Re: Recipe for installing Debian on powerpc (G4, 32-bit) Mac?

[Steffen Grunewald <steffen.grunewald@aei.mpg.de>]

Hi,

On Wed, 2021-12-15 at 09:53:16 +0100, Johannes Brakensiek wrote:
> Am Dienstag, dem 14.12.2021 um 17:12 -0800 schrieb Rick Thomas:
> > What is the URL for the latest Debian installer iso for a powerpc
> > (32-bit, G4) macintosh?
> 
> https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-10-20/
> 
> As far as I know you should be able to just run and install it. See my
> note over here on how to boot from an USB stick. I don't know if a G4
> will be able to do that as well: 
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/01/msg00035.html

That's for G5, not G4?

> Otherwise just burn a CD.

Yet another one...

> If you encounter any issues just tell here. Adrian is doing all the
> hard work of making the port work (thanks again!). It seems there is
> not much manpower left for updating the documentation at the ports
> site. I don't even know how this works in this Debian universe… (if
> it's kinda straight forward I may try to update some information at
> some point…)

I've followed this path for my Powerbook G4, and while installation
from CD went surprisingly fine, I eventually got an error from the
GRUB installer - which claimed not to be able to find /dev/sda3 :(
I did a "chroot /target" and was able to "hexdump -C /dev/sda3",
to prove that the disk wassn't stolen halfway through the install
process...
What might be missing?

Another thought: Since the PBG4 cannot boot from USB (can it?),
what about having a first-stage bootloader on CD that makes USB
key drives available as a second stage? (Is this possible at all?)
My stack of empty CDs is melting. Could I use CD-RWs?

Thanks,
 Steffen