On Tue, Sep 05, 2000 at 08:51:40PM -0400, Patrice LaFlamme wrote: > Hello *, > > I want to install debian (or any PPC Linux for that matter, I am > becoming very desperate) on my PowerBook 3400. > > LinuxPPC can't install because I can't partition my hard drive. > Debian can't install because (why oh why???????????) the CD isn't > bootable! (at least, the binary-powerpc-1.iso I just downloaded). the CDs are only bootable on `newworld' powermacs (and PreP i think) oldworld bootable CDs would require alot of extra bootstrap code to be written. Debian will not use and rely on non-free software to build its CD images. > A little info: it is a powerbook3400, with a 12x cdrom and no floppy > drive. I installed a new 4GB hard drive (removing the older 1.4GB one), > and have no MacOS media to reinstall and repartition. this is bad, you need either a macos installation or a floppy drive to boot your system into dbootstrap, period. (or an existing quik booted linux install) > I've been trying to get Linux on this for more than a month. pdisk (in > LinuxPPC 2000) can't partition the hard drive (it came from a > NetWinder - PC-style partitions.. but still, it should be able to, > shouldn't it? I can create the partitions in pdisk - even though it > only sees mny 1st of 4 GBs, but I can't write the partition map! WHY??), > and I have no other way of partition. you need to create a new empty partition table first, to do this you need to use the `i' command in mac-fdisk (mac-fdisk in debian will do this, i have seen other versions of pdisk such as linuxppc's that won't touch the disk unless it already has a valid mac partition table) the only problem with debian's mac-fdisk is it often miscalculates the number of blocks on the disk, so you should find that info yourself (look in /proc/partitions, find the number next to the device, say hda, and double it, to get the correct number of 512 byte blocks.) > So I need suggestions on how to install. well i see a couple problems here: 1) no floppy drive which means no means to use the debian boot floppy. 2) no macos which means you MUST use quik. i don't think you can install LinuxPPC 2000 on this machine this way, even if you can boot the CD you cannot make it bootable from the hard disk since LinuxPPC 2000 does not have a working quik. (they insist on BootX or miboot, but miboot requires that MacOS drivers be present on the disk and for that you need to use the Apple partitioning tool) the only other option i can think of is netboot but im not sure if the firmware on that machines supports it (or if it purports to support it whether its totally broken support) unfortunatly oldworld hardware is really a bitch to bootstrap without macos, newworld hardware is a different story you don't need macos for anything from bootstrap to install to hard disk bootability. can you get a floppy drive for this machine? i know they made an external drive for them. could you possibly install this disk into another powerpc box already running GNU/Linux and then install the debian kernel and root image, install quik and then reinstall the disk back into the powerbook? -- Ethan Benson http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
Attachment:
pgpBBG8rf_BFa.pgp
Description: PGP signature