Very Computer

Okay, even holding down OPTION doesn't offer my LINUX cd as a boot
choice.

I thought I was doing the right thing during the install process when I
removed the half-dozen or so Mac partitions and just left the three
suggested during the install process... boot loader at 10 MB, SWAP at
256 MB and LINUX for the rest...

Was this going to far? Do I need to prep the hard drive as an HFS
standard drive with Drive Setup, and then only ADD the three LINUX
partitions rather than having JUST those three partitions?

I'll wait for some answers before starting over.

Machine is a G4/400 with AGP.

Hi,

I've always done the partitioning with Drive Setup and just used the
ready-made partitions when installing. You just have to modify the type to
Linux on / and others.

I can send you my partition map if you wish.

L.

That was a typo... should have said "...doesn't offer my LINUX hard
drive as a boot choice."

The install finishes right to the end, and I even decided to say that I
wanted LINUX to be my default boot point as one of the final questions...

It then restarted the computer, I saw the folder with the "?" for about
1/2 second and then OS X began to boot...

I immediately hit the restart button and held down the OPTION key.

The only bootable volumes offered were my OS X drive, the YDL install CD
and my OS 9 drive... sigh! NO "hda" volume where LINUX was just
installed.

I figure all the files are there, I just can't convince my G4 to accept
it as a valid boot point.

If I do a custom install, can I skip ahead to one of the steps and fix
something? I think there's a "mount point" step for example.

I'm getting pretty close to giving up trying to see it up and running.

In article

This is exactly the problem I referenced to your other post. The same
exact thing happens to me. The bootstrap partition is somehow not being
written. I did this once before and was able to start Linux from open
firmware but I have since forgot the command and lost the scraps of
paper I wrote it on. When I started it though the video was messed up.
I gave up that time too.

--
"It's coming through now Kahn......Here it comes".
Archon<OSX>

I would have thought this would have come up before at the Yellow Dog
site and there would have been a FAQ about it for now... has anyone got
an explanation?

Well, deleting all those small partitions wasn't a good idea at all.
They're needed by OpenFirmware to do a bunch of things. In fact, the
YDL documentation states that there are 8 to 9 partitions at the
beginning of the HD that have to stay there.

Secondly, I don't quite understand how you can have Linux *and*
MacOS X on those three partitions?
The setup has to be the following: the Linux bootstrap partitions
follow right behind those small Mac partitions. Then comes the
rest in whatever order you want it to be.

Those small partitions have to be re-created by the MacOS Disk
Setup tool. Once you're done with that, you can try re-installing
Linux.
If you use the Custom Setup, you can actually go ahead to steps
such as partitioning, setting Mount Points and installing the
Bootstrap partition.

HTH

Bela

--
Bela Bauer

PGP available per PM
http://www.drsl.de

Ahhh those small partitions are disk drivers for OS 9. In the X Disk
Utility it has a check box for "OS 9 drivers" if you don't check this
you can't access it from OS 9. And when viewed from Mac-fdisk you can
see all these partitions. So you are saying open firmware needs these
drivers to boot to Linux? Or Linux needs them to boot itself?

Anyway I will format the drive for OS 9 and Unix file system. Then in
the setup you have to establish at least a boot partition (mount point
/boot?), a swap partition (mount point /swap) and a root partition
(mount point /root). Does that sound right?

--
--------------------------
I wonder what this button does.............
Archon<OSX>

Quote:> Well, deleting all those small partitions wasn't a good idea at all.
> They're needed by OpenFirmware to do a bunch of things. In fact, the
> YDL documentation states that there are 8 to 9 partitions at the
> beginning of the HD that have to stay there.

What about the situation where one does a YDL install onto one of these
PowerPC boxes sold through Terrasoft? There's no Mac partitions on THOSE
drives! Is the open firmware really this funky on the Mac that it needs
to see a bunch of Mac partitions on a drive dedicated to just LINUX? I
remember when I had a Mac drive set for BeOS on a previous computer that
there was no requirement for Mac partitions.

Note, I used DRIVE SETUP (in OS X) and selected the HD and merely said
to ERASE it as an HFS STANDARD (I believe the YDL website wants HFS
STANDARD?) drive. When I got back into the install process, there was
just a big old Mac single HFS partition there taking up all free space.
In order to do the install, I had to first delete this MAC partition to
make some space for the LINUX partitions. I don't see why LINUX would
need ANY kind of Mac partitions at all. The only thing I did NOT choose
to configure when I was doing the erase procedure in Drive Setup, was to
click on the checkbox for "OS 9 booting drivers"... perhaps I need them
for some strange reason... Why does LINUX want all this MAC stuff anyway?

The Yellow Dog website needs a LOT more info for separate LINUX drive
installations... they mention it in passing, but the setup instructions
are only for single drive configurations. This is being skimpy on the
info.

Quote:> Secondly, I don't quite understand how you can have Linux *and*
> MacOS X on those three partitions?

Remember, I have 3 separate hard drives in my G4 as follows:

hda (MAIN BUS, MASTER): target drive for YDL -- Quantum 6 GB
hdb (MAIN BUS, SLAVE): OS X installation -- WDC 40 GB
hdc (2ND BUS, MASTER): CD-RW drive -- YAMAHA 2200E
hdd (2ND BUS, SLAVE): OS 9 installation -- WDC 4 GB

Quote:> The setup has to be the following: the Linux bootstrap partitions
> follow right behind those small Mac partitions. Then comes the
> rest in whatever order you want it to be.

