Debian on an iMac 17''
Howdy all,
I took the decision little more than a week ago to install Debian on my
iMac 17''. Now with the good feeling to know at least a bit how the
debian installer works on x86 architectures ( as I have done already
some installations using the woody installer ), I tried to do so.
Unfortunately it didn't work as expected. So here comes some kind of a
log file of all the things I tried to get at least the installer to
work. ;-)
To get a bit familiar with all the stuff one got to do on the ppc
architecture I read some how-to s. Most of them were of laptop
installations. Hence the PowerBook 12'' has a pretty similar chip-set
to the one in the iMac, at least that is what I was told near a local
reseller.
well. I read : http://people.debian.org/~branden/ibook/ and some other.
I did as told namely :
Launch the Web Browser That Shall Not Be Named, go to the following URL:
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/
current/new-powermac/
and retrieve the following files:
linux.bin
yaboot
yaboot.conf
images-1.44/root.bin
That's right, a mere 5.0 megs of stuff.
Put those four files into the "root" of the volume called "Debian".
"linux.bin", "yaboot", "yaboot.conf", and "root.bin" should all be
present in the root directory of that volume.
Unfortunately that installer didn't recognize my hard disc. ( as I read
after-words, it detects the cd-rom drive as hda )
I found some more sites:
http://valla.uchicago.edu/ppc/pbG412.html
and
http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~schmidtm/apple/powerbook.en.php
the first kernel didn't recognize my hard disc neither, and the second
one kernel panic ed at boot time with the following errors:
I noted it on a bit of paper and the ... are just a long rows of
numbers, so i just didn't copy them. If they are of any importance,
please tell me, I ll try to regenerate the error, using that kernel.
RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.
Freeing initrd memory 3880k freed.
kernel BUG at bugger.c:2559!
Oops: Exception in kernel mode, sig: 4.
...
call backtrace:
...
kernel panic : Attempted to kill init.
I tried to boot all the kernels till now with the safe flag, as well as
video=ofonly but that didn't help neither.
I continued, and only then thought about the archive of the debian-ppc
list,
where a similiar issue was posted:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2003/debian-powerpc-200311/
msg00217.html
The Sarge installer cd, didn't even boot, I tried using the
"hold-down-c" method as well as holding down alt to see all the boot
drives. But the cd didn't show up. ( I controlled the md5 of the
download iso file, and it was identical to the one I downloaded. )
Now, I was some kind of frustrated and decided not to try again to
soon. I downloaded however the 7 woody-ppc cd's as I needed them to
install and rather old imac CRT 400 mhz g3 at school. The installer as
well as all the rest worked flawlessy.
That's why I decided to give it another try, with the same cd set which
works as I installed from them already. Hence, when I hold down c, the
c wasn't detected as a "bootable" device, and it booted again os x. ? I
don't really understand why. I tried a second time, but it didn't help.
*g*...
I read about the topic on the new kernel-image of sven luther, and
unpacked it on my x86 sid station. copied the kernel to my disc, and
tried to boot using that one. thought it was not possible. I ll try it
again right now, waiting for perhaps some help.
I do hope I could convince you that I did quite a bit of researching
all over the net. Not that you think I am just some kind of lazy and
asking the people of the list first. ;-)
Friendly
Bob Hentges
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