Re: OldWorld ROM Macintoshes
Stan:
You've given me a glimmer of hope. Could you confirm how exactly your
partitioning looks like? I've gotten the kernel and initrd copied over
and recognized by BootX, but never gotten the system to actually boot
into Linux.
I understand that the partitoning has to be done particularly for OS 9,
and in turn, Linux to boot correctly.
Since I can't even get it to boot, my first thought is I partitioned my
drive wrong. I just copied what that guy did in that article, which I
can't verify is correct.
How did you create a custom kernel based on your hardware? Could you
share yours?
I don't have a faster G3 with SCSI, I had been taking the drive out and
plugging it into my modern PC and doing the installation with QEMU. I
do have 512MB of RAM though in my WallStreet :-)
P.S. While my WallStreet (PDQ)'s been at a standstill with Linux I've
had it trying to compile various packages (or "ports" as they say) from
MacPorts in OS X Tiger. At least Debian provides binary packages for
PowerPC!
On Mon, 2025-08-25 at 21:16 -0600, Stan Johnson wrote:
> Hi Cedar,
>
> On 8/25/25 7:09 PM, Cedar Maxwell wrote:
> > Adrian:
> >
> > Thanks for your reply. According to that article in my previous
> > email,
> > those instructions should still work with kernel 6.1 or earlier.
> > Are
> > there any offline installer ISOs at
> > https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/ which contain kernel
> > <=6.1?
> > It appears they're all 'net installs, which will download the
> > latest
> > kernel from the repository. Correct me if I'm wrong.
> >
> > P.S. Does anyone know why this article would claim kernel >6.1
> > won't
> > work?
>
>
> There were issues with kernels around 5.10 not booting correctly on
> PowerBook 3400c and Wallstreet systems (please refer to the link that
> Adrian sent). Kernel 6.1 and later work fine on Wallstreet; I'm
> running
> a custom 6.16.2 kernel on my Wallstreet now.
>
> I don't recommend using Debian's default powerpc kernels. Instead, I
> suggest creating custom kernels depending on your specific hardware
> as
> determined by looking at the System Profiler output in Mac OS. I try
> to
> avoid using modules whenever possible. I use the same custom kernel
> on
> my Wallstreet, Lombard and Pismo systems. On Lombard and Pismo, I
> boot
> using yaboot; on Wallstreet, I boot using BootX.
>
>
> >
> > On Sat, 2025-08-23 at 12:55 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > On Fri, 2025-08-22 at 20:12 -0500, Cedar Maxwell wrote:
> > > > Can anyone provide any guidance on how to install Debian onto
> > > > an
> > > > OldWorld ROM Macintosh?
> > > >
> > > > I followed this gentleman's guide to the tee (before it was
> > > > changed
> > > > to
> > > > read "OUTDATED") on my PDQ, but as soon as I selected "Linux"
> > > > from
> > > > the
> > > > BootX prompt, I received a black screen, and was unable to
> > > > progress
> > > > further.
> > > >
> > > > https://distrosprojects.blogspot.com/2023/09/modern-debian-on-1998-powerbook-g3.html
> > > >
> > > > I have struggled to find solid evidence to back the
> > > > partitioning
> > > > choices, and nothing to explain my actual issue.
> > >
> > > Last time I tried a recent kernel on an OldWorld PowerMac, the
> > > kernel
> > > crashed
> > > quite early and I didn't get to see any usable boot messages.
> > > There
> > > was a
> > > discussion on the topic on this list, see [1].
> > >
> > > While I have an OldWorld PowerBook somewhere in my storage, I
> > > don't
> > > really have
> > > the time to look into this issue now so that someone else
> > > interested
> > > needs to
> > > do that.
> > >
> > > It's not unusual for the kernel not to work on hardware on which
> > > it
> > > hasn't been
> > > tested on for a long time.
> > >
> > > Adrian
> > >
> > > > [1]
> > > > https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/07/msg00050.html
> >
>
>
> Wallstreet systems can only boot from BootX in Mac OS. I believe it's
> also possible to use an install ISO by copying the kernel and initrd
> from the ISO to your local disk and then use BootX to boot that
> kernel
> and initrd. Neither GRUB nor yaboot will work for booting, since the
> Wallstreet is an OldWorld system. (Note that GRUB also fails on the
> Lombard, even though it is NewWorld, though yaboot works fine there).
>
> If you have another, perhaps faster, G3 system that has SCSI (such as
> a
> Lombard or a Beige G3 Desktop), I suggest installing there to an
> external SCSI drive, then boot the Wallstreet from that SCSI drive
> and
> optionally copy the installation (using dump/restore or equivalent)
> to
> your Wallstreet disk.
>
> To run Debian SID on a Wallstreet, you should have at least 6 GB of
> available disk space and 128 MiB memory (512 MiB, the maximum memory
> for
> Wallstreet, is of course better). I use pdisk to partition disks from
> Mac OS, or mac-fdisk (or parted) to partition disks from Debian SID
> or
> Gentoo.
>
> There seems to be an issue right now getting X-Windows to work on the
> Wallstreet with the current Debian SID. My Wallstreet has ATY 3D RAGE
> LT
> PRO graphics, but wdm and startx tell me that no screens are found.
> My
> Pismo works; it has ATY Rage128 graphics, so I suspect an upstream
> issue
> with some version of xorg-xserver. To confirm this, I first need to
> go
> back to a version of Debian SID that worked, then boot kernel 6.16.2.
> If
> that works, then I'll see if I can figure out which version of
> xorg-xserver may have caused a regression.
>
> -Stan
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