This is for Mac and LINUX on the same drive, I'm using a separate drive
for my LINUX. I don't understand a need for any Mac partitions on that
drive.

We shouldn't have to GUESS what to do here! Why isn't this covered on
the YDL website somewhere! They only give good instructions for single
HD situations and mention separate YDL drive installations in one short
paragraph:

Quote:> Second Drive for YDL with either BootX or yaboot

> If you are installing YDL on a second drive, it is advised that YDL drive be
> placed first and jumpered as Master. The Mac OS drive should then be placed
> second on the IDE chain and jumpered as Slave. In addition, we recommend you
> use the Custom install mode to make certain your mount points are designated
> properly.

> Single drive for YDL without Mac OS

> You may install YDL as the only operating system on NewWorld ROM machines
> with the use of yaboot.

AND THAT'S ALL THEY HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT! This isn't enough detail
obviously!

What's needed is some good step by step instructions for a separate YDL
drive install as I'm attempting. Instructions for how to prepare the
drive with the Mac Drive Setup program, for example...

Actually, I'm not too familiar with the internals of that. I only read
in some YDL document that one is supposed to leave those where they are,
so I assume that they are necessary for some reason. Maybe that only
applies to MacOS 9 installations - but I think it would be worth a try
in any case.

Quote:> Anyway I will format the drive for OS 9 and Unix file system. Then in
> the setup you have to establish at least a boot partition (mount point
> /boot?), a swap partition (mount point /swap) and a root partition
> (mount point /root). Does that sound right?

Yes, that's the way I did it, and IMHO that should work.

oaiC

Bela

--
Bela Bauer

PGP available per PM
http://www.drsl.de

Apparently I was wrong in saying that OpenFirmware needs them. I wasn't
aware that they're only an OS9 thing and not needed for OS X either.

Quote:>> Secondly, I don't quite understand how you can have Linux *and*
>> MacOS X on those three partitions?
> Remember, I have 3 separate hard drives in my G4 as follows:

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that.

Quote:> hda (MAIN BUS, MASTER): target drive for YDL -- Quantum 6 GB
> hdb (MAIN BUS, SLAVE): OS X installation -- WDC 40 GB
> hdc (2ND BUS, MASTER): CD-RW drive -- YAMAHA 2200E
> hdd (2ND BUS, SLAVE): OS 9 installation -- WDC 4 GB

I would guess that you should refer to documentation of the bootmanager
you're using. In your case, that's probably yaboot. It has a HOWTO
at
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/doc/yaboot-howto.html/index.en.html#c...
Maybe that is of some help.

Quote:>> The setup has to be the following: the Linux bootstrap partitions
>> follow right behind those small Mac partitions. Then comes the
>> rest in whatever order you want it to be.
> This is for Mac and LINUX on the same drive, I'm using a separate drive
> for my LINUX. I don't understand a need for any Mac partitions on that
> drive.

There may just not be any need for that. As I said, I'm not an expert
on this either. :-)
What happens if you take out hdb (and maybe hdd)? That leaves Linux as
the only bootable image. If you still have problems, you can be sure
that there's something wrong with the Linux installation itself. If it
does work, however, there must be something wrong with the setup of
the bootmanager (maybe in conjunction with OF). If so, maybe something
can be found in its documentation?

HTH

Bela

--
Bela Bauer

PGP available per PM
http://www.drsl.de

Quote:> What happens if you take out hdb (and maybe hdd)? That leaves Linux as
> the only bootable image.

As posted earlier, I tried this... no luck. It's likely some sort of
yaboot/bootmanager issue... nothing SEES the LINUX OS on this drive.

Quote:> that there's something wrong with the Linux installation itself. If it
> does work, however, there must be something wrong with the setup of
> the bootmanager (maybe in conjunction with OF). If so, maybe something
> can be found in its documentation?

What I'm doing is NOT all that wild, and there are others seeing the
same problem... Where's the FAQ for this on the YDL website is what I
would like to know!

Your postings are too long...by the time I'm at the end, I don't know
what you wrote in the beginning. ;->

Quote:> What I'm doing is NOT all that wild, and there are others seeing the
> same problem... Where's the FAQ for this on the YDL website is what I
> would like to know!

Ask them. Maybe they'll actually respond.
It's unlikely, but it's a possibility...

oaiC

Bela

--
Bela Bauer

PGP available per PM
http://www.drsl.de

Quote:> by the time I'm at the end, I don't know
> what you wrote in the beginning. ;->

That's a side effect of a certain flammable herb... ;-)

Time to cut back a bit!

Oh, no worries...I work in a place where people end up who've
enjoyed a bit too much of that...
Let me tell you, it's no fun to see that! Good side effect is
that it keeps one away from "bad" things...:-/

Quote:> Time to cut back a bit!

Actually, I just didn't see the other, parallel thread...

In any case, I've run out of ideas, so good luck on solving
the problem, and don't give up - with Linux, there's always
*some* solution, though it may take a while.
Getting Dualboot running on my Mac for the first time took me
almost a year (well, not of constant work) due to a stupid
distribution (SuSE, which is *for PPC). But eventually I
figured it out...
(I didn't put much effort in it, though, since I don't use
MacOS)

oaiC

Bela

--
Bela Bauer

PGP available per PM
http://www.veryComputer.com/