Re: Lombard booting Debian Ports 2020-04-19 (was Re: Updated installation images for Debian Ports 2020-04-19)
On 4/20/20 7:50 PM, userm57@yahoo.com wrote:
> ...
> So for now I'm stuck using Yaboot on the Lombard. As a workaround, I am
> able to start up the installer from the CD by copying its vmlinux and
> initrd to the /boot directory of an old installation on the Lombard, and
> then setting up Yaboot to boot from that.
> ...
Here's a summary of my experience trying to get the 20200419 Debian SID
powerpc CD and Open Firmware (OF) working on a 1999 PowerBook G3 (Lombard):
1) Perhaps OF on this system is too old to be useful for GRUB; it
reports the following when booting into OF:
Apple PowerBook1,1 1.0f1 BootROM built on 04/06/99 at 10:21:59
I have not been able to get GRUB working on this system. The 20200419
Debian SID CD is not bootable as far as I can tell (either booting the
CD by holding down the "c" key or booting directly from OF).
2) Yaboot seems to work, mostly, though there are some OF oddities.
Fortunately, "reset-all" in OF seems to fix everything (such as when,
for whatever reason, a bootable CD can't be booted by holding down the
"c" key or selecting "c" in the Yaboot menu).
3) The 20200419 Debian SID CD can't be booted by holding down the "c"
key or selecting "c" in the Yaboot menu; it simply goes (or returns) to
the Yaboot menu. Selecting "c" again results in an endless stream of
these messages:
DEFAULT CATCH!, code=fffffff6 at %SRR0: ff80aac50 %SPR1: 000b030
method <draw-rectangle> not found; ihandle=ff9d2740 phandle=ff86a4c8
The "ff80aac60" changes each time. The problem is fixed with an OF
"reset-all".
3) Copying the vmlinux and initrd.gz files from the 20200419 CD to an
existing installation and setting Yahoo to boot from these files almost
works -- the CD is seen and the installation comes up and starts
normally, then it hangs while "Detecting network hardware". This also
happens on a Wallstreet after copying vmlinux and initrd.gz to disk and
using BootX to boot.
4) I booted an older Yaboot-based Debian SID CD (20190124), and that
would work, except it has the old problem where a kernel isn't selected
for this system (Lombard). This is not a problem if you already have a
working Yaboot and another installation from which to boot so you can
copy over an acceptable kernel and initrd (and there may be a later
Yaboot-based CD that doesn't have this issue).
5) I ended up getting an up-to-date Debian SID by restoring from backups
an existing (but too old to update) Debian SID installation (probably
from the 20190124 CD), then changing /etc/apt/sources.list to this:
deb [ trusted=yes ] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ sid main
That changes the expired signature error to a warning, and "apt-get
update" followed by "apt-get upgrade" works. Afterwards, I changed the
line back to what it was:
deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ sid main
I'll be happy to work with anyone who wants to try to figure out what's
going on with GRUB and the Lombard. The CD as it is would be workable
(on both the Lombard and Old World G3 systems such as the Wallstreet) if
it didn't hang while detecting network hardware. Otherwise, I'll just
keep using Yaboot and Debian SID (with appropriate updates and upgrades)
as long as it works.
Thanks to all for your work in keeping Debian working on old systems!
-Stan Johnson
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