Hard Disk install on a new PowerMac G5

[Francois <f.taiani@computer.org>]

Hi all,

I'm trying to install debian on my PowerMac G5 (1.8MHz monoprocessor,
bought in January 2005, OF version 5.2.2f2) by directly booting from my
MacOS hard disk. I've got yaboot from woody [1], and I've downloaded
initrd.gz and a kernel image (vmlinux) from the daily build of the
netboot installer for newworld powerpc [2] (on Sven's pages I think).

[1] http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/current/new-powermac/
[2] http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/netboot/

My yaboot conf looks like this

---
image=/vmlinux
	label=install
	initrd=/initrd.gz
	initrd-size=8216
	#append="disksize=2.88"
---

Unfortunately, when I boot the kernel, I get an "Invalid memory access
in %SRR0:<something> %SRR1:<something>" just after the lines "Calling
quiesce... returning 0x014000000 from prom_init". The console then
starts to print "> OK" repeatedly, and the first lines are scrolled
away.

I've read the threads about the need for a newer kernel for new G5
models [3], but my problem does not seem to be related to this.

[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2004/12/msg00619.html

My question is then: is there any hope to install debian from an
existing hard drive (or should I switch to the CD boot method)? Is there
is a hope this could work, am I doing it right? And how could I track
the problem? [I have debian running on a G4 powerbook, so I can compile
a new kernel if needed].

I'll be happy to help if there is any need of testing debian-installer
on this particular model.

Thanks for your help!

Francois