Re: Trouble booting 8.1 from USB stick on iBook G3 Dual USB

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hello,

On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 22:50:26 -0500
halian%safiria.net@localhost wrote:

> I'm trying to boot 8.1 from a USB drive on my iBook G3 Dual USB (model 
> ID `PowerBook4,1`), and I get the following error when trying to boot to 
> it:
> 
> 0> boot usb0:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd.macppc method <load> not found,   
> ihandle=ffbc5ac0 phandle=ff960fd0 load-size=0 adler32=1

That's OpenFirmware complaining that it can't 'load' from whatever usb0
points at.

> What, if anything, am I doing wrong? or is it simply not possible to 
> boot from a USB stick even via trickery?

I never tried it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it's possible.
That said, what does the usb0 devalias actually point at? You need
something that points at the actual drive, not just the USB controller.
I'm not sure if OF will create device nodes for USB mass storage
devices, if it doesn't then we're out of luck. If it does then it
likely doesn't support hotplugging so your drive needs to be inserted
at power up.

have fun
Michael