Ibook boot from usb

micron · Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 10:07 am Post subject: Ibook boot from usb

Does Anybody know if the ibook G4 can boot from an usb device?
I'd like to boot linux from my usb pen...
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genfoo · Apprentice Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 192

i don't think it can, but if you want to check things out you can boot into open firmware (with the USB drive plugged in) and see if it gets recognized and has an OF path .. if it does there's a possiblity it might work. If it does not then it probably won't

I've never heard of anyone doing a USB boot with a pmac though ...

porodzila · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:56 am Post subject:

I dont know, maybe I'm crazy but I though only OSX would boot from external drives.
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micron · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 8:51 am Post subject:

A good news: ibook G4 is able to boot from an usb storage device.
I've partitioned my usb pen with mac-fdisk and I've installed yaboot on it. Pressing the option key at boot time I can choose between all bootable devices.
Now the only thing left to do is a working ramdisk :roll:

At this time the only bootable os from my usb pen is macosx

Only a negative thing: pressing the option key at boot time is very slow, anybody knows a shortcut (like "c" for cdrom boot) for usb storage or scsi disk? (open firmware see the usb device as a scsi one)
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genfoo · Apprentice Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 192

None I know of for USB booting ... F for firewire, T to boot into target mode (acts as a firewire disk), C for cdrom

There are a lot of key combos, there used to be some sites that listed them all, I would suggest googling for something like that possibly.

Alternatively you can also setup an OF/forth based boot menu if you wan't to get down and dirty with things

:twisted:

micron · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 9:09 am Post subject: