Re: d-i fails on new PowerMac G5
I decided to go the "hard" way, swapping "hard" drives (that's a good
pun!). At this moment the system is loading a bunch of packages to set
up my workstation. That is, I was able to reboot the machine and get
into Linux, Hurray! I have yet to test if OSX is now screwed up :|
Before swapping disks, I did look at the yaboot.conf file that was being
installed. And indeed it was installing the loader in sdb2, the second
drive. I didn't see anything wrong with it (unfortunately I don't have a
copy with me now). I also did a "yabootconfig --chroot /target" while
still booting from CD by opening a shell. It rebuilt a default config
file. But even with this, selecting "l" in the first stage loader boot
menu still sent me back to the graphical menu (no, there was nothing in
between, like another boot prompt). And if I didn't type anything it
will soon take me back there in just a few seconds. I remember seeing a
"timeout=100" in the yaboot.conf file but no "delay=xx" statement at
all.
My suggestion for the installer would be the following: Close to the end
of the process the installer asked me where to install yaboot. But the
only option I got was /dev/sdb2. Should I have been given the option to
install it in the first drive, I wouldn't been bothering you with my
questions. Make the installer aware of being run on a second drive,
don't just assume that you have a single drive. That should solve the
problem.
Thanks for the support so far. It's better than any pay-per-incident
contract! I might bother you with other questions on different threads.
Cheers,
--
Pedro
On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 12:16 -0800, Shyamal Prasad wrote:
> "Pedro" == Pedro Sanchez <psanchez@nortel.com> writes:
>
>
> Pedro> Almost right. "tell it to boot off the second disk..." I
> Pedro> imagine that's what I do when I click the Linux icon in the
> Pedro> graphical boot menu, correct? I assume the little text boot
> Pedro> menu that follows is actually coming from yaboot.
>
> Hi Pedro,
>
> That is correct. That is the first stage loader. You choose the "OS"
> to boot at this prompt ('x' for macosx, 'l' for Linux etc.). If you
> choose 'l' you should get a boot prompt from the "second stage". Do
> you get this? Does it go by really quickly, or are you sure you are
> going straight back to the graphical boot?
>
> Pedro> The problem is, that after I press "l" the machine doesn't boot
> Pedro> Linux, instead, it sends me back to the graphical boot
> Pedro> menu. I haven't found a way to get out of this loop. Note
> Pedro> that pressing "x" in the text menu *does* boot OSX without
> Pedro> problems. I wonder then why is it that "l" doesn't boot
> Pedro> Linux.
>
> It might be that the installer got messed up generating the
> yaboot.conf file and then installing yaboot. Can you post the
> /etc/yaboot.conf file from the installed system? Of course you need to
> boot into Linux for this!
>
> If you cannot boot into Linux at all, you can actually boot using the
> installer, use Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get an alternate terminal and mount the
> root disk (d-i will probably name the disks /dev/discs/disc0/part[n]
> and so on).
>
> Also, try the hints at
>
> http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/yaboot/doc/yaboot-howto.shtml/ch9.en.shtml#s9.3
>
> You should be able to boot this system one way or the other. At worst
> pop in the d-i CD, and at the boot prompt try to boot the installed
> kernel on /dev/sdb3.
>
> Finally, if you can get the yaboot.conf file and fix it (assuming
> there is something obviously wrong) it is possible to reinstall yaboot
> (using a chroot for example, we can show you how) as long as you can
> boot Linux from *something* (like the d-i CD :-).
>
> Pedro> Hmm, I'm just thinking, would swapping the hard drives
> Pedro> work? What if the Linux disk is now sda and the OSX disk is
> Pedro> sdb? I guess I can give it a try.
>
> It probably will. However, if you have the time to debug this issue
> and file bug reports (I'm assuming there is a bug) it would really
> help out the Debian installer. I don't think I've seen anyone report
> on this two disk G5 system.
>
> Cheers!
> Shyamal
>
>
Reply to: