Re: confused by yaboot
On Wed, Feb 09, 2000 at 08:42:49AM -0500, John Murden wrote:
> I have aquired yaboot, but for the life of me can not figure what it is that
> I'm supposed to actually do with it. Any help would be MUCH appreciated...
/me really needs to write that yaboot howto... anyone have any
motivation syrup? ;-)
There are two ways to deal with yaboot, the best way requires that you
created a bootstrap partition when you installed (PLEASE add that to
install docs!!) when you have a bootstrap partition yaboot works
pretty cool.
first i explain what to do when you do have a bootstrap partition:
boot into linux, either with bootx if you can or by placing yaboot at
the root of a hfs partition somewhere and running at the OF command
prompt (which can be accessed by holding down command option o f at
bootup) boot hd:<partition#>,yaboot
this assumes internal hard disk (duh on a ibook :)) enter the numeric
partition number in place of <partition#> you should now see:
welcome to yaboot...
boot:
enter the following command:
hd:<linux_root_partition>,/boot/vmlinux-2.2.14
this time use the partition number of your linux root partition, and
replace the kernel name with the actual yabootable kernel image, if
you use yaboot 0.5 at least you can point it at a symlink.
now if all goes well you should be booting the linux kernel.
once you are in linux, and have a bootstrap partition [warning
shameless plug ahead] the easiest way to set it up is to use my ybin
utility at http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/ybin/ follow the
instructions included with it to install the scripts in the right
places and to setup its config file. (just tell it what linux device
the bootstrap partition is)
you should also setup a /etc/yaboot.conf file, mine is like this:
device=hd:
timeout=30
default=linux
image=/boot/vmlinux
label=linux
partition=3
root=/dev/hda3
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinux.old
label=linux.old
partition=3
root=/dev/hda3
read-only
replace the partition number with the your root partition number. and
device should be OK unless you are using a scsi disk or something.
after you have setup /etc/ybin.conf as explained in ybin's
instructions you can run mkofboot which will create a hfs filesystem
on your bootstrap partition and copy the yaboot files to it.
now if the bootstrap partition appears before your macos partition OF
will automatically boot it instead of macos with DEFAULT OF settings
(note this requires a valid `wrapper' which is explained in the ybin
readme)
any time you update the /etc/yaboot.conf file (or the yaboot binary)
just rerun `ybin' like you would with quik or lilo and it will be
updated, neat eh?
note ybin needs hfsutils to work which is not in the debian base
system :-(
when you create a bootstrap partition it is important that it be a
partition of type Apple_Bootstrap instead of the usual Apple_HFS or
Apple_UNIX_SVR2 used for linux partitions, this can be done with
mac-fdisk by using the C (instead of c) command) and expensive
commercial macos partitioners such as hard disk toolkit will allow you
to create custom partitions. i do not beleive Disk Setup (the default
MacOS partitioner) will allow this..
the reason you need that special type is because otherwise macos will
`helpfully' mount and screw up the bootstrap partition making it
unbootable the special type causes macos to helpfully ignore it ;-)
now if you didn't create a bootstrap partition and cannot add one at
this point we have to do it the hard (read less cool :) way:
put yaboot at the root level of your macos partition along with a
yaboot.conf next to it, if you want a simple bootmenu put the one
included with ybin here too. now boot into OF and run:
setenv boot-device hd:<macosboot>,yaboot
if you use a bootmenu wrapper replace `yaboot' with the name of the
wrapper, replace <macosboot> with your macos partition number.
now if your macos boot partition is in hfs (not plus) format you can
adjust ybin's configuration to update your yaboot configuration safely
on the macos partition.
this is more annoying since you have to mess with OF settings which
most people hate to do (don't blame ya ;-)) and everytime your nvram
gets cleared you have to go muck with it again. its also much easier
for somebody to go and delete yaboot on you making linux unbootable
you should not try and put the yaboot files in anywhere but the root
directory as it does not reliably deal with paths, and finding files
in directories in OF is a wee bit.. flaky..
I highly reccomend all newworld users do thier partitioning like this:
--------------------
partition table
--------------------
bootstrap 800K
--------------------
linux root
--------------------
linux swap
--------------------
other linux parts
--------------------
macos
--------------------
you could put the macos partition before linux root if you like it
dont really matter just so its AFTER the bootstrap partition (which
should always be the very first possible partition)
if the disk is linux only you do NOT need a apple macos driver, my
internal disk on my G3 does not have one and it works perfectly and
macos thinks the disk does not exist which is great! ;-)
even if you don't plan to use yaboot right now the extra 800K is very
little compared to the multiple GB of space and its not very easy to
add partitions later..
have fun!
> >> I'm having the same difficulties trying to install on an iBook running OS
> >> 8.6. And I'm using BootX 1.2b3.
> >
> > On the ibook, you should use yaboot.
--
Ethan Benson
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