No CDrom boot option iMAC G3

[Trio3b]

newb here:

picked up used Indigo G3 iMAC 500mhz w256mbRAM, OS 9.2. (early 2001?)
firmware appears to be 4.1.9 in open firmware screen
Battery was low - replaced w/ new
I do not have original disks

Wanted to try linux Live CD so checked the following:

optical drive reads any CDs when MAC OS 9.2 is running but optical drive is NOT available in Startup disk menu

next day: Tried to boot off CD with "C" during boot - no luck
Then tried "option"- but no CDdrive listed

Today: "option" presents HD but instead of listing it as "m" it is now listed as "untitled"
Now: boots into either alternating folder/? and MAC icon or to MAC icon but no further.

I believe boot files have become corrupted, but I would expect to be able to select boot device.
Have tried cmd-opt-P-R to reset PRAM
"c"
"opt"
cmd-opt-O-F

While in openfirmware tried these:
reset-NVRAM
set-defaults
reset-all

tried CUDA button
HD appears to be good (no clicking)

Any way to either boot from internal CDoptical drive or HD?
As I have read further, this seems to be a problem (booting from CD) with iMACs

Are there any command line options to set boot device?
According to options in printenv there is boot-device listed as HD , but don't know how to change it.

Any help appreciated.

 

[JAT]

Do all these Mac devices/methods you mention recognize Linux discs?

 

[Mernak]

Just wondering, what distro are you using? Not many of them are for PPC, most are for Intel (x86, I think). If you are using an intel distro, I doubt it will show up on the boot menu.

 

[ale500]

I installed without problems Yellowdog linux 4.0 way back in 2004 on a Powerbook Lombard (G3, 400 MHz from 1999). Have a look at them as they do a Mac friendly (and PPC) friendly linux distro

 

[Trio3b]

CD boot option

Do all these Mac devices/methods you mention recognize Linux discs?

Yes, CDrom was reading disks (not as bootable) but just reading the files on them, while booted into 9.2

You are correct about the PPC version being necessary, but even if it is NOT a PPC version, I would think that the CD optical drive should be selectable in the startup disk menu, even without a disk in it.

Anyway, new problem however is that 9.2 is not even booting now. I believe I have somehow corrupted 9.2 boot files and I don't have disks. According to open firmware, the boot device is set to HD but I get no chime and the MAC icon indefinitely.

I have reset PRAM
disconnect power,
reset cuda button
in OF have reset-all and mac-boot



Any help appreciated.

 

[ale500]

You can get some OS 9 cds out of ebay, probably real cheap.
My PB died, so I can not test anything, but it did boot from CD when holding C. Did you check yellowdog site ?