Package: installation-reports Boot method: BootX Image version: Debian etch powerpc weekly build Date: February 4th 2007
Machine: Power Macintosh G3 Server Architecture: powerpc Processor: PowerPC 740/750 (G3) Memory: 256 MB Partitions: Result of df -Tl: Filesystem Type 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda9 ext3 2883640 1201232 1535924 44% / tmpfs tmpfs 119788 0 119788 0% /lib/init/rw udev tmpfs 10240 96 10144 1% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 119788 0 119788 0% /dev/shm /dev/hda10 ext3 5291948 171180 4851944 4% /home /dev/hda8 ext3 132385 26384 99166 22% /var/log /dev/hda6 hfs 819182 364065 455117 45% /mnt/MacOS Result of mac-fdisk -l: /dev/hda # type name length base ( size ) system /dev/hda1 Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1 ( 31.5k) Partition map /dev/hda2 Apple_Driver_ATA Macintosh 54 @ 64 ( 27.0k) Unknown /dev/hda3 Apple_Driver_ATA Macintosh 74 @ 118 ( 37.0k) Unknown /dev/hda4 Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh 512 @ 192 (256.0k) Unknown /dev/hda5 Apple_Patches Patch Partition 512 @ 704 (256.0k) Unknown /dev/hda6 Apple_HFS sans titre 1638400 @ 1216 (800.0M) HFS /dev/hda7 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap 1015626 @ 1639616 (495.9M) Linux swap /dev/hda8 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 273438 @ 2655242 (133.5M) Linux native /dev/hda9 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 5859376 @ 2928680 ( 2.8G) Linux native /dev/hda10 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 10753032 @ 8788056 ( 5.1G) Linux native Block size=512, Number of Blocks=19541087 DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0 Drivers- 1: @ 64 for 21, type=0x701 2: @ 118 for 34, type=0xf8ff Output of lspci -nn: 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Motorola MPC106 [Grackle] [1057:0002] (rev 40) 00:10.0 Unknown class [ff00]: Apple Computer Inc. Heathrow Mac I/O [106b:0010] (rev 01) 00:12.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro 215GP [1002:4750] (rev 5c) Output of lspci -vnn: 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Motorola MPC106 [Grackle] [1057:0002] (rev 40) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 00:10.0 Unknown class [ff00]: Apple Computer Inc. Heathrow Mac I/O [106b:0010] (rev 01) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32 Memory at f3000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K] 00:12.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro 215GP [1002:4750] (rev 5c) (prog-if 00 [VGA]) Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 22 Memory at 81000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M] I/O ports at fe000c00 [size=256] Memory at 80800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Base System Installation Checklist: [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Initial boot: [O] Detect network card: [O] Configure network: [O] Detect CD: [O] Load installer modules: [O] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [O] Install base system: [O] Clock/timezone setup: [O] User/password setup: [O] Install tasks: [O] Install boot loader: [E] Overall install: [O] Comments/Problems: Here's a feedback of my installation of Debian 4.0 "etch" on a Power Macintosh G3 MiniTower Since it's an oldworld macintosh, it cannot boot from the Debian CDs. I tried booting from floppies, but it never worked, the floppy drive is probably dead. So my solution was to install a legit copy of MacOS 9.2 Here's what I did: - boot into MacOS 9.2 - launch BootX with the files vmlinux and initrd.gz - debian-installer runs smoothly and everything goes well, except one thing: when debian-installer attempts to install quik as a boot loader, the operation fails, and the error messages states that "the partition is not ext2". This error messages seems odd to me. What partition does d-i mean ? The partition where MacOS 9.2 is, which is HFS ? One of the Linux partitions, which are ext3 and not ext2 ? Anyway, isn't ext2 the same thing as ext3 without journalization ? - anyway I'm not worried at all that quik could not install, because I still can boot into MacOS 9.2 and then fire up BootX to boot into Debian GNU/Linux - debian-installer finished up its work and reboots the machine ... and then something goes wrong: I see on the power macintosh a flashing "?" in a floppy. This means "I can't find any operating system to boot" ... ouch ! Now that's a problem. - I tried zapping the PRAM, it did not help. - Finally I took the "Outil Disque Dur" diskette and chose the menu "Fonction" and then "Mise à jour". Pardon my French, this should translate to "Apple Disk Tool", menu "Functions" and then "Update". I don't know the exact wording since I've never used MacOS 9.2 in any other language than French :) ... and *yes*, now I can boot into MacOS 9.2 ... but now when I boot into Debian GNU/Linux with BootX, there is another, more serious problem: When I boot into Debian GNU/Linux with BootX, I can only use the vmlinux and initrd.gz of debian-installer. So instead of booting into my system, I boot into debian-installer. Attempt to solve this problem: start a shell from debian-installer, and chroot to my Debian GNU/Linux system. From there, find the vmlinux and initrd.gz that will allow me to boot directly into Debian GNU/Linux (they are in /boot) and make them accessible to the MacOS 9.2 system. But... First attempt: mount the MacOS 9.2 (HFS) partition in read/write and copy vmlinux and initrd.gz there. The hfs driver isn't built in the kernel, so I need to load it with modprobe hfs... But alas ! It fails because it's not the same kernel version ! Indeed, I'm running the vmlinux kernel from debian-installer, but I'm trying to mount a module in /lib/modules on the installed system. So it's not the same version of the kernel ! And I can't mount the HFS partition. Second attempt: connect to the local network. From the chroot, transfer the vmlinux and initrd.gz files to a machine which has apache installed. Then reboot into MacOS 9.2, use a web browser to access the second machine, and download vmlinux and initrd.gz. Then in the future I can use these vmlinux and initrd.gz to boot into Debian GNU/Linux. debian-installer is for sure better than the "tools" you had to use to install Debian 3.0 on powerpc... But it seems there are still a few problems... Especially I don't see why MacOS 9.2 becomes unbootable after the installation of Debian GNU/Linux. Of course, I didn't touch the MacOS 9.2 partitions at all. I had a lot of spare space after the MacOS 9.2 partition, and I created my filesystems there. You can look at the output of mac-fdisk -l up there, I didn't mess with the Apple partitions :) Cheers, Alex