success on 500MHz G4
Hi,
I would like to share how I got debian 2.2 rev0 on a Mac G4. It was, more
or less, as in the installation manual. The Mac has a DVD RAM drive.
1) Copy a MacOS System Folder and whatever else you want to keep in
MacOS on a DVD initialised with Disk Setup. Make it the Startup
Disk. Make sure that after the Mac boots off the DVD no files are
still used from the hard disk. Use Disk Setup to set up at least two
partitions, the first will be used for Debian in the installer.
2) Boot off the Debian CD, type at the boot prompt:
boot: debian video=ofonly
This boots without trying to use the video card.
3) Go as usual through the installer. Partition the first MacOS
partition with mac-fdisk (started by the installer for you) according
to your needs, don't forget to create a Apple_Bootstrap partition
first. Check out the mac-fdisk tutorial for details.
4) AFAIK, there is no need for additional modules at this stage, in fact
trying to insert SCSI modules caused a kernel panic.
5) Eventually you get to the "Make Linux Bootable ..." stage. Follow the
installation manual and SKIP this step. Now we need to deal with
yaboot. The long mkofboot command on pg. 45 didn't work, because there
is no ofboot.b script at this stage. I resorted to mounting the debian
CD and copying install/powermac/ofboot.b to /boot/ofboot.b and
yaboot.conf to /etc/yaboot.conf and editing the two scripts. The
yaboot/ybin tutorial helps a lot. Basically, I changed the line in
ofboot.b
boot cd:,\\whatever
to
boot hd:n,yaboot # n=partition number of your bootstrap partition
and yaboot.conf to point to your bootstrap and / partitions:
default=debian
macos=hd:m # m= partition number of MacOS boot partition
boot=/dev/hdan # n= partition number of bootstrap partition
ofboot=hd:n # "
device=hd:
install=/boot/yaboot
magicboot=/boot/ofboot.b
image=/vmlinux
label=debian
root=/dev/hdl # l= partition number of / partition
partition=l # "
read-only
append="video=ofonly" # get around broken video support
Once /boot/ofboot.b and /etc/yaboot.conf are ok, run the command
mkofboot -v
it will install the bootloader in the bootstrap partition.
6) Reboot! Proceed with installation from the CD.
7) Set up /boot/ofboot.b and /etc/yaboot.conf again, since the ones you
made in the installer got lost over the reboot. Run mkofboot -v again
and reboot again to make sure all is fine.
Holding down the "Alt" key during boot will bring up a screen where you
can choose between MacOS and Debian by clicking icons. Really cool!
The line in /boot/ofboot.b
boot hd:m # m=partition number of MacOS boot partition
will make MacOS the default.
Cheers and good luck! Stefan
---Stefan Kluth---------------Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter-----------
- MPI fuer Physik - phone: +49 89 32354 468 - OPAL& -
- Foehringer Ring 6 - fax: +49 89 32354 305 - ATLAS -
---D-80805 Munich, Germany----e-mail: skluth@mppmu.mpg.de--------------
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