mac installation
I've been reading the debian installation guide, in particular the mac
sections. I found a couple of problems.
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.m68k/index.html
--- Section 4.3.4 says "There is no MacOS application to write images to
floppy disks"
Actaully, the MacOS app to read and write raw floppy disk images is
SUntar, though the procedure would need documenting.
http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/cmp/suntar-223.hqx
There are also tools like DropDisk and Disk Copy, for working with "NDIF"
format image files.
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/
--- Section 5.1.2.3 says " .../current/images/mac/penguin19.hfs is an hfs
disk image with Penguin unpacked. Section 4.3, Creating Floppies from Disk
Images describes how to copy this image to a floppy."
This link is broken... I guess it hasn't been released. I gather the
intention is to offer a raw disk image containing Penguin and a Penguin
settings file, plus the kernel and RAM disk?
Should we offer stuffit (.sit) or NDIF (.img) formats as well? These
formats are more convenient since often a .sit can easily be unpacked or
else the .img mounted without having to write it to a floppy first.
--- Section 7.1.2 says "...locate the kernel options line which should
look like root=/dev/ram video=font:VGA8x16 or similar ... The
video=font:VGA8x8 is recommended especially for users with tiny screens.
The kernel would pick a prettier (6x11) font but the console driver for
this font can hang the machine, so using 8x16 or 8x8 is safer at this
stage. You can change this at any time."
With linux 2.6, that should be fbcon= not video=. Also, I've never seen
any troubles when using the default font size on any of my macs with 2.6
kernels. (Well, there are too many fonts, video cards, display sizes and
colour depths to say that it can't happen... has anyone seen this bug?)
Christian's kernels include,
CONFIG_FONT_8x8
CONFIG_FONT_8x16
CONFIG_FONT_6x11
Oddly fbcon=font:VGA8x16, fbcon=font:VGA6x11 and no fbcon option all seem
to give the same result. I guess VGA6x11 just doesn't work, and
fbcon=font:VGA8x16 is redundant?
Anyway, I think this should be changed to "...locate the kernel options
line which should look like root=/dev/ram or similar ... The kernel option
fbcon=font:VGA8x8 is recommended for users with small screens. You may
also wish to experiment with fbcon=font:VGA8x16 or fbcon=font:VGA6x11
options, or no fbcon option at all. Changing the display size in MacOS as
well may help. Note that the color depth set by MacOS can affect the
colors of the console in some cases."
-f
Reply to: