Does anyone know how to fix an iMac G5 not opening MacOS recovery and not booting to USBs in the place where you boot from disks or something or from Open Firmware with a command. I'm confused and I need some help. I've made like 30 USBs and none work, please help me out.
Thanks,
Kristopher.
Recovery Mode only exists with macOS 10.7+.
I'm not sure if a G5 can boot from a USB drive or not. I know that it is sometimes possible to boot from a USB drive on some PPC Macs, but I'm not sure which ones (sometimes it requires some "hacks" to do so, but I don't know them). It is also possible the USB sticks/drives you are using are not compatible with a G5 Mac. Try using a USB 2 stick.
How did you create the bootable USB? What version of macOS did you use? A quick search reveals iMac G5s only went up to OSX 10.5. If you are booting an OSX 10.4 Tiger installer, then you need to have the proper version of the installer depending on the model since one model shipped with Tiger and another one shipped with Panther which would then need the retail version of Tiger (OSX 10.4). Booting from a DVD may be the best option.
Also the iMac G5s had a number of critical hardware flaws so the hardware is not very reliable especially after all these years (bad capacitors on the Power Supply and Logic Boards plus the LCD Panels had a high rate of failure).
We are working with a lot of unknowns here. We don't know which of the two different iMac G5 models you have and this matters because it greatly affects which version of OSX you can boot from and install.
We also don't know which version of OSX you are attempting to boot from or install. Even though both iMac G5 models support OSX 10.4 Tiger, they require a different version of the installer.
Another unknown is we don't know how this .dmg was created or how the USB stick installer was made.
All of these things have an impact. If you are getting a circle with a line through it, then it means you are using an incompatible installer.
See if you can get the exact model number of the iMac by entering the serial number here:
https://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/
Once we have the exact model of the iMac we can advise you on which OSX DVD installer you will need to attempt to purchase.
I found my mac specs by the serial number just now. The maximum version of macOS is 10.5.8.
I am trying to boot off of Mac OS X Leopard.
I made the USB off of a random dmg off the internet, I used balenaEtcher on Windows 10 to make the usb.
I understand it's probably incompatible.
This is the link to the specs on a website I have found. iMac G5 2.1 20" (iSight) Specs (iSight, MA064LL/A, PowerMac12,1, A1145, 2082): EveryMac.com
First of all you must be using a retail version of OSX 10.5.
Second, while Etcher on macOS can be used to make a bootable macOS installer from a bootable .dmg file. However, unless the .dmg file is a plain raw image file this won't work making it on Windows.
Third, you need to be very careful downloading an item like this from an unknown source. You have no idea if it contains the retail version or a Mac specific version of the installer, or whether the installer is complete, or whether the .dmg was made properly from the source DVD, or whether something malicious has been added to it. You will be better off trying to purchase a used copy of the retail version of OSX 10.5 DVD. Or you need the iMac 20" iSight OSX 10.4.2 DVD that originally shipped with that specific iMac.
Fourth, we are not sure if this iMac G5 is even capable of booting from a USB drive or what it may take to do so. I know that some PPC Macs can boot from a USB drive (or can be made to do so with some hacks), but I have no idea which ones can.
I tried using a dmg my friend sent me to make the USB and I'll try using a DVD.
Alright thanks, I'll try it.
Edit: I don't have a disk drive on this pc. Soooo.
All G5 iMacs have a DVD drive...
Either that's not what you have, or you've failed to mention something...
EXACTLY, what mode Mac do you have?
I have a iMac G5, the problem is when making the Disk drive is that I don't have a disk drive on my PC and I dont have a mac other than this one.
Also, When I boot from the USB i've made, it just shows a prohibitory symbol. Not sure what that means. I've tried using several different usbs.
I'm not 100% certain a PowerPC based machine is capable of booting from USB. You may very well have to burn it to a disk and boot from that.
My iMac G5 has an issue.
