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Question

How do I boot from the PCMCIA CF card

Jan 4, 2012 6:58AM PST

I am using an old Powerbook G4 ***. that has a bad motherboard that will no longer power an internal HD. The firewire port is also gone.

I want to install Linux on a CF card in the PCMCIA slot and boot to Linux from it.

The PCMCIA device and USB devices to not appear in the list of available devices in Open Firmware.

It appears I need to figure out some way to mount the devices first so that I can boot to them. Can anyway help?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I've never see a Powerbook do that!
Jan 4, 2012 7:05AM PST

You may want to see what spare parts you can find on ebay to see if you can drag it back into operation.

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Answer
OpenFirmware
Jan 4, 2012 10:12AM PST

OpenFirmware couldn't do that. A very select few, like the last PPC refreshes, could boot off of USB devices, but I'm afraid on this one you're screwed unless you want to try Bob's idea. Though IIRC, the old PBG4's have more of a thermal glue than grease for the heatsink, so just make sure you don't go thinking you can slap on whatever you might buy at a Fry's or Microcenter type store.

Personally, I'd just throw the thing up on ebay and get whatever you can out of it. I don't see repairing it as being very cost effective.