Blinking network icon at first, then blinking question mark alterating with mac logo

M

Marcip

Registered
When I start my iBook, I get blinking network icon for a while, then it turns into folder with blinking question mark alterating with mac logo. I know what it means; however, I have tried everything to correct it and no luck. I can't boot from the system cd by holding c-key, option/c-key, command/option/shift/delete. I zapped the PRAM, tried holding any key for that matter, without any respond. The only respond I've got was when I held down option-key by itself. This brought me to the screen with a padlock symbol and password field. However, I had no luck with keying the password in. At this point I don't care if I loose any data on this machine (everything is backed-up) I just would like to make it run. Clean install, perhaps.
Any idea anyone?
Thanks
 
The closest apple store is about 1.5 hour away.
The cd spins for a while, but that's about it. The drive worked before I had this problem.

Thanks for your lines.
 
Your computer is somehow set to look for a netboot volume first (that's the network icon you see). And then after failing to find a network boot volume, the computer looks internally for a bootable drive (hard drive, CD, DVD, or other attached drive).

It sounds like you have a compound problem. First, how did the computer get changed to look for a network volume? This could have been done inadvertently in the System Preferences > Startup Disk. Second, it sounds like you have a failed hard drive or at minimum, no valid/functioning operating system installed on the internal hard drive.

Can you insert your OS CD/DVD or your original installer disk that came with your computer? Turn off the computer (hold down the power button for 10 seconds), then boot up with the C key held down. If you're able to boot up, try changing the startup disk to your internal hard drive and then reboot. If the computer boots up from the hard drive, no further action is necessary. If it does NOT boot up, you'll need to install the operating system on your drive again. Beware that you might loose data if you don't do it properly.
 
This is all very helpful but i still have a question, I have the sane problem with my Ibook 4G, My brother (original owner of the ibook) whipped everything on the laptop. He gave me a Fedora Cd to install into it. But i have know idea how!
HELP ME
 
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We're not going to answer your question by sending you an email. We will answer your question (or try to) all on this forum. Any responses will be posted here, so that other readers/viewers of this site can see all questions asked and all answers provided... otherwise, it would completely defeat the purpose of having a "forum," wouldn't you agree?

Not to mention you just opened your email address up to every spam bot known to man.

Short answer: bad idea to post your email address in a forum! ;)

Anyway...

Is the Fedora CD you have PowerPC-compatible? Or is it the x86 distribution of Fedora? If the latter, then you'll never be able to natively install it on your iBook, as it requires an Intel- or AMD-based (CISC-based, x86 instruction set, essentially) processor.

You will need to download the ISO image of a PowerPC-compatible distribution of Fedora in order to install it on your iBook.
 
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