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I actually want to boot Linux but since that is not working I'm thinking some one might know on the Apple end.

If there's a way to boot Mac from a USB stick, then booting another operating system should not be impossible.

Do I need to use an Apple bootloader to trick my PowerBook into thinking it's booting Mac OS and then slip in the Linux disc or what?

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2 Answers

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I have done this many times since I posted this question.

  1. Create usb stick like this:

    sudo dd if=/<path to iso file>/<name of iso file> of=/<path to usb stick> bs=32768 conv=notrunc,noerror,sync

  2. Put the USB stick into your Mac and press the power button while holding down Command ⌘+Option+O+F

  3. At the prompt, type the following:

    boot usb1/disk@1:,\\yaboot

Note: If you are booting linux then use ,\\yaboot, but if you are booting a Mac OS use ,\\tbxi.

Note 2: If your stick is in the right side of the machine, then you need to do this:

boot usb0/disk@1:,\\yaboot

Note 3: If these commands don't work, then there is most likely a problem with your media or iso file.

I have found that Ubuntu, Debian, and openSUSE work great. I cannot get Fedora or Gentoo to boot this way yet. My optical drive does not work anymore, so this is how I install OS X on my machine. I made a live USB stick of the OS X install disc this way.

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Thank you for your answer, I've found it really useful. Now, I don't know if you found out how to boot Gentoo same way, but I did, so I wanter to share the link that helped me do that. Here it is. Hope it helps! en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/LiveUSB_on_PPC#Boot_from_Open_Firmware – user25691 Jul 24 '12 at 16:49
thank you so much! this is the best "tutorial" regarding this topic i was able to find. just successfully bootet xubuntu 12.04 mini install iso from USB, because my superdrive in my beloved powerbook is broken. – harald Dec 30 '12 at 16:19
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I've heard that using Super Duper works well for this. I imagine if that's the case, then Carbon Copy Cloner should work as well.

Deploy the image onto the USB through one of those utilities and you should be golden.

Find Super Duper! here.

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So using dd in the terminal has problems? – Joshua Robison Mar 31 '11 at 5:55
And I don't need to partition my USB stick or instal yaboot etc? – Joshua Robison Mar 31 '11 at 5:55
I wouldn't mess around with firmware/bootloaders, personally. I've just heard from colleagues in the business (I am an Apple-certified tech) that this works well. – Harv Mar 31 '11 at 8:30

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