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How to use boot keys without an Apple keyboard?
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Junior Member
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Status:
Offline
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I have a home made G4 (the same one which had problems several months ago, but mysteriously is working again after I put it back together for kicks last night.) I don't have an Apple keyboard, I have 2 USB M$ Natural Pro keyboards. It seems that the BIOS/openfirmware/whatever doesn't recognize the keyboard, and so I can't do things like CMD-OPT (or in this case Windows key-Alt) anything or hold C to boot a CD. Only after the OS starts to load does the keyboard get "activated". (can't even use caps lock key until then for instance.)
I managed to get Panther installed, but that seems to only be because initially there was no OS on the HD so it looked for bootable drives elsewhere and found my CD. Now that Panther is on the HD, I can't force it to go elsewhere to boot.
What I want to do is install Gentoo PPC, I've tried 2 different ISOs, neither is recognized as a bootable disc by Startup Disk. I even tried copying the contents of the disk to another partition, but can't boot that either.
I tried a program called XPostFacto, but that only lets you choose OS X System volumes, just like Startup Disk.
I also have an Al 15" PB 1.25, and both CDs boot on it (have to hold C)
Help?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status:
Offline
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You can remap the keys, make a new keyboard layout. I could tell you how to do this in Classic, though, I don't know how to do it in OS X.
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"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
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Junior Member
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Status:
Offline
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Thanks, but I don't think its that. The keyboard doesn't seem to even get power as far as I can tell by pressing caps lock, that is until OS X starts booting.
But one more thing I just found out: I tried unplugging the HD to force it to boot the CD, but neither CD would work, and I tried 2 CD-ROM drives. Only the Panther disk boots. The others just spin up and then I get a "missing system folder" icon. (Both CDs boot on my PB tho). Then again, that might just be the Mac ROM looking for an Apple OS, and you *have* to hold C at power up to force the OpenFirmware to take over.
I dunno...just guessing.
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Admin Emeritus  Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Status:
Offline
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Umm... use an Apple keyboard.
tooki
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Junior Member
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Status:
Offline
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Wish I had one.
But good news, I was playing around in Openfirmware (apparently it does read the keyboard at least for that when the screen is black, I also tried C but still no work) and after lots of web browsing on the subject and tinkering, I manager to get it to boot from the partition where I copied the contents of the Gentoo CD. I just had to change the yaboot.conf file to point to hd:xx (partition number) and it worked!
This is what I tried in OF: boot ultra0:12,\boot\yaboot where ultra0 is the ultra-ata disk 0, partition 12, and load a file called yaboot in the \boot folder. I also tried ultra2  boot\yaboot for the CD (cd is on bus 1, slave), but it wouldn't boot it still. So I'm pretty sure that for some reason, this motherboard won't boot these CDs but it does from the HD. I have no idea why.
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