Apple PowerMac G4. No OS...

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bassist1217

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I have a PowerMac G4 with no O/S. I have a few discs with Linux and Mac, but I have the MDD version of the computer, so there is no eject button. How do I get the drive door to open so I can put the disc in the boot it up? It really is a nice computer, and I only paid $50 for it. I bought a mouse and keyboard for $30, and have a 26" LCD TV I plan on using as the monitor, I just need to figure out how to install the O/S on it so I can use it.
 
I know some macs can be a little picky about their OS, but there's usually some form of Linux that'd run on them. I'd skim around the different distro's and see what's available. I saw something about Yellow Dog being compatible with G4 macs, but it's not something I've tried personally. However, I might go and give it a shot on my old Mini...
 
The_Other_One said:
I know some macs can be a little picky about their OS, but there's usually some form of Linux that'd run on them. I'd skim around the different distro's and see what's available. I saw something about Yellow Dog being compatible with G4 macs, but it's not something I've tried personally. However, I might go and give it a shot on my old Mini...
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I have several different versions. Yellow Dog is one of them. How do I get the disc drive to open so that I can put the CD in there?
 
Insert a paper clip into the manual eject hole, which is located on the bottom right or left side of the drive (depending on the model), under the bezel. A paper clip inserted into this hole unlatches the drive. Next, bend the paper clip into a hook and put it under the drive's tray. You should be able to pull the tray out at this point.
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Hope that helps:)
 
Power it on while holding down both the option key on the keyboard and he left click on the mouse button. It will boot you to a boot selector screen and pop open the optical drive.
 
I'm pretty sure there's a command to eject the tray. I'm sure if you google it some something should pop up...

And if you're curious, I'm in the process of formatting and installing YellowDog on my G4 mini. I'll come back in a bit once it's done and I've tinkered a bit... I'm currently doing a solo install, but I might redo it to a dual boot. I'd like to have something with OS X for practice and all.

--edit using YDL --

Working quite well on the Mini. Just browsing the internet right now but it seems quite snappy. However, I'm having a very difficult time finding a copy of Flash that'll work on PPC.
 
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The_Other_One said:
I'm pretty sure there's a command to eject the tray. I'm sure if you google it some something should pop up...

And if you're curious, I'm in the process of formatting and installing YellowDog on my G4 mini. I'll come back in a bit once it's done and I've tinkered a bit... I'm currently doing a solo install, but I might redo it to a dual boot. I'd like to have something with OS X for practice and all.

--edit using YDL --

Working quite well on the Mini. Just browsing the internet right now but it seems quite snappy. However, I'm having a very difficult time finding a copy of Flash that'll work on PPC.
Click to expand...

If you hold down the left mouse button at boot it ejects the CD, that is the key command. Since there is no OS you can't use the command line, and there is a command line binary that will also eject the CD, so you are right on that part.
 
Huh... I looked it up and that's apparently it. I was thinking it was like option-e. But then again, I haven't used my Mini in quite some time now. Plus, the mini kinda ejects the disk regardless when you're booting (unless you hold C to or tell OS X to boot to CD :P)
 
The_Other_One said:
Huh... I looked it up and that's apparently it. I was thinking it was like option-e. But then again, I haven't used my Mini in quite some time now. Plus, the mini kinda ejects the disk regardless when you're booting (unless you hold C to or tell OS X to boot to CD :P)
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I have about 9,000 Macs at work so I touch one every day. I can probably strip down a Mac in my sleep screw for screw, and probably install OS X Server while in coma.

The mouse button trick has been around for many years in the Mac platform. A lot of times I hear people complaining about the small differences on a Mac over a PC (like keyboard shortcuts) and it just takes time to get used to the differences. Neither is better really, but I find with Apple computers if you logically think about what a command or option should be you are typically right.
 
You know... I think I remember one of my friends talking about that when he got a G3 (similar to the G4 in question). I always thought that seemed like an odd method. I guess I always thought something like option-e seemed more intuitive to me? :P

Hmm...and you have 9,000 macs at work? I have two macs here; the G4 Mini and my SE FD HD ;)
 
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