Re: Installing Linux from scratch (PowerMac 4400)
On Thu, Nov 04, 1999 at 10:57:43AM +0100, Andreas Gruenbacher wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a little problem getting my PowerMac 4400/200 to boot again.
>
> As I was used to on Intel machines, I just repartitioned the harddisk with pdisk
> and removed all MacOS partitions. Now the darn thing doesn't boot anymore. I
> don't get into Open Firmware, either.
Makes sense since you wiped everything from your drive and OF is by default
out to the serial port.
> >From several bits of documentation I conclude that Open Firmware uses the serial
> port per default on this machine. At least, if I press the magical Open Firmware
> keys at boot time, the monitor doesn't get any signals (as opposed to when I
> press nothing).
Yep, that will start OF on the serial console. :)
> I would like to build a NULLMODEM CABLE so that I can configure my Mac from a
> PC. I don't have a second Mac. Does anybody know the pinout and which pins to
> connect for that purpose? I couldn't find any suitable online documentation on
> the Web.
>
> Is there any other way I can get the machine boot properly again? Does a MacOS
> CD help?
Here's my method for installing to a pmac when you have no MacOS installed,
some Linux/Unix box, a flopy drive, and a MacOS CD:
Retrieve my compressed HFS bootvars disk image from
http://www.debian.org/~porter/pmacdl/bootvars.bin.gz, uncompress it, and
dd it to a floppy.
Boot the MacOS CD. When it comes to the desktop, insert the BootVars disk,
and run bootvars from the floppy. Change the bootvars to perform I/O on
the correct devices (on my Tanzania mobo, it is 'screen' for output and
'kbd' for input, I hear it is different on others). Also change the
boot-device to 'fd:linux' boot-file to 'root=/dev/0200 load_ramdisk=1' to
automagically boot the Debian install disk. This can be done from OF too,
of course, now that you set I/O devices correctly.
> Which settings do I need in Open Firmware to boot from CD, provided that I get
> into Open Firmware (ever)?
If boot-device is set to /AAPL,ROM then it should boot from the CD. The only
exception I found was when I got my drive that had Norton disklock on it,
I had to unhook it until I change the boot-device so I could get into OF.
--
Matt Porter
mmporter@home.com
This is Linux Country. On a quiet night, you can hear Windows reboot.
Reply to: