Subject: Re: Mac Newbie yaboot question
From: Steve Moitozo (stephen@moitozo.com)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 20:32:47 MDT
Steve,
1) You should re partition your system with 3 partitions. The FIRST should
be 32 megs (Mac OS Standard, not HFS+), the SECOND should be your root and
the THIRD should be your 100 meg swap.
2) Then you need to install the following files on the 32meg partition:
ramdisk.image.gz
yaboot.conf
yaboot.txbi (then rename to just yaboot)
and vmlinux
3) Open the yaboot.conf file in simpletext and make it read like this:
--------yaboot.conf---------
init-message = "\nWelcome to Yellow Dog Linux!\nHit <TAB> for boot
options.\n\n"
timeout = 150
default = install
image = hd:9,vmlinux
label = install
initrd = hd:9,ramdisk.image.gz
initrd-size = 8192
append = ""
-------- end yaboot.conf---------
4) Then you can try following the install by rebooting and hitting the
return key when you see the green yaboot text. This should launch you into
the install
5) After the install re-edit your yaboot.conf and add this:
--------yaboot.conf---------
image = hd:9,vmlinux
label = linuxppc
root = /dev/hda11
append = ""
-------- end yaboot.conf---------
6) Now boot into firmware and type:
boot hd:9,yaboot
NOTES: This should get you up and running. If you need to pass any special
variables to the kernel add then to the "append = """ line in the
yaboot.conf file.
I hope this helps. Basically you need a partition that allows you to
bootstrap your way into YDL.
Steve Moitozo
steven@moitozo.com
http://www.moitozo.com
"The Windows Assimilator"
on 9/26/00 9:40 AM, Steve Cockwell at stevec@canux.com wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> I was recently asked by a customer of mine why I don't carry any PPC
> Linux products on my site, and I didn't really have a good answer for
> him. Running Linux under PPC seems like a good idea and being an old
> Amiga rat, I was definately interested.
>
> With that in mind, I picked up my mother's iMac from the repair shop on
> Friday. I purchased one of the original iMacs when they came out for my
> mother because I didn't want to be on the phone with her every day of
> the week walking her through yet another Windows problem. As it turned
> out, my first experience with a Mac since my early days with Corel
> turned out to be less than stellar. When the iMac's display started to
> shimmer and shake and occasionally blank out I was second guessing my
> decision. When the USB stuff started to lock up randomly (even after
> the original patch was made to MacOS) I broke down and sent the thing
> back.
>
> I left it in the shop for almost a year :-) and gave my mother a laptop
> to run in the meantime. When I picked it up on Friday I found out that
> they had replaced just about everything on it. The motherboard was new,
> the video board was new (I suppose this would be the high-voltage board,
> not the display adapter), and the hard drive had been formatted and
> pre-installed with MacOS 9. It worked flawlessly.
>
> I decided that before I gave it back to her, I was going to put an OS on
> it that I could stand. So I did a little research and settled on Yellow
> Dog Linux. I downloaded the ISO, fried up a CDR, got the PDF install
> guide and set in to do the install. I couldn't tell for certain from
> the instructions if it was okay to toast all of the Mac partitions on
> the drive, but it was my intention to relieve the Mac from it's native
> OS - completely. So I did.
>
> For the last few hours I've been trying to figure out what it is about
> the iMac that I don't know, or about Yellow Dog that I didn't understand
> - but I can't boot YDL to save my life. I've partitioned the drive with
> a swap (100Meg) and a root (the rest of the 4Gig drive). I've booted
> the cd and ran through the install - no problems.
>
> As per the instructions, I booted the Mac into it's firmware and spent a
> lot of time playing around with it's settings trying to convince it to
> boot the image YDL left on the root partition. No dice.
>
> So you will all have to forgive me for being really stupid. I know a
> *lot* about Linux, but almost nothing about Macs. I can read. I've
> searched the archives and read the install guide. Either I'm trying to
> do something that's impossible, or I'm missing something important. I
> can't shake the feeling that thousands of others must have installed YDL
> on an iMac without the MacOS.
>
> Yes, I caught the references to installing a partition on the Mac with
> the MacOS install CD, but without the actual OS. However, I assumed
> (possibly incorrectly) that this was a requirement for machines that did
> not have new(ish) firmware.
>
> Would some kind soul steer me back on course? I really would like to do
> this exclusively with YDL, but I could be convinced to break down and
> try to find the original MacOS 8 CDs that came with the box if I had to.
>
> Thanks,
>
> ..src
>
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