[iBook] NEED HELP! Brand new ibook panther downgrade...

Robert Sidney Cox III sidney at dna.caltech.edu
Thu Sep 1 23:51:16 PDT 2005


I need some advice.  I was recently in a high-speed car accident, and 
though I survived unscathed, my much-loved ibook 12" 1GHz did not.  
Luckily though, the nice Hitachi SK100 hard drive I had in it seems to 
be fine. So here is my question:  If I have a professional put this 
hard drive running OS X Panther into a new ibook 12" 1.33GHz, will it 
work? First of all, I absolutely have to run Panther.   I use a piece 
of commercial software that simply will not run on Tiger, and the 
company has no plans for a Tiger upgrade.  Second, I am completely 
reliant on the internal bluetooth module for connecting to the 
internet. I have heard that the most recent G5 machines are not 
compatible with Panther, but I have not been able to find any 
information on the new ibook.  Apple's own support site is 
contradictory.  My hope is that Panther will run on the new ibook, even 
if it is not officially unsupported. Here are the different things that 
could imagine happening: 1. I buy a new ibook, swap the hard drives.  
Booting fails.  Then I try to install Panther and that fails. Am I then 
stuck with a computer that simply cannot run my application.  Could I 
return it somehow, or am I screwed? 2. I buy a new ibook, swap the hard 
drives. Booting fails, but I can get Panther working from a fresh 
install.  Annoying, but at least I can run my application.  Should the 
"new" features of the iBook still work under Panther? 3. I buy a new 
ibook, swap out the hard drives.  I can boot, but the new features, 
like scrolling trackpad and bluetooth 2.0 don't work.  How would I go 
about getting them running? 4. I buy a new ibook, swap out the drives 
and everything works fine :) 5.  I buy an older 1.2GHz module and a 
bluetooth dongle.  I loose the dongle on the bus, can't check the 
responses to my post, and forever mourn the "good old days" when my 
ibook worked exactly like I wanted it to...

Thanks in advance for any help, links, or speculations as to wether or 
not this will work.

sidney




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