[shifuimam]

I read on the MacOSXHints forum that you can boot an old iBook (300MHz clamshell) from USB if OS 9 is installed.

If no operating system is installed, can I boot from USB, or do I absolutely have to have OS 9 installed for that to be possible?

This iBook has a dead CD-ROM and I just want to get an OS installed on it. Thanks!

[rjt1000]

This link may be worth a look (some references to USB 1):

macosxhints.com - Easily boot from USB 2.0 drives on PowerPC Macs

[shifuimam]

I think I tried that once...my machine is too old - the NVRAM commands they give don't show the expected output for USB booting to work.

I'll play around with it when I get home. Thanks for the link.

[Big Mac]

Apple was a little overzealous in removing SCSI from the early iMacs and iBooks before it had Firewire on the low-end as a replacement. I'm assuming the CD drive is dysfunctional. They say Macs could boot from USB 1. You could hook up an external USB drive with an OS 9 partition and see if you can find it in the boot loader. It's worth a try.

[shifuimam]

Well, crap. I have no OS 9 installation discs, so I can't even try anything with OS 9 yet. I'm working on getting the discs from a friend so that I can at least try it.

Definitely can't boot off USB yet. I tried booting off retail 10.2 and 10.3 CDs using a DVD-ROM from my desktop (not a Mac) with no luck. I also tried booting off a USB hard drive that I know has DMGs of said installation CDs buried on it, with no luck.

Is it possible to do network OS X installs? From what I can find online, it sounds like the answer is "no", but I just want to make sure.

I might be able to get a CD-ROM for this thing for under $15. I just didn't want to take it apart again if I could help it, but replacing the CD-ROM will be a lot less painful than pulling the drive, sticking it in an enclosure, and installing OS X on it via my other iBook.