Test of updated installation images for Debian Ports 2019-04-09 on a PowerMac G5 11,2.
CD image booted from USB stick as before [1]. Expert install started from yaboot. Fan were spinning loudly but loading the proper module stopped them as previosly described [1]. The "network-console" installer component was loaded. Doing so I noticed that there was no "hfs" component in the list anymore. The "partition disk" step at first did not work, then, when called a second time, the partitioning interface started. Created a new mac partition table. This time the "newworld" partition type was an option. I ended up creating manually the following partition table: SCSI4 (0,0,0) (sdc) - 163.9 GB ATA Maxtor 6L160M0 > #1 32.3 kB Apple > #2 20.0 MB B K boot bootstrap > #3 512.0 MB f ext2 boot /boot > #4 1.0 GB f swap swap swap > #5 162.4 GB f ext4 root / > 512.0 B FREE SPACE Base system installed fine. Debian ports mirrors [2] manually added. A minimal software selection was installed comprising "standard system utilities" and "SSH server" only. This time I switched "popularity contest" on. Grub installation failed again with: "An installation step failed. You can try to run the failing item again from the menu, or skip it and choose something else. The failing step is: Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk" On the log window I can see: Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: (process:20056): dpkg-divert: warning: diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with rename is dangerous, use --no-rename Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: (process:20056): dpkg-divert: warning: diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with rename is dangerous, use --no-rename Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: (process:20056): /usr/bin/grub-installer: Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: (process:20056): line 252: Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: (process:20056): /usr/lib/grub-installer/mkhfs-bootstrap.sh: Permission denied Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: (process:20056): Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: WARNING **: Configuring 'grub-installer' failed with error code 1 Apr 10 09:56:15 main-menu[5707]: WARNING **: Menu item 'grub-installer' failed. Opened a shell and saw: ~ # ls -l /usr/lib/grub-installer -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 68032 Apr 7 21:31 ensure-active -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2610 Apr 5 21:03 mkhfs-bootstrap.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 67888 Apr 7 21:31 prep-bootdev So, as suggested [3] I changed permissions of mkhfs-bootstrap.sh to 755. But it failed again with the same error shown on the installer. On the log I see: Apr 10 10:09:05 main-menu[5707]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb Apr 10 10:09:06 main-menu[5707]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb Apr 10 10:09:06 main-menu[5707]: INFO: Menu item 'grub-installer' selected Apr 10 10:09:06 grub-installer: info: architecture: ppc64/powermac_newworld Apr 10 10:09:07 in-target: Reading package lists... Apr 10 10:09:07 in-target: Apr 10 10:09:07 in-target: Building dependency tree... Apr 10 10:09:07 in-target: Apr 10 10:09:07 in-target: Reading state information... Apr 10 10:09:07 in-target: Apr 10 10:09:09 in-target: grub-common is already the newest version (2.02+dfsg1-16). Apr 10 10:09:09 in-target: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Apr 10 10:09:10 in-target: Reading package lists... Apr 10 10:09:10 in-target: Apr 10 10:09:10 in-target: Building dependency tree... Apr 10 10:09:11 in-target: Apr 10 10:09:11 in-target: Reading state information... Apr 10 10:09:11 in-target: Apr 10 10:09:12 in-target: grub-common is already the newest version (2.02+dfsg1-16). Apr 10 10:09:12 in-target: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Apr 10 10:09:12 mkhfs-bootstrap: The HFS bootstrap partition couldn't be found. Cannot continue! Exiting. Apr 10 10:09:12 main-menu[5707]: (process:20538): dpkg-divert: warning: diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with rename is dangerous, use --no-rename Apr 10 10:09:12 main-menu[5707]: (process:20538): dpkg-divert: warning: diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with rename is dangerous, use --no-rename Apr 10 10:09:12 main-menu[5707]: (process:20538): cat: can't open '/var/lib/partman/devices/=dev=sdb/32768-1033215/method': No such file or directory Apr 10 10:09:12 main-menu[5707]: WARNING **: Configuring 'grub-installer' failed with error code 1 Apr 10 10:09:12 main-menu[5707]: WARNING **: Menu item 'grub-installer' failed. At this time, I stopped the installation. Did I partitioned my drive in the wrong way? That was the same layout I always use with yaboot. I am thinking that it could be worth to try the same install but with the default partitioning scheme. I the meantime I am open for suggestions. A few wishes for the next releases: 1. Would it be possible to load the fan spinning module (windfarm_core) automatically? 2. Would it be possible to have debian-ports URL [2] as default mirror? Regards A. [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2019/04/msg00070.html [2] ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ [3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2019/04/msg00093.html
