Installing MintPPC on a 2006 12" PowerBook G4

parkernathan · December 11, 2021 9:15PM

I successfully was able to move my 2011 iMac from macOS High Sierra over to Linux Mint Uma Cinnamon. That experience went overall smoothly.

Now I'm trying for a more challenging project: moving my 2006 12" PowerBook G4 from Mac OS X Leopard to MintPPC or at least some other form of Linux distro.

So far, I’m trying to follow the Net Installer Installation Instructions: https://www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/installation-instructions/.

I’ve successfully created the USB Flash Drive of the installer (I hope I created it correctly), but

when I run “boot ud:,\\grub.elf” from Open Firmware, I receive the

Prohibitory Sign come up.

I have flashed another drive with the Live USB if I need to attempt that instead.

How can I successfully boot off of my USB Flash Drive using Open Firmware?

I've also been looking at these instructions, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/debian-sid-installation-guide-powerpc.2146795/

The DVD Drive inside the machine isn't functioning. I showed it to a local Mac repair shop, and there isn't an internal DVD drive I can get my hands on. My USB SuperDrive isn't functioning with it either since the Mac can't provide enough bus power to it.

I would love to put some form of Linux distro on the PowerBook (either MintPPC or something else) since it still boots, and if I can get at least decent tasks running on it such as a web browser and office productivity software, it'd still be functional for light tasks. My 2011 iMac is doing well with Linux Mint and allowed me to extend the life out of the hardware and even run software on it that wasn't supported in macOS High Sierra.

I've been trying to move older Macs to Linux so I can get more life out of my hardware (instead of junking the hardware), plus it allows me to tinker around (especially useful now that I have a HAM radio license) and since I handle IT consulting for nonprofits, gives me a backup roadmap to help them extend the life of their existing hardware if it's a small nonprofit that can't continually invest in newer hardware.

Thanks everyone for any assistance!