Re: Newbie trying to install Debian PPC into an old 15" PowerBook G4...

[Bertrand Dekoninck <bertrand.dekoninck@gmail.com>]

Le 2 mars 2017 à 16:37, Karoly Balogh (Charlie/SGR) <charlie@scenergy.dfmk.hu> a écrit :

Hi,

On Thu, 2 Mar 2017, PhiLLip Pi wrote:

I suspect the safe and simple option is to use mac os to shrink the
current HFS partition first.

In the installed v10.2.8's Disk Utility app, it wouldn't let me. In its
bootable DVD's v10.2.1's Disk Utility, it said it would have to erase my
volumes (delete everything)? Is that how it is supposed to happen?

No. But if I'm correct, only the Disk Utility in OSX 10.5 and newer
supports true volume resize, without erasing the contents. (Fix me?)

10.5.8 was the last version for PowerPC. But sadly it might not work on
really old PowerBooks. :/ So if you can do this or not might depend on
your machine's type, sadly.

Charlie

If 10.5.8 is not possible, you could always use a newer mac, plug the powerbook on it via firewire, boot it as a target volume (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201462) and resize the disk using a newer Disk Utility.

Alternatively, linux’s parted utility can resize hfs+ filesystems if they are not journaled. You can use an old ubuntu ppc live cd to do this. That’s what i did when I install linux on ppc first. See : https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2211127

Hope this helps.

Bertrand Dekoninck