When going to the boot menu (after pressing option), the Powerbook G4 667MHz detects the installer (either on a CD or flash drive - depending on what I am using), but when I choose the Linux installer the screen flashes and the menu comes back in low resolution. Only the mouse works.
I suspect the firmware is looking for a very specific configuration in the disc and it is not finding it. The same problem happens if I try to boot up the Leopard (OSX 10.5) installer or DiskWarrior 4. However Diskwarrior 3.3 and the Tiger (OSX 10.4) installer boot up without a problem.
It is not the Ubuntu installer because it works fine on an iMac. Maybe there is a way to work on yaboot or GRUB to talk to the Tibook? Any ideas?
The processor is: PowerPC 7440 G4
In the system profiler, I get:
Processor name: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Boot ROM version: 4.2.9f1
The installer is for PowerPC, and it works fine in my iMac (another PowerPC G4). It seems to be something more specific. I have tried different distros (Yellow Dog, Lubuntu, Debian) and they all have the same problem with this computer, but not with the iMac.
Like I thought, it has to do with yaboot. I restored the image of the installer in another partition of the hard drive and forced the boot from the firmware. yaboot starts and flashes these lines:
loading XCOFF
tsize=28000 dsize=2000 bsize=3a000 entry=5616ecc
SECTIONS
.text 05600000 05600000 00028000 000000d4
.data 05628000 05628000 00002000 000280d4
.bss 0562a000 0562a000 0003a000 00000000
loading .tex, done
loading .data, done
clearing .bss, done
After which, it shows the "forbidden/not allowed/cross out circle sign" that indicates that the operating system is in a broken folder or corrupted (I haven't seen that symbol in a while).