave
Go to System Preferences and choose your new Leopard hd as Startup Disk
Shut down G4, Swap your Tiger hd with another empty hd (40gig or better for apps)
Start your G4 it’ll just take a minute or so to boot the installer, install onto your empty hd
Go ahead and do the full install, and skip the part where it verifies your installation dvd
When the installation is done, let it boot from your new Leopard install to verify all is well
Shut down your G4 again, swap your boot leopard hd with your Tiger hd and start G4
Now you have an optional duel boot system, and can now install all your favorite software from Tiger hd to you Leopard hd!!
This worked great for me without wasting any dvd’s!!
I did a restore of the DMG on an external FW harddrive and then installed right from that restored partition and it worked with no issues at all. Booted fast and installed in less than 40 mins on my “OLDER”
Powerbook 12″ 1.33Ghz and 1.2Gb of RAM.
I found it to be “quite” stable. Of course not for an everyday usage.
Mine also just stays at the grey screen with the mouse circular icon.. I did the method of CopaAmerica.. I did it on an internal hd.. Is that the problem????
Yeah and the computer just shut down by itself…. damnit…
Is there way to install the deleted printer drivers later after the Leopard installation?
So with this beta version of Mac OS 10.5. Will it later be possible to upgrade to the full version? Or will I have to back all of my files and erase and install the full version of leopard on my mac’s hard disk.
Sometimes it takes more than 20 min… you have to be patience
I installed, and everything worked fine, with the exception of a few programs that would quit before opening them like “Google Earth” and “Bits on Wheels”. My major problem now is that after succesfully burning some files on a DVD, my Superdrive doesn’t want to read any more DVD’s anymore, not even data DVD’s, CDs are not a problem. Which means I can’t even go back to Tiger as Tiger comes on a DVD!!
Any suggestions? My Mac is an eMac with Superdrive
Losco Ii think you work for apple and you are talking bullshit. The only way you can damage you superdrive is with the superdrive firmware. The Leopard is software not firmware so It can not affect the hardware.
CopaAmerica — your step-by-step solution worked for me after 2 previous burns failed to install the newest 9a499 release. Thanks for your help!
9a499 install crashes, any solution?
i installed leopard and i have a black macbook it works fin but when i close my screen for the computer to sleep and i try to open it again it stays black and the screen wont come back….any solutions
anyoneeeeeeeeee??????????
Every time I try to install OS X 10.5 Leopard I get to the INSTALL screen (AKA INSTALLING SCREEN i.e 2 hours left). Any way every time I get to this screen a message comes up saying There is a missing file and asks me to restart.
Need help.
Thanx.
Hey James,
Bend over bendecho
I got to the installation , it was checking the disk, I hit skip, and it came up saying it could not be install on this computer, to check the installation media and try again
hi,
i followed the instructions, when i tried to install it giving me “install failed”. when i checked the log its looking “/System/Installation/packages/canonprinterdrivers.pkg ” , is there any other way to fit that into the single layer disk without deleting printer drivers
oops, my bad.. i didn’t choose customize to unselect the printer drivers .its working perfect.. thanks for the instructions
Tried this with build 9a559 on both PPC and Intel-based machines. Worked ok, so thanks for the tip, though one really needs to be patient.
AV
Did you use copa’s method for 9a559? I’ve tried at least 3 different ways and wasted 10 DVD’s, my copy won’t boot, I get the dreaded question mark folder icon and if I hold down option the DVD doesn’t show up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
HI
I tried to install leopard but it telle me that is failed: I have the screen languages after that a screen with my HD volumes, so choose it and after that customise uncheck printers and languages and install, after verification of DVD…it tell me install failed, please check ur media or connection or contact customer for help.….
I have powerbook G4 1.6GHZ , 512 RAM, please help…thanks a lot
copaamerica,
think you’ve missed a step out; you have to convert the sparseimage to read only image before burning. the sparseimage won’t even mount, never mind boot.
i have a problem whit leopard 9A599 and ibook g4 1.33 mhz
i burn leopard image in dual layer dvd and booting mac, press C key read dvd but no appear nothing,past 5 minuts appears some folder with finder face and interrogation sign (?)
the image is untouch (downloaded and burned) but no works booting,
the image works fine in other mac (imac) when restore the original disk to usb disk and install from this
For all of you having problems with osx complaining about missing files.
You have deleted a file required for installation. Please note that AsianLanguageSupport is a required package. It’s not a languagefile…
ibook 1.3 GHz does not read dual layer DVD’s…..
