Need help with mac-fdisk when installing Gentoo Linux.

Gentoo Linux isn't easy to install onto a Mac, I've succeeded but I'm still getting 60Hz refresh rate on my monitor in x11, which hurts my eyes (I need to find some drivers).

Be careful when using mac-fdisk that you don't delete the partitions you need. I would recommend installing Gentoo on a separate hard disk.

For instructions this has helped me.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook.xml?part=1&chap=4#doc_chap6

From there on, its just going to get worse so you will need the whole install manual:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook.xml?part=1 and even this manual is somewhat inaccurate for Mac users.

If this is your first time with Linux or if you are still a beginner in Linux, I would highly recommend you download and install Yellow Dog Linux or Mandrake Linux for PPC.

the cruelties of mac-fdisk

yup, mac-fdisk is a pretty tough introduction to linux on ppc, but don't be put off: it's actually not too bad once you get used to it. take a look at the commands by using the ? command first, but this is what you need to do (and double check using ? that i have the right syntax, because i don't have the mac-fdisk manual in front of me, but this is the right idea):

use P to print the partition table. this will show you everything you have on the drive at the moment.

if you want to keep a mac OS alongside linux, don't delete the first 7 or so partitions that say Apple Patches -- these are necessary for loading OS 9 and X. if you want linux only, delete them, since you won't need them.

choose the partitions you want to get rid off by making note of their partition number X in dev/hdaX (i.e. 9 for /dev/hda9). press D, then type the partition number and press enter. do this for all the partitions you want to delete.

then create a partition. it's usually a good idea to press P first to view the current partition table, because this will tell you where each partition starts, and how big it is (i.e. size 64, block 41873). use this to work out the first block of the partition you'd like to create. press C to create a partition, then type the first block, then the size you'd like (you can type in megabytes by typing 8M).

and that's basically it! you need to create a swap partition for linux, which is generally about twice the size of your physical memory in RAM. it's also sometimes a good idea to create separate partitions for your /usr, /home, /boot, and /var directories, but this isn't necessary, and if you find this too confusing just skip it -- it's helpful if something goes wrong with your system, but not essential. you can usually create a swap partition just by calling it 'swap', but you can also use on the mac-fdisk commands to toggle the type of partition from Linux ext2 to Linux swap.

when you're done, make sure the changes look ok, then press W to write the table to disk, and you're good to go.

best,
nick