Re: Kernel 2.4.18-powerpc using BootX
Thanks for the reply!
You're right, of course. The yaboot loader has absolutely no chance of
working on this box. Yaboot needs NewWorld to do anything at all. The
Debian installer actually *tries* to use the "quik" loader, but that's a
bad choice for me because I want to run MacOS9 on it sometimes. I can
set up the OpenFirmware to do one or the other (Linux via quik *or*
MacOS9 via the Apple ROM boot), but not both. (Doing anything with OF
on a 6500 is a royal pain, because it wants to use the modem serial port
for standard-in/out. I can change that, of course, but MacOS keeps
resetting it to "standard" [read: "broken"] on me!) So I'm stuck with BootX.
Looking at the postinstall script of the kernel-image package, there's
some setup stuff that needs to be done -- in addition to the bootloader
stuff. It seems to me that if "/sbin/quik" is found to be missing, it
just might do the "right thing" as far as the other setup stuff, anyway.
So I'm going to try deleting /sbin/quik and re-installing the new
kernel-image package. Wish me luck! I'll report any progress.
As far as hardware goes:
This is my "experimental" machine, where I try things out before
installing them on my "production" boxes. So it has lots of interesting goodies.
The "stock" PowerMac 6500 came with a 2GB IDE internal drive connected
to an on-motherboard IDE controller. It also had an on-motherboard SCSI
controller, which was originally connected to a CD-ROM drive and a ZIP
drive, then out the back of the machine to one of the infamous Apple
25-pin SCSI connectors.
I've replaced the 2GB IDE drive with an 80GB IDE drive (I tried a 180GB
drive, but the stupid old onboard IDE controller has the "130GB limit",
so it wouldn't address the last 50GB. So I backed off to 80GB)
I've replaced the original SCSI CD-ROM drive (2-x speed) with a SCSI
CD-R/W drive (32-x speed) [[Aside: The MacOS9 CD driver won't talk to
this CD-R/W drive for some reason, so I have to use the Roxio Toast CD
driver -- which is OK, since I need it anyway if I'm going to use the
"writer" features of the drive!]]
I've replaced the internal SCSI ZIP drive with an old 6GB SCSI hard disk
which I've loaded with an "emergency backup" Linux and MacOS for use in
recovering when I've gotten everything on the IDE drive totally screwed.
(It's an "experimental" machine, remember!) I use an external SCSI ZIP
drive via the 25-pin connector if I need a ZIP drive for any reason.
And finally, I've bumped the RAM up to 128 Meg. That's the max the
memory bus can support on the 6500.
The hardware all works a treat!
Now if I could just get a modern (2.4) kernel to work...
After I get 2.4 to boot, the next stop is 2.6!
Enjoy!
Rick
Mich Lanners wrote:
>
> On 14 Jan, this message from Rick Thomas echoed through cyberspace:
> > When it asked if I wanted to setup to boot from this kernel, it
> > warned about not being able to boot other OSes, so I assumed it
> > was going to do yaboot stuff, and told it "no" -- figuring I'd do
> > the BootX version of that manually later.
>
> I don't kow what went wrong for you, but it's clear that yabot does you
> no good. The 6500 is an OldWorld PowerMac, and that class of machines is
> not supported by yaboot.
>
> The only alternative to BootX would be quik, but that beast is a hassle
> to set up (due largely to the brokeness of the firmware on OldWorld
> machines).
>
> Cheers
>
> Michel
>
> PS How do you boot that machine from an IDE disk? An additional IDE PCI
> card?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Michel Lanners | " Read Philosophy. Study Art.
> 23, Rue Paul Henkes | Ask Questions. Make Mistakes.
> L-1710 Luxembourg |
> email mlan@cpu.lu |
> http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan | Learn Always. "
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