Re: PPC subarches
'ello,
I have found this thread very interesting but, as I am totally new to
PPC in general I haven't really understood much of it :-). I'd be
grateful if someone could answer a few questions that have popped into
my head. I'm pretty sure I'll need to know the answers to get Debian
up-and-running successfully.
I am experienced with Sid, Sarge and Woody on x86 desktop/notebook and
server hardware. Just purchased a Mac and would like to Free it by
installing testing/unstable fairly soon :-).
I'm aware that the PowerBook G4 has ``Open Firmware'' -- is this part of
the BIOS or some kind of in-ROM bootloader? I have searched on the
Apple web site and can't find any definitive answer, nor a list of the
numerous keyboard shortcuts there are for it. To me, it seems a bit
like GRUB, but I am not sure exactly what it is. The only thing I've
learnt so far, from the Apple site, is that it is separate from the
POST.
Regarding partitioning and bootloaders like GRUB: If I re-install OSX,
creating a suitable Linux partition and then install Sarge, will its
installation routine be able to set up GRUB to allow me to boot OSX or
Linux?
Seeing as how the machine has not yet arrived, I won't ask any more
detailed questions. I was just hoping to get some general background
information so that I have an idea what I'm doing when it does get
here. Thanks in advance for any info you might be able to offer.
bye just now,
--
Matthew T. Atkinson <matthew@agrip.org.uk>
Reply to: