Hello,

I just had my Mac repaired. Well partially. I got brand new Superdrive, the hard disk was scrapped. I managed to have the MorphOS installed on an USB drive (that is flash pendrive / stick). There's an instruction French pdf file how to do it somewhere here around. So no HDD anymore.

The problem is I cannot make this damn thing to start from USB. I tried to list the files from any dev of usb alias from Open Firmware. No chance. Then I tried to boot my mac with multiple booting options (i.e. all systems listed, reboot + cmd). It requires the USB inserted at the booting time. It doesn't boot, gives hw ok sound but doesn't even turn the video on. The files are OK though, when I booted from MOS CD, the USB drive looks like a System disk mirror.

I read on mac forums some macs are nasty in terms of booting from pendrives. So I really ask you on what's next. I can see three scenarios:

1) The USB stick is 2.0 (or 1.0) thus unsupported for booting. I suppose this is not much likely but if so, I'll get another identical supported pendrive (2G) and just try to redo the pendrive install

2) Mac Mini has unsupported firmware (unfortunately that's most probable). Thus I suppose, there is a possibility to renew the firmware, right? The question is - can I do it myself or I gotta ask Apple for it (and $ them)

3) Neither above would work, so I'm either bound to getting a HDD (not sure if I want to spend more cash on it right now) or maybe it's not that bad. The question is... After MorphOS is booted, if the CD is ejected then but the pendrive is mounted having 100% system clone on it, what happens if MOS needs some system lib or class? Does it alert the system CD missing or tries to find it recursively on available dirs, thus finding it on the said USB? If so, I'm home because I will need the CD for booting only.

Thanks for help (again).

DD