Member Avatar for ashton menezes

My old mac ibook G4 has pasnther installed on it,i want to upgrade to tiger but the dvd-rom is not functional also being an old system its not possible to boot via usb,Is it possible to boot it using an external dvd-rom connected via usb?

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Short answer: an external USB DVD will only work on some iBook G4s and only with specific drives and preparation — it is unreliable. That explains the mixed reports from , and : firmware, the exact USB optical enclosure, and how the installer was written all change the outcome. The iBook G4 hardware does include FireWire and Open Firmware, and most people find FireWire/Target‑Disk routes far more consistent for installing older PowerPC OSes. (everymac.com)

If a USB trial is desired, the practical approach is to use Open Firmware to point directly at the USB device and BootX. Typical steps (at Open Firmware prompt) are: list the USB device, create an alias, check the partition, then boot BootX. Example commands (device names will vary by machine):

dev usb0
ls
devalias ud /pci@f2000000/usb@1b,1/disk@1
dir ud:3,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX
boot ud:3,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX

Success depends on the USB device being visible to OF and the installer being restored correctly to the media. (jaytaylor.com)

Preparation matters: for PowerPC Macs the external installer should be formatted with Apple Partition Map and HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) and the installer DMG must be restored at block level (Disk Utility / asr), not just copied. If a forbidding (circle-with-slash) symbol appears, it usually means the installer or build is not compatible with that Mac. Resetting PRAM/NVRAM and trying a different USB stick/enclosure are common troubleshooting steps. (forums.macrumors.com)

If the internal optical is dead, the recommended, predictable options are (a) use a FireWire external drive or FireWire enclosure and restore the installer there, or (b) connect the iBook to another Mac and install via Target Disk Mode (hold T at boot) — both methods avoid the USB reliability problems entirely. For older iBooks these routes are the least time‑consuming and most repeatable. (en.wikipedia.org)

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Member Avatar for dioioib

If you have a bootable drive cd/dvd or harddrive press and hold down the option key while booting. This will give you a boot menu with all the available bootable drives.

I have never tried booting my old PowerBook G4 over USB but I have booted an external drive with firewire.

The highest version of OSX you can load on your G4 is Leopard as Snow Leopard goes not support PPC based macs.

Member Avatar for C0ding

I'm a Mac user , i work with Windows and Mac
and i tried this several times with several Mac G4 and have never had success.
i tried booting from a portable external CD/DVD and never had good results.
if anyone has done this, please let us know, thanks.

Member Avatar for dioioib

C0ding - CD/DVD I have never really attempted. For best results use an external firewire harddrive.

I have been able to book the system into various OS X versions. And will be attempting to boot a few different versions of Linux PPC (Ubuntu and Yellow Dog) when time permits.

Windows will never work on the G4 PPC so please do not missinterpret the ability to boot from an external as providing the same VT that bootcamp provides on the intel based mac computers.

Member Avatar for dfxgrid12

I've done it, 2+ years ago. Sorry broseph.

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