NEW METHOD: How to boot from USB on Most NewWorld PowerPC Macs!

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  • Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
  • It’s worth noting that I changed the title from “ANY PowerPC Mac” to “Most NewWorld PowerPC Macs” because when I made this video, I thought this worked on all PowerPC Macs because it worked on all the ones I had, spanning most of the PowerPC era. However, I have since found out that this does not appear to work on certain PowerPC Macs, specifically from around 2003-2004.
    Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new video! In today's video, I am going to show you a brand new method I found for booting from USB on PowerPC Macs. This method does not rely on getting lucky with USB drives or a powered USB hub and should work on every single PowerPC Mac with every single USB drive. The only limitation to this is whether your OS can boot from USB.
    Written guide: forums.macrumo...
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    #DistrosProjects #PowerPC #USBBooting

КОМЕНТАРІ • 55

  • @jakepowell9344
    @jakepowell9344 5 місяців тому +2

    Thanks a bunch for this info! I have been searching for a way to do this for a while! This saved my PowerBook G4 with a dead SuperDrive!

  • @derek7808
    @derek7808 17 днів тому

    THANK YOU! A dead disk drive is such a pain but i am now able to re-install OS9 on my eMac from the OS9Lives CD.

  • @RonsCompVids
    @RonsCompVids 11 місяців тому +2

    My Power Macintosh 6100 is following this video with great interest! ;)

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  11 місяців тому

      Isn’t that an old world mac? I don’t think USB booting is an option on those.

    • @RonsCompVids
      @RonsCompVids 11 місяців тому +1

      @@DistrosProjects You sayANY PowerPC Mac in the title... and I'm just joking around ;)

  • @Marzsala
    @Marzsala 2 місяці тому +1

    I followed this, however open firmware freezes and says “cant open:”

  • @RaphaelBastosakaCoffnix
    @RaphaelBastosakaCoffnix 4 місяці тому +1

    not work on my imac g3 333mhz :(

  • @DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs
    @DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs 11 місяців тому

    Great Info Thanks for the Vid

  • @emave27
    @emave27 Місяць тому

    I tried with your method on my iMac G4, it works but unfortunately the Mac is stuck at the white screen with the Apple logo and the spinning wheel. I created the USB drive using sudo dd, and I can see that the drive is correctly formatted, with apple partition map. I've already tried resetting the PRAM, but nothing changed. Any suggestion? ☹

  • @StevenJoseph-ob6ru
    @StevenJoseph-ob6ru 2 місяці тому

    Thanks a lot dude!

  • @genie52
    @genie52 4 місяці тому

    Hello from the future!!! YES IT WORKS!!! :D thank you!!

  • @Kilo-Mike
    @Kilo-Mike 7 місяців тому +2

    Thanks for providing this information. It was helpful. I have seen the probe-usb before. I think the issue that I have is 1. If you start from a windows machine or even another working PowerbookG4 with 10.5.8 I am trying to create my boot usb sticks on both mac and windows using rufus. However the yaboot installer for Fienix seems to fail for me after it starts. It says"can't open device " next line:" /pci@f2000000/usb@1b,1disk:2,\\:0,yaboot.conf: Unable to open file, Invalid device. next: Can't open config file. next line: Welcome to Yaboot blah blah blah. So what happens is the USB device id or name changes mid yaboot loading and it cannot find the files anymore and just gets stuck at this grub like bootloader that is broken. At this point i'm not sure what to do. I cannot remember the procedure and cannot find information about this. I recall this being an issue before. Maybe that's why you need to use a HUB? to prevent the device ID from changing. how about a mac USB keyboard with the built in USB ports? can that boot media and act like a hub if so i have one and will try. but still concerned on why i cant get my better PowerbookG4 1.33Ghz 2GB ram 128GB SSD running. I dont want to load Leopard in it. I have leopard in multiple other machines. Thanks for any help or comments. Maybe a link to your website for technical support contact? Thanks again

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  7 місяців тому

      It looks like Yaboot is looking for yaboot.conf in partition 0, which isn’t right since on Apple Partition Map, the earliest usable non-reserved partition is 2. Check the partition number of the partition that you intend to boot, where yaboot.conf is stored. Put it after the \\: and before the comma.

