Re: on kernel building, firewire support, my install HowTo
Hi Mauro
On Thu, Jan 20, 2005 at 09:17:35PM -0700, Mauro wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> I've used debian-ppc off and on for about two years now. This is the
> first I've never really participated in the debian community as most of
> my experimenting was from reading (and some irc).
>
> About the firewire support, RC2 has firewire enabled by default as my
> firewire burner is detected and works (It's a LiteOn repackaged as a
> Lacie). So there is no need to custom make a kernel for this reason.
>
> As for building kernels, it seems that every linux-pc head named tom,
> dick, and harry that I personally know has built a kernel. According to
> my experience and that of others I have read, it is not such an easy
> process on ppc.
I don't believe it's more difficult than on x86: I've started using ppc
Linux for the first time around spring/summer 2003, IIRC, after a few
years of user level experience on x86 RedHat Linux. So I still see
myself as a beginner on ppc. But even for me it was possible to
install and run Debian/ppc. Even compiled my own kernels. Sure: Nobody
probably will say it's easy to install and set up Debian. But I hope
people told you about this situation *before* you chose Debian ... :)
The docs you can find for compiling kernels should be valid for both
x86 and ppc. The differences between both architectures are mainly the
different configuration options for the respective kernels. Or that's
at least what I learned so far. It's important to meticulously edit the
kernel config. People sometimes publish their kernel configs on WWW,
which can really be helpful for editing my own one:
http://master.penguinppc.org/~daenzer/
http://realpath.org/ibook/
Thanks: Michel Dänzer, and Johannes Mockenhaupt, and others, for the
pages above.
And sure: I still have to use my brains and avoid blindly copying
everything I find on WWW: The kernel config on
<http://master.penguinppc.org/~daenzer/>, just to give one example, is
meant for booting an XFS file system, not for ext3, IIUC ... :)
And if Google doesn't help I can come back to here: I didn't get
answers all times I asked, IIRC. But you might want having a look at
this relatively fresh Debian ppc thread:
<http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2005/01/thrd2.html#00524>
to understand how helpful it can be to come here if the docs are
missing, or if you don't have time enough to find them, as it was the
case for me ...
> In retrospect I now know what probably made it fail, but what I
> found annoying is the sheer lack of qualitative (or quantitative)
> data on how to build specifically a working ppc 2.6 kernel (when I
> looked at least). Seems there is lots of info for 2.4, and most of
> that pc specific. [ ..... ]
You're right. But what conclusions should this knowledge lead me to?
Avoid Debian? Possibly, yes. But I don't see another distro currently
I'd be willing to use: The sometimes perhaps lousy, sometimes perhaps
even missing Debian docs simply made me write my own ones, as soon as
I think I understood something worth to be published on my web site
...
Use OSX? Possibly, yes. But what should I be doing more than 30
minutes in front of that system? ... Except playing a nice game,
perhaps?
> [ .... ]
>
> At debian's manual partitioner:
> [ ... ]
>
> If the installer does not install the proper bootloader, you should
> still have the option of using apple's boot loader. As I recall
> (correct me if I am wrong anyone), macs with OF (of any version) offer
> the a graphical boot loader if you boot with the option key (yes not
> called the "alt" key:]) held down. This works for me when I've had
> bootloader problems from, other distro, installs that mess up yaboot.
> Then again I have version 3 of OF.
>
> [ ... ]
>
> PS-the "option" trick to start apple's bootloader works only if you
> haven't deleted the apple partitions as one of them contains the driver.
> This is one reason to install OS X and/or not to delete these
> partitions, contrary to some examples in debian-ppc HowTos.
> [ ... ]
No.
Tho' I don't quite understand what you mean with "graphical boot
loader": If I'm not mistaken I can delete all my Mac partitions
(except the very first one, which is called Apple_partition_map, which
will be re-written if I initialise my hard disk for Linux) and still
be able to boot into Apple's Open Firmware. I just tested it. When the
machine boots I hold down
<Apple-Key> - Alt - O - F
This key combo threw me into Open Firmware: And I saw something like
this there:
"Apple PowerBook3,5 4.5.3.f2 BootROM built on 10/25/02 [ ... ]
Copyright 1994-2002 Apple Computer, Inc.
[ ... ]
Welcome to Open Firmware [ .... ]"
And then I was at a working prompt: I just ejected a CD from there ... :)
For a reboot I even typed "mac-boot" at this OF prompt: And although
there is no Mac OS what-so-ever on this machine anymore, this command
in one instance let me boot from a relatively old Debian Install CD,
and on the second try I booted with this command from my hard-disk,
back to Linux ... :)
These are the partitions on the machine where I opened Open Firmware
[Abbreviated, as I had to type it manually ... ]:
type system
------------------------------------------------------
1 Apple_partition_map Partition map
2 Apple_Bootstrap NewWorld bootblock
3 Apple_Unix_SVR2 Linux swap
4 Apple_Unix_SVR2 Linux native
5 Apple_Unix_SVR2 Linux native
I don't see any partitions above contain an Apple driver.
Or what did I get wrong ?
Best Regards
Wolfgang
--
http://www.wolfgangpfeiffer.com
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