Re: Re: G4 Debian Install problem
Note: If you want to use woody boot-floppies as Ethan suggests, you can
get them at your local mirror in /debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc .
There's no CD image, so instead you'll have use MacOS and Open Firmware to
set up yaboot and the ramdisk image. Once you boot the woody install
disks, I think you can use your potato CD as the source medium (Ethan,
will this work?).
See "6.3 Booting from a Hard Disk" in this document:
http://www.debian.org/releases/2.2/powerpc/ch-rescue-boot.en.html
Before you try this, it's probably worth trying a few simple things to fix
your mostly-complete potato install:
>> If you boot from the installation disk again and start the installer,
>> you can then switch to the second virtual console (type command-F2
>> ... or was it the third console?) and get a shell. You can then
>> mount your root partition and try to see what's wrong.
>
> my knowledge so far does include opening a shell from the installer.
> and i assume my redhat linux and linux for dummies books have info on
> mounting. but would you mind spelling it out (mounting), and what i
> should look for once i've mounted it? thanks.
You can use the installer's menu system to mount your root partition. It
mounts it in /target or /mnt/target (I can't remember which).
Now (working within the target volume), check for the /vmlinux symlink.
Using 'ls -l' see where that link points (should be to the kernel in
/boot), then check that file to see that it exists. If it doesn't, try
re-running the "Install Operating System Kernel" step from the installer.
Now go back to the shell and run the mkofboot command again, checking all
the arguments (especially the --root device). Now reboot. If this
doesn't work, I would just go to the woody boot-floppies. They have a
working "Make Bootable from Harddrive" step that eliminates the need to
run ofpath and mkofboot by hand.
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