Upgrade to 10.6 questions, application and process specific.

[arterio]

Hey,

I'm interested in upgrading to 10.6. I have a fully functional 10.5.8 running on my hardware. I've seen several guides including some that specifically use my motherboard and similar video card (8000 series). I have a couple of questions regarding the upgrade process.

1) The biggest thing holding me back from upgrading to 10.6 is fear of having to re-install and re-configure all my applications. I don't want to go through this. It took me nearly a week to do it when I first installed 10.5.7. Mind you I know what I'm doing a bit better now, but still, it will be a significant amount of time and work required. So when I install 10.6 will it copy all of my applications currently installed, and their configurations to the new install? Or will I have to re-install and re-configure everything again?

2) In all the guides it says I need to have a spare hdd that I can use to install 10.6 onto. Is this truly necessary? I have 10.5.8 running on a 250GB drive, single partition. Can I partition some of the free space off and install 10.6 onto that and once it's running and tested, remove the 10.5.8 partition and then add the unused space onto the new 10.6 partition?

3) Why do I need to do like the guides say and install it on a separate drive? Why can't I just upgrade my 10.5.8 to 10.6 like normal Mac users can? Insert the disc and run the upgrade process.

I know there might be simple answers to all these questions, but through my searching I haven't found any answers, and none of the guides explain why things need to be done that way, or if my applications and settings will be moved over from my 10.5.8 install to the new 10.6 install.

The main reasons I want to move to 10.6 is the improved multi-core handling (GCD), 64-bit processing, and increased memory capacity.

Thanks for any help in advance!

[xxhellfirexx]

1) You can try upgrading to Snow Leopard although a clean install would be recommended.

2) The reason why people install Snow Leopard on a separate hard drive is because if anything goes totally wrong with the OS and something catastrophic happened, you can just reformat the whole hard drive without fear of any harm caused to your main OS.

You can install Snow Leopard on a partition that Leopard is on. I have Snow Leopard and 9A466 on two partitions and it works perfectly.

3) You can use the upgrade but there is a bigger chance for problems to occur regarding drivers, unsupported software and whatnot.

You can install Snow Leopard via a DVD but personally, it is simpler installing it from Leopard unless you have a pre-patched DVD with all the kexts/fixes that you need to boot.


I know there might be simple answers to all these questions, but through my searching I haven't found any answers, and none of the guides explain why things need to be done that way, or if my applications and settings will be moved over from my 10.5.8 install to the new 10.6 install.


It is vital that you follow the patching/installation steps as closely as possible to increase your chances of being able to boot up into Snow Leopard. As for why, it is because you are running a Hackintosh not Apple hardware, hence you need modified/patched files. It is generally not recommended not to do an upgrade with developer previews as you do not know what is going to happen and no one wants to sacrifice their main install just to try that out.


The main reasons I want to move to 10.6 is the improved multi-core handling (GCD), 64-bit processing, and increased memory capacity.


Don't even think about running in 64 bit as most machines can only boot in 32 bit mode.

[berkan]

How many times havent i think about it, but never done it, even if its a really nasty risk to take without it!?

1. Get a external pocket usb drive (pretty cheap)
2. Format it in disktool
3. Setup Timemachine to backup to the drive (Really easy!)
(Y)

Effect: Never need to worry about doing all over again. Just restore in disk utilites.


Then your totally stressed out listen to this band for relaxation:<B
www.theofferingband.com (http://www.theofferingband.com)

[tham50]

Hey,

I'm interested in upgrading to 10.6. I have a fully functional 10.5.8 running on my hardware. I've seen several guides including some that specifically use my motherboard and similar video card (8000 series). I have a couple of questions regarding the upgrade process.

1) The biggest thing holding me back from upgrading to 10.6 is fear of having to re-install and re-configure all my applications. I don't want to go through this. It took me nearly a week to do it when I first installed 10.5.7. Mind you I know what I'm doing a bit better now, but still, it will be a significant amount of time and work required. So when I install 10.6 will it copy all of my applications currently installed, and their configurations to the new install? Or will I have to re-install and re-configure everything again?

2) In all the guides it says I need to have a spare hdd that I can use to install 10.6 onto. Is this truly necessary? I have 10.5.8 running on a 250GB drive, single partition. Can I partition some of the free space off and install 10.6 onto that and once it's running and tested, remove the 10.5.8 partition and then add the unused space onto the new 10.6 partition?

3) Why do I need to do like the guides say and install it on a separate drive? Why can't I just upgrade my 10.5.8 to 10.6 like normal Mac users can? Insert the disc and run the upgrade process.

I know there might be simple answers to all these questions

by far the easiest solution is to clone your current osx onto another disk then just try it out ;)


The main reasons I want to move to 10.6 is the improved multi-core handling (GCD),

which isn't used so far at all.
same goes for opencl.
you gotta wait for apps which do support it.

64-bit processing

which gives you what advantage exactly?
btw you know you can run 64bit apps on 10.5?

and increased memory capacity.

so 8gb is not enough?
what are you doing? maybe you should switch to a bigger machine?

[arterio]

I thought 32-bit machines were limited to 4GB of RAM. Anything over 4GB wouldn't be accessible. Or is that different with OS X?

[SquidLord]

I thought 32-bit machines were limited to 4GB of RAM. Anything over 4GB wouldn't be accessible. Or is that different with OS X?

Windows 32-bit is limited to something like 2.7[some specific decimal]GB of RAM, but in the "About this MAC" window, in Leopard, it does say 6GB for me and my 6GB of RAM.

[theta]

Windows 32-bit is limited to something like 2.7[some specific decimal]GB of RAM, but in the "About this MAC" window, in Leopard, it does say 6GB for me and my 6GB of RAM.

My understanding is that an app that is running in 32-bit mode is limited to 4GiB of address space,

"As a 32-bit process, the kernel itself is limited to a 32-bit (i.e., 4GB) address space. That may not seem like a problem; after all, should the kernel really need more than 4GB of memory to do its job? But remember that part of the kernel's job is to track and manage system memory. The kernel uses a 64-byte structure to track the status of each 4KB page of RAM used on the system…Finally, this is worth repeating: please keep in mind that you do not need to run the 64-bit kernel in order to run 64-bit applications or install more than 4GB of RAM in your Mac. Applications run just fine in 64-bit mode on top of the 32-bit kernel, and even in earlier versions of Mac OS X it's been possible to install and take advantage of much more than 4GB of RAM."

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars/5

[tham50]

the point is who is in need of more than 4gb for a single app.
i would think the vast majority will not even reach 2gb.

pro users could benefit of course.

[tham50]

please keep in mind that you do not need to run the 64-bit kernel in order to run 64-bit applications or install more than 4GB of RAM in your Mac. Applications run just fine in 64-bit mode on top of the 32-bit kernel, and even in earlier versions of Mac OS X it's been possible to install and take advantage of much more than 4GB of RAM."

that's the point like i said a few posts before.
therefore the need for a complete 64bit os is not exactly too great. i'm even running 10.6 in 32bit mode ;)

[theta]

that's the point like i said a few posts before.
therefore the need for a complete 64bit os is not exactly too great. i'm even running 10.6 in 32bit mode ;)

Same here and I'd consider myself a "pro" user, meaning that I'm using my system for development and such. :D