Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

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doug-doug the mighty's picture
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Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

I have an old, pre-unibody 17" MacBook Pro. It is currently running Capitan. I have older software I need to run and want to go back to Tiger. Every reboot option I attemp will only let me reinstall Capitan. I have no Time Machine backups but I have a good install disk of Tiger that the virus-like Capitan will not let me boot from. Already did my backups and am set to go if I can boot in any non Capitan OS.

TIA for any help.

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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

Doug,

Is it the Hard Drive not allowing this,
or is it the Firmware in the Laptop?

Steven Smile

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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

El Capitan probably doesn't allow running the install while the OS is booted, but it can't stop you from booting from the DVD. I'd just boot off the DVD by putting it in, and then hold down C or option on boot, then install.

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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

I am guessing the issue is the firmware will not let me do this. The install disk will not let me run it while booted in Capitan so I rebooted while holding down C, again with D, again with Option, and again with Cmd+R. The first two attempts boot into Capitan, the last two bring up the internet recovery menu where I can recover from Time Capsule (but I have no Pre-Capitan options), reinstall my OS (which happily reinstalls Capitan without the pretense of even offering me an alternative), Get Help Online (which is of little help), or Disk Utility (from which I can erase/reformat my drive and then I can scream at my laptop whilst playing the circular game of visiting this menu over and over again).

It is like the firmware bypasses the native keyboard and either ignores my call to boot from the disk but it recognizes the keyboard enough to go to Target mode or to the Recovery mode.

And yes, my disk is a good disk.

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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

Is your Tiger disk a retail one or the recovery disk that came with the machine? I assume it's a Mid-2007 "Santa Rosa" Macbook Pro, as that seems to be the only model that spans the range of OS compatibility from 10.4 to 10.11, and that means the system is only compatible with a *computer specific* version of 10.4.9 or later. So far as I'm aware all retail Tiger disks are PowerPC *only*. The first/only OS X version that had "generic" dual-platform install disks was Leopard.

Will the software you're trying to run work under Snow Leopard? That is probably a better fallback position. If it's PPC software that requires Rosetta that's the last version that has it.

doug-doug the mighty's picture
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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

ahhhh. This may be my issue. I neglected to check PowerPC v. Intel instals.

My Macbook Pro is the 17" Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz (A1229/T7800). The Tiger install is a retail version with really-small-text-I-wont-notice-until-someone-like-Eudi-mentions-platforms that says "Requirements: Macintosh computer with PowerPC G5, G4, or G3 blah-blah-blah". It also says X.4.6, so I need to find X.4.9 or better to get the time of day from my laptop... This will be a great disk when I finally get the PSU and begin to rebuild my derelict G4 tower...

But this kills my plans here for my laptop.

My current OS is X.11.6 and has been for a little while. I have been sporadically using my laptop as a shareable hotspot for my other WiFi needs, but it makes it hard to use the laptop when I need to use it as a laptop. What I need to do is administer my two AirPort Extreme Base Stations (Flying Saucer models), so I need to run AirPort Utility 5.6 unless someone has a miracle solution for me. The current security config on these is access-by-MAC-address-only, which luckily includes my laptop but nothing else I have at this time.

doug-doug the mighty's picture
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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

Seems I have come full circle on an old issue...

doug-doug the mighty's picture
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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

So, yeah... I'm pricing out a new PSU for my G4 tower. Bringing it back to life (something I was planning anyway) will allow me to install a version of X (or even 9) that will allow me to manage my flying saucers.

I guess this is a solution but it's not the dream - but hey, dreams change, eh?

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Re: Downgrading from Capitan to Tiger - need help

A "thinking outside the box" solution to your problem might be to try to run the Windows Airport utility (there are versions for the various base stations going back to the "snow" UFOs) under WINE. According to the compatibility database some older versions at least partially work.

There is also a set of Airport admin tools bundled under the name "airport-utils" that exist in various Linux distribution catalogs; these tools are written in Java and therefore technically cross-platform, although I don't know if anyone has actually tried them under OS X. Apparently they're pretty buggy but, well, they do exist.

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