Dec 05, 2018 i have the ubuntu alternative on dvd and also usb but have not been able to boot from either. Forces a recent g4 or firewire powerbook to start up in firewire target disk mode, which enables this target mac to act as a firewireaccessible hard disk. Thus, the first ram chip starts at address 0x0000000 and has a size 0x0000 which is 256 mb. I recently needed to reset the password on my ibook g4 powerbook 6,5 and i did it like this. Booting as a firewire target connect the powerbook to another fwequipped system. So what i did, i contacted a company in san jose, ca called macpro i think.
Some useful commands that save me time and time again, and enable reparation of the g4 mac mini. When i hold option, it loads the boot menu thing, and my hard. I would reset the pmu again with each ramslot configuration, and reset the pram each time as. Most apple g3g4 systems use a modified version of the open firmware standard. Open firmware acts as a type of bios for the powerpc system, it is responsible for identifying various hardware components and uses a series of environment variables to all the user or developer to modify the boot behavior of the system. It seems that with apples numbering scheme the machine is a powerbook5,6. I had to clean up the mess before i sat down to write down my experience on setting up my powerbook g4 for a dual boot. Which linux version works perfectly with my powerbook g4. The owner claims worked fine before having hard drive removed for security reasons. Thanks to rich burridge, it was a clean text book installation. My experience with g5s tells me booting from disc wno hard drive is possible. First off, i have tried and tried again over the years to boot various powerpc macs via a usb2 disk.
Choose your language english when you get to the install screen but do not install. The machine in the above command a powerbook g4 15, although that is not relevant has two pc2700 ddr sdram chips installed. Mar, 2012 powerbook g4 12 wont boot from hd or dvd, ignores all boot keystrokes. Will a powerbook g4 17 laptop boot from cd wout a hd. Try booting the install disc in verbose mode by holding the commandapplev keys after selecting the disc in the boot menu. Jun 22, 20 most of these commands have secrets that apple are not trying to reveal at all. If you have questions or additional hints, feel free to contact me the page was originally written in spring 2005, when the. When going to the boot menu after pressing option, the powerbook g4 667mhz detects the installer either on a cd or flashdrive depending on what i am using but when i choose the linux installer the screen flashes and the menu comes back in low resolution. Dec 21, 2010 to go to open firmware, hold these keys at the same time while pressing the power button. Revive a powerpc mac running linux the mac observer.
With the host mac running, connect to the target mac with a 6pin firewire cable. The powerbook g4 is a series of notebook computers manufactured, marketed, and sold by apple computer, inc. Recently, the hard drive in my powerbook g4 started making horrible clicking noises, i immediately turned it off. All use either titanium or aluminum case designs that were thin for their day. Debian is pretty much the sole remaining operating system you can boot on those machines which is maintained ie, wont have major security. In fact, 32bit powerpc support is going away in most. I think it has mac osx installed and the previous owner may have had some security measures installed. Commands are executed lefttoright after a carriagereturn is typed. I downloaded and burned the iso from the ubuntu ppc site, but the powerbook will not boot from the cd.
Which linux version works perfectly with my powerbook g4 15. Also, if your mac locks up hard during this process, resetting the pram start your mac and immediately hold down cmdoptpr until your mac restarts should bring it back to life. I have the leopard iso, but none of my dvd drives will burn dual layer, so i needed to use the usb route. Mar, 20 lets call it an ibook g4 on dialysis, anyway the main objective was to erase and reinstall osx 10. Basic features of your powerbook 18 additional features of your powerbook 20 inside your powerbook 22 about mac os x 24 itoolsfree internet services for mac users 26 sherlock 2your internet search detective 28 your starting place on the world wide. How to get to boot options menu on power mac g4 it still works. Oct 05, 2015 you can boot from usb, i have done it several times on an ibook g3 and g4, as long as the external drive is properly set you wont have any problem. Forces the first internal hard drive to be the startup disk.
In this tutorial ill show how you can put ubuntu linux on a powerbook g4 and resurrect one of these durable old laptops from the dead. If so, substitute macboot without the quote marks for the last line in the above open firmware commands. Learn about the mac features and tools that you can access by holding down one or more keys during startup. Thank you for helping us maintain cnet s great community.
