mac-fdisk problem

["Francis Maier" <Fran.Maier@archden.org>]

Anyone seen this problem?

I'm trying to install Debian on a beige (OldWorld) PowerMac G3.  I have
OSX on the first partition, OS9 on the second partition, a third small
HFS partition for BootX, and then free space.   

In partitioning my free space with mac-fdisk, I created a swap partition
(/dev/hda12) and root partition (/dev/hda13) in the Apple_UNIX_SVR2
format.

When I try to proceed with installation, activating the swap device, I
get a message that:

"The swap partition /dev/hda12 could not be activated: Cannot allocate
memory."

I get a similar message if I reorder the root and swap partitions.  I'm
running 768 megs of memory in my Mac.  What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.