Resolved Installing Tiger by USB on wiped PowerBook G4

[sawpits]

I just got myself 2 DVD-R's. How do I get the Tiger dmg on there?

Burn it to disc using your Windows machine.

https://www.poweriso.com/tutorials/burn-dmg-file.htm

 

[MHanson75]

Burn it to disc using your Windows machine.

https://www.poweriso.com/tutorials/burn-dmg-file.htm

Tried that and both DVDs refused to work.

I'm resolving myself to just go and buy an actual Tiger DVD, looks like it's my only choice as everything else failed.

I've already tried 2 places, the first one directed me to the 2nd and the guy was certain that I didn't need OS X and that I could run Windows on my PowerBook. Needless to say I'm screwed if I don't find an actual retail copy of Tiger haha

 

[Hughmac]

Long shot, but I've been having a fight with a PowerBook lately that I bought with a wiped drive. It will not boot to either self written Tiger or Leopard DVDs.
It turns out that a) the bottom RAM slot is shot and b) the hard drive is completely dead.

I finally got it booted with a firewire drive but can't get a system on it until my new hard drive arrives, but my point is check your RAM and swap hard drive if you have a spare.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[MHanson75]

Long shot, but I've been having a fight with a PowerBook lately that I bought with a wiped drive. It will not boot to either self written Tiger or Leopard DVDs.
It turns out that a) the bottom RAM slot is shot and b) the hard drive is completely dead.

I finally got it booted with a firewire drive but can't get a system on it until my new hard drive arrives, but my point is check your RAM and swap hard drive if you have a spare.

Cheers

Hugh

Is it neccessary to have a hard drive connected to boot the installer? And how do I test my RAM? Is there any other way than just pulling each slot and trying to boot with just one?

 

[Hughmac]

I'm really not sure. My hard drive was semi working when I started but died completely after numerous attempts at installing an OS, and my bottom RAM slot wouldn't work with anything, but I have plenty of spare RAM to play around with and eventually found a 2GB stick that is fine in the top slot.
I have a feeling also that buying an official DVD won't help, as my self written ones will boot on all machines that don't have hardware problems.
Maybe you can get the Apple Hardware Test onto a CD and try booting from that?

Maybe some others with more experience can chip in with their thoughts on this?

Cheers

Hugh

 

[MHanson75]

I'm really not sure. My hard drive was semi working when I started but died completely after numerous attempts at installing an OS, and my bottom RAM slot wouldn't work with anything, but I have plenty of spare RAM to play around with and eventually found a 2GB stick that is fine in the top slot.
I have a feeling also that buying an official DVD won't help, as my self written ones will boot on all machines that don't have hardware problems.
Maybe you can get the Apple Hardware Test onto a CD and try booting from that?

Maybe some others with more experience can chip in with their thoughts on this?

Cheers

Hugh

Any ideas where I can find an AHT image? The only thing that came with my PowerBook is the power cord so I don't have any startup disks.
[doublepost=1560413359][/doublepost]

I'm really not sure. My hard drive was semi working when I started but died completely after numerous attempts at installing an OS, and my bottom RAM slot wouldn't work with anything, but I have plenty of spare RAM to play around with and eventually found a 2GB stick that is fine in the top slot.
I have a feeling also that buying an official DVD won't help, as my self written ones will boot on all machines that don't have hardware problems.
Maybe you can get the Apple Hardware Test onto a CD and try booting from that?

Maybe some others with more experience can chip in with their thoughts on this?

Cheers

Hugh

It's also worth mentioning that I've also tried booting from a Lion DVD, I could display the content of the drive by using the dir comand in OpenFirmware but whenever I tried one of my homemade Tiger DVDs it would say "ATAPI-DISK: open of DISK_LABEL failed can't OPEN the DIR device"

 

[Hughmac]

AHT from here - https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

Where are you? If you're in the UK by any chance I could send you some disks.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[MHanson75]

AHT from here - https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

Where are you? If you're in the UK by any chance I could send you some disks.

Cheers

Hugh

Not even in the same continent haha I'm all the way over in Lebanon.
[doublepost=1560415585][/doublepost]

AHT from here - https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

Where are you? If you're in the UK by any chance I could send you some disks.

Cheers

Hugh

Also these AHT tutorials require Disk Utility to create a media which I don't have

I'm really starting to consider just buying a Mac that runs just so I can use Disk Utility because clearly everything I do requires it haha

 

[MHanson75]

MAJOR UPDATE!!!

I created a USB drive with iAktos Snow Leopard and booted off of it on my Windows XP desktop.
Tried installing it on my 2nd hard drive but I'd keep getting a kernel panic at the first startup so I resolved to using Disk Utility from within the installer itself.

I plugged in my external Hard Drive with all my dmg images and a blank 64GB USB drive and used the restore function to FINALLY create a USB install disk for Tiger.
Everything went surprisingly smooth up until I plugged it into the PowerBook and tried booting from it in OpenFirmware.
Kept saying "cannot access DIR device". I then tried with a Leopard dmg I downloaded off of some website, it was originally an iso file that I converted to dmg so I wasn't expecting much from it, I did exactly the same procedure to create a USB drive and once I was in OpenFirmware, that's when I made 2 discoveries.

First one is that it actually booted! I was able to use dir to list the content of the drive and "boot /pci@f2000000/usb@1b/disk@1:3,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX" got me in the installer!!

Then came the 2nd discovery, my hard drive wasn't being detected in Disk Utility.
I opened the PowerBook up to find that the cable that connects the drive to the logic board had a tear going halfway through near the logic board connector.
I could feel it turn on and spin but clearly no data was being transmitted.

I got curious and went back to my desktop, put one of my homemade Tiger DVDs and booted into the iAtkos installer, went into Disk Utility and like I suspected all the files are present on the DVD.

I tried again creating a new Tiger USB but it still didn't work, tried booting from the DVD failed as well.

The one thing that worked is the Leopard dmg and thst was one of the WindowsSupport DVDs.

I have no idea what to do now. I'm pretty sure that means my Tiger dmg is corrupted, but even if I got one to work, turns out I can't even connect to the hard drive to install it.

 

[1042686]

MAJOR UPDATE!!!

I created a USB drive with iAktos Snow Leopard and booted off of it on my Windows XP desktop.
Tried installing it on my 2nd hard drive but I'd keep getting a kernel panic at the first startup so I resolved to using Disk Utility from within the installer itself.

I plugged in my external Hard Drive with all my dmg images and a blank 64GB USB drive and used the restore function to FINALLY create a USB install disk for Tiger.
Everything went surprisingly smooth up until I plugged it into the PowerBook and tried booting from it in OpenFirmware.
Kept saying "cannot access DIR device". I then tried with a Leopard dmg I downloaded off of some website, it was originally an iso file that I converted to dmg so I wasn't expecting much from it, I did exactly the same procedure to create a USB drive and once I was in OpenFirmware, that's when I made 2 discoveries.

First one is that it actually booted! I was able to use dir to list the content of the drive and "boot /pci@f2000000/usb@1b/disk@1:3,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX" got me in the installer!!

Then came the 2nd discovery, my hard drive wasn't being detected in Disk Utility.
I opened the PowerBook up to find that the cable that connects the drive to the logic board had a tear going halfway through near the logic board connector.
I could feel it turn on and spin but clearly no data was being transmitted.

I got curious and went back to my desktop, put one of my homemade Tiger DVDs and booted into the iAtkos installer, went into Disk Utility and like I suspected all the files are present on the DVD.

I tried again creating a new Tiger USB but it still didn't work, tried booting from the DVD failed as well.

The one thing that worked is the Leopard dmg and thst was one of the WindowsSupport DVDs.

I have no idea what to do now. I'm pretty sure that means my Tiger dmg is corrupted, but even if I got one to work, turns out I can't even connect to the hard drive to install it.

Replace the hdd cable?

 

[bunnspecial]

I'd try booting the installer with the HDD completely disconnected.

Normally it will load fine without an HDD or with one that's incorrectly formatted-you just won't have a disk available on which to install.

The half-torn cable may be throwing it off with a hard drive that it sees but can't talk to.

That's probably a shot in the dark, but may still be worth it.

 

[MHanson75]

I'd try booting the installer with the HDD completely disconnected.

Normally it will load fine without an HDD or with one that's incorrectly formatted-you just won't have a disk available on which to install.

The half-torn cable may be throwing it off with a hard drive that it sees but can't talk to.

That's probably a shot in the dark, but may still be worth it.

I've tried the Tiger USB with the HDD connected and disconnected and both times OpenFirmware was unable to access the USB drive. I'm currently downloading a Leopard dmg and see if I have any luck with that.

I wonder, could it be that my Tiger dmg is for Intel Macs only? Is that even a thing?
[doublepost=1560593072][/doublepost]

Replace the hdd cable?

Any ideas on where I could find one? Pretty sure Apple stores have stopped selling those a long time ago, that is if they ever did.

 

[bunnspecial]

I wonder, could it be that my Tiger dmg is for Intel Macs only? Is that even a thing?

That's absolutely a thing. AFAIK, all retail versions of Tiger client are PPC only, whereas "gray disks" that shipped with Intel Macs are Intel only. Of course, gray disks have their own problems, but it's usually a matter of getting them to ignore the installer checks. The only Tiger universal I'm aware of is 10.4.9 Server.

Interestingly enough, all Leopard installs, both retail and "gray" are universal. I've shown this to skeptical people by booting Intel Macs from a PPC Mac in TDM, or vice-versa.

 

[1042686]

I was thinking eBay. Something like this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/173820602756

 

[MHanson75]

That's absolutely a thing. AFAIK, all retail versions of Tiger client are PPC only, whereas "gray disks" that shipped with Intel Macs are Intel only. Of course, gray disks have their own problems, but it's usually a matter of getting them to ignore the installer checks. The only Tiger universal I'm aware of is 10.4.9 Server.

Interestingly enough, all Leopard installs, both retail and "gray" are universal. I've shown this to skeptical people by booting Intel Macs from a PPC Mac in TDM, or vice-versa.

So I finally got my Leopard dmg onto the USB drive and successfully booted off of it on the PowerBook.

But now I have 3 issues.

First one is that it turns out the image is actually from an update disk, so unless there's a workaround I'm not aware of, it won't allow me to install it without having Tiger on there first.

Which brings me to my second problem, I still need a Tiger dmg. The one I have clearly seems to be either corrupted or made for Intel Macs so it's useless to me.

My 3rd problem is still the torn hard drive cable.

I was thinking eBay. Something like this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/173820602756

All the cables I found on eBay either don't ship to Lebanon, or have shipping costs that are 3 times as high as the cable's price.

If anyone knows where I can find a working PowerPc Tiger image I'll be so thankful to them.

Also is it possible to simply plug in a USB hard drive and install OS X on it? I think it's possible with firewire drives but what about USB?

 

[DearthnVader]

Also is it possible to simply plug in a USB hard drive and install OS X on it? I think it's possible with firewire drives but what about USB?

Tho USB drives are bootable on PowerBooks, it isn't supported, so the OS X installer will refuse to install to a USB drive.

You should be able to use qemu-system-ppc to do the install on a drive, then boot it from open firmware on the Powerbook.

You'll have to look into how to do that on Windows, but it's pretty easy on linux:

sudo qemu-system-ppc -M mac99 -m 512 -cdrom OSXInstaller.iso -hda /dev/sdx -boot d

Replace OSXInstaller.iso with the iso file name of your installer and sdx with the drive you want to use to install on, i.e. sda sdb and so on.

That would be for linux, I've also had luck passing the root of a USB drive to qemu-system-ppc.

 

[MHanson75]

Tho USB drives are bootable on PowerBooks, it isn't supported, so the OS X installer will refuse to install to a USB drive.

You should be able to use qemu-system-ppc to do the install on a drive, then boot it from open firmware on the Powerbook.

You'll have to look into how to do that on Windows, but it's pretty easy on linux:

sudo qemu-system-ppc -M mac99 -m 512 -cdrom OSXInstaller.iso -hda /dev/sdx -boot d

Replace OSXInstaller.iso with the iso file name of your installer and sdx with the drive you want to use to install on, i.e. sda sdb and so on.

That would be for linux, I've also had luck passing the root of a USB drive to qemu-system-ppc.

I have an external hard drive running Arch Linux so I could give this a try!
So basically I'd install OS X in qemu but on the external drive instead of a virtual one, right?

How will I get it to boot on the PowerBook afterwards?

 

[DearthnVader]

I have an external hard drive running Arch Linux so I could give this a try!
So basically I'd install OS X in qemu but on the external drive instead of a virtual one, right?

How will I get it to boot on the PowerBook afterwards?

Correct just look up the device name of your USB drive with lsblk in linux and make sure the drive has no partitions mounted.

From the linux terminal:

lsblk

Once you find the drive letter for your USB disk in linux then you may want to do:

sudo qemu-system-ppc -M mac99 -m 512 -drive file=/dev/sdx,format=raw,media=disk -cdrom OSXInstaller.iso -boot d

Giving the format as raw should allow block 0 access, but I'm not sure that is needed.

Once you connect the USB drive to the PowerBook, boot Open Firmware and:

devalias

You should see an alias for your USB disk, UD.

boot ud:,\\:tbxi

 

[weckart]

No one has asked you yet but what model PB G4 do you have? Because if it is the last one from 2005, you will need a minimum of Tiger 10.4.3 to boot it.

Details should be in the battery compartment.

 

[MHanson75]

Correct just look up the device name of your USB drive with lsblk in linux and make sure the drive has no partitions mounted.

From the linux terminal:

lsblk

Once you find the drive letter for your USB disk in linux then you may want to do:

sudo qemu-system-ppc -M mac99 -m 512 -drive file=/dev/sdx,format=raw,media=disk -cdrom OSXInstaller.iso -boot d

Giving the format as raw should allow block 0 access, but I'm not sure that is needed.

Once you connect the USB drive to the PowerBook, boot Open Firmware and:

devalias

You should see an alias for your USB disk, UD.

boot ud:,\\:tbxi

I'll give these a try once I find a working Tiger image.
I'll keep you updated, thanks!

No one has asked you yet but what model PB G4 do you have? Because if it is the last one from 2005, you will need a minimum of Tiger 10.4.3 to boot it.

Details should be in the battery compartment.

I typed in my serial number on the eastmac website and included the results in a screenshot bellow.
It said 512MB of RAM but apprently mine has been upgraded to 1GB. Pretty cool

 

[sawpits]

There is a 10.4 version here:

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc

They also have a 10.4.6 at the same link.

 

[MHanson75]

There is a 10.4 version here:

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc

They also have a 10.4.6 at the same link.

Yup! Downloaded the 10.4.6 dmg, got it on my USB drive and it booted just fine on the PowerBook!
Of course I couldn't get to the install part so I don't know if it will actually work, but I'm downloading qemu on my Arch Linux setup right now and hoping it'll work.

 

[MHanson75]

Got major news!

I installed Tiger on a USB flash drive through qemu on Arch Linux and attempted booting from it in OF.

IT WORKED!
I ran through the whole Tiger registration setup and now I got a fully functioning PowerBook G4!

I tried upgrading to Leopard through qemu the same way I installed Tiger, but qemu keeps giving me the "no valid state has been set by load or init-program".

Oh well I guess I'll have to make do with Tiger until I get that hard drive cable, unless there's another way to make this work that I'm not aware of.

Thank you all so much for your help honestly, I would've never pulled this off without you!!

 

[DearthnVader]

Got major news!

I installed Tiger on a USB flash drive through qemu on Arch Linux and attempted booting from it in OF.

IT WORKED!
I ran through the whole Tiger registration setup and now I got a fully functioning PowerBook G4!

I tried upgrading to Leopard through qemu the same way I installed Tiger, but qemu keeps giving me the "no valid state has been set by load or init-program".

Oh well I guess I'll have to make do with Tiger until I get that hard drive cable, unless there's another way to make this work that I'm not aware of.

Thank you all so much for your help honestly, I would've never pulled this off without you!!

Glad you got that working, you should be able to boot Leopard in Qemu, however you may need a later version than the binary you install with Arch.

qemu-system-ppc --version

I recommend building from source the lasted release version, then...

sudo qemu-system-ppc  -boot d -M mac99,via=pmu -had /dev/sdx -cdrom Leopard.iso

If you're still getting "no valid state has been set by load or init-program", you may want to add -prom-env 'auto-boot?=false', then check that you can get a directory of the Leopard.iso.

dir cd:,\

If that doesn't return the directory, you may have a corrupt image file, if it does, then try:

boot cd:,\\:tbxi

 

[neto trindade]

Got major news!

I installed Tiger on a USB flash drive through qemu on Arch Linux and attempted booting from it in OF.

IT WORKED!
I ran through the whole Tiger registration setup and now I got a fully functioning PowerBook G4!

I tried upgrading to Leopard through qemu the same way I installed Tiger, but qemu keeps giving me the "no valid state has been set by load or init-program".

Oh well I guess I'll have to make do with Tiger until I get that hard drive cable, unless there's another way to make this work that I'm not aware of.

Thank you all so much for your help honestly, I would've never pulled this off without you!!

ola, sou do Brasil e tenho o mesmo problema, quais os comandos que usou no open firmware? pode me ajudar?