Zhang Weiwu <zhangwe... at (no spam) realss.com> wrote:
Hello.

I currently run OpenSUSE on my iBook G4 / powerpc. Most of my daily work
is done on OpenSuSE. I also want to occassionally run Mac OS X 10.4
because some computer games only run on Mac OS, also because I want to
use a few weekend to learn objective-C GUI programming.

I wonder if it is possible to install Mac OS X on a removable USB
harddisk (or, if the G4 box only support USB 1.x, a removable IEEE 1394
harddisk), and load the Mac OS X, perhaps using yaboot? (even better
would be directly load it but I am not sure if G4 firmware supports this).

Only a few ibooks just before firewire models can boot off usb. As far

The Startup Disk preferences pane might not be able to see your Yaboot
partition after you boot from OS X. So, to get back to your internal HD
Linux, you might need to unplug your external drive or hold down the
Option key as you boot up. That should give you the Mac's built-in
OS-picker.

If the OS X Installer hijacked your mac for itself, and you can't change
its default back to Linux using Startup Disk, you can fix it by
overwriting the nvram "boot-device" parameter direct in Open Firmware.
It might be a good idea to make a note of its current setting before you
install OS X. (printenv boot-device).

Hello.

I currently run OpenSUSE on my iBook G4 / powerpc. Most of my daily work
is done on OpenSuSE. I also want to occassionally run Mac OS X 10.4
because some computer games only run on Mac OS, also because I want to
use a few weekend to learn objective-C GUI programming.

I wonder if it is possible to install Mac OS X on a removable USB
harddisk (or, if the G4 box only support USB 1.x, a removable IEEE 1394
harddisk), and load the Mac OS X, perhaps using yaboot? (even better
would be directly load it but I am not sure if G4 firmware supports this).

On Aug 31, 7:28 pm, tinke... at (no spam) optusnet.com.au (Tinkerer Atlarge) wrote:

The Startup Disk preferences pane might not be able to see your Yaboot
partition after you boot from OS X. So, to get back to your internal HD
Linux, you might need to unplug your external drive or hold down the
Option key as you boot up. That should give you the Mac's built-in
OS-picker.

The linux picker has never worked on the macs for me, its there but if
osX is selected startup disk switching from won't work. However switch
to macos will if linux is the set startup.

There is a way to put a menu into yaboot to pick an osX disk as an
alternative. That is how I have mine set up.
It should be in yaboot.conf commented out.

tortoise <cymraegish at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
On Aug 31, 7:28 pm, tinke... at (no spam) optusnet.com.au (Tinkerer Atlarge) wrote:

The Startup Disk preferences pane might not be able to see your Yaboot
partition after you boot from OS X. So, to get back to your internal HD
Linux, you might need to unplug your external drive or hold down the
Option key as you boot up. That should give you the Mac's built-in
OS-picker.

The linux picker has never worked on the macs for me, its there but if
osX is selected startup disk switching from won't work. However switch
to macos will if linux is the set startup.

Do you get icons for the other disks/partitions? I have never had any
problems with my 2003 eMac. It could be dependent on the Open Firmware
version. It also depends on Yaboot being installed in a separate
partition. The openSUSE installation is different, but it should also
work. Admittedly, there are alternative ways of starting Linux, some of
which might leave it invisible to the OS-picker.

There is a way to put a menu into yaboot to pick an osX disk as an
alternative. That is how I have mine set up.
It should be in yaboot.conf commented out.

When external Linux is not the default, you can also get it to boot by
holding down Cmd-Opt-Shift-Delete during boot-up. You need to make sure
there are no bootable media in the CDROM drive and, maybe, no other
external storage devices plugged in. Yaboot needs to be the first
bootable partition on the external drive. Also, not all Linux
installations are configured to boot via FireWire. I was able to get
external Debian to work, but not openSUSE.

tortoise <cymraegish at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:

Tinkerer Atlarge wrote:
tortoise <cymraegish at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
On Aug 31, 7:28 pm, tinke... at (no spam) optusnet.com.au (Tinkerer Atlarge) wrote:


mine defaults to Mac. I did a lot of experimenting trying to find the
most robust setup. I never did find one which was 100% foolproof. In the
end I decided that putting Yaboot on Partition 2 and OSX on partition 3
with boot-device set to hd:3 was the best plan.

That way, it continues to seem like a normal Mac to anyone else. .
That way, if someone resets the pram, it should continue to boot like a
normal Mac. (Or that was my original reasoning. It turns out Open

I suspect if an ordinary Mac user unexpectedly started seeing the
unMaclike yaboot menu, they would think the computer had a virus. They
would probably think it was trying to trick them when it claimed they
have to press 'x' in order for it to behave like a mac :-)

Well I always think of it as a "security feature". If I wanted to loan