Re: Why yaboot is NOT for oldworld macs, Oldworld owners please read!(was Re: StarMax and yaboot...)
Ethan Benson wrote:
>
> yaboot will not work on oldworld macs, that is why the documentation
> says it won't and does not tell you how to set it up ;-)
>
> this question seems to come up over and over and over and over again,
> for some reason alot of people want to make yaboot work on oldworld
> macs despite the fact the statements that such an effort is futile, so
> i am going to attempt an explanation of both by yaboot won't work and
> why it is not desirable to use yaboot on an oldworld:
>From the FAQ it implies it would work. Last sentence implies you should
switch to yaboot even if you do not have a NewWorld machine.
"
You don't have any other option for booting into Linux if you're using
one of the NewWorld Macs (i.e., any colored Mac) with MacOS 9.0.4 or
higher. BootX, another bootloader from BenH, used to boot those
machines, but changes made to the MacOS in 9.0.4 (and possibly the
earlier 9.0.x series) broke it completely. It worked in MacOS 9.0 and
earlier, but performance was sporadic and unpredictable. If you're using
a NewWorld machine, we highly recommend you use yaboot. Owners of
earlier machines can probably get along just fine with BootX; if you
experience odd problems starting Linux, though, you should consider
switching to yaboot.
"
Anyways, thanks for the info.
> a) difficulty finding and configuring the boot-device OF variable.
> with quik you must change the boot-device variable to the disk
> for which quik is installed, this is required since the boot-device is
> not set to a disk at all on oldworld machines, instead it is set to
> /AAPL,ROM the MacOS hardware ROM. on newworld machines you do not
> have to mess with boot device if your using IDE disks and ybin.
> yaboot being an OF boot loader, even if it worked on oldworld, would
> STILL require you to change the boot-device variable in the EXACT SAME
> WAY as you do with quik. this problem is not solved by using yaboot
> instead of quik.
OK... so I should be using quik. Messing with the boot-device is no big
deal.
> b) oldworld macs (with very few exceptions) lack the ability to
> interface with OF from the console, instead you must use a serial
> terminal:
This actually isn't true for the StarMax. And my goal is actually to get
serial console.
> so agian, yaboot does NOT work on anything except *NEWWORLD* macs,
> that means iMacs, BlueG3s, iBooks, all G4s. it will *NOT* work on
> oldworld macs, and making it work on oldworld macs would IMO be a
> large waste of time since the problems are really not in the boot
> loader (quik) but in OpenFirmware on this hardware (and [alleged] lack
> of kernel support)
Please clarify the FAQ linked off your page. Thanks.
Brian Macy
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