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I figured it out. I had to boot into a livecd and delete the 10MiB volume that contained the Yaboot boot contents (disk0s2 for me).
This bit might be useful to have in the OP. I can't add it myself because I don't have the permissions to.
This bit might be useful to have in the OP. I can't add it myself because I don't have the permissions to.
The situation I’m facing is right in the starting gate with PowerBook2,2 (the Rev. C iBook G3) and being unable to successfully reach yaboot.
After reading this entire thread and returning back to the top to follow the wiki installation guide painstakingly closely, the path I chose was to try the Debian 10.0 (Buster) netinstall ISO — opting not to try a Sid build just yet, since that would take me astray of the above how-to (and installing linux isn’t really in my wheelhouse of experience). I copied the ISO to different media.
I’ll describe the three media sources I tried separately:
First go: burnt the ISO to a disc (once from Toast and once, separately, from Disk Utility)
Second go: dd’d the ISO to an install partition on the internal drive (an SSD). (also tried image restore in DiskUtil as an alternate)
Third and final go: dd’d the ISO to a USB flash drive.
As for yaboot boot attempts:
The first method, the “C” OF command when booting from a disc, skipped the disc entirely and usual OS X boot took over.
The second method, to “Opt” to see all bootable systems (whether using the burnt disc, the internal partition, or the USB drive), displayed an option for a generic linux boot (i.e., a tiny penguin). When selecting the Linux boot, the screen flashed rapidly, displaying a tiny block of text, followed by a return to the same “Opt” boot-select screen — though this time the screen appears visibly garbled.
(As for this “tiny block of text”, I’m getting to that.)
The third method was go into OF and try booting from the above three media sources (using, respectively, the boot cd; boot hd; and boot ud, commands, appropriate for the above media sources — followed by their appropriate path info, i.e., “boot ud:,\install\yaboot”, etc.). With all three, I verified that OF’s date was set to today.
With each of the three media sources, the screen flashes briefly to what looks like yaboot taking over, displaying the same tiny block of text, as with the above, but for maybe a split second longer, followed by the ? sign.
As with the above, the boot fails. You can view this in the attached a 10sec clip at the end.
By filming this (booting from the USB drive), I was also able to pull a frame from the moment the block of text appears. The text are parameters such as block size. No obvious errors, though.
![Screen Shot 2020-10-25 at 16.19.26.png]( "Screen Shot 2020-10-25 at 16.19.26.png")
* * *
After all this, I tried the same (though this time, just to the USB flash drive) with the 8.11 (Jessie) netinstall ISO and the same thing occurs.
As it appears no one in this thread has documented trying the debian netinstall on a PowerBook2,2, I don’t expect anyone to have a clear idea of what’s not working here, unless their Mac did the same thing.
After reading this entire thread and returning back to the top to follow the wiki installation guide painstakingly closely, the path I chose was to try the Debian 10.0 (Buster) netinstall ISO — opting not to try a Sid build just yet, since that would take me astray of the above how-to (and installing linux isn’t really in my wheelhouse of experience). I copied the ISO to different media.
I’ll describe the three media sources I tried separately:
First go: burnt the ISO to a disc (once from Toast and once, separately, from Disk Utility)
Second go: dd’d the ISO to an install partition on the internal drive (an SSD). (also tried image restore in DiskUtil as an alternate)
Third and final go: dd’d the ISO to a USB flash drive.
As for yaboot boot attempts:
The first method, the “C” OF command when booting from a disc, skipped the disc entirely and usual OS X boot took over.
The second method, to “Opt” to see all bootable systems (whether using the burnt disc, the internal partition, or the USB drive), displayed an option for a generic linux boot (i.e., a tiny penguin). When selecting the Linux boot, the screen flashed rapidly, displaying a tiny block of text, followed by a return to the same “Opt” boot-select screen — though this time the screen appears visibly garbled.
(As for this “tiny block of text”, I’m getting to that.)
The third method was go into OF and try booting from the above three media sources (using, respectively, the boot cd; boot hd; and boot ud, commands, appropriate for the above media sources — followed by their appropriate path info, i.e., “boot ud:,\install\yaboot”, etc.). With all three, I verified that OF’s date was set to today.
With each of the three media sources, the screen flashes briefly to what looks like yaboot taking over, displaying the same tiny block of text, as with the above, but for maybe a split second longer, followed by the ? sign.
As with the above, the boot fails. You can view this in the attached a 10sec clip at the end.
By filming this (booting from the USB drive), I was also able to pull a frame from the moment the block of text appears. The text are parameters such as block size. No obvious errors, though.
* * *
After all this, I tried the same (though this time, just to the USB flash drive) with the 8.11 (Jessie) netinstall ISO and the same thing occurs.
As it appears no one in this thread has documented trying the debian netinstall on a PowerBook2,2, I don’t expect anyone to have a clear idea of what’s not working here, unless their Mac did the same thing.
It is no use to install current stable release of Deb, because I personally didn't found any repos with packages. Better to install unstable from the beginning & add working repos after installation (beware of upgrade grub2 higher that 2.02, btw). To boot installer from USB & OF console - try to remap devalias of cd to your usb path. First, determine, did your PB mapped USB flash to somethinf like ud, ud1, or nowhere at all (this case requires a longer path in devalias command 
). For example, mine PMG5Quad quite always maps usb from middle back port to ud, of path like /ht/usb@b/@b/disk@1 (not remember correctly, that' just example). Try dome commands like dev usb2 ls & so on, until you find soome of port, with path like /disk@1. Next step - remap cd to your usb flash port, this can be done devalias (dorry, did I mention that earlier? ).
devalias cd /ht/pic@8/usb@b/@@b/disk@1 (something like this, as for me it is beeter to start from /ht than from usb). If all goes well - you'll see ok in console. Next step - try to browse for files at this drive. Try this: dir cd:,\. If this works - you'll see a directory structure with files. If not - then recheck devalias command for correct path. And finally - last comand, quite obvious. boot cd:,\\:tbxi . That how I personally boot come usb-flash drives for installation deveral linux distros at PMG5Q. There can be other problem - even if the flash drive started, the debian itself could not contain necessary kernel modules (this was the case, why I couldn't install Deb from FireWire dvd drive - no firewire modules in installer kernel). Well, just try & pls reply here (& attach screens in case something goes wrong).
). For example, mine PMG5Quad quite always maps usb from middle back port to ud, of path like /ht/usb@b/@b/disk@1 (not remember correctly, that' just example). Try dome commands like dev usb2 ls & so on, until you find soome of port, with path like /disk@1. Next step - remap cd to your usb flash port, this can be done devalias (dorry, did I mention that earlier? ).devalias cd /ht/pic@8/usb@b/@@b/disk@1 (something like this, as for me it is beeter to start from /ht than from usb). If all goes well - you'll see ok in console. Next step - try to browse for files at this drive. Try this: dir cd:,\. If this works - you'll see a directory structure with files. If not - then recheck devalias command for correct path. And finally - last comand, quite obvious. boot cd:,\\:tbxi . That how I personally boot come usb-flash drives for installation deveral linux distros at PMG5Q
. There can be other problem - even if the flash drive started, the debian itself could not contain necessary kernel modules (this was the case, why I couldn't install Deb from FireWire dvd drive - no firewire modules in installer kernel). Well, just try & pls reply here (& attach screens in case something goes wrong).
For sake of simplicity, I avoided the Sid because it is not covered in this thread’s wiki how-to for installation. Working with non-Darwin-based systems is not really something I have much experience with. That said, I may look into the Sid installation.
To boot installer from USB & OF console - try to remap devalias of cd to your usb path. First, determine, did your PB mapped USB flash to somethinf like ud, ud1, or nowhere at all (this case requires a longer path in devalias command
After posting the above, I decided to test the yaboot bundled with Lubuntu remix, installed on the same USB flash drive, just to see whether OF would recognize yaboot and load it. Fortunately, it did, which means there may be a compatibility conflict between the PowerBook2,2 (iBook G3 clamshell SE, Rev. C) and the yaboot bundled with the debian netinstall.
I haven’t yet tried to install Lubuntu remix because I wanted to try a debian build first, but at least I know the version of yaboot on it does work with my system. My worry was that no yaboot would work with the PowerBook2,2, which would have compelled me to look elsewhere for help.
One I try the Sid netinstall, I’ll report back with what happens.
Few tricks I've learned with OF console (m.b. faster in some cases, than pressing default keys?..) (As I understood, this is already built-in scripts; at least all this works at g5Quad).
Switch from Target mode to Boot picker. Power on, press T. When FW logo appears - press CTRL-Z. Picture will pause & you'll see OF command prompt, type multi-boot & Enter.
Again, If you want to re-enable Target mode - CTRL-Z, target-mode, Enter. (It is obvious, main trick here is CTRL-Z). Of cause, you can type mac-boot, or reset-all of shut-down, too.
