creating a linux partition on a mac hard disc, questions about penguin, installer problems

[ma_pri_2004 <ma_pri_2004@yahoo.de>]

Hello,

Goal: Install Sarge or Woody on a MacIIci
Hardware:
- MacIIci, 32MB RAM, nic (etherlink/nb), graphic card, cache card
- internal HD with 2 partitions: 1 MacOS-Partition, 1 other which has to
  be formated for linux
- connected to a SCSI-Tower including 2 CD drives
- floppy drive is broken

Software:
- MacOs 7.5.3 installed. Does not find the CD-drives.
- Netboot-CDs of m86k Sarge and Woody (both downloaded 18.10.2004)
- Penguin19. Finds all Hardware (including CD drives).
  Boot paramters: root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=13000
  (also tried ramdisk_size=20000)
  Kernel: vmlinuz-2.2.25-mac
  inid.rd from /cdrom (marenka files, downloaded 18.10.2004)

Questions
1) Can Linux partitions be created on a hard disc with installed MacOS
from within MacOS or from Linux/Windows/Basilsik running on another PC?
I know that the debian installer should give me this option, but I have
problems to get there.
The I copy copy all necessary stuff for the base system on the linux
partition.

2) What value should the ramdisk_size parameter be in woody and sarge
 (the mac has 32MB RAM)? Is there a simple way to calculate this?

3) What initrd should be chosen?
a) If the install media should be cdrom, then the initrd should be taken
from the directory called "cdrom"?
b) There are: initrd22.gz, initrd.gz. Which one should be chosen? Why?
c) What is the use of initrd.list?

4) Strange look in sarge and woody installer.
The border of text windows of the debian installer looks strange:
always 2 blocks and one "â"-character, sometimes borders are partly out
of the screen (photo exists and could be send). Is this OK?

5) Problems with sarge and woody loading on both CD drives.
Penguin runs, asks for language, finds CD-ROMS and tries to load
installer components.
sarge: It Aborts after 7% with the following message
"Loading libc6-udeb failed for unknown reasons. Aborting."
Any idea? I can´t continue, because after pressing "<continue>" a blank
screen appeared.
woody: Comes to installer components too and aborts by saying it has
problems reading the CD.
Maybe the cdroms are too old for CDRs (I didn´t bought them). On the
other hand did the installer load other udebs (in sarge) before showing
a read error.
Any idea? Has anyone successfully used the (net) install CDs?
SCSI-IDs are okay, SCSI-termination should be correct.

Thanks for any help (again).