# Alternate boots for Imacs



## BratDawg (Sep 23, 2004)

I need to know how to boot my new used imac alternatively. Access bios? Need to see if I can make it do something before it loads the operating system.

thanks


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## Serge_N_Gin (Sep 7, 2004)

Not sure exactly what it is you want to do _or _if these methods will help you get there, but these are two alternative ways I know of:

_*Single User Mode*_
*Safe Mode*

These methods are for Mac OS X ...


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## BratDawg (Sep 23, 2004)

I don't know either - I stay far away from Macs. They are too humbling to my pc psyche. LOL

My friends' stepson picked up a practically new Imac at Goodwill for $50 (possibly from a frustrated pc user trying to switch? hehe)

I posted for him since he's rather known as the Destroyer of Computers.... 

Thanks for the info.


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## BratDawg (Sep 23, 2004)

Ha! He wants to put linux on it.


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## Serge_N_Gin (Sep 7, 2004)

No probs.


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## [email protected] (Dec 16, 2007)

BratDawg said:


> I need to know how to boot my new used imac alternatively. Access bios? Need to see if I can make it do something before it loads the operating system.
> 
> thanks


Macs don't have a "BIOS". The use EFI for the new Intel Macs, and OpenFirmware for the previous few generations. There is no shell for EFI on the Intel Macs, but you can access the Open Firmware shell by holding down CMD/APPLE+OPT/ALT+O+F during power up. Hold down the C key to boot from an inserted, bootable CD-ROM. Old down the T key to start up in Target Disk Mode, if you want to mess with the filesystems before boot.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

If he picked this up for $50 I highly doubt it's an Intel based Mac. 

Like mentioned, make sure you get a proper Linux distro that will work with this PowerPC CPU and when booting holding the 'c' key to start from the CD.

When checking for a Linux distro the key word to search for is *PPC* support.


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## SoltoN (Jul 5, 2007)

don't get to used of the BIOS, EFI will take over sooner than later on all hardware. Direct from Microsoft.com:

"In 2005, Intel and Microsoft were among the founding members of the Unified EFI Forum. Other founding members of the forum include AMD, American Megatrends, Dell, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Insyde, and Phoenix Technologies"


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