--- Begin Message ---
Package: installation-reports
Boot method: BootX
Image version: Debian etch powerpc weekly build
Date: February 4th 2007
Machine: Power Macintosh G3 Server
Architecture: powerpc
Processor: PowerPC 740/750 (G3)
Memory: 256 MB
Partitions:
Result of df -Tl:
Filesystem Type 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda9 ext3 2883640 1201232 1535924 44% /
tmpfs tmpfs 119788 0 119788 0% /lib/init/rw
udev tmpfs 10240 96 10144 1% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 119788 0 119788 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda10 ext3 5291948 171180 4851944 4% /home
/dev/hda8 ext3 132385 26384 99166 22% /var/log
/dev/hda6 hfs 819182 364065 455117 45% /mnt/MacOS
Result of mac-fdisk -l:
/dev/hda
# type name length base ( size ) system
/dev/hda1 Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1 (
31.5k) Partition map
/dev/hda2 Apple_Driver_ATA Macintosh 54 @ 64 ( 27.0k) Unknown
/dev/hda3 Apple_Driver_ATA Macintosh 74 @ 118 ( 37.0k) Unknown
/dev/hda4 Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh 512 @ 192 (
256.0k) Unknown
/dev/hda5 Apple_Patches Patch Partition 512 @ 704 (256.0k) Unknown
/dev/hda6 Apple_HFS sans titre 1638400 @ 1216 (800.0M) HFS
/dev/hda7 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap 1015626 @ 1639616 (
495.9M) Linux swap
/dev/hda8 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 273438 @ 2655242 (133.5M) Linux native
/dev/hda9 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 5859376 @ 2928680 ( 2.8G) Linux native
/dev/hda10 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 10753032 @ 8788056 ( 5.1G) Linux native
Block size=512, Number of Blocks=19541087
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: @ 64 for 21, type=0x701
2: @ 118 for 34, type=0xf8ff
Output of lspci -nn:
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Motorola MPC106 [Grackle] [1057:0002] (rev 40)
00:10.0 Unknown class [ff00]: Apple Computer Inc. Heathrow Mac I/O [106b:0010] (rev 01)
00:12.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro 215GP [1002:4750] (rev 5c)
Output of lspci -vnn:
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Motorola MPC106 [Grackle] [1057:0002] (rev 40)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
00:10.0 Unknown class [ff00]: Apple Computer Inc. Heathrow Mac I/O [106b:0010] (rev 01)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
Memory at f3000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
00:12.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro 215GP [1002:4750] (rev 5c) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 22
Memory at 81000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
I/O ports at fe000c00 [size=256]
Memory at 80800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [O]
Detect network card: [O]
Configure network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Clock/timezone setup: [O]
User/password setup: [O]
Install tasks: [O]
Install boot loader: [E]
Overall install: [O]
Comments/Problems:
Here's a feedback of my installation of Debian 4.0 "etch" on a Power Macintosh G3 MiniTower
Since it's an oldworld macintosh, it cannot boot from the Debian CDs. I tried booting from floppies, but it never worked, the floppy drive is probably dead.
So my solution was to install a legit copy of MacOS 9.2
Here's what I did:
- boot into MacOS 9.2
- launch BootX with the files vmlinux and initrd.gz
- debian-installer runs smoothly and everything goes well, except one thing: when debian-installer attempts to install quik as a boot loader, the operation fails, and the error messages states that "the partition is not ext2". This error messages seems odd to me. What partition does d-i mean ? The partition where MacOS
9.2 is, which is HFS ? One of the Linux partitions, which are ext3 and not ext2 ? Anyway, isn't ext2 the same thing as ext3 without journalization ?
- anyway I'm not worried at all that quik could not install, because I still can boot into MacOS
9.2 and then fire up BootX to boot into Debian GNU/Linux
- debian-installer finished up its work and reboots the machine
... and then something goes wrong: I see on the power macintosh a flashing "?" in a floppy. This means "I can't find any operating system to boot" ... ouch ! Now that's a problem.
- I tried zapping the PRAM, it did not help.
- Finally I took the "Outil Disque Dur" diskette and chose the menu "Fonction" and then "Mise à jour". Pardon my French, this should translate to "Apple Disk Tool", menu "Functions" and then "Update". I don't know the exact wording since I've never used MacOS
9.2 in any other language than French :)
... and *yes*, now I can boot into MacOS 9.2
... but now when I boot into Debian GNU/Linux with BootX, there is another, more serious problem:
When I boot into Debian GNU/Linux with BootX, I can only use the vmlinux and
initrd.gz of debian-installer. So instead of booting into my system, I boot into debian-installer.
Attempt to solve this problem: start a shell from debian-installer, and chroot to my Debian GNU/Linux system. From there, find the vmlinux and
initrd.gz that will allow me to boot directly into Debian GNU/Linux (they are in /boot) and make them accessible to the MacOS 9.2 system. But...
First attempt: mount the MacOS 9.2 (HFS) partition in read/write and copy vmlinux and
initrd.gz there. The hfs driver isn't built in the kernel, so I need to load it with modprobe hfs... But alas ! It fails because it's not the same kernel version ! Indeed, I'm running the vmlinux kernel from debian-installer, but I'm trying to mount a module in /lib/modules on the installed system. So it's not the same version of the kernel ! And I can't mount the HFS partition.
Second attempt: connect to the local network. From the chroot, transfer the vmlinux and initrd.gz files to a machine which has apache installed. Then reboot into MacOS 9.2, use a web browser to access the second machine, and download vmlinux and
initrd.gz. Then in the future I can use these vmlinux and initrd.gz to boot into Debian GNU/Linux.
debian-installer is for sure better than the "tools" you had to use to install Debian 3.0 on powerpc... But it seems there are still a few problems...
Especially I don't see why MacOS 9.2 becomes unbootable after the installation of Debian GNU/Linux. Of course, I didn't touch the MacOS 9.2 partitions at all. I had a lot of spare space after the MacOS 9.2 partition, and I created my filesystems there. You can look at the output of mac-fdisk -l up there, I didn't mess with the Apple partitions :)
Cheers,
Alex
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
We are closing this installation report for one of the following
reasons:
- it was reported with a pre-lenny version of Debian
Installer.
- indications in the installation report give the feeling that
the reported problem waslying in another software, unrelated to
D-I, which we can't easily identify.
- indications in the installation report suggest that it may have been
fixed in a more recent version of a D-I component
- it was successful and we forgot closing it..:-)
- it has no information we consider useful
The D-I team is currently in the process of cleaning out the old spool
of installation reports that haven't bene processed yet.
In case you think that the problem you reported has chances to be
still present, please reiterate your installation test with
a more recent image of D-I, if you're in position of doing this.
You'll find daily builds at
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer. We recommend you choose
the netboot image, in the "daily builds section", then choose to
install "squeeze" when prompted.
If some problems are found, please report them with a new bug sent
against installation-reports.
Many thanks for your understanding and your help improving Debian,
past and present.
--- End Message ---