Question Getting linux off ibook

[dariclen]

Hello,
I have a g4 133 ibook 14" 512ram 60 gb hd that is running yellow dog linux. The guy I bought it from formatted the drive to totally linux, no osx to be found anywhere. I want to put osx back on. However when I put the osx 10.1 disc in (full install) it won't read, even with holing down option or doing the option apple shift delete trick. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Ijack]

I'd say taht there is a problem either with the CD drive or the install disk. You should be able to boot from it whatever is on the hard disk.

 

[hairystuff]

Do you have access to another iBook, PowerBook, iMac or PowerMac, if you do you could put the iBook into target mode by holding down the T key on the keyboard at powerup (while connected by firewire) and install the os via the connected machine, I've used this method plenty of times when the optical drives fail on G3/G4 notebooks or if I want to install an os really quickly using a more powerful machine.

 

[dariclen]

I do. I put in the disc into another machine and put a cable to the machine with linux on it (firewire) but it does not show up in the drives that are available. How do I do this? Do I turn on the host first or the linux machine? Any special commands I can put in?

 

[Ijack]

I've just noticed that you have a G4 iBook, but are trying to install OS X 10.1. I believe the G4 iBook was originally supplied with 10.3. Macs are very fussy about install disks; I don't think your computer will boot 10.1.

As for Target Mode, turn on the target computer and immediately press the "T" key. Keep it pressed until the firewire icon appears. Then start the other computer?

 

[dariclen]

Do you have access to another iBook, PowerBook, iMac or PowerMac, if you do you could put the iBook into target mode by holding down the T key on the keyboard at powerup (while connected by firewire) and install the os via the connected machine, I've used this method plenty of times when the optical drives fail on G3/G4 notebooks or if I want to install an os really quickly using a more powerful machine.

I got the machine to do the firewire thing, but the other machine won't recognize the HD. I put the host machine on first, then turn on other, but no luck. WHat am I doing wrong? Cable is brand new, and I have tried other machines as well.

 

[hairystuff]

Normally I turn the PowerMac on first,
then connect both machines with a firewire cable,
then I put the notebook in to target mode (power up while holding the T key),
then I insert the OS Install CD into the PowerMac,
click on system preferences and then click on startup disk,
then I choose the OS Install CD and restart the system.

once all thats done you can normally install the os to the target disk from the PowerMac, you may/will need to erase and repartition the drive especially if you have linux installed on the iBook.

 

[hairystuff]

I got the machine to do the firewire thing, but the other machine won't recognize the HD. I put the host machine on first, then turn on other, but no luck. WHat am I doing wrong? Cable is brand new, and I have tried other machines as well.

You will need to use Disk Utility on the Target firewire disk (to erase and repartition the disk for osx use).
The ibooks drive should showup in Disk Utility. Linux EXT partitions normally don't show up on osx, but you should be able to reformat/erase/partition it for OSX use.

 

[dariclen]

Normally I turn the PowerMac on first,
then connect both machines with a firewire cable,
then I put the notebook in to target mode (power up while holding the T key),
then I insert the OS Install CD into the PowerMac,
click on system preferences and then click on startup disk,
then I choose the OS Install CD and restart the system.
.

I tried this, with no avail.I noticed I cannot acces it with any of my machines. I know the cable is new, so that is not it. Is it possible that the machine has no links on mac, so it can't be recognized?

 

[hairystuff]

The only thing I can put it down to is a faulty firewire interface/jack on iBook, but I have never come across one with that problem.

 

[hairystuff]

and a machine set to target mode shows up as a external disk similar to a USB mass storage device with the exception of a firewire icon insted of a USB icon.

 

[popeyejohnson]

i have had a similar problem trying to install win 7 over ubuntu
-wont read the partition as its the wrong format (ext3 or 4 cant quite rember)(dont know if this holds for macs)
i worked round it by removing the hd,
putting it in my desktiop as a 2nd hd
formatting ntfs,
returned to lappy and installed
....may help, may not
try anyway

 

[dariclen]

Tcomputer now boots to cd, but when I do, it has the flashing folder logo in the center of the screen. I have tried several different discs, all the same.