[solved] 10.5 on 10.9, "OS X cannot be installed" error

[Robert Walker]

The OSX 10.5 download from the developer's downloads for Apple - it worked! Installing right now.

I don't know if it needed the instructions on the cpuid and the machine model that I put in earlier on, as I just left that as is, whatever they were last time I attempted, not sure even what they are set at.

But it just went straight into it, didn't show up that message at all.

Thanks everyone for your help!

[michaln]

What exactly did you download, and which OS X version is it? There are significant differences between the initial Leopard release and the later updates in terms of which CPUs they support. One thing to keep in mind is that due to the these differences, if you install the original Leopard, an update might break it.

[Robert Walker]

It's working just fine, into Leopard now and hard at work debugging my programs on Leopard.

Two of the four apps I'm porting to the Mac in wineskins ran right away, other four crashed, hard at work debugging now to find out why they crashed.

[Robert Walker]

What exactly did you download, and which OS X version is it? There are significant differences between the initial Leopard release and the later updates in terms of which CPUs they support. One thing to keep in mind is that due to the these differences, if you install the original Leopard, an update might break it.

I installed the very earliest 10.5, thinking it might be the easiest to install. It worked anyway. Maybe that's why it was so easy?

I will be sure to backup the virtual machine if I do an update to a later version of Leopard. So far 10.5 seems fine for testing, unless there turn out to be issues that only arise with later updates.

[Robert Walker]

I've marked it as [solved]

Still has one issue, would be major for most people but for me it's a minor issue at present:

LEOPARD STILL HAS NO SOUND THOUGH

It doesn't have any sound - shows as "no sound output devices" in the VM. Tried all the possibilities in the VM there, and also tried installing this sound driver for Leopard VMs:

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=33358

That didn't work. But, as this is just for debugging, and also for an ancient version of OSX that only a few users need it for - then I'm not too bothered about that.

My programs play notes via Midi usually, and whatever changes there might be in the audio architecture - don't expect there were any changes that would impact on them playing via midi. So it's enough for now to debug it purely visually.

Obviously a hardware Leopard computer would have sound output devices, and in that situation, I'd be very surprised if my program can't play sounds as well (unless I get users reporting that they don't get any sound).

If anyone happens to know how to fix the sound issue, do say, would be great if it could have sound as well.

But it's not a big deal at present. If it becomes important to solve it, I can start a new topic for that.

[michaln]

Well, if anyone can figure out why audio isn't working in the original Leopard release, we'll fix it...

The reality is that the initial Leopard release is so old (2007) that is predates the OS X guest support in VirtualBox. By the time that happened, no one ran the original 10.5.0 anymore.

[Robert Walker]

Well, if anyone can figure out why audio isn't working in the original Leopard release, we'll fix it...

The reality is that the initial Leopard release is so old (2007) that is predates the OS X guest support in VirtualBox. By the time that happened, no one ran the original 10.5.0 anymore.

Oh okay - that's fine then, I don't need to support it if none of my users will run it.

Just downloaded 10.5 because it was the first one and I thought, if I can get it running on the earliest Leopard that would be maximum compatibility.

What's the earliest Leopard that OSX guest support in VirtualBox works on?

I can download any of 10.5.3 up to 10.5.7 from the Apple developer's centre.