On Jan 7, 2010, at 11:11 PM, John Carmonne wrote:
Please inform how to boot from USB on PPC machines.
The clamshell iBooks, the colored iMacs, the dual-USB iceBooks, and perhaps some of the early PowerMac desktops can boot from their internal USB 1 ports, but it is generally problematic, slow, and only a last alternative.
There are some provisos, and don't ask me why, I only know these from trial & error personal experience.
The external USB drive need to be self-powered because the power to the USB port comes on later in the boot process, so small HD's that are powered over the USB cable generally can't boot because they're powering up too late. If they can be powered by another source so that they're spinning prior to boot they should boot. I've never booted USB Flash sticks, but there are reports of these booting on clamshells so I assume they boot.
If you select the USB drive in Startup Disk it MUST be from OS 9.x and NOT from OS X. OS X's Startup Disk will NOT allow USB selected devices to boot (I don't know why?). Also, when a USB drive is selected from OS 9, it may not boot. The Option key at startup is another alternative, but again, the USB device MUST be powered and ready to go when you hit the startup. The Option key boot is FLAKEY with USB, and sometimes the bootable USB device will NOT show up as an option. In this case you will need to TRY AGAIN. Normally the simple way is to use Cmd-Ctl-Power to restart and then back the the Option key. If you're not getting anything you can cycle the power on the USB drive DURING the early boot, and/or replug the USB cable WHILE the computer is still looking for bootable devices (while the spinning cursor is shown before changing to a normal pointer). I've had to try as many as 20 times before being give the option of the bootable USB drive.
When given the option, highlight it and click, and it should boot normally. The problem is that it's very slow. I've booted my clamshell iBooks and my 500 MHz iceBook from USB, and each time is usually tough. Once it boots, I've never had any problems during the installation (or repair if I was booting for disk utilities). It's just the initial boot that causes problems, and it can take MANY tries before it boots.
I've also attempted to boot newer PPC Macs with USB 2.0 with NO SUCCESS. The two models I've specifically tried are the Mini G4 and the PowerMac G5. I've read that some sort of open firmware commands might enable booting from USB 2.0 on these newer PPC Macs, but these did NOT work for me, and I was unable to boot from USB on any PPC Mac that came with USB 2.0, but have successfully booted most PPC Macs that came with USB 1.0.
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