The other week someone asked me if it was a new apple model. Ive used a tutorial like this to load leopard on a powerbook g4 ti with an 800mhz proc. Powerbook g4 will only boot with command key pressed. The powerbook g4 runs on the riscbased powerpc g4 processor, designed by the aim appleibmmotorola development alliance and initially produced by motorola. Id remove the battery just to rule it out, and then reseat the ram, and try one module at a time in one slot, and then the other, both to rule out each memory module, and also each memory slot. Feb 10, 2016 im considering the purchase of a powerbook g4 17 laptop. Restart the machine and hold command the apple key and s key while it is turning on until you see some text. The powerbook g4 the last professional apple notebook series to use the powerpc processor shipped from 2001 until 2006.
I love my powerbook g4 because its almost the ideal form factor for a laptop. I have the ubuntu alternative on dvd and also usb but have not been able to boot from either. Powerbook g4 12 wont boot from hd or dvd, ignores all boot. Quite happy to reinstall if i can get the powerbook g4 to boot from. Please consult magical macintosh key sequences by dave polaschek. Forces most macs to boot from the cdrom drive instead of the internal hard drive. Installing ubuntu on a powerbook g4 667 unable to boot. Powerbook g4 boots to open firmware witho apple community. Quick list of keyboard commands for different operations on the macintosh. First things first, its a powerbook g4 aluminum, 12 inch 1 ghz.
The powerpc version of mint hasnt been updated in years, but heres a link to the communitymaintained ubuntu powerpc port. Most apple g3 g4 systems use a modified version of the open firmware standard. Okay make that more like a medium sized, problem maybe even large. Rescue data from powerbook g4 with forgotten password. Only works with apple rom drives and with bootable cd discs. Basic features of your powerbook 18 additional features of your powerbook 20 inside your powerbook 22 about mac os x 24. Nov 14, 2011 the powerbook g4 superdrive is closed and i cant insert the os x dvd although the apple symbol is showing and the wheel is going round and round. Power book g4 boot problem i have a powerbook g4 and when i press the power buttion the computer makes the apple start up sound and the apple logo with a loading symbol appears but that is all that happens the computer after awhile restarts and it happens again also it sounds like the fan and hard drive are spinning up and keep.
This alone would not be such a problem, and it also was not for some time but now im running into the famous setup assistant loop of leopard and this is where the problem begins. However, im here to tell you that even a 2005 powerbook g4 can still run modern operating systems, with some tlc and tinkering. What these lines do is set the cpu speed reported by open firmware to os x as an 867 mhz g4 processor system. Feb 10, 20 in this tutorial ill show how you can put ubuntu linux on a powerbook g4 and resurrect one of these durable old laptops from the dead. This can be done by holding down cmdoptionof as you power on. Quite happy to reinstall if i can get the powerbook g4 to boot from a disk or usb flash drive. Unable to boot to live dvd on mac powerbook g4 ask ubuntu. My powerbook g4 starts only when i hold down the command key at startup. If you have questions or additional hints, feel free to contact me. As useful and wellwritten as this article is, it has an incorrect assumption. The powerbook g4 runs on the risc based powerpc g4 processor, designed by the aim apple ibm motorola development alliance and initially produced by motorola. Booting your ibook g4 from a usb stick so i spent the better half of the night trying to figure out how to make my ibook g4 boot from a usb stick. When a macintosh is poweredup or restarted booted, various pieces of mac rom and system software examine the keyboard, and take special actions if certain keys are held down.
Im considering the purchase of a powerbook g4 17 laptop. I popped my os 9 cd in the cdrom drive and cannot get to any screen where it allows me to boot from the cd. Jun 14, 2003 i have a powerbook g4 laptop model a1010. Your mac and os x have a variety of startup keys and key combinations you can use to affect how the device starts up.
Keep holding down the c key until you see the apple logo. My system, powerbook g4 circa 2005, does not seem to recognize the ubuntu 9. Hold down the altoption key as soon as you boot the powerbook, then after a bit click on the install disc, and as soon as you click the icon hold the commandapple and v keys down until the apple logo goes away and the screen turns black. The powerbook g4 was replaced by the macbook pro series. Dec 20, 2014 the powerbook g4 uses a powerpc chip, which limits your choices a lot in addition to the limited system memory. Assuming that the bootable media is correct for your powerbook, you might need to boot into open firmware and select the optical drive. The older operating system does limit some of the options available at boot, but it still provides a range of possibilities. The second message just throws another wrench into the works. I was able to revive that powerpc mac running linux. Hold down the altoption key as soon as you boot the powerbook, then after a bit click on the install disc, and as soon as you click the icon hold the command apple and v keys down until the apple logo goes away and the screen turns black.
Shift key, for instance, starts your mac in safe mode, and c or c starts up. Next, you need to mount the file system and make it writeable with the following commands. Running an old version of osx leopard in 20 just doesnt make sense. Apple powerbook g4 specs all powerbook g4 technical specs.
