Can iMac G4 boot from USB?
The vast majority of PowerPC Macs did not support booting from USB devices. Towards the end of then PowerPC era Apple rolled out a change to Open Firmware in the last models to enable USB booting. Your G4 iMac though would not be one of these models.
Can you run Linux on an old Mac?
All Macintosh computers from about 2006 onwards were made using Intel CPUs and installing Linux on these computers is a breeze. You don’t need to download any Mac specific distro — just choose your favorite distro and install away. About 95 percent of the time you’ll be able to use the 64-bit version of the distro.
How do I boot from USB on Imac g3?
Hold down the option button during start up. That will bring up the boot menu and wait for the USB drive to show up.
Can IMAC G5 boot from USB?
Yes, the G5 can boot from USB fine. Hold down Option/Alt and select the USB drive. I’ve done it myself with my G5.
How to create a bootable flash drive for Linux on Mac?
In other words, you need a fairly modern Mac to create the bootable flash drive you need to launch Linux on PowerPC Macs. I formatted the flash drive as FAT, exFAT, HFS+, Apple Partition Map, GUID Partition Map, and Master Boot Record. Etcher dutifully imaged the ISO file to the flash drive.
What version of Linux should I install on a Mac?
Anything before G5 can only use a 32-bit Linux. Starting with version 12.04 the 32-bit and 64-bit versions are part of the same package for Macs. I suggest you start by downloading Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) desktop CD, which is designed to be burnt to a CD-R and give you a fully bootable way to test out Linux before you commit to it.
Is it possible to install Linux on an iMac with Bluetooth?
The one major caveat is that if your Mac uses Bluetooth for its primary keyboard and mouse, AFAIK, you are SOL — I don’t know of any Linux distribution that can do its initial install off bluetooth input devices. Xbuntu picked up the performance on the iMac a bit, and it’s definitely more modern and snappy of an OS than 10.3.9.
Which version of Linux should I install on a PowerPC Mac?
If you want to try Linux on a PowerPC Mac, choose the 16.04 Long Term Release (LTR) version and be done with big upgrades until the next LTR version, probably in April 2018. If you’re just experimenting, you might want to use Lubuntu 17.04.