If you have a spare (blank) external hard-drive can’t you just copy the image to the hard-drive using superduper?
All the steps suggested by CopaAmerica above are necessary, except steps 1-4. You may select original image as a source and remove unnecessary packages directly in the CCC’s left (Source) pane as it displays the structure of source disk, including invisible folders. Also, I didn’t lock the resulting image (step 7). Much more elegant solution, seems to me.
It took me 8 minutes to get the installer screen on Mac mini 1.66 GHz.
BTW, now CCC is updated to version 3.
Please tell me if this can work? Can I restore the 6.2 gb image to the boot camp partition in my main hdd and then install from this? Can this work?
Crap! Noob! Christ!
It won’t let me uncheck all the languages, or XCode tools… can anyone help? Thanks.
For the “boot” sparse image which partition type do I select?
my choices are:
Hard Disk
CD/DVD
Single – Apple Partition MAp
Single – Master Boot Record
Single GUID Partition MAp
Single – CD/DVD
Single – CD/DVD Iso
I tried MBR didn;t work…
please let me know.,
he i deleted the asianlangsupport what can i do?
Mike, drive partitions for mac are usuallly “Single – Apple Partition Map”. Intel macs should also be able to read this, although their native partition is “GUID Partition Map”. Try the APM.
Thank you Daniel! I was having that problem as well because I had deleted the AsianLanguageSupport package.
D’oh!!
El Oh El at all the “wait 10 minutes”’s… Try 30 – 45. Granted I’m not running a current gen. machine, so…
Does anyone know what file I can edit so it will pass the integrity that happens before install? I am speculating its in a plist somewhere.
By the way though, it does work, you just have to follow the steps very carefully, and when you’re deleting all the language files, be SURE to leave “AsianLanguageSupport” intact. Otherwise your disk will NOT work. I think this should be noted in the steps above.
Well, I made the mistake of deleting AsianLanguageSupport the first time, so I went back and tried again leaving AsianLanguageSupport intact. Still no go, same error message, forced to restart.
Hey I’ve got an idea.. I’m going to buy a blank DL DVD.. much worth the few bucks to save the hassle! Thank you for the nice tutorial though.
Hi there, thanks for the work through. However, after countless tries I always get stuck on the last hurdle whereby I am restoring from leopard.sparseimage to the mounted boot. I get the error message: An error (-34) occurred while copying. (No space left on device).
Can anyone please try to shed light on this as it is beginning to frustrate me somewhat.
Much appreciated.
Hey! So I’m giving this a shot.
First off, thanks for writing this tutorial using words that I can actually understand: for those of us who aren’t code-junkies, this is definitely appreciated.
Second of all, what’s the “twenty minute wait screen” supposed to look like? I’ve got the grey screen with the white apple in the center and the little circle animation at the bottom. Trying to figure out if I’m on the right track…
For those complaining about external HD attermpts.
For some unknown reason, FW harddrives work, USB seem not to. True in my case, and everywhere i’ve seen, with rare exceptions w/ iPod mounting.
This has been a 3+ week battle, going back to beta versions. Much thanks to copaAmerica, i can definitely anticipate the difference. if this works, you are amazing.
Im burning this using a computer with leopard already on it, and would like to make it bootable an a macbook pro. I tried all the steps and it did not come out as a bootable disc. In disk utility o n leopard i ahve more choices when creating a new image. In the partition tab should it be retained as CD/DVD or Single partition – GUID partition map. Intel macs must have GUID partitions, correct? Or is this only for external drives, not discs?
I found a guide that basically gives the same instructions outlined here, but with pictures:
http://web.mac.com/owenmcgarry/iWeb/Downloads/Leopard%20on%20a%20single%20layer%20DVD.html
I’m trying it out now. I hope it help clears things up!
P.S. The tutorial here nor the tutorial I’ve linked describe what the 20 minute “waiting screen” is supposed to look like. If the author gets the chance, I think it’d be a really useful addeum. Thanks!
Hey! Just wanted to let you guys know that I followed the picture tutorial above (and remember to unmount before you burn your final image to CD), and it worked! I’m in Leopard now.
Thanks!
P.S. The wait screen is indeed the grey background with the Apple and the little circle animation.
Thanks!
I followed these instructions and successfully installed Leopard!
I also got ’stuck’ on the gray screen for a long time, but I eventually just reset my computer, and it booted right up into leopard, no problems!
When boot up from leopard cd, i stayed at apple logo screen -> blue screen -> grey screen -> Aurora wallpaper screen -> grey screen again -> then black screen (auto shutdown)
i am usinng ibook G4 1GHz. pls help!!!
Hello Swabby..
Thanks very much for your contribution and help..it works great for me!!..i’ve just followed your instructions step by step and that’s all..so thanks again.
Therefore..if it can help..my download torrent is “APPLE.MAC.OSX.LEOPARD.V10.5.ISO-OSX 6.56 Go” and i’m on Mac Intel 2,33 GHz and did the installation (on an external HD) from OSX.4.11.
Regards,
Endymion.
Worked well for me.
My DVD drive had trouble reading the disc — a lot of trouble spinning up — but that was likely the drive, not the burn.
Hi, I followed the instructions and everything went fine until I got to the part where I had to uncheck the packages. I understand that I am supposed to uncheck the printer drivers and the language packages; I can uncheck the printer drivers no problem, but for some reason it won’t allow me to uncheck the languages. Whenever I try to click on the box, it either turns into a blue box with a check in it, or a blue box with a dash in it. Someone please help.
IT WORKS!!! I FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS!
I INSTALL IT IN AN IBOOK G4 1.33 ghz!!
now i’m gonna install on my g5 powermac…
For those of us unable to deselect all the language packs, I did some googling. Apparently if you are upgrading and have the languages installed the OSX installer will try to update them even though we’ve stripped them out. Log back into Tiger and use Monolingual (google it) to delete the language packs you aren’t using in Tiger. Everything should work fine after. I’ve not completely tested (removing language files now) but since I stumbled on to this solution while I was still in the installer, I checked to see if I could deselect the language files if I used another install option besides Upgrade, and it worked.
Is there any way for burning the file out in Windows, cause my Macs don`t have burners, only readers.
can the leopard disk be used like the original install disks that would have came with a older macbook pro and allow me to reset a password the original disk that came with mine is cracked and i forgot the original password. also would it work if your allready locked out or do you have to at least be loged in.
I Can’t get past the gray screen even holding down c key. It just stays there any tips
ti everyone with the blue or gray scree, but with a visible mouse cursor: THIS IS NORMAL! COMPLETELY 100% NORMAL!! During its first compiled boot, it has to check and run other errands and may take a while. this is NORMAL
wait a few hours and then give up. BUT THIS IS NORMAL!!!!! jesus christ!
I see people talking about not omitting the ‘asianlanguagesupport’ package.
Can anyone tell me, do the original Leopard install disks install that package
whatever customization options are chosen?
Thanks.
Out of all the instructions that are online to actually shrink leopard, you are the ONLY ONE who actually says ‘don’t delete the AsianLanguageSupport file’. I’m out of DVDs right now, but I know that this is what was wrong, over the past weeks that I’ve been trying to do this. THANKS!
Alrighty, here’s the deal. I got this off of thepiratebay.org, and I spent a TREMENDOUS amount of time downloading it. Now that I have it, I can’t install it. I have done everything, but when it comes time to install it, I ALWAYSS!!!!! get missing stuff. What am I doing wrong. Please, I will like worship you if you help me!!!
I can’t do this. My DVD always says that the files are corrupt. It never works. Someone PLEASE help me!!!
tjb..hold down alt or option when starting up, and then select your disk. It should then take around 20 min, respond back if you are still having trouble.
I have seen a blog said that if you mount a boot-able dmg file then it will not be bootable anymore (because you made it R/W). Is that true?
Another question: I restore the DMG to another harddrive, and it can boot well, but I can’t install it. It said Mac OS X can’t be installed on this machine. I’m sure it can : eMac USB2.0 with G4 1.25GHZ and 512mb memory. Any solution?sdf
software disccopy…
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So fallowed the directions EXACTLY as you said, The only problem i had, was when i tried to un check the language packs, they were grayed out, and i had to “Upgrade” them. I formatted the internal HDD and went to a fresh copy of 10.4 (Tiger), but ONLY installed core system, everything else was unchecked. Now, the DVD boots, gets to “Calculating remaining time” and then goes to a page that says INSTALL FAILED. The installer could not validate the contents of the ‘baseSystem’ package. Contact software manufacture for assistance. Any recommendations?
Thanks.. this works for me perfect .what i did was burn the dvd at the speed of 8. when i tried the lowest speed it didnt burn right.
i also took out bootcamp cause i m on a powerbook g4 got it runnin now seems faster then tiger.. thanks