Installing OSX Server on a PowerPC Mac via Target Disk Mode from an Intel Mac

From ceejayoz

Jump to: navigation, search

My Mac mini's DVD drive died, and I wanted to put OSX 10.5 Server on it. Tried using Target Disk Mode to install from my Macbook, but it turns out the Intel-PowerPC mismatch prevents this. It tells you the target disk must be partitioned as a "GUID partition table", but that's non-bootable in a PowerPC Mac.

A little Googling turned up this method of running the install from the command line. Worked like a charm! Must be run in Terminal with the root user or another with admin privileges.

export CM_BUILD=CM_BUILD
export COMMAND_LINE_INSTALL=1
export SRC="/Volumes/Mac OS X Server Install Disc"
 
installer -verbose \
  -pkg "$SRC"/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg \
  -target "/Volumes/Destination disk/" \
  -lang en | tee /tmp/installer.log
Personal tools