Extract the gentooor a distro that you recommend running on an ibook g4 live cd for ppc to a usb flash drive. Once done, simply eject the usb stick and insert it in the usb port on your clamshell. Both ended with the universal no symbol after the apple logo was up for a few seconds. Ive tried everything excepted opening it up but yeah. Upgrade memory, hard drive, battery, or the superdrive of any apple ibook g4. Drive works ok as an external, when installed cant get original install disc to book from cd c. 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. Connect the usb flash disk and modify some files to be able to boot off the usb flash disk. Hello everybody, my 12 pb g4 you might have seen it in a picture here, roughly a month ago wont read discs, but i dont want to take it apart again to replace the drive, and no matter what it doesnt boot via usb. Ibook g3 dual usb mac ox install without cd drive ppc. 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.
Boot in the powerbook openfirmware the bootstrap that loads before. The ibook dual usb was much smaller than its predecessor, and included a faster g3 processor, more ram, vga out, stereo speakers, and a higher resolution screen. These models tend to have usb ports but no floppy drive. Once you see the screen go white with some text on it, you can release those keys. Powerbook g4 does not recognize hard drive closed report.
If you are using mac os x you must boot from a local mac os 9. Installing tiger by usb on wiped powerbook g4 macrumors forums. That sounds like a late 2004 ibook, but a 14inch display would be on a 1. Installing ubuntu on macintosh powerpc, no cddrive, usb. Therefore, if you do not have boot disks for any os that the ibook will boot into, you cannot format the drive. I think it has mac osx installed and the previous owner may have had some security measures installed. Chrome os chromium os has never supported powerpc and probably will never do so. Ive tried booting in open firmware, resetting pram. A 2008 imac i found in the trash runs off an external hd. For this to work for me, i had to ensure there was no disc in the cd drive of the clamshell. Powerbook g4 does not recognize hard drive macos forum ccm.
I did some research online and found sites that explain how to switch out the hard drive, but the trouble is i just dont have the time. Ive thought the only good alternative would be to use a bootable usb thumb drive. Ive heard that you cant boot from a usb only firewire external hd on a ibook g4 and i dont have the money to go out and by a whole new external drive just for firewire. If you have a powerpc most models it wont boot from a usb but i found a ben collins blog that teaches you how to do it, step by step.
Unless you know someone with os 9 or os x on an external drive, you will need to get. When youre partitioning the drive in disk utility, you need to choose apm as the partition layout type. Power the computer on or restart it if its already running and immediately. The line targeted entrylevel, consumer and education markets. Forrest is correct, that ibook g4 is powerpc, not intel based so wrong cpu architecture. Some powerpc macs are able to boot from a usb drive. How to boot ppc powermacs g3, g4, g5 from a usb stick or. I imaged the dvd to an 8gb usb stick in disk utility.
How do i access my ibook g4 hard drive from a macbook pro. Several, and perhaps all, of the g5s can if a usb 2 drive is used. I have done this many times since i posted this question. Just follow the info in this link, and i know you will find the answer to your prayers.
Once i press the power button, a fan would come on and the screen is blank. I have the leopard iso, but none of my dvd drives will burn dual layer, so i needed to use the usb route. Let me first explain that i am completely mac illiterate. Put the usb drive in the ibook, then turn it on and hold down apple key, option, o and f keys right after you hear the mac chime. Apple ibook firmware for mac free download and software. Ibook g4 usb boot apple ios os help fix mac iphone. Hold down the c button while booting to boot from the cd. I was wondering if its possible to boot my ibook from an external drive, and if there is any dyi instruction on how to. I want to install ubuntu on my ibook g4, but i cannot use livecd because a cd is stuck in the drive lol. Installing new os on powerbook g4 without usb key or cd super. The usb stick was formated using my wifes imac with the ability to boot a ppc based computer. G3 ibook format hard drive october 2006 forums cnet. Choose the hard drive, which would be the top line, showing the manufacturers info with model number, not the line with the drive label.
The ibook g4800 12inch original opaque white, features an 800 mhz powerpc 7457 g4 processor with a 256k on chip level 2 cache, 256 mb of ram pc2100 ddr sdram, a 30. Make bootable usb flash drive for tiger, leopard, lion. Just like others i was thought macs cant boot off usb,which is technically true,you cant select an usb in startup disk. I just replaced the harddrive on an ibook g4 800mh with a 250. How to boot your mac from a usb bootable device duration. Well you need to look up the open firmware commands to boot from a usb. I inserted the osx cd and tried the alt key boot again, and it showed the optical drive. The first cr48 chromebook had a intel atom processor, now chrome os has support for arm as well as intel x86. Ive had this fixed under warranty before as the motherboard had failed, but after it failed again, i gave up on it but would like to grab my files from the hard drive.
My ibook g3 recently had a new 40 gb hard drive put in. It also was the first mac to include a combo dvdromcdrw drive in the highend model. Getting started with your powerbook g4 apple support. Replacement harddrive for ibook g4 wont boot macrumors. I dont have access to any system running os x so i. Okay, so in a couple of weeks my ibook g4 12 is going to arrive, it has a 30gb hard drive and 256mb of ram. There are some reports of some g4s booting as well but the process is far from intuitive for the casual user. Booting your ibook g4 from a usb stick jay taylors notes. It wouldnt boot from the usb when holding down option or c though i could get a menu. In the past i used a firewire ipod to install tiger and os x 10. I have a powermac g4 digtial audio,and i can boot of a 8 gig flash drive.
Universal serial bus usb 38 firewire 40 pc cards 42 airport wireless internet and networking 43 ethernet 10100baset 44 external video support dvivga and svideo 45 battery 49 using your optical drive 53 keyboard controls and programmable function keys 56. Booting your ibook g4 from a usb stick ben collins. 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. I did format the usb stick as apple partition map first in case that makes a difference. My ibook g4 has not been working for some time now. So i spent the better half of the night trying to figure out how to make my ibook g4 boot from a usb stick. Modern intelbased macs can boot from usb, but you will encounter some difficulties when you try this method on a ibook g4 or powerbook g4. Boot from usb ibook g4 power pc i recently got an old ibook g4 512mb ram 1. Furthermore, i wouldnt run linux on a g4, even a 1.
I tried both the safe mode boot and the boot from external drive boot. 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. And it boils down to following these two steps after creating the bootable usb flash drive. Last year i unsuccessfully tried to find information on how to boot my ibook g4 from a usb. I hear the cd tray run, but then it stops and displays the flashing question mark.