Boot PowerMac3,3 G4 from USB Stick with MacOS Tiger

[Dunalbain]

Hi guys,

can anyone handle "open firmware" of a PowerMac3,3 G4 I would like to boot from a USB stick with macOS 10.4.

Maybe I didn't get in at the right place, because after "dir ud:,\" I only get the message "USB-MS-CLASS: open of Disk-Label failed...".

I can boot System 9.2.2 from the same 16 GB USB 3 stick without any problems.

How can I extend the command "dev / ls" so that the "list" appears page by page on the screen because I cannot see the upper half of the "Listing" as the entire content runs through to the end in one go.

Thanks in advance 🙂
Manfred

 

[MarkC426]

A PowerPC theoretically cannot boot externally from USB, only FireWire.
How have you booted 9.2.2..?

 

[Dunalbain]

A PowerPC theoretically cannot boot externally from USB, only FireWire.
How have you booted 9.2.2..?

Boot from USB Stick with 9.9.2 easily...

"boot usb0/disk@1:,\\:tbxi"

If you have any doubts, I can also post a video that will remove your doubts 🙂

 

[TheShortTimer]

A PowerPC theoretically cannot boot externally from USB, only FireWire.

Not again... There really needs to be a sticky on this subject because it's discussed constantly and yet the misconceptions persist.

I own the following PowerPC Macs which are able to boot from USB by merely holding down Option post Mac chime:

eMac G4
2x iBook G3 Dual USB
iMac G3

With these machines I've installed Tiger via USB by just pressing Option after the chime has sounded - I didn't even need to fiddle around with Open Firmware. This reply is not intended as an attack or scorn, I merely wanted you to be aware that it is possible and it's perplexing that this myth runs and runs.

 

[joevt]

How can I extend the command "dev / ls" so that the "list" appears page by page on the screen because I cannot see the upper half of the "Listing" as the entire content runs through to the end in one go.

Some version of Open Firmware have a variable called lines/page which is usually the number of lines a command will output before it asks you to press a key. Maybe the ls command doesn't check that? What about dump-device-tree?

You can use telnet in Open Firmware use connect to your Power Mac from another Mac or PC. Then you don't need to worry about lines/page.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...l-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/

 

[MarkC426]

Not again... There really needs to be a sticky on this subject because it's discussed constantly and yet the misconceptions persist.

Thankyou for clarifying this....👍
I have always thought otherwise based on the Apple support pages.

This is good to know, learned something new...

 

[Amethyst1]

I have always thought otherwise based on the Apple support pages.

Apple's support pages aren't always correct.

 

[Intell]

Apple themselves have a support document stating that USB booting is supported on PowerPC Macs starting with the Sawtooth and slot loading G3 iMac: https://support.apple.com/kb/TA25908

 

[TheShortTimer]

Thankyou for clarifying this....👍
I have always thought otherwise based on the Apple support pages.

This is good to know, learned something new...

You're welcome.

It was a godsend for me when I installed Tiger on my iBook G3/500 which lacks a DVD drive (CD/CDRW only) and although 10.4 is available on several CDs, I preferred the convenience of a solution where the installation would proceed without human participation to change the media periodically. Likewise with my iMac G3 which lacks FireWire and has a dead optical drive. USB 1.1 was bearable under those circumstances.

Apple's support pages aren't always correct.

So true! They're frequently contradicted or refuted by EveryMac (who in turn are not infallible) in many areas.

Apple themselves have a support document stating that USB booting is supported on PowerPC Macs starting with the Sawtooth and slot loading G3 iMac: https://support.apple.com/kb/TA25908

Again, a sticky of some sort is in order because all these years since the PPC Macs were discontinued, it continues to be a topic where many of us are unawares.

 

[DearthnVader]

Boot from USB Stick with 9.9.2 easily...

"boot usb0/disk@1:,\\:tbxi"

If you have any doubts, I can also post a video that will remove your doubts 🙂

Well, the command to boot Tiger from the USB stick should be the same as booting Mac OS 9.

Try and see what is going wrong.

See is you can get a directory of the files on the Tiger Install USB from Open Firmware and maybe that will give us some more useful info:

dir usb0/disk@1:,\

Normally the dir command will look for the first partition that has a file system format it can understand( HFS+ in most cases ). However sometimes that doesn't work as expected and we need to be specific about the partition number, so we append the command to direct Open Firmware to gives us a directory of a specific partition as such:

dir usb0/disk@1:4,\

That command would give us at directory of the same disk, we just added partition #4.

With your USB Tiger Install disk inserted, you can boot Mac OS X from another disk and glean the partition map from the diskutil command line:

diskutil list

Use that to see what partition number the HFS+ partition is on the USB stick that contains the installer files.

Specifically when we want to boot Mac OS X from Open Firmware we need the file BootX( that file is the bootloader and has the file type :tbxi".

When we do this:

dir usb0/disk@1:,\\:tbxi

We are saying to Open Firmware to search the first partition of the disk that has a file system format Open Firmware can understand, and search recursively for the file with the type :tbxi.

However we can also provide the exact path to BootX.

dir usb0/disk@1:,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX

If we need to we just append the partition number to that:

dir usb0/disk@1:4,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX

As before, that's the same command we just tell Open Firmware to only look on partition #4. So use whatever partition number that diskutil tells you that file exists on the HFS+ partition of the Tiger USB Installer disk.

If Open Firmware can't give you a directory of the files on the USB HFS+ partition, then it isn't mapped and Open Firmware can't read files from that disk for some reason. If OF can't read the files, you can' load BootX, thus you can't boot from that disk.

It depends on how you create the Tiger USB Install disk, just restoring a Mac OS X install disk image to the bare USB drive may give you a partition format that OF is unable to read as disk images made from CD/DVD may not have a partition table( map ) that OF can understand when it is written to a physical disk as opposed to a CD/DVD media.

As a work around to this( if OF can't give you a directory of the USB HFS+ partition ). The you can use Disk Utility to format the USB stick HFS+ and just copy the HFS+ partition of the Installer Disk Image to the HFS+ partition of the USB stick. This should fix any issues OF has with the partition map of the USB stick and you should be able to get a directory of the files on the HFS+ partition of the USB stick from OF. Thus you can load BootX and boot from it to proceed to the install.