10.5: Install 10.5 on a machine with an old CRT monitor

Nov 01, '07 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: bloodycelt

I own an old CRT monitor that I use with my Mac, and it's default display resolution is 640x480. This is fine, as I have it set to 1158x864 and things work.

But when popping in the Install CD, I could not even hit the Continue button to start installing. With no drivers or preferences, the old monitor defaulted to a resolution no longer supported. When I called tech support, their solution was buy/borrow a newer monitor.

So instead, I partioned a drive to 7.8 GB (a little extra space), and restored OS X 10.5 from the install disc. Then I copied over the com.apple.windowserver.plist file from my working /System/Library to /System/Library on the new partition. You may need to manually open that folder in either the Finder's open dialog or via the open command in the Terminal.

I then ran the installer from that partition, and everything worked. Hopefully this was helpful.

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