Subject: Re: How to install YDL 2.0 on an RS/6000
From: Dan Burcaw (dburcaw@terraplex.com)
Date: Sun Aug 19 2001 - 11:01:00 MDT
The real bottom line for RS/6000 is that IBM stopped
supporting us, so we no longer support RS/6000.
Without machine(s) to test on, it would be impossible
to have working support (trust me.. those machines
can be "little" nightmares w/ Linux).
If you're interested in running YDL 2.0 on those machines
there are a few things you'll need to be aware of:
- The ramdisk (even text mode) is clearly far to large for
a floppy. We have contemplated making a ramdisk
bootstraper, which would be small enough to fit
on a floppy and would then mount loopback, the
ramdisk it found from CD-ROM just in order to get
the files it needs. (bootstrap ramdisk would essentially
consist of /sbin/init and the script /bin/runinstall to
do all of this magic.
- The installer uses GNU/Parted for partitioning. This program
does not currently support the PReP_Boot partition type
needed for RS/6000 bootloading. This means you will
either needs to a) add support to GNU/Parted b) leave
~10MB of free space to add this later (at the beginning of the drive)
c) boot via floppy (you will have to clearly do this at least
once anyway...)
- The installer's bootloader setup will likely fail on RS/6000.
It *should* run ybin for RS/6000, but I doubt we handle this
particular case. Since we can't make PReP_Boot, this
doesn't matter anyway.
The main thing is this bootstrapping ramdisk. We've wanted
to make one of these for ANS folks, but have not had the time
thus far. If someone is interested in doing this, please contact
me and I'll give you all of the details you need to do this.
If all of this sounds like a royal pain, you can do two things:
- Contact IBM and let them know that you'd like Yellow Dog Linux for
your RS/6000
- Use SuSE, which is the best distribution out their for RS/6000.
Hope this clears things up some..
-Dan
On Sunday 19 August 2001 06:31, you wrote:
> I have had absolutely no luck in installing on any RS/6000.
>
> I have access to a lot of different models and have tried a lot.
>
> Following the E-mails here it looks like YDL is no longer
> interested.
>
> I maybe mistaken but has somebody succesfully installed but just did not
> like the operating system. If so please tell
> me which RS/6000 and how.
>
> Everybody I know seems to have got as far as booting a
> kernel and then it failing arounf the USB area.
>
> Regards
>
> Steve Kurlin
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Greg Thompson" <johnnyteardrop@hotmail.com>
> To: <leigh@solinno.co.uk>; <skurlin@bigpond.net.au>;
> <hollis@austin.ibm.com> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 7:21 AM
> Subject: How to install YDL 2.0 on an RS/6000
>
> > guys,
> >
> > i just came across this thread on yellowdog-general. leigh or steve, did
> > you ever have any luck? here's what i've done so far:
> >
> > grabbed the src rpm for kernel 2.2.19-1k from ydl.com updates
> > added multi gzipped disk patch
> > tweaked config to include floppy support (why is this off by default?!)
> > put kernel on one floppy
> > spread install/ramdisk-text.image.gz across three floppies
> >
> > with that setup, i was able to boot the kernel and load the installer,
> > but it died almost immediately (after the USB stuff) with some message
> > about /proc/sys/dev/mac_hid/keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes missing.
> >
> > is there a different ramdisk image that will work?
> >
> > just for grins, i'm building a 2.2.19-1i kenel (from the 2.0 release) the
> > same way, just to see if it makes any difference. i'm not getting my
>
> hopes
>
> > up.
> >
> > any adivce, pointers, etc would be welcomed.
> >
> > thanks.
> > --
> > -greg
--Regards, Dan Burcaw Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
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