Re: [Sugar-devel] Adventures with GPA Macbooks
On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 12:06 AM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: Thanks Martin, Does that give us any hint about whats happening? How is that PRAM/PROM normally set? Maybe we need to go change the default somewhere? Well, I don't know what procedure you are following. The standard practice on a Mac is to press a key early in the boot to get a boot menu that lets you choose the device. IIRC the key is 'O' (for Option?). The PRAM remembers that option, so next time it boots it tries the same disk. If you remove the disk (CDROM, external HD) it might get confused. So after booting from a CD-ROM, you want to either boot again with the O pressed and choose the internal disk for booting, or reset the PRAM. cheers, n -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Adventures with GPA Macbooks
handy links for OSX boot key combinations: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310 mentioned here: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-May/005785.html and here, I fleshed out most of a small script which could be run (icon-click) from an inserted Sugar on a Stick to reboot from only the next boot (bless command, -nextonly option): http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-May/005882.html I did not manage to get Fedora to boot, possibly because syntax for mounting filesystem was incorrect, possibly because of Fedora bug. Sean On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 10:22 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 12:06 AM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: Thanks Martin, Does that give us any hint about whats happening? How is that PRAM/PROM normally set? Maybe we need to go change the default somewhere? Well, I don't know what procedure you are following. The standard practice on a Mac is to press a key early in the boot to get a boot menu that lets you choose the device. IIRC the key is 'O' (for Option?). The PRAM remembers that option, so next time it boots it tries the same disk. If you remove the disk (CDROM, external HD) it might get confused. So after booting from a CD-ROM, you want to either boot again with the O pressed and choose the internal disk for booting, or reset the PRAM. cheers, n -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Adventures with GPA Macbooks
Not sure if this is useful info, but the OSX 'bless' command can be configured to boot removable media only once, or persistently. Sean On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 8:19 PM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: I also tried to update the launchpad question so we have one place to look for all the info. https://answers.launchpad.net/soas/+question/81566 On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:56 PM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:34 PM, Bill Bogstad bogs...@pobox.com wrote: On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: ... Bottom line is we'll get a lot farther if we can use the macbook laptop cart. Did you ever get the exact model number of those macbooks? It would help when researching precise hardware compatibility issues. I'm hoping the attached screenshots will help. Anurag will be back on Friday and can gather more info if you let us know what is needed. ... I think the next thing i want to try is a CD version of Bill's Floppy boot. It works differently doing a full linux boot then booting another kernal on the USB. There is a (fixable) issue with just burning the floppy image as the 'boot floppy' on a CD that involves the fact that 'floppy emulation' CD booting requires using the BIOS to read/write the emulated floppy. I think I can move the necessary config files into the initial ramdisk. However, I haven't had the time to decide if this is the best/most maintainable way to do this. Even once I get you an ISO using my boot floppy, I wouldn't be surprised if you still have problems. Problems seem to be a good bet! What the golly gosh jimminy crippers is going on?!? Why does it work once and not again? What is linux doing that is keeping MacOSX from booting even after all the linux medium is removed? why are these macbooks different from all other macs anyone has tired before? My thought is the problem seems to be around how its looking for the USBs. Your boot helper works in a fundamentally different manner, doing a full boot of one kernel then booting the next one. It seems worth a try. Mostly because I only have one idea that seems better and I am in super stubborn mode these days. Thanks Bill today is really pushing my family friendly email list limits. Bill Bogstad -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Adventures with GPA Macbooks
On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 7:56 PM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: Problems seem to be a good bet! What the golly gosh jimminy crippers is going on?!? Why does it work once and not again? What is linux doing that is keeping MacOSX from booting even after all the linux medium is removed? The macs have a funny BIOS that has a persistent memory. So it will remember where you booted from, and a few other things. If this BIOS gets confused and stores its confusion in persistent mem, you get exactly what you are seeing. Removing the batteries resets this memory. In Mac parlance, resetting this memory is known as resetting the PRAM (or maybe PROM). There is a key combination -- different between mac models -- that does this. Add the exact model of your mac to the search below... http://www.google.be/search?q=resetting+pram+mac this is a good example http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 hth, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Adventures with GPA Macbooks
Thanks Martin, Does that give us any hint about whats happening? How is that PRAM/PROM normally set? Maybe we need to go change the default somewhere? On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 7:56 PM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: Problems seem to be a good bet! What the golly gosh jimminy crippers is going on?!? Why does it work once and not again? What is linux doing that is keeping MacOSX from booting even after all the linux medium is removed? The macs have a funny BIOS that has a persistent memory. So it will remember where you booted from, and a few other things. If this BIOS gets confused and stores its confusion in persistent mem, you get exactly what you are seeing. Removing the batteries resets this memory. In Mac parlance, resetting this memory is known as resetting the PRAM (or maybe PROM). There is a key combination -- different between mac models -- that does this. Add the exact model of your mac to the search below... http://www.google.be/search?q=resetting+pram+mac this is a good example http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 hth, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
[Sugar-devel] Adventures with GPA Macbooks
We worked with the 4th graders in the computer lab today. The computer lab is not working well for us this year. Its booked solid so its hard to get time. More computers are broken so there will not always be enough for everyone to have one. Internet is mysteriously broken on Sugar. The Computer teacher was not happy that the machines needed to get rebooted to Windows when the next class came in. We can't use the projector we used this summer and its hard to get to the screen which is stored in the now always busy auditorium. etc. Bottom line is we'll get a lot farther if we can use the macbook laptop cart. Anurag and I spent a couple hours trying things today. The first time we tried to boot with the CD and the USB it went through 4 lines of looking for USB ports. Then assumine drive cache then it booted! All seemed ok but the mouse did not work. We tried again and it wouldn't go past the first isolink line. We did not get to the 1 second to start splash screen. The we tried to boot back to Mac OSX. We got a grey forbidden sign. In verbose mode it had errors about lo0oking for USB and root. We tried safe mode. We tried holding down x to force OSX boot. Finally we took out the battery and it booted back to OSX. Bravely we tried again with the CD and USB. We got the iso linux line and teh blue splash screen. But then not responding and it stopped. When we tried to boot back into OSX it was grey forbidden sign again. Removing the battery again fixed this. Next we tried a Puppy CD. It failed to boot, got stuck at loading kernal modules Next we tried the Sugar CD. We got to the green screen asking about language but the keyboard did not work so we can t get any farther. Note that when we got the USB to boot earlier the keyboard did work, it was the mouse that didn't work. It seems like there is an issue finding the USB on these macs and the Linux system seems to leave the computer in a bad state. We have never seen this on any other MacBooks or iMacs. I think the next thing i want to try is a CD version of Bill's Floppy boot. It works differently doing a full linux boot then booting another kernal on the USB. We have some screenshots, including the macbook hardware, vidoes etc. we can add later today. Any clues welcome. -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
