any way to use OS 10.3.9?

[Joshua Root]

David Prager Branner <brannerchinese at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have OS 10.3.9 on an old iBook, with Xcode v. 1.5 installed. No higher
> versions of the OS can be installed on this hardware.
> 
> I was able to install and build Macports 1.710, apparently without
> problems, but on the initial
> 
>     sudo port -v selfupdate
> 
> I get what appears to be a fatal error:
> 
>     Command output: checking build system type... powerpc-apple-darwin7.9.0
>     checking host system type... powerpc-apple-darwin7.9.0
>     checking target system type... powerpc-apple-darwin7.9.0
>     checking MacPorts version... 2.1.2
>     checking for sw_vers... /usr/bin/sw_vers
>     checking for defaults... /usr/bin/defaults
>     checking for xcode-select... no
>     checking Mac OS X version... 10.3.9
>     configure: error: This version of Mac OS X is not supported
>                       Please upgrade at http://store.apple.com/
> 
> Are there any options I can use to enable even partial compatibility with
> my ancient system? Or am I sunk?

It may be feasible, but no guarantees. You would have to meet the
prerequisites for the current version of MacPorts.

1. SQLite. Panther doesn't ship with it. You'd have to install a version
at least as new as the one that ships with Tiger, though a newer version
would be better if possible.

2. Tcl 8.4+. I forget which version of Tcl Panther has, but if it's <
8.4, you'll need to install 8.4.x or 8.5.x. You need tcl threads enabled.

3. You would then need to install MacPorts from source. You'd first need
to edit configure.ac to remove 10.3 from the list of unsupported
versions, and then run ./regen.sh (hopefully you have autoconf? If not
you'd have to just edit the configure script directly.) Then you need to
use configure args to indicate where your SQLite and possibly Tcl
installations are located.

There may be other problems with base. There are definitely problems
with many ports.

- Josh