Ubuntu

iMac G5 PPC Installation Problems (14.04.2)

Asked by Jackson

Hello,
I have downloaded the Ubuntu 14.04.2 iso on my PowerPC iMac G5 with Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Specs listed below) and put it on a flash drive with Linux Mac USB Loader. Then I put it into my mac and eld down the option key while it was booting, only my internal HD and external hard drive showed up, then I put into my 2009 MacBook with Mac OS X 10.10 and it recognized it, what am I dong wrong, is my computer unable to boot from a usb stick?

iMac G5 specs: 2.1 GHz PowerPC G5 processor, 512 MB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger)

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Rusty Shackleford
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Best Rusty Shackleford (shackleford071250) said : 		#1

According to several sites booting from a USB device on a G5 Mac requires the use of OpenFirmware - and then several other steps need to be taken: see the links for details.

https://sites.google.com/site/shawnhcorey/howto-boot-apple-powerpcs-from-a-usb-drive-in-open-firmware
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060301112336384

But I think you have a bigger issue - if you managed to boot the USB flash drive on a 2009 MacBook that would seem to indicate you are using an x86 image. For the G5 you will need a PowerPC image. There are community ports of Ubuntu for PowerPC.

See the Ubuntu PowerPCFAQ at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ. It contains a link for the download site once you are ready to proceed.

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Jackson (jacfen123) said : 		#2

Thank you, I didn't realize that, would you happen to know where I can get the PowerPC version of Ubuntu?

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Rusty Shackleford (shackleford071250) said : 		#3

PowerPC builds can be downloaded from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads

I suggest you read the FAQ - it also talks about the process for booting from USB, but also addresses other issues you might encounter.