Re: FAQ?

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 09:35:03PM +0100, Sam Halliday wrote:
> hi there,
> 
> i was wondering if there was maybe an FAQ for new installs of debian GNU/Linux
> on powerpc... in particular for an iBook.
> 
> i just installed debian testing on my 1GHz G4 14" iBook and i have a few, what
> seem like standard, questions to ask. i will ask them here, but if my questions
> are already answered in an FAQ... a link to such a document would be
> appreciated.
> 
> 1 - i have a "british" keyboard (even though apple's is not even close to a
> british pc keyboard) and i would like to be able to have this mapped correctly.
> at the moment a lot of the non-character (such as tilde) keys are not mapped
> correctly. i selected the british keyboard during install... but i suspect this
> is the british PC keymapping, not the apple one.

Well, either the keymap is fubar, or you did choose wrongly. Is this in
X or under the console ? 

> 2 - maybe related to 1, but i cannot use the virtual terminals. when i do Alt-F2
> i just get "unknown scancode e0 54", and if i also hold down the fn key i get no
> output at all.

Err, if its like the french keymap, then Alt is mapped as Alt-Gr or Meta
or something, and Apple/Command is mapped as Alt.

> 3 - during the debian installer stage, i needed to use install-safe as none of
> the other options would work. this meant i had to install with a 2.4 kernel. i

No problem, but you could install a 2.6 kernel afterward.

> suspect i know what the problem is... as when i tried to install the 2.6 kernel
> i got an error about initrd and then the kernel did not boot up the next time.
> can yaboot handle initrd? the man page had no information about this.

Yes, naturally it can. you have to tell it too, but speak with Jens
about this, the initrd stuff is his brainchild (well on powerpc at
least).

> 4 - i am currently recompiling my own 2.6.7 kernel (without an initrd), if
> anyone has a minimal 1Ghz G4 iBook (combo drive, no bluetooth or airport
> extreme) kernel config file... a copy would be much appreciated!

Just use the default config file, and add the stuff that are needed.
Repeat until it works.

Friendly,

Sven Luther