Question : Problem: OS X Panther on iMAC model 5521 will not log in - need data recovery

First of all I can spell iMac, that's about it...

A friend handed me his Blue iMac model # 5521 (I think thats a G3).
It had 1 dimm 512Mb Ram 1 dimm 128Mb
I removed the 128 stick to get rid of a mis-match if that was the cause.

Here is the issue

Takes about 3 minutes to get to the log in screen
Enter his user ID and password
Click Continue
Waited overnight and its still not logged in.

All I want to do is recover the data so he can wipe the OS and start over.

Here is what I would like to try.
Boot to a Live Linux CD (Ubuntu for PPC).

How do I get it to boot to the CD?
or
If you know a better way...

Points to whoever give the best way that works to get data from drive...

Answer : Problem: OS X Panther on iMAC model 5521 will not log in - need data recovery

Firewire disk mode is probably the best way to go (if your faulty iMac has a firewire port).  Otherwise, try Ubuntu PPC.  You can also reinstall the system using archive and install, make sure that you select "preserve user and network setting",  it "SHOULD" keep the old data.  However, I would try firewire disk mode or Ubuntu first before going down that path.