Find OS X version using a live linux USB?

[lazerorca]

Hi everyone! I have a lady who brought her iMac to me. The issue is that she copied the hard drive from one mac and put it on her iMac. Now, the computer has a kernel panic at startup. The ACPI configuration is all fouled up on it now. She believes that her computer has 10.6 on it. However, this iMac looks a bit newer (haven't checked the model yet). So now I need to find out what version of Mac OS X she is using so I can try and do a "dirty" install. I was wondering if I could make a live linux thumb drive to boot the machine and look around to find out what version of OS X she is using. Is there a linux distro that has HFS support out of the box? Where would I look to find out what version she is using? If I pop in my 10.6 disk, will the installer let me know what version she is using?

 

[altrenda]

A quick google search found this:
Open the file /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist in a text editor; this file contains the version of Mac OS X installed on the drive

 

[altrenda]

you should be able to view the drive on linux. I have an external connected to a machine running Parted Magic and I can see the file in the File Manager

 

[lazerorca]

you should be able to view the drive on linux. I have an external connected to a machine running Parted Magic and I can see the file in the File Manager

Awesome! Thank you sooo much!!!

 

[altrenda]

No problem, happy to help. And I learned something new.

 

[Markverhyden]

And if the drive is dead you can put the serial number in here to see what it shipped with.