PowerMac G5 Boot Issue

[blinky3i]

So, to cut a long story short I have been sitting on a Powermac G5 for some time (from a recycling centre) marked as working. No Hard drives but 2gb Ram installed.
I installed a HDD in the bay from an old laptop
Power Mac powers up and boots to the folder icon with question mark as expected as there is no OS installed and I am able to access the OFW. There is to my surprise a Mac OS install disk in the drive bay, this is Mac OS v 10.1.4.
I have tried holding key C down and nothing happens, when I boot back into OFW and try the command Boot cd it states 'Load size is too small'
I have spent the last 3 hours googling with no success. Can anybody give me any pointers, as you can guess I am not familiar with Mac ecosystems
Many thanks in advance

 

[DeltaMac]

If this is a PowerMac G5, then 10.1.4 is too old. The oldest version of OS X that will boot and install on the oldest PM G5 would be Mac OS X 10.2.7
(You have my permission to give up on trying 10.1.4 to work on a G5 )
A couple of G4 Macs came with 10.1.4 at one point, maybe a QuickSilver, or an old eMac.
Your "surprise" installer DVD was an accidental one.

 

[blinky3i]

Hi @DeltaMac, thanks for your response, somethings are too good to be true lol
looks like im going to have to install via USB method with OS X 10.2.7

 

[blinky3i]

If allowed can anybody link me with the correct image I need to format the usb drive with?
I have a DVD burner if this makes matters easier

 

[joevt]

looks like im going to have to install via USB method with OS X 10.2.7

What version of Open Firmware does your Power Mac G5 have? Around Aug 25, 2004, USB booting requires Open Firmware commands.
FireWire is faster and will always boot (except for versions of Open Firmware before year 2000).
DVD is an option that should work.
Macintosh Garden has various versions of Mac OS X.

 

[blinky3i]

Hi @joevt
Thanks for the response, I have posted the version below I think for OFW.
Would I need a single layer DVD or dual layer for the osx install DVD?

 

[DeltaMac]

Ah, your post showing the Open Firmware screen tells us exactly which Mac you have, a PowerMac9,1, which is a PowerMac G5 (Late 2004). You won't get 10.2.7 installed on that one. Oldest would be 10.3.5, or some version of 10.4. Your best choice would be Leopard, IMHO. which latest full installer version for that would be Mac OS X 10.5.6, with a simple update to 10.5.8. The disk image for 10.5.6 is more than 7.5GB, so will need a dual-layer DVD to burn to disk.
As joevt said, USB boot and install is, eh, challenging. Booting to Firewire is much more reliable (assuming you have a firewire drive that you can use--very handy on pre-intel Macs...

 

[joevt]

Thanks for the response, I have posted the version below I think for OFW.
Would I need a single layer DVD or dual layer for the osx install DVD?

I don't have that version of Open Firmware. Maybe you can post a copy for examination.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...l-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/netboot-os-9-from-a-modern-linux-server.48553/post-545788
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/the-820-0961-a-mystery-g3-3-3v-flashrom.48746/post-548608

Here's some USB booting notes:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rom-usb-on-powerpc-macs.2403368/post-33477674
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...-booting-from-usb-from-the-boot-picker.48601/

Another option would be to restore the installer to a small partition on the hard drive. It will boot faster and install faster.

 

[blinky3i]

Hi All, burned the Leopard install disk, got to the select a destination screen and my sata drive shows up with a red exclamation mark saying I need to format as 'Apple Partition Map' I go to disk utility and there isn't an option for Apple Partition Map.. Any pointers appreciated

 

[blinky3i]

Update, sorted, installing now..fingers crossed

 

[blinky3i]

install failed, the error says there is no software found to be installed, do i have a bad burn on the install DVD perhaps?
i did skip the DVD check initially, so going through that process and see where we are after that?