  • @vbecas
    @vbecas Місяць тому

    Great video. Will try with an iBook G4. Thanks in advance!

  • @YouWillBe322
    @YouWillBe322 Місяць тому

    I am facing some challenges with my PowerBook G3 Pismo as it won`t boot after flashing its firmware from 4.1.8 to 4.1.8f5. So, I have a USB 2.0 and my VM - Catalina running on my Windows 10 machine. I have downloaded several MacOS 9 versions and converted them into DMG files in VM through the terminal. And, also through the terminal I flashed those images onto the USB drive, but the PowerBook still won`t boot. So, I went to see if I could open the DMG files, but I got an error that these have no file systems. I don`t know why, I downloaded the ISOs from Internet Archive so they should be okay and have all the necessary files, or not? I also downloaded a file named USB support for Pismo.sit I`m not sure what to do with it. Is it something I have to open with Stuffit and integrate it into the DMG maybe later on? I know it might be a bit too much but if someone could make a MAcOS 9 DMG and upload it to a cloud storage from where I could download would be greatly appreciated.

  • @pajarobobo
    @pajarobobo 6 місяців тому +1

    Do you know if this works for Sorbet Leopard? I have the same exact machine but can't get it to boot for some reason...

  • @BijBijTCG
    @BijBijTCG 10 місяців тому +1

    How do I know what partition number to use

  • @brianschumacher8956
    @brianschumacher8956 8 місяців тому +2

    Have you tried this method to boot from USB disc drive?

  • @Coldsteak
    @Coldsteak 4 місяці тому

    mine is just sitting at the open firmware screen frozen after entering the command and returning. could my osx leopard install usb be corrupted? I'm using a USB 2.0 drive

  • @justexisting8457
    @justexisting8457 Місяць тому

    I just got a PowerBook G4 2004 for 14 dollars, its missing the IDE Flex and HDD, but i do hsve a spare USB drive to mess around with, ill report with further information by commenting myself down....

  • @ChristopherCharman
    @ChristopherCharman 11 місяців тому +1

    This is not a new method. In fact this is the most well known and used method over the last 20 years to boot from USB on PowerPC macs. Excellent explanation and useful video for new hobbyists though, well done.

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  11 місяців тому +4

      The new thing in this method is the use of the “probe-usb” command, something I couldn’t find documented anywhere. The use of this command allows these Macs to boot from USB on USB drives that don’t play as well with Open Firmware.

    • @ChristopherCharman
      @ChristopherCharman 11 місяців тому +1

      @@DistrosProjects Oh i see! You mean probing the USB ports to identify the device id is the ‘new’ method. Always good to see new content created for PowerPC enthusiasts.

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  11 місяців тому +2

      @ChristopherCharman probing is done to reload the usb bus, which is important because the usb drive doesnt always show up in the device tree on first probe (boot time). sorta like the reload button in the multiboot menu except it actually works.

  • @llemaire1
    @llemaire1 7 місяців тому

    Hi, it doesn't work for my PowerBook G4 17" (1GHz)
    I try to use a SanDisk 16Gb USB key to install Mac OS/X Leopard (10.5).
    I have the following error message :
    0> probe-usb boot usb1/disk:2,\\:tbxi couldn't locate PARTITION can't OPEN: usb1/disk:2,\\:tbxi

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  7 місяців тому +1

      How did you get the ISO on the USB? The way I did it was this:
      - Partition a USB to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with the Apple Partition Map
      - Mount the Leopard ISO/CD
      - Restore the mounted Leopard install partition in disk utility to the new partition
      I think most versions of Disk Utility will partition the drive in a way that Partition #3 will be used not partition 2, but I’m not sure.

    • @llemaire1
      @llemaire1 7 місяців тому

      @@DistrosProjects Thx for your answer. I used a DMG file and the Disk Utility to generate the USB Key. But I did that on my Mac Mini Intel running Mac OS 10.11.6 ... this my explain the problem ... Since then I found an old Leopard Upgrade DVD, that I can use to restore my TimeMachine backup on my new 250GB SSD :-) so I don't need to boot from the USB key anymore.

  • @Techlevel1534.
    @Techlevel1534. 2 місяці тому

    I get error load size is too small. How do I fix ?

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  2 місяці тому

      What OS are you trying to load?

