[Cube] need hard drive for Cube

[Mac User #330250]

----------  Original message  ----------
Subject: Re: [Cube] need hard drive for Cube
Date:    Friday, 07. October 2011
From:    "Mac User #330250" <macuser330250 at gmx.net>
To:      "A place to discuss Apple's Cube." 
<cube at listserver.themacintoshguy.com>
> After this restart your system with a 10.5 DVD (you'll propably need an
> external USB or FW800 drive for this. For USB to work, you need the USB
> boot hack, here:
> 
> https://sites.google.com/site/shawnhcorey/howto-boot-apple-powerpcs-from-a-
> usb-drive-in-open-firmware
> 
> Then add the remaining space as a new partition. Done.

Actually, this won't work when booting from USB.

I've just tried it on my G4 Cube for the first time. I normally use FW to boot 
from, so I just figured it should also work with USB.

The good news: you can boot from USB 1.1 using the Mac OS X Leopard Install 
DVD (mine is 10.5.4). My external DVD-RW drive is in an external USB 2.0 
enclosure.

I used the right USB connector (closer to the reset switch; the other USB 
connector is the one which is closer to the power connector).

In Open Firmware (holding down Opt+Cmd+O+F simultainiously until the Open 
Firmware message appears on the display) I used the following to identify the 
USB port:

Command used: "dev / ls"
> 0 > dev / ls
> …
> ff926928:   /usb at 18
> ff95ecf8:     /disk at 1
> ...
>  ok
> 0 >

Command used: "devalias"
> 0 > devalias
> ...
> usb0               /pci at f2000000/usb at 18
> ...
>  ok
> 0 >

So, I now knew that "usb0" is the right usb port.

Booting the Leopard Install DVD was a matter of finding the right partition:

Command: boot usb0/disk at 1:3,\\:tbxi
> 0 > boot usb0/disk at 1:3,\\:tbxi


This worked very well, but quite slow. I don't know if this is due to the 450 
MHz G4 or due to the USB 1.1 relatively slow speed or a combination of both 
(most likely).
The Leopard installer complains about this Mac being not supported – I know, I 
don't meet the minimum requirements of 867 MHz processor speed. Yes, there is 
an Open Firmware hack for that too…
http://lowendmac.com/osx/leopard/openfirmware.html


Anyway, all looked well, and I could start Disk Utility from the Install DVD 
menu.

BUT: the fixed disk in my Cube was not visible.

So why was that the case????

It turned out that this USB boot method makes the USB drive appear as disk0 
under the booted Mac OS X, so the Install DVD becomes disk0s3. This seems to 
conflict with the IDE driver, which normally uses disk0 for the first IDE disk 
drive it can find, i.e. the installed HDD in the Cube.

Thus, you cannot install Leopard from an external DVD drive via USB. And sadly 
you also cannot use Disk Utility to do the partitioning I was mentioning in my 
earlier post. Sorry.

So, you need to go the FireWire-400 way!


If you don't need to "see" the installed HDD from your booted system, you can 
always choose the USB boot method. I.e. for an independet Mac OS X system you 
may want to use from an external USB drive. But you cannot access the internal 
disk then.


Cheers,
Andreas  aka  Mac User #330250