Boot off hard disk

I've just found this information off a forum it show a possible way to get os4 booting off a hard disk

Here is the solution. First copy the directories Devs, Kickstart, L and Libs from the Moana CD to the root of your MacOS hard disk, ignore the other files in the root of the CD.

Eject the CD, go back to OF and enter “devalias”. This will print all devices from your Mac mini. Locate the entries hd: and cd:. Now make cd: to look like hd: with “devalias cd /pci@f4000000/ata-6@d/disk0” (your Mac mini setup it may differ from mine so change appropriately). Now boot Kickstart with “boot hd:\L\slb” and voila, with some luck you end up in AOS4. Unfortunately this method seems to fail often to load the USB stack. Not the best solutions but hey, it works. The SLB loader is really crap when not booting from a real CD.

Other information about install on a mac mini

Markus wrote

It's much easier to modify an OS4.x CD using an ISO editor to include necessary files for booting off that CD first to get the slb loading and then in the Kickstart part to boot the OS4.x Installer disk...

When I tried to do this it didn't work if you could get it to work then you wouldn't need to take the mini apart making the process much easier.

The version of open firmware you are using should make much difference to you are able install on your mini. However open firmware is buggy and doesn't always work in the correct way.

It might install on other PPC Mac's but it won't install on old world Mac's ( the one's that startup showing the happy mac)  You can check if you have an old world mac at www.everymac.com

The slb_v2 is the boot loader it loads the files/drivers that are listed in the kickstart layout file.

When its done it exits the open firmware and loads the amiga kernel. 

It will then look on the harddisk for the startup file if it finds one it will it.

Install OS 4 on to a Mac mini How to

This might work it might not it worked for me.

This method should let you install on any PPC mac mini 

What you need

1 PPC mac mini any spec

2 Blank CD's

A copy of the Amiga OS 4.0 Install CD for Mac Mini G4

A copy of amiga os 4.1 (for the ATI Radeon driver)

1 CD drive from a laptop with an emergency eject button/hole

A bit of time and some tools

Part 1

Write the Amiga OS 4.0 install CD for mac mini to a CD

Copy the contents from the CD to a folder called OS4 on your hard disk

Copy the ATI Radeon drive from the OS 4.1 system\kickstart\ATIRadeon.chip to the folder on your hard disk in to the OS4\kickstart

Write the contents of the folder to a CD

Take the CD  to your mac mini.

Go in to the open firmware (ALT-CMD-O-F)

at the prompt type  

Setenv boota-device cd:

boot cd:\slb_v2

select the option 1

Press "Enter" at the "Installed mem: 1024 mega bega" prompt

Press "Enter" at the "About to build the copy of the OF tree; Code start at 0x01800000; press any key" prompt

Press "Enter" at the "All init done; about to kill OF and start ExecSG; press any key" prompt

If its works after a short while you should see the disk going in the drive.

restart the computer go in to the open firmware and eject the CD

Type at the prompt

eject cd:

Part 2

You now need to take your mac mini apart and install the laptop CD-Rom

http://www.applefritter.com/Mac_Mini_Take_Apart_Guide

Start the computer up in to the open firmware put the modified OS 4 CD in

Setenv boota-device cd:

boot cd:\slb_v2

Press "Enter" at the "Installed mem: 1024 mega bega" prompt

Press "Enter" at the "About to build the copy of the OF tree; Code start at 0x01800000; press any key" prompt

When it says  "All init done; about to kill OF and start ExecSG; press any key"

Take out the modified OS 4 CD and replace it with the  Amiga os 4.0 install CD for mac mini then press enter

After a while it will show you the workbench screen

it'll then ask you to pick you locals, closed the window

It'll then ask you to pick a keyboard layout, click use

after a little bit longer it will show you the OS4 Install Screen

Read the install instruction on the  Amiga os 4.0 install CD for mac mini and follow them to install it 

when it's install reboot the computer go in to the open firmware swap the CD's (the modified CD will now become the boot CD)

Setenv boota-device cd:

boot cd:\slb_v2

press enter 3 times at the 3 stop points (you'll just do it if you got this far)

OS4 will now load.

take the CD out (you can eject it using the media toolbox) put in your OS 4.1

Copy the Radeon file from cd:\system\dev\monitor to hd:\system\dev\monitor\

Reboot the computer and it should be all done

What still needs doing is booting off the hard disk, a network driver, a sound driver, and a USB driver

it should be possible to copy the hard disk using DD to any type of PPC mac and then it should boot if it has an OS 4.1 supported Video card

If you can improve this let me know it would be good if it could be done without taking the mac mini apart. 

Which could be done if you can modified the  Amiga OS 4.0 Install CD for Mac Mini G4 to include ATI Radeon driver.

If try this good luck. I had a bit of fun messing with the amiga os.

1.42 512MB Ram mac mini running Amiga OS 4.