# Can I use my G5 iMac display but boot off of a Mac mini?



## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

This may seem like a strange question but can if I were to buy a Mac mini, can I connect it to my G5 iMac so I'm using the iMac screen but booting off the Mini?


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

No.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

You can use VNC or Timbuktu or something to control a remotely booted headless Mini over a network connection, but on-screen performance will be very slow.


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## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

You know, it's amazing in my 5.5 years working for a Mac dealer how often this question came up.

Mostly it was people who had old Bondi or fruit-coloured iMacs who wanted to use them as monitors for their G4 towers. I had more than one person become angry when I broke it to them that you couldn't do it, at least without major modding.


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## da_jonesy (Jun 26, 2003)

Lars said:


> No.


I would never say never... I think the response should be... how good are your soldering skills? And did you ever want to use the iMac as a computer ever again. he he he.


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

My question would be, why would you need to? What would be the purpose, if your iMac is a fully functional computer, why hook the Mini to its display even if you could?

You may get better answers tailored to your needs if you ask specific questions.


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## Kosh (May 27, 2002)

capitalK said:


> You know, it's amazing in my 5.5 years working for a Mac dealer how often this question came up.
> 
> Mostly it was people who had old Bondi or fruit-coloured iMacs who wanted to use them as monitors for their G4 towers. I had more than one person become angry when I broke it to them that you couldn't do it, at least without major modding.


It either comes up with reference to iMacs or reference to Powerbooks/iBooks. 

I've even seen one guy argue why he couldn't use the video out on a Powerbook for this, he thought it was a video in.

Basically people want to reuse the screen, but fail to realize you need to leave the second computer on to do this and buy a video input or remote software, or mod it hardware wise.


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## Paul O'Keefe (Jun 3, 2005)

If you buy a PowerPC Mac Mini (G4) you can connect it to your iMac G5 via firewire. You'll can then boot off your mini (just like it was an external drive).


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## Digital_Gary (Sep 18, 2003)

Paul O'Keefe said:


> If you buy a PowerPC Mac Mini (G4) you can connect it to your iMac G5 via firewire. You'll can then boot off your mini (just like it was an external drive).



Exactly what I was going to say. Not sure exactly why you would do that though. Unless the Mini is an iTunes server or media center and you are only doing it once in a while to make changes or add new songs etc.


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## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

Digital_Gary said:


> Exactly what I was going to say. Not sure exactly why you would do that though. Unless the Mini is an iTunes server or media center and you are only doing it once in a while to make changes or add new songs etc.



Yup that's exactly what I am looking to do. I rip a lot of media on my iMac and then transfer it to my external drive. So I was thinking of buying a Mini and just use that instead but I was hoping to avoid having to buy a display as well.

So it can be done? Can't be done? I'm confused now.


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

motoyen said:


> Yup that's exactly what I am looking to do. I rip a lot of media on my iMac and then transfer it to my external drive. So I was thinking of buying a Mini and just use that instead but I was hoping to avoid having to buy a display as well.
> 
> So it can be done? Can't be done? I'm confused now.


As I understand the answers, you can use the mini as an external boot drive, but the iMac will still be doing all the processing work. You can't use the iMac as a monitor for the mini's cpu without extensive and presumably permanent mods.


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## CamM (Oct 2, 2007)

Vexel said:


> My question would be, why would you need to? What would be the purpose, if your iMac is a fully functional computer, why hook the Mini to its display even if you could?
> 
> You may get better answers tailored to your needs if you ask specific questions.


I have a beautiful iMac G4, 1GHz with 20 inch screen that is now quite slow. I do some iMovie work and it is quite painful now that I see the speed of my wife's Macbook (which does not have a superdrive). A mac mini with the latest processor would address the speed issue, and I just love the display. I would also get iLife 08 with the cooler iMovie software. The iMac is getting less and less use each day, and this modification would improve its capabilities.

I have run across software that would use VNC to let me have the iMac display be a screen for the mini, but as far as I can tell I would need a monitor on the mini, at least to get started. I was hoping there was a hardware hack. I mean if you can disable an iPhone someone should be able to connect a display to a mine.

BTW I am living in Minnesota, is that close enough to Canada to be a member? Many people living in Canada are south of where I live.


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## MacNoob (Oct 29, 2004)

I'm no kind of Mac expert, but in the Unix world (and OS X is based on Unix, right?) it's no great trick to run an X Server on whatever machine you want to see the display on, and the X Client on whichever machine is generating the display.

In your case, you'd need an X Server running on the iMac 20" and the X Client running on the Mac Mini.

I do this at work to show the display from my IBM Netvista server on a Linux PC with a 19" monitor that's one floor away in the building. Connect via 100mb Ethernet. This is NOT the same as using VNC or other remote control package.


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## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

> BTW I am living in Minnesota, is that close enough to Canada to be a member? Many people living in Canada are south of where I live.


 Welcome!


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## interact (Mar 11, 2004)

Maybe this would work:

ScreenRecycler - 1.06
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/30915



> ScreenRecycler allows you to use any networked computer as additional display.
> Many Mac users have a second computer sitting right next to their main computer on their desk including a nice display. ScreenRecycler now enables you to use this spare computer as second display for your Mac. You can even use an idle machine for that purpose.
> It's like a dual monitor setup without the need to buy an additional monitor.
> Just start ScreenRecycler on your Mac then connect to ScreenRecycler via JollysFastVNC from your old machine.
> Use any machine as additional monitor on your Mac !


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## CamM (Oct 2, 2007)

interact said:


> Maybe this would work:
> 
> ScreenRecycler - 1.06
> ScreenRecycler 1.06 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker


I did look at this, it appears though you have to have a monitor on the mini to start his screenrecycler application (there would be a client VNC on the iMac G4 in my case). I suppose once I did this I could remove the monitor on the mini and as long as the Mac mini kept running I would be okay. I don't even have a spare monitor to drag up to the mini. I was going to ask the author if he had a creative work around. 

I was wondering if anyone had taken the electrical leads from the iMac G4 display, patched on a DVI or analogue video plug.


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## CamM (Oct 2, 2007)

MacNoob said:


> I'm no kind of Mac expert, but in the Unix world (and OS X is based on Unix, right?) it's no great trick to run an X Server on whatever machine you want to see the display on, and the X Client on whichever machine is generating the display.
> 
> In your case, you'd need an X Server running on the iMac 20" and the X Client running on the Mac Mini.
> 
> I do this at work to show the display from my IBM Netvista server on a Linux PC with a 19" monitor that's one floor away in the building. Connect via 100mb Ethernet. This is NOT the same as using VNC or other remote control package.


Though sounds similar to the ScreenRecycler mentioned in this thread. It sounds like the IBM server has its own monitor and you are viewing its screen remotely.

I am trying to have only one monitor (currently attached to the iMac G4) running only one computer (the mini). I am willing to stop using the G4 processor.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.


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## BYGino (Mar 29, 2008)

Why not use a combination of both method suggested...

1) Hook up the mini in firewire mode and boot off the HDD.
2) Configure the mini to be headless and autostart and run the screen recycler on startup.
3) Stick the Mini wherever you like, connect it up to your network and power on.
4) Whenever you need to access the mini just start the screenrecycler app on the iMac.

Or have I got this totally wrong?


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## BlueMax (Aug 8, 2005)

I forget if it's been said or not, but SELL the G5 iMac and buy a nice, new LCD! $500+ would get a real spiffy display!


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