Switch from Target mode to Boot picker. Power on, press T. When FW logo appears - press CTRL-Z. Picture will pause & you'll see OF command prompt, type multi-boot & Enter
.Again, If you want to re-enable Target mode - CTRL-Z, target-mode, Enter. (It is obvious, main trick here is CTRL-Z). Of cause, you can type mac-boot, or reset-all of shut-down, too
.
On a recommendation from member “wicknix” and following the Debian 10 Sid install instructions by member “swamprock” to the letter, I was only able to get to a Grub boot screen with two choices, Launch Debian and Advanced options. Chosing the Debian boot resulted in a black screen, no access to a terminal screen. So, I tried adding “Radeon.modeset=0” or “-1” to the linux line of the boot loader and the most I got was a flashing cursor. I was able to get to a terminal screen and access “journalctl -b” which resulted in the following errors: ( Keep in mind the swamprock install instructions included downloading non free linux firmware which I assumed would include drivers for my Radeon 9600 GPU and wireless card BCM4306 rev 3.)
Driver ‘hvc_console’ was unable to register with bus_type ‘vio’ because the bus was not initialized
i2c i2c-3: i2c-powermac: modalias failure on /u3@0,f8000000/i2c@f8001000/cereal@1c0
[drm:.radeon_init [radeon]] *ERROR* No UMS support in radeon module!
Platform regulatory.0: firmware failed to load regulatory.db (-2)
Then a whole lot of b43 firmware errors failure to load b43/ucode5.fw (-2)
with recommendations to go to a wireless wiki page for downloading the firmware
Later screens show lightdm service failures and errors getting a user list from freedesktop.Accounts
and
lightdm.service failed with result ‘exit code’
lightdm.service: Start request repeated too quickly
Failed to start Light Display Manager
These errors are scattered throughout the journalctl -b output.
One of the final instructions from swamprock was to got to a PowerPC Linux wiki to download desktop environments, window managers, etc since his original instructions were for a base Debian 10 install. I did that and all of the installs seemed to go smoothly.
I followed swamprock’s instructions and ran into a small problem, where shortly after the install CD ejects, I expected to boot to a screen where I would get to log in using my user name and password but as I mentioned before, I was presented with the Grub boot screen and two choices. Chosing the Debian boot option resulted in a black screen. Advanced options allowed me to edit the boot loader but non of the edits to the line starting with “linux” resulted in access to a login screen.
Thoughts?
MacMav
Driver ‘hvc_console’ was unable to register with bus_type ‘vio’ because the bus was not initialized
i2c i2c-3: i2c-powermac: modalias failure on /u3@0,f8000000/i2c@f8001000/cereal@1c0
[drm:.radeon_init [radeon]] *ERROR* No UMS support in radeon module!
Platform regulatory.0: firmware failed to load regulatory.db (-2)
Then a whole lot of b43 firmware errors failure to load b43/ucode5.fw (-2)
with recommendations to go to a wireless wiki page for downloading the firmware
Later screens show lightdm service failures and errors getting a user list from freedesktop.Accounts
and
lightdm.service failed with result ‘exit code’
lightdm.service: Start request repeated too quickly
Failed to start Light Display Manager
These errors are scattered throughout the journalctl -b output.
One of the final instructions from swamprock was to got to a PowerPC Linux wiki to download desktop environments, window managers, etc since his original instructions were for a base Debian 10 install. I did that and all of the installs seemed to go smoothly.
I followed swamprock’s instructions and ran into a small problem, where shortly after the install CD ejects, I expected to boot to a screen where I would get to log in using my user name and password but as I mentioned before, I was presented with the Grub boot screen and two choices. Chosing the Debian boot option resulted in a black screen. Advanced options allowed me to edit the boot loader but non of the edits to the line starting with “linux” resulted in access to a login screen.
Thoughts?
MacMav
Grub can be a pita sometimes. Click on the link in my signature and check out the debian sid remix link. That version uses yaboot instead. The documentation might be a bit dated now, but might help get you in to a booted system.
Cheers
Cheers
I will do that. Are all the problems I listed a result of the GRUB boot loader? That would be great but I find it kinda hard to believe. The Debian Remix mentions it’s for PPC. Will it work on the G5?
Finally, and this is kinda weird , I noticed through some of the scrolling info on these installs that the wireless card may be a 32 bit version. It works in OSX but would the fact I’m trying to install 64 bit distros affect the wireless card? I’ll let you know how the install goes. I’ll have to do it from a usb stick (and I’m “o for” on booting the G5 from a usb stick.)
