USB 2.0 boot on 15" PowerPC Aluminum Powerbook (Model 5,6)

[jherm]

Disclaimer: This question has less to do with *n?x, and more to do with boot
procedure and (possibly) overcoming hardware-level limitations. If you could
care less about a PowerPC system, and don't want to waste your time, move
along. If you're still here, thanks for reading.

My problem: I'm trying to install Leopard on my friend's laptop, except her
built-in DVD-ROM drive does not read discs any longer. A bit of research
indicated to me that _some_ PowerPC Macs can USB boot, but it's not a golden
rule (some don't.) I have a USB thumb drive and a 5th Gen., 80GB iPod (data
transfer is limited to USB on this model), I've tried "dd"ing the install
image to both block devices to no avail. I've tried "bless"ing the
filesystems (enabled bootability of the filesystems), and also just leaving
them as is (still should be bit-for-bit as compared to the original disc
I've backed up.) I've checked for the disk/partition in the "Startup Disk"
preference pane (it does not appear.) I've ran through some steps I found on
macosxhints.com regarding booting into OpenFirmware. Supposedly, the
'devalias' command, when run at the prompt, should return a device called
'ub' (USB disk) but I do not see this. I've also tried pushing the install
image to the disk using "Disk Utility" on another Mac (which should do a
bit-for-bit copy, just as dd would.)

My question: Is there a bootloader / chainloader / alternate firmware that
will let me boot from USB, either directly or indirectly? I do know that the
Leopard kernel has USB support (for this machine specifically) and also that
this thumb drive can be used to run a live image of OS X (in my case, it was
just another "dd"ed image of a _different_ OS X install disc.) I'd be
willing to install an alternate bootloader on the internal drive in the
machine, just to chainload the kernel stored on the USB media. Anyone got
any bright ideas?

Thanks again, regards.

- Jon

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[Rajiv Aaron Manglani-2]

> My problem: I'm trying to install Leopard on my friend's laptop,  
> except her
> built-in DVD-ROM drive does not read discs any longer. A bit of  
> research

find another mac. start the powerbook in firewire target disk mode by  
holding down 'T' while powering it on. connect the two macs together  
with a firewire cable. the powerbook's hard drive will show up on the  
other mac. you can then install os x as if the powerbook was an  
external hard drive of the other mac.

some more instructions:

http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2005/05/the_cats_mustaches_installing.html
http://lowendmac.com/misc/06/0710.html


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[jherm]

Thanks for the reply. I ended up getting it done, without firewire at all.
:p

I neglected to mention in my first post that I had a USB => 2.5" IDE cable.
I also didn't have another Mac. Thirdly, I definitely didn't mention that
the Leopard installer does not run from within Tiger (if it did, I could
have installed it directly onto the drive and swapped it in.) And even if
you do copy the image from the DVD to a USB stick, mount it, and run the
installer, it will tell you have to reboot, and it _will_ reboot. (right
back into the old OS you came from, if your model doesn't USB boot :p)

In case anyone was interested, (I may post it to my blog if anyone finds it
useful) this is how I did it:

1. Used the current install on the laptop (Tiger, 10.4.11 PPC) to format the
new drive (with the USB => 2.5" IDE cable)
2. Created two partitions on the disk I planned to install into the laptop.
3. First partition was empty (HFS+ journaled, case-insensitive), second
partition at end of disk was 7.5 gigs (install DVD was 7.2 or so)
4. Used "Disk Utility" to restore the "Mac OS X Leopard Install DVD" image
I'd created (directly from the install disc) to the second partition, at the
end of the disk (still within Tiger)
5. Used "bless" from the Tiger install to ensure the machine would boot up
the install partition, located towards the end of the drive. (This step may
be unnecessary, as I made a backup through "Disk Utility" which probably
should have preserved boot info, also I assume that the "Leopard Install
DVD" is probably "bless"ed (in the command-line sense) by a release engineer
at Apple (but probably with a newer version.))
6. Shutdown the laptop whose HD I wanted to upgrade, replace it with the new
one (with the install image at the end.)
7. Powered on the laptop, which started the Leopard install. (Although the
disk seeks like crazy, it gets the job done. It didn't take more than an
hour.)
8. Updated to 10.5.3, and then deleted the install partition at the end of
the (now internal) hard disk, did you know HFS+ has an online resize as
well? (no need to reboot, woot!)

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Rajiv Aaron Manglani <rajiv@...>
wrote:

> My problem: I'm trying to install Leopard on my friend's laptop, except her
>> built-in DVD-ROM drive does not read discs any longer. A bit of research
>>
>
> find another mac. start the powerbook in firewire target disk mode by
> holding down 'T' while powering it on. connect the two macs together with a
> firewire cable. the powerbook's hard drive will show up on the other mac.
> you can then install os x as if the powerbook was an external hard drive of
> the other mac.
>
> some more instructions:
>
>
> http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2005/05/the_cats_mustaches_installing.html
> http://lowendmac.com/misc/06/0710.html
>
>

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