Hi, I've just done the (final) installation on my iBook Firewire. Ended up producing the attached document. Here comes a few questions:
Note: I use an iMac DV (3rd generation) and an iBook Firewire SE. 1. yaboot doesn't show up, I mean that I've got to get in the Open Firmware to get a display and then type boot, otherwise the screen stays black and then I get the "BootX early console", followed by the kernel boot. Is that normal (and yes, I raised the delay to 200 tenth seconds). Happens on both computers. 2. Is there any way to pass arguments to the kernel using yaboot, like LILO does. (for example, typing "Linux novideo" would have saved me a re-install). 3. Are the netscape issues raised a couple of months ago gone ? (Netscape freezing on start-up, etc.) 4. Is audio on the iBook working (I can figure it out myself by trying the backport, I just wanna know if I'm supposed to succeed) ? Same question for the iMac DV. 5. This one's for Michel (BTW, thanks for the snapshot, I'll install it in a couple of minutes, if my boss doesn't disturb me ;P): the TV output ? Do you have stuff like documentation, code, anything ? I believe the Pismo has an S-Video output, so you should be able to test it. I can also give a hand, although except testing, I dunno exactly what I could do... 6. General question: anybody knows an interactive dial-up software ? I need something that would ask me for my password every time I'm trying to dial-up to the corporate network. (Some of you working for big companies might know RACOM) Thanks a bunch, /Hadess http://hadess.net PS: I'll post a copy as well as some other stuff concerning to the configuration of this beast on my website. ------8<---------- Debian/PPC install on the iBook Firewire Introduction ------------ Dat is my experience with installing Potato Debian on my iBook DVD, using the rev0 CDs. This is not a Guide to Debian installation, rather a step-by-step guide (doh!). And write down what you're doing (especially partition numbers, that the reason why I'm writing this and reinstalling everything from scratch for the second time) Enjoy. Instructions ------------ 1. Boot the laptop with the iBook install, by pressing "C" during the chime sound 2. Launch the Drive Setup, on the CD, in the Utilities directory 3. I created 2 partitions. First one is the Linux Place Holder, one big fat partition that we'll split into all your Linux partitions during the Debian install process. The second one is for MacOS. You might want to create 3 partitions (respectivily for Linux, MacOS, and an HFS one for sharing files between Linux and MacOS). I'm only using MacOS to play DVDs, so it's no big deal for me. 4. Install MacOS on the MacOS drive (don't install on the place holder for Linux!) 5. Reboot the 'puter, it should work, otherwise bring your iBook back to the shop and jump off a cliff. 6. While under MacOS, stick up the Debian CD, and copy some files on the first partition (the Linux place holder): in the install:powermac directory, get yaboot, vmlinux and root.bin 7. Create the yaboot.conf file (SimpleText is good enough for that). Here is the content: device=hd: image=vmlinux label=debian initrd=root.bin initrd-size=8192 novideo Note: the novideo is the reason we're not directly booting from the CD. Otherwise you won't have any display. 8. Reboot the 'puter again, and press Option-Apple-O-F during the chime to access the Open Firmware. 9. type in "boot hd:,yaboot" 10. Select your keyboard, and Partition your HD, following Ethan Benson's mac-fdisk-basics.txt (see at the bottom for URL). 11. At this point I have this kind of partitioning: hda1 to hda8: MacOS crap hda9: Apple_Bootstrap partition hda10: / (root) hda11: swap hda12: /home (home) hda13: /opt (opt) hda14: MacOS (...Later...) 12. When asked if you want to "Make Linux Bootable Directly From Hard Disk", get to another console and get a shell (on the iBook, it's a bit dodgy, keep pressed in this order Apple-fn-F2). 13. Run this line to get your bootstrap partition initialized: mkofboot --boot /dev/hda9 -m /target/etc/ofboot.b --root /dev/hda10 --partition 10 14. In the present state, you wouldn't be able to boot Linux because of the (lack of) novideo option in the default yaboot.conf Edit the /target/etc/yaboot.conf. Here is what it looks like after all the editing: boot=/dev/hda9 device=hd: timeout=20 install=/boot/yaboot magicboot=/boot/ofboot.b image=/vmlinux label=Linux root=/dev/hda10 read-only partition=10 novideo 15. Run that to be able to run Linux: ybin -C /target/etc/yaboot.conf -m /target/etc/ofboot.b 16. Reboot the system, and get into the Open Firmware again 17. To boot your linux system, type in: boot hd:9,yaboot (...Later...) 18. Voila, you still need to configure your computer (X-Window, dial-up, desktop...), but at least it will boot up normally =) 19. to boot up by default with Linux, run "setenv boot-device hd:9,yaboot" within the Open Firmware. Press the Option key during the chime to boot MacOS. URLS ---- - Ethan Benson's site, contains mac-fdisk-basics.txt and the yaboot FAQ http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/ - Hadess.net, the website for updates (if necessary) of this document http://hadess.net/ in the Articles section Thanks ------ Thanks to Ethan Benson, Michel Danzer, and Daniel Jacobowitz for their technical help.
