Hey Mark! By the way, all of what follows can be done within and from your PB. Although you can use Airport Extreme to download the iso from within OS X, when you are ready to actually install YDL you need to connect via an Ethernet cable to the broadband router.
One of the TSS engineers (Tim Renner) recommended a procedure which is clear and direct. His recommendations start at the bootloader prompt. The bootloader prompt is that place where a list of install options appear which you can select from which will initiate the YDL installation process. Just after the list you will see the system waiting for you to type something, you can identify this stage because it will have the following: boot: This signifies that the system is waiting for you to select an option from the above list. In your situation you will use the command install askmethod; you should type it as follows: boot: install askmethod Tim's instructions will be expressed in more detail later, as I believe other ideas and concepts need to be discussed now, for instance how do you get to that stage of invoking and using the YDL bootloader. Getting to the point where the 1st YDL CD has been put into your new drive and you have booted from that, in order to begin the YDL installation process (the famous YDL bootloader, we just mentioned). You are aware that the standard way to engage in the install of YDL is the use of CDs. Tim's approach provides an option to complete a YDL installation directly from YDL mirrors to your computer. These two different approaches do allow you to complete an installation, but they still will cost you time. I believe that it is only fair to provide you with enough information so that, as far as humanly possible, you are enabled to make a better choice for yourself as to which procedure makes the best sense for you. ======================= Explanation: As your drive is picky regarding the media it uses you should check with OWC to make sure what CDR or CDRW media/make best works with that drive. Don't bother guessing about this, they should know. After this is known the strategy then is to burn CDs (using that recommended media) from downloaded iso files. Now, if you download the iso files and burn them be aware that even if you can afford the fastest broadband speeds available, time will be passing and you still have to do the YDL installation. Also keep in mind that an intermediary step must be done even before you burn the CDs -- the iso's must be tested to insure that they in fact are even worth burning! If any one iso fails the md5sum test, it must be downloaded again! There are 4 iso files to download each one about 500-600MG! Tim's method requires just one CD! The first CD -- that's it. However, I cannot speak as to how long the entire install process will take using his method as that will depend on what kind of broadband you have. Different companies offer a kind of tier service of the kind of broadband speed they offer, for instance one level of faster download but slower upload, for a different price at each level. In any case, with the first YDL Install CD (which you will create from scratch as it will have been burned from an iso you downloaded in the first place) you can follow the standard initial instructions of booting from that first CD and beginning the install process -- which gets you to that bootloader prompt! Just for the sake of pristine clarity, the iso associated with the first YDL install CD has the number 1 embedded within it's name. Make sure you also note the md5sum value for that iso! =========================== Regarding md5sum values: I engaged a discussion regarding using md5sum elsewhere; the link to it is provided here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg01249.html I may have omitted in passing that one begins to download the iso from the mirror by clicking upon that file. Once all the .iso's are downloaded to your hard drive within a particular directory, then one should run the md5sum test from within that same directory executed from within the Terminal. The Terminal is found within the Utilities directory of OS X. Once the md5sum values match exactly you can then proceed to burn those isos. Once those isos have been burned onto CDs those CDs should be easily readable by that OWC drive. Once that happens you should then also be able to boot from those CDs as they should be compatible to that drive. While you are in OS X, do the following. Go to the Apple menu, select About this Mac. Something appears with some data, click upon More Info. Next something called System Profile appears. Select PCI/AGP Cards, these are your installed video cards. Collect that information and record it somewhere... you'll need it to complete the YDL installation process. Also select Network you'll see a listing of items select Built-in Ethernet, record this information as well. It could be useful. Note that the interface here is en0. Within YDL the interface will be eth0. The difference can be a source of confusion, consider that both are different names for the same device. Think of it as two people speak English, one is from Britain; the other is from the US. Likewise will be the case regarding how OS X and YDL see the same hardware in your PB. ============================= Other details of importance, a discussion regarding determining directories on mirrors. The ydl mirrors posted here: http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/resources/downloads.shtml One of the available mirrors at that link (the TSS downloads page) is http://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/yellowdog. If you click on that link from within your browser you'll see that the first line of that webpage is Index of /yellowdog and further down is a list of directories of which one is releases. Now within releases choose yellowdog-4.1; then you'll notice the directory en, choose to go into that, then choose os and then you'll see what's available there. The purpose of this minor side-track is to help you understand the next command sequence so that should you choose another mirror you will be enabled to make the correct sequence of choices because you will hopefully understand how that server's directories for YDL are organized. ============================= Tim's instructions for performing an http install begin here: At the Bootloader Prompt type install askmethod. In other words: boot:install askmethod This will start Anaconda which is the name of the install program for YDL. Anaconda will ask about your keyboard, then offers a choice of local media, hard disk, nfs, ftp or http. You choose http. Next a screen appears in which you are expected to set up your Ethernet card (the information you collected on your installed card while you were in OS X will go here), then it asks for the server and directory info as explained below: For instance this will appear: server: As an example Tim chose the following mirror: server: mirror.mcs.anl.gov A pause before we continue. Note that there is no http, ftp or other prefix or suffix to use. After you press the Enter/Return key, the system will respond with: dir: The next response is as follows: dir: yellowdog/releases/yellowdog-4.1/en/os/ You can determine that you are proceeding into the 2nd stage of Anaconda as it will behave similar to a standard installation occurring from YDL CDs. I stated similar because you will in fact be engaging in an install procedure invoked using http over a broadband connection where you are directly accessing TSS servers, or one of the mirrors which have YDL. Just so you can keep on track, there does exist a manual covering the installation procedure for YDL 4.1. In case you don't have it, it is here: http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/installation/ If you have further questions, ask. May all go smoothly for you. Good Luck... Derick. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Christal wrote: > I purchased the cadillac of YDL distros with installation support, but > haven't been able to get YDL installed because the combo drive on my > G4 Powerbook was faulty and the replacement drive I purchased from > Other World Computer is not fully Mac compatible so that I can't boot > up on the YDL install disk. YDL installation support suggest I do an > "HTTP Install" and promised that information on how to do that can be > found on the YDL lists. However, I can't find discussion that > explains how to do that in a way I can understand, so if anyone knows > if and how I can do this, please respond. > > I am starting with a full set of the YDL installation disks and my G4 > Powerbook fully prepared to proceed with a dual-boot setup: I have OS > X on one partion, and half the drive( ~14 GB) partioned as "Free > space." I can connect to the Internet via DSL or WiFi and I have a G5 > Power Mac I can network to. Now what? > > --Mark Christal > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > yellowdog-newbie mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-newbie > _______________________________________________ yellowdog-newbie mailing list [email protected] http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-newbie _______________________________________________ yellowdog-newbie mailing list [email protected] http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-newbie
