debian-powerpc: g4 installation woes.
I have just purchased an Apple PowerMac G4/450, 256MB RAM, 20MB IDE Hard
Drive, Zip Disk and DVD-ROM. I want to install Debian Linux on it but
it is proving to be a nightmare. I have read and read and read the
mailing list archives but I can not get linux running. Can someone
please help.
I beleive that I need to use yaboot/ybin for the newworld mac.
I have download the latest versions of these from Ben and Ethan's
web/ftp sites.
I have tried the latest BootX with Bens kernels. It started booting the
kernel but then hung. It didn't get to the stage of mounting the root
filesystem compressed image.
Anyway I think I want/need yaboot.
Ethan recommends creating a 800K bootstrap partition. I haven't been
able to find out how to do this. I have been using Drive Setup from my
MacOS 9.02 CD ROM. I have been trying to partition the disk into 3
partitions (1 bootstrap, 1 MacOS, 1 Linux Home to be split up using
linux fdisk). Drive setup only allows me to enter values in units of 1
MB. No big deal but if I enter 1MB, Drive Setup changes it to 32MB.
How can I get 800K or 1MB instead of wasting 32MB. Is it possible ?
I can download base2_2.tgz to a MacOS partition. How do I get linux to
boot so I can uncompress it into my linux partition. I need to run
linux fdisk first though.
I have created boot floppies but I don't have an inbuilt floppy drive.
I borrowed an external USB floppy from a friend but have not been
successful in booting from either the root.bin image or the
boot-floppy-hfs.img. Maybe I should be using the rescue.bin image.
Please advise what to do.
I don't have access to LinuxPPC or YellowDog Linux so I can't use any of
these methods to get Linux running (nor do I want to).
Thanks,
Brendan Simon.
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