cannot boot from CD, even panther!

hymiehymie
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hello all,



I was trying reformat my desktop hard drive today to install gentoo linux, but I cannot boot off the Panther CD. The CD ejects within 10 seconds of a boot.



Double clicking the "Install Mac OS X" icon on the CD led to a reboot but the CD was ejected immediately

Choosing the CD from the Startup Disk preference pane was no help. Same as above, with a CD eject 10 seconds after the reboot.

Resetting the PRAM was no help

Holding down the option key and manually choosing the CD allowed me to boot.



I know the CD is good and not scratched because it can boot a more recent powerbook just fine. Also, a Gentoo Linux CD and a Yellow Dog Linux CD are similarly ejected immediately on reboot, although they are able to boot a powerbook just fine. It's like I disabled CD booting somehow.



System in question:

G4 400, OS X 10.3.4



Powerbook that works fine:

12" G4 1.33, OS X 10.3.4





Any thoughts are much appreciated...



thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    dage007dage007 Posts: 320member
    I have and had the same problem. I solved it on my dual G4 but I can't solve it on my G5. On the G4 I will try to dig up the article so I can point you to it but basicly when the G4 boots up you have to hold down 3 or 4 keys I think. Then it takes you into this screen where you enter the main password. That is when you can disable the security of booting with the cd rom. I had enabled this without even knowing in panther maybe when it's installed it's ask's im not sure to be honest. Anyways I disabled it and I was able to boot from the cd and also to make the computer a tarteg drive via firewire. The security also disables that. Maybe you can do a check if you have another system and see if you can turn it into a target disk. If not then I'm pretty sure you have the same issue as me. I think if you check the articles on apple.com somewhere there it tells you about booting from cd issues. As far as my G5 I have no clue as I cant make it a target disk or boot from a cd. Pretty stupid if you ask me apple could not solve it with me either.



    Anyways if I find the article I will post it for you



    DD
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