    • @Techlevel1534.
      @Techlevel1534. 2 місяці тому

      @@DistrosProjects Mac OS leopard

    • @Techlevel1534.
      @Techlevel1534. 2 місяці тому

      @@DistrosProjects my laptop is a 12 inch PowerBook g4 from 2004

    • @jmunozar
      @jmunozar 18 днів тому +1

      in my case that meant I ws missing ":" and a "\" check the command it hast to be exact with spaces andwhatnot

    • @Techlevel1534.
      @Techlevel1534. 18 днів тому

      @@jmunozar thanks blud

  • @dfz67
    @dfz67 3 місяці тому

    Doesnt work for me
    "Device still fails after x recoveries"

  • @Ben........
    @Ben........ 8 місяців тому

    uhm, starting from the Clamshell iBook G3 in July 1999, on *ANY* Mac model, you can simply hold down the OPTION/ALT key immediately after power on and you will reach a nice boot selection screen UI in which you can simply click on the bootable USB drive. That boot selection screen will probe for any bootable device on all the ports automatically.

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  8 місяців тому +4

      That method has only ever worked with devices connected to powered hubs for me, and even then, it’s incredibly unreliable. When they do show up, they often don’t work either.

    • @Andersstuff
      @Andersstuff 5 місяців тому

      worked for me cuz I had a SanDisk usb and it let me install tiger from it by doing the first part of the video@@DistrosProjects

  • @Renton.drives
    @Renton.drives 12 днів тому

    Any Powerpc mac?!?!? Well well the PB5300 will immediately spook you out with that ear piercing church chime.
    I have tried the tutorial on my iBook G4/1.22 and it failed nicely...Sometimes it WOULD go thru all of that adelie or lubuntu verbose text and then crash...OR wont be dectected in OF at all.
    And the hd died on that too...and replacing that will be a total nightmare

  • @boxtv8959
    @boxtv8959 7 місяців тому

    I am currently trying to boot an old Debian Linux on a iBook G4 (PowerPC), and I keep getting stuck when trying to boot from the USB (I have the Correct Port). I keep getting an error message that the "LOAD-SIZE is to small". Do ya know whats up?

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  7 місяців тому

      What version of Debian?

    • @boxtv8959
      @boxtv8959 7 місяців тому

      @@DistrosProjects 12.00 I'm sure I formatted the USB incorrectly, I'll problably use Etcher or something.

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  7 місяців тому

      @@boxtv8959 Any tool that directly copies the data from an ISO over _should_ work fine, anything that doesn't (like just dragging and dropping the files) won't unless you know exactly what you are doing.

    • @boxtv8959
      @boxtv8959 7 місяців тому

      @@DistrosProjects I used Mint Linux's Built in "Bootable Drive Maker" Or something, anyway Thanks for replying fast!

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  7 місяців тому

      @@boxtv8959 That should work, but what version of Debian are you trying to use? I want to look at the ISO to see if there's something extra to do.

  • @Pal_ta27
    @Pal_ta27 11 місяців тому

    it did not work on my Powerbook g4 12 inch :(

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  11 місяців тому

      What issue are you having?

    • @Pal_ta27
      @Pal_ta27 11 місяців тому

      @@DistrosProjects It freezes after a while of loading when I verbose boot it tells me it can't find a file even though the file is there and I put it in again to see if it worked but it didn't plus I was trying to start 10.4 tiger since leopard is too big and It doesn't fit in my 8 GB USB I have a 64 GB one but open firmware doesn't detect it

    • @DistrosProjects
      @DistrosProjects  11 місяців тому +1

      @@Pal_ta27 Open Firmware doesn't see your 64GB one even with the probe-usb method I used? Weird. Tiger is unreliable in general.

    • @Pal_ta27
      @Pal_ta27 11 місяців тому

      @@DistrosProjects it only detects it when im already in mac os but my install is corrupt so i need to reinstall mac os

  • @Imaginaryassshole
    @Imaginaryassshole 9 місяців тому

    You’re a lifesaver Broski. Do you have a CashApp? 😅😅

  • @scottharvey-davies1607
    @scottharvey-davies1607 2 місяці тому

    This is nothing new..... don't claim to have a fix that has been here since Open Firmware existed.....