Run AHT/ASD From USB?

[TacticalDonut]

I was wondering if it would be possible to run Apple Hardware Test/Service Diagnostics from a USB. I have a mid-2005 iBook G4 (different from the one I posted about a while ago - that one had HDD issues and I ended up returned it) that I'd like to run AHT on if for no other reason than to ensure everything is working properly.

The problem is that the Combo Drive installed in it doesn't seem to be in the best condition, and I don't really have any confidence that if I insert a CD in there that I'll get it back. The drive works - I actually installed Tiger on this through the CD drive - but it took some time to get the CD to actually come out of the computer. It ejects fine, but it gets stuck on the outer edge of the frame, and then immediately just gets sucked up by the slot-loading mechanism again and then runs. I had to insert a credit card into the slot and eject the CD, and then immediately remove the credit card as the CD came out for it to come out enough where I could get a grip on it and remove it before the drive ate it again. I've also noticed that whenever you put a CD in the drive it comes out with scratches on it from it scraping against the frame.

Long story short I want to run AHT version 2.6.3 (both OF and OS versions) from a USB and boot into it from Open Firmware. How would I go about doing this, if it's even possible?

Thanks!

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

Not quite suere. But you can try this sequence.
1. Partition & format USB flash as APM.
2. Recover AHT image (I suppose you have it as DMG file?) to formatted flash.
3. Reboot & hold OPT key, to see if it's detected.

 

[Project Alice]

Not quite suere. But you can try this sequence.
1. Partition & format USB flash as APM.
2. Recover AHT image (I suppose you have it as DMG file?) to formatted flash.
3. Reboot & hold OPT key, to see if it's detected.

It won’t be detected. OP will have to boot from open firmware and manually select USB. PPC Macs don’t show USB in the boot picker, except some of the early G3s for some reason.

 

[TacticalDonut]

It won’t be detected. OP will have to boot from open firmware and manually select USB. PPC Macs don’t show USB in the boot picker, except some of the early G3s for some reason.

Yeah I was looking more for a directory path to the AHT boot image. I'll just have to play around and see if I can find it - I'm assuming the correct image will have tbxi flag?

 

[Project Alice]

Yeah I was looking more for either a directory path to the AHT boot image. I'll just have to play around and see if I can find it - I'm assuming the correct image will have tbxi flag?

Yeah it should be like booting any other USB from a G4 if you’ve done it before. I’ve had mixed results with it, and I’ve never tried booting AHT from USB. You probably already know that FireWire is easier if you have access to a drive.

 

[TacticalDonut]

Yeah it should be like booting any other USB from a G4 if you’ve done it before. I’ve had mixed results with it, and I’ve never tried booting AHT from USB. You probably already know that FireWire is easier if you have access to a drive.

I was able to create the USB correctly by putting either version (OS or OF) on separate partitions. I was also able to boot into the OS version of AHT (ironically it's the standard BootX file and file path), but it opened a Terminal window on startup and put out a bunch of stuff about a crash dump, and then gave me the error message "The Diagnostics Application had an unexpected problem. Could not get the error log".

I couldn't even boot into the OF version because I could not find a valid boot image.