Boot your apple computer using the default boot device. The powerbook g4 uses a powerpc chip, which limits your choices a lot in addition to the limited system memory. To go to open firmware, hold these keys at the same time while pressing the power button. There is great information on usb booting on the ubuntupowerpc wiki if you want more detail. Its a wellunderstood platform, so hardware support is good1. Im not sure what you mean by wouldnt register the disc but to boot an older ibook powerbook from the optical drive, just hold down the c button as soon as you power on. Netboot new world rom machines only looks for bootp or tftp server on the network to boot from. It was built later by freescale, after motorola spun off its. Some latemodel powerbook g4s dont seem to be able to boot from usb, but i havent tested that much, to see if something else was going on that might be. Open firmware quick reference table of contents syntax. Choosing boot device hold down the option key until the apple logo appears while powering on the laptop.
The t key forces the powerbook firewire and reportedly the power mac g4 agp graphics, though i was unable to verify that on my machine to start up in firewire target disk mode, which is essentially the modern equivalent of scsi disk mode and enables a powerbook firewire to act as a firewireaccessible hard disk for another macintosh. Boot your mac using the inserted cdrom at the yaboot directory for linux cds. Reboot your machine, and hold commandoptionof during the boot process to access the open firmware prompt. You can do these commands on any powerpc mac from g3g5. By holding optionalt, i used to get a boot screen, but i dont get that now, when i started trying this dvd. Help please powerbook g4 that is stuck on the grey. But if you want to use the external drive as you main system, really i dont know, but will probably be a slow if you achieve it. The two pairs of numbers against reg are specify the starting address and size of the chips.
Thankfully, somewhere about the time the imac g5 with the ambient light sensor als was released, apple tweaked their open firmware, which allowed us to boot powerpc macs from usb2 drives. Put the current operating system disk the disk that came with your computer unless you have upgraded, in that case use the new system disk in the superdrive and restart your imac while holding down the letter c key on your keyboard. Command security mode to continue booting, type mac boot and press return. Powerbook g4 will only boot with command apple community. Unfortunately my original dvd was lost so i had to go. Solved old powerbook g4 wont boot from any install disc. So the cleanest os copy created wont boot on these systems without extra firmware adjustments as outlined in the above answers.
If these commands dont work, then there is most likely a problem with your media or iso file. New to the forums, but learning a bit about my laptop. The only possible opportunity i have to test this machine would be to run the powerbook apple hardware test aht. Command names can include punctuation characters, so all commands must be separated by spaces. I need some more help understanding how to access grub. Booting from a usb drive may be significantly slower. Issue is i dont have the password to the former owners user account. What is the command for open firmware ibook g4 ifixit. These machiens are normally referred to as newworld macs.
Getting started with your powerbook g4 includes setup, expansion, and troubleshooting information for powerbook g4 computers ll2010. You guys will also know how the broken folder looks like. This text describes the adventures i encountered while installing linux on an apple powerbook g4 15. Most of these commands have secrets that apple are not trying to reveal at all. Mine was in fact that the operating system was corrupted. A stack diagram such as n1 n2 n3 or adr len or shows a command s stack. I dont suppose you know an of command to force an ibook to boot from os. Forces powerbooks to reset their screen to default size helpful if youve been hooked. Powerbook g4 will only boot with command key pressed my powerbook g4 starts only when i hold down the command key at startup. Try booting the install disc in verbose mode by holding the command applev keys after selecting the disc in the boot menu. Im going to make an appointment with an apple storel thanks for your attempt to help. Boot the target mac while holding down its t key, then let go when the firewire icon appears. Create a bootable usb sierra installer in mac os x 10.
Most likely, the real time clock is aliased in of as rtc, so the command is this. I was given an apple ibook g4 model number a14 as a gift recently although i have a little problem. Howto boot apple powerpcs from a usb drive in open firmware. Getting started with your powerbook g4 apple support. Im trying to install openbsd on this powerbook i have, but i dont see any instructions for usb boot and trying the commands for yaboot doesnt work. Jan 16, 2014 try booting the install disc in verbose mode by holding the commandapplev keys after selecting the disc in the boot menu. Once you see the screen go white with some text on it, you can release those keys. Superduper and carbon copy cloner are good tools to copy bootable systems, but the issue in this question is hinged on powerbook g4 models not formally allowing usb boot. May 11, 2016 assuming that the bootable media is correct for your powerbook, you might need to boot into open firmware and select the optical drive. On ibook g4 macines this means booting into openfirmware and running a command like this.