On Fri, Dec 16, 2005 at 11:11:27PM -0800, Tara Athan wrote: > I have been attempting to follow the instructions in > > http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/powerpc/ > > to install debian on my Performa 6400/180. > I have done the following: > 1. created 2 partitions on my hard disk, one with the Mac OS installed, the > other blank > 2. installed bootx > 3. downloaded CD images from > http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r0a/powerpc/jigdo-cd > (I am using a Windows XP machine to download and burn- I don't have an > internet connection on the Performa- the modem is not functioning) > 4. burned the first CD using Nero > 5. copied vmlinux and initrd.gz (from the PowerPC folder on the debian > distro) into a Linux Kernels folder under the System folder > > (Actually the instructions say > "Download > |linux.bin| and > |ramdisk.image.gz| from the > |disks-powerpc/current/powermac| folder, and place > them in the |Linux Kernels| folder." This sounds like it was from the an old version of the installation manual. The names used with the current release is vmlinux and initrd.gz and the folder to look for them is http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-powerpc/current/images as indicated in the installation manual 4.2.1. I have no installation cdrom available so I don't know exactly where these files are on the cd, but you will probably find them. > but I can't find those files, so I tried using the files for the New World > Macs (vmlinux and initrd.gz), which are present in my distro) As far as I know there are no special kernels/initrd.gz:s for New World, but for newer CPU:s. Performa 6400 will only work with the powerpc flavor (i.e. not power3 or power4 or apus). When you write "in my distro", do then mean "on the installation CD"? If, so use the kernel/initrd.gz in the powerpc folder. > When I reboot, I see the BootX dialog. There is no response when I > select "Use RAM Disk" This is crucial: the debian-installer will not work (as you found it will not be able to mount root fs) without the RAM Disk (initrd.gz). > Clearly I am missing something important.. can anyone give me a clue? > Are there |linux.bin| and| ramdisk.image.gz files somewhere I haven't > looked yet? No, I think the only thing missing is the RAM Disk, you must somehow get BootX to load the initrd.gz or the installation will never even start. > PS I have OS 7.5.3 installed on the Mac. I have used BootX with 7.5.3 on a Performa 5400, worked well. When the installation is over and everything works well, you can boot with quik on Performa 6400 and reformat the MacOS partition and let Debian use that part of the HD. You'll need to issue the following commands before you try to boot with quik though: # nvsetenv boot-device ata/ATA-Disk@0:0 # nvsetenv boot-command "begin ['] boot catch 1000 ms cr again" And here's how the quik.conf should look like (notice the slight difference in the ata/ATA-Disk..." string). this one assumes root is at /dev/hda6 ---------------------------------------------- timeout = 20 default = linux device = ata/ATA-Disk@0 partition = 6 root = /dev/hda6 image = /boot/vmlinux initrd = /boot/initrd.img append = "ramdisk_size=8192" label = linux ---------------------------------------------- -- Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) <hans@sociologi.cjb.net> A. Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion Q. Why is top posting bad?
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