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Question

Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.8 DVD

Feb 28, 2012 8:46PM PST

The last retail release of Leopard was 10.5.6, but further updates are available from the website to update to 10.5.8. Is it possible to create a DVD that will boot 10.5.8 directly ? If so how ?

Thanks

Geoff

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Sort of
Feb 29, 2012 3:41AM PST

Sort of. I've done this with NetRestore images, but I've never tried creating what Windows users call a slipstreamed disc.

What you might be able to do, is just make a "virgin" 10.5 install onto something like an external HDD. Booting it would be optional. You can then download the 10.5.8 combo installer and point it at that HDD, and it will update the OS to 10.5.8. After which you could use the restore function of disk utility to essentially clone that drive to any other.

It's not quite the same as what you're looking for, but it should more or less achieve the same purpose.

Of course I am assuming you're looking to make an updated OS install disc, not some kind of LiveCD type thing. It should be possible to do that as well, given that the Mac OS X installer is basically a stripped down OS X booting off a DVD, but I would think your primary issue would be one of space. The 10.5 install DVD is a DL disc, though if you go in and get rid of either the x86 or PPC stuff, you can shrink it down. You would also need to make sure that the OS was configured to boot into a read-only mode, probably using RAM disks, and there may be some programs which will not play nicely with this config.

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Mac osx 10.5.8 disk
Mar 1, 2012 8:40PM PST

Thanks for that response Jimmy. "Slipstreamed", yes that's the word from the world of Windows that I couldn't remember. And that's exactly what I want to do.

I've done the install/update to 10.5.8 onto an external drive. That works fine. The only problem is it's not a 'convenient' solution like a DVD would be. And not necessarily 'permanent' either.

I think I need a bit more help understanding the last paragraph - I understand almost all of the words, but none of the sentences ! Burning a DL disk is not a problem, but how do I put together the right code and burn it to a DVD to be a 10.5.8 system when it's installed ? Can I use an installed and updated system as the basis, or do I need to juggle the contents of packages from the install DVD and the updater around. And either way, how do I do it - simply please !

Thanks

Geoff

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That part
Mar 1, 2012 11:27PM PST

That part I haven't ever gotten around to working out, but obviously there is a way otherwise how would Apple be doing it? I find it very hard to believe that someone is manually moving all the files into place. Although that could be an option. If you extracted all the files out of the combo installer, and then just copied them over to a disk image of the 10.5 install DVD, that might well work. Just overwriting the old files with the new.

Otherwise, the idea of having a "master copy" somewhere that you would create an image from and restore it is certainly a viable option. Once you've made that "master image", you could presumably burn that onto a DVD, though some sort of USB drive or even an SD card (if you have a model with the SD card reader built-in) would be much faster.

I will add that burned DVDs tend to have very short shelf lives. If it's a really expensive and good quality DVD, and you take good care of it, then maybe 10-15 years. Most burned DVDs fail within 2-3 years, if that.

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OSX 10.5.8 disk
Mar 2, 2012 12:26AM PST

OK thanks. Seems I need to learn how to manipulate packages.

Thanks

Geoff