One of my hobbies includes restoring old PC. Recently my friend gave me a PowerMac G5 that he though was broken. To our amazement it still worked. I downloaded a copy of lbuntu for PowerPC and put it on a USB drive. I stuck an old 500GB HDD of mine in the PC (I tested it and it still works). I held down things like the Windows Key and Alt Key (Don't have a mac keyboard) and even all of the F buttons. But For what ever reason all it wants to do is give me the flashing folder with a question mark icon (assuming that means I have to reinstall the OS). I have yet to try a CD drive as the only CD Drives I have are external(USB) and the one built into the G5 I can't get it to eject (no buttons, tried holding down F12) so I can't stick a cd in there. I looked inside everything is still plugged in. The USB ports are drawing power as when I plug a keyboard into it the 3 lights flash. I don't have any firewire devices on me since I'm a windows kind of guy. So I'm stumped. Any ideas on how to install the OS on there. Considering its PowerPC I don't think installing it from something like VMware would do any good. (Don't even have an external HDD mount)
start up hold down command+option+p+r to reset ram. Reset and hold down shift this is safe mode for macs. also try command+s. Command + D boots the service disc and you may need to download it from some where its called a OSX Service DVD. If these dont help try using Disk Warrior it usually will fix these issues if its not hardware failure. You can always just re install the OS as well.
If you get somewhere in safemode go right to disk first aid and run scans.
It might also have something to do with the way the drive is formatted. I don't really recall how it was back in the Powerpc days but on most modern macs the drives are formatted in GUID partition table and Mac OS Extended Journaled. If the drive is formatted in Fat32 or NTFS, Mac OS won't be able to mount the drive. This could technically result in your problem.
Well there was no OS or HDD in the G5 in the first place. That is why I stuck the new HDD in there.
Yes I understand this... but you do plan on using the computer sometime in the future correct? which would mean that in some point in this process the drive would need to be formatted and converted to an active volume such that Mac OS Could mount it correct?
Update: Went ahead and plugged in my external DVD drive with the lbuntu PowerPC disk. Only to get the same flashing folder. I also managed to force open the Disk Drive and stick another copy of the CD I made. At this Point IDK whats wrong with it as the G5 doesn't seem to be responding to any keyboard commands. command+s, command+d, command+option+p+r, command+option, F12. I've tried several keyboards. They all work as I tested them on my desktop.
I wasn't planning to install OSX on it (A copy of leopard is 100 bucks on amazon). I was going to use the copy of Linux for PowerPC. Currently the only problem is getting the G5 to see the bootable Disk or USB and boot to it. I'll try and salvage one of my dead external HDDs for a Hard Drive mount and use my Hackintosh to format it to Extended Journaled. Not quite sure how that will help at this point in time.
Can you get it to go into open firmware by holding the power button down until it chimes twice? From there type "reset-nvram", press enter, then type "reset-all", and then again press enter. It should reboot and begin to accept key presses/commands again.
I was able to get into open firmware. I typed in the commands. I Formatted a Hard Drive using extended Journal and plugged that into the Mac Held Down Windows key+Alt. For what ever reason this G5 absolutely refuses to respond to the keyboard commands. It might be because its looking for a copy of OSX while instead I have the copy of lbuntu PPC. I'll look around for a copy I can afford and see what happens. Is it possible to tell it to boot to the CD from open firmware?
I am sure i always used to hold down the C key to boot form cd on my old G5.
I think its
0 > boot cd:,\install\yaboot
But if I remeber correctly only certain Power PC's even have the built in capability to boot from CD some can only boot from the OS drive and ethernet
So the built in Disk Drive doesn't even work. Its not spinning the DVDs. I ordered a copy of 10.5 for about 5 bucks off of craigslist list. I'm going to go to the Near by Best Buy and pick up a internal DVD drive and replace this thing. I'll reply again after I test my OSX theory.
Back when I was an apple fan girl I had a power mac G5. I spend a lot of money upgrading it to 4gb of ram just to make it usable but it was a mac and I was happy. Then I found out just how rubbish it was and built a pc.
One thing I had to do on both of the kids g5 imac (white plastic) is replace all the capacitors. Unfortunately that era of computer from all the way back maybe even before the eMac are subject to failing caps. Once they fail you will see power problems ie: on the eMac when you crank the speakers the screen would start to malfunction also when the cdrom drive would start to spin you would see the same malfunction on the screen eventually this turns into a fried unhappy mac. The kids iMacs did similar stuff however the whole computer crashed down. The more power it used the hotter it would get and then came the freeze.
A simple solution is to replace all the caps. my eMac runs great now and the kids iMacs well they run like iMacs =P
Just remember when your installing Linux onto a powerpc its going to be limited to running ports of all software. I wasn't able to do a whole lot. Basic server functions but example no virtualbox etc.
keep in mind that apple uses a proprietary dvd drive you won't be finding any at best buy. Better to look on ebay or in my junk drawer ;)