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| booting powerbook g3 lombard from linux usb | |
| Posted by: chiggen on 2025-02-14 05:43:55 I'm trying to boot my powerbook g3 lombard 333mhz from an adelie install usb (the file I've written to the usb is "adelie-live-lxqt-ppc-1.0-beta6-20241223.iso" which seems to be the latest stable desktop iso) but so far, I've had no luck so far. I'm loosely following this guide: Boot Linux or OpenBSD on the PowerBook G4 (PowerPC/ppc32) I've found that my powerbook uses "usb" instead of "usb0" and "device" instead of "disk" but when I run "boot usb/device:,\\:tbxi" in openfirmware, I get "method <open> not found; ihandle=ff9d2a00 phandle=ff8949c0 method <close> not found; ihandle=ff9d2a00 phandle=ff8949c0 can't OPEN: usb/device:,\\:tbxi" and the same thing happens when I prefix the command with "probe-usb" as I've seen in some other guides. Replacing "device" with "device@1" (or any other number) gives me can't OPEN usb/device@1:,\\:tbxi. What am I doing wrong? Can the lombard even boot from usb? | |
| Posted by: chiggen on 2025-02-14 05:50:09 so I've done some more digging and this suggests that the firmware is too old to boot from usb? | |
| Posted by: MacUp72 on 2025-02-14 23:08:49 tried this?  | |
| Posted by: joevt on 2025-02-15 00:33:32 See https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ll-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689 MacRumors allows you to edit posts no matter how old to keep the info up to date. In the first post of that thread, search the list of Power Macs for Lombard. It's firmware doesn't have all the pieces needed to boot USB but it does mention one of the missing pieces which is interesting. Firmware Updater 3.2.4f1 (Feb 18, 2000) appears to contain the first version of Open Firmware to support USB and FireWire booting. It has an updater for PowerBooks with FireWire (not Lombard). Did Lombard ever get any firmware updates? I suppose it uses a method similar to iMac or B&W G3 around that time. Someone could create a ROM with the missing features. For some unknown reason, USB was removed from multi-boot in versions of Open Firmware dated Aug 25, 2004 or later. A nvramrc patch can restore it. If you have a version of Open Firmware that is not in that list or firmware on a Mac that is not included in that list, then I would like to get a firmware dump to examine. | |
| Posted by: jovianartifact on 2025-02-21 11:33:33 sounds like an exercise in pain, at 1.1 speeds you're probably gonna have to let it soak overnight | |
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