Re: preparing for an install
On Mon, Oct 14, 2002 at 10:47:56PM -0400, Gregory Seidman wrote:
> I am preparing to install Debian on my dual-G4 system. I even have a
> spare partition I can put it on (I don't have any desire to get rid of
> MacOS or the various partitions I have made to deal with it). I was
> hoping to follow the instructions in
> http://people.debian.org/~branden/ibook.html but it seems that the
> partition must be the first on the drive. It also seems that only yaboot
> can be used as a boot loader. My spare partition is the third one on an
> external FireWire drive, and I really like Apple's own boot loader (i.e.
> the thing that comes up when one holds down option when booting).
>
> Is there any hope for me? Can linux be booted from the Apple boot loader
> (which really just changes OF settings and allows OF to do the booting)
> from a non-first partition on a FireWire drive?
The big problem I always had with that boot loader was the loooooong
wait while it searched for an Ethernet netboot image, if there is
none. I never really tried to use it to boot Linux; yaboot is so much
more configurable besides being free software etc. Don't know if it
has any issues supporting Firewire.
You can always use the r command in mac-fdisk to reorder the logical
partition order, the physical order is not what matters. It's also not
strictly necessary that it be first, just that later, it won't piss
you off as much if it is. Because whenever you open the Startup Disk
control panel, if the bootstrap partition is not first, you will have
to use your rescue system to get back into linux and reset the boot
loader.
> On another (vaguely related?) note, how good is the SMP support in the
> 2.4 kernel on PPC? And does Mac-on-Linux see both processors?
No idea.
--
*------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------*
| <http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual> |
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| Chris Tillman tillman@voicetrak.com |
| To Have, Give All to All (ACIM) |
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