Hi!

I am currently trying to install Linux on a Mac (ppc 32bits).

I can't boot on the cd even when pressing 'C' when the system boots.

However when I insert the MacOSX disc and proceed the same way, it boots ont the CD. I have tried with bootable disks from Gentoo (ppc32bits) and Ubuntu and I am certain these disks are bootable.

Would you have any ideas?

Thank you very much!

Have you tried holding the option key during startup?
or
Have you tried changing the startup disk in the system Preferences? ( I have never booted linux on a mac before and I don't know if the OS will recognize the Linux install disk as a startup disk, but I am curious ).

Another key command that may work at startup is holding option-apple-shift-delete (Same as emptying the trash immediately) This will make the computer search for a secondary startup disk.

Good Luck

Pressing C when the system is booting is the correct way to boot from CD.

Are you sure that the CD is bootable. What happens when you view the contents of the CD - do you get several directories or a single file? You should get several directories.

It is possible that you have either burned the disks incorrectly, or the downloads were corrupted. Check the MD5SUM of the downloaded files against wherever you got them from to find out.

And it goes without saying to make sure you have the PPC images not Intel images.

I hope this helps
--Ian

What machine are you trying to install to? I'll assume it's a New World Mac since you can use Mac OS X.

If I remember correctly, there should be at least one or two files relating to yaboot. Check in the boot directory on the disc. There should be a yaboot and a yaboot.conf.

What did you use to burn the disc? It's possible it didn't get burned correctly. List a couple of file names from the disc. I burned an ISO of Gentoo once with a program that didn't know how to correctly handle the ISO and the file names were similar to what they should be, but still messed up.

Also, what release are you trying to use? 2005.1 worked fine for me on my Old World PowerBook (don't have a working New World to try it on).

Also depending on what Optical drive you have in your system it may not like burned cd's. My powerbook G4 500/DVI hated burned cd's, but my g4 1gig had no problem with them. It's a known issue with some g4 macs.

A lot of companies did make security features to stop ROMS from burning and reading fake CD's. That has all stopped now and kind of in reverse. The best selling CD ROMs (well from my shop) seem to be the ones that will read and burn anything. Its well worth checking out a review for the ROM itself.