Thanks,
MacMav
Finally, and this is kinda weird , I noticed through some of the scrolling info on these installs that the wireless card may be a 32 bit version. It works in OSX but would the fact I’m trying to install 64 bit distros affect the wireless card? I’ll let you know how the install goes. I’ll have to do it from a usb stick (and I’m “o for” on booting the G5 from a usb stick.)
Thanks,
MacMav
2nd verse, same as the first...I’d forgotten the original issue with getting Debian to load was a failure on boot to “load kernel module”
So, I may have posted elsewhere but will repeat it here. I READ THE INSTRUCTIONS supplied with the Deb Remix and it installed nicely. With a couple of downloads was able, for the first time in a Linux distro, able to get the Apple Airport card to work (BCM 4306 rev 3) but had to use the DVI port of the GPU to be able to “see” anything. Am working, searching for a way to get the 22” Apple Cinema Display/port to work as my DVI monitor is only a 15” Dell I had on another machine.
I’ve seen but haven’t loaded packages that address Apple Cinema Display “control” but I’m thinking I have to be able to get it working before I load those. They aren’t drivers. This may not be the first distro this problem has presented itself. I think Void and other Debian distros probably worked I just never thought to put a different monitor on the G5.
Lubuntu 16.04 Remix is working nicely on my two G4s.
MM855
I’ve seen but haven’t loaded packages that address Apple Cinema Display “control” but I’m thinking I have to be able to get it working before I load those. They aren’t drivers. This may not be the first distro this problem has presented itself. I think Void and other Debian distros probably worked I just never thought to put a different monitor on the G5.
Lubuntu 16.04 Remix is working nicely on my two G4s.
MM855
Hi All,
Trying to get WiFi (AirPort Extreme) working on my iBook G4 1.42GHz running Debian 11 Sid.
I have the BCM4318 chip
Following the instructions. Seems these links are dead (see attached)
I CAN run
But, when I do I get this error
Any suggestions?
Trying to get WiFi (AirPort Extreme) working on my iBook G4 1.42GHz running Debian 11 Sid.
I have the BCM4318 chip
Following the instructions. Seems these links are dead (see attached)
I CAN run
Code:
apt-get install firmware-b43-installerBut, when I do I get this error
Code:
daniel@debian:~$ sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
firmware-b43-installer : Depends: b43-fwcutter (>= 1:019-7) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.Any suggestions?
Attachments
Well this is what I get, see attached.
Code:
daniel@debian:~$ wget http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/...fwcutter/firmware-b43-installer_019-3_all.deb && wget http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/...b/b43-fwcutter/b43-fwcutter_019-3_powerpc.deb && sudo dpkg -i *.deb && sudo rm *.deb
--2021-08-05 23:23:18-- http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/...fwcutter/firmware-b43-installer_019-3_all.deb
Resolving snapshot.debian.org (snapshot.debian.org)... 193.62.202.27, 185.17.185.185, 2001:630:206:4000:1a1a:0:c13e:ca1b, ...
Connecting to snapshot.debian.org (snapshot.debian.org)|193.62.202.27|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
2021-08-05 23:23:19 ERROR 404: Not Found.Attachments
Ah, I see.
MR Forums shortened the links to make the post look cleaner. You should copy the link instead of the text. On PowerBooks, I believe this is either F11 or F12 on the keyboard to simulate a right click. Not applicable over SSH.
Good news all, the stable release of Debian 11 Bullseye is now available on PowerPC. The Distributions and Install Guide sections have been updated to accommodate this addition accordingly.
Also, the Web Browsers legend under the Software sector has been updated to reflect the latest versions of Arctic Fox, SpiderWeb, and InterWeb, as well as the new inclusions of the Faded Orb and SeaMonkey Web browsers, courtesy of @wicknix.
-
Note: The Debian 11 Bullseye install processes as detailed under the Distributions and Install Guide sections are as of now completely untested and may be subject to faults.
Also, the Web Browsers legend under the Software sector has been updated to reflect the latest versions of Arctic Fox, SpiderWeb, and InterWeb, as well as the new inclusions of the Faded Orb and SeaMonkey Web browsers, courtesy of @wicknix.
-
Note: The Debian 11 Bullseye install processes as detailed under the Distributions and Install Guide sections are as of now completely untested and may be subject to faults.
From Debian news: "64-bit little-endian Motorola/IBM PowerPC (ppc64el)". Can you pls show some URLs for ppc64 branch?
@Tratkazir_the_1st Perhaps I should have been more specific; just as I did for Debian 10 Buster