Re: Installing Debian Lenny on MacMini G4

[Rick Thomas <rbthomas@pobox.com>]

On Jul 27, 2010, at 4:48 AM, Mathieu Malaterre wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 6:09 AM, Rick Thomas <rbthomas@pobox.com>  
> wrote:
> > On Jul 25, 2010, at 11:23 PM, Rick Thomas wrote:
> >
> > > A third possibilty, though remote, is that the iso was improperly  
> > > built.
> > >  I'll verify that myself and get back to you.
> >
> > I downloaded and burned the iso.  I verified the MD5 and compared  
> > the burned
> > CD with the ISO.  All went well.  Then I booted it on my own Mac  
> > mini G4.
> >  It booted fine (I used the "C" hold-down method) and started the  
> > installer.
> >  I didn't run any further, because I didn't want to mess up my  
> > MacOS-X
> > machine, but it at least booted.
> >
> > So there's no problem with the iso file itself.
>
> Thanks !
>
> Here is what I did on my amd64 box:
>
> $ wget http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.5/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-505-powerpc-netinst.iso
> $ md5sum debian-505-powerpc-netinst.iso
> 86268f3a463460828ec12831d6520df7  debian-505-powerpc-netinst.iso
> $ cmp /dev/cdrom debian-505-powerpc-netinst.iso
> $ echo $?
> 0
>
> I would be tempted to say my cdrom was burned ok. To get into more
> details see (*).
>
> In summary:
> - DVD 1 Tiger 10.4
> -> I can boot using C
> -> I can boot using Option
> -> I can boot using Option+Command+o+f
> - Debian 5.0.5 CD-RW
> -> I can NOT boot using C
> -> I can NOT boot using Option
> -> I can NOT boot using Option+Command+o+f
>
> I also tried burning the image on two CD-R, but cmp would failed  
> everytime with:
>
> $ cmp /dev/cdrom debian-505-powerpc-netinst.iso
> cmp: /dev/cdrom: Input/output error
>
> However both isovfy and isoinfo were happy with the CD-R
>
> Thanks for any further advices,
> --
> Mathieu
> Ps:
> (*)
> $ isoinfo -d -i=/dev/cdrom
> CD-ROM is in ISO 9660 format
> System id: LINUX
> Volume id: Debian 5.0.5 ppc Bin-1
> <... stuff that all looks reasonable ...>

I'm stumped.

Did you try a different Debian install method?  E.g. the  
"businesscard" iso from
	http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/sid_d-i/arch-latest/powerpc/iso-cd/

Does that at least boot on your Mac mini G4?

Have you tried booting the problematical CD on a different PowerPC  
Mac?  Does it at least boot there?

And finally (I know this sounds silly, but we may be at the point  
where silly is all that's left...)
Are you sure the Mac mini is a G4?  Nowadays, Apple makes an intel- 
based box that they call the Mac mini.  From the outside, it looks  
exactly like the old G4-based Mac minis.  They don't seem to care  
about the potential confusion.

Enjoy!


Rick