[G4] firmware: update needed?

[Eric Smith]

James Asherman wrote:
> 
> On Mar 12, 2008, at 10:06 PM, Karen H wrote:
> 
>> A follow-up question to the point that install disks won't work for 
>> computers types that they don't conform to.
> 
> Straight up. Urban Myth. SYSTEM RESTORE discs need a particular machine. 
> Most install OS discs are generic (There are exceptions )
> However I don't think you can do the firewire target disc clone routine 
> from an intel to a PPC. Not a good Idea.
>  But you could use the Intel machines OS install disc.( a single disc)  
> Not  the system restore discs. They are two different items.
> J

Yes, Leopard install disks are universal, so they should work on
either PPC or Intel machines. The problem with the target disk mode
is that there are two different disk partitioning schemes. Basically:
- Intel machines will boot from PPC-style partitions but will not
  install to them
- PPC machines will not boot from OR install to Intel-style partitions

What that means is that if you try to install from an Intel machine
to a PPC machine in target disk mode, you will first have to wipe the
partition clean and create an Intel-style partition. The PPC machine
will then not boot from it.

It should work the other way though (installing from a PPC machine to
a PPC-style disk partition on an Intel machine in target disk mode).

Eric