Re: Updated Debian Ports installation images
On 3/26/22 1:02 PM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> On 3/26/22 19:47, Stan Johnson wrote:
>> On 3/26/22 10:58 AM, Ken Cunningham wrote:
>>> I think that people are used to installing linux on PPC Macs being very
>>> very very difficult, with many arcane manual steps and many hours needed
>>> on every walkthru available anywhere on the internet.
>>
>> Like everything else, installing GNU/Linux on PPC Macs really is "very
>> very very difficult" until you know how to do it. And even then it
>> doesn't always work. For example, the latest installation CD doesn't
>> even boot on the PowerBook Lombard, despite the Lombard being a
>> perfectly good New World system. It has been suggested that the version
>> of Open Firmware on the Lombard may be too old to work with GRUB;
>> fortunately, yaboot continues to work quite well.
>
> Well, apparently the PowerBook Lombard uses an early version of the NewWorld
> ROM that has bugs and limitations. I don't think it's justified to invest
> a lot of time into maintaining the Yaboot package just because one or two
> users want to be able to install Debian on a very old PowerBook.
>
> You wouldn't do that either if you were me.
You're right; I would not. Maybe someday when GRUB is completely stable
on PowerPC, it might be worth looking at how to get GRUB working on
Lombard (which being from 1999 is only one year older than Pismo and
since yaboot works it should be possible to get GRUB working too,
eventually). I'll be happy to help with that effort when the time comes.
Meanwhile, it is tedious but not impossible to get a working current
Debian SID on Lombard, especially if yaboot is already installed.
>
>> Your steps 2 and 3 should not be necessary. It should be possible to use
>> manual partitioning (I'm testing that next); otherwise, it will not be
>> possible to boot multiple operating systems.
>
> You have to keep in mind that supporting multi-boot is the next step after the
> initial issues with getting the installation to work with GRUB in the first
> place.
that makes sense
>
> I'm not doing this professionally, so you should be able to excuse me when
> the images don't immediately work perfectly according to Apple's specification.
>
> This is also why I need constructive feedback instead of the repetitive request
> asking to switch back to Yaboot.
I agree, and I haven't been pushing to switch back to yaboot since
learning that upstream support for it has lapsed.
>
>>> they just can't believe that is all you need to do.
>>>
>>
>> If you want to trash all of the other operating systems on your disk,
>> then by all means you should choose to use the entire disk. But I
>> suspect that many users will not want to do that -- they'll instead want
>> to continue using Mac OS, Mac OS X, and whatever other GNU/Linux
>> distributions they may have in addition to Debian.
>
> I'm not arguing that. We're just not there yet, so anything fancy simply
> comes without any warranty.
>
> Adrian
>
I'll simply note whether multiboot works on the Pismo, no accusations or
judgment intended.
thanks for all of your help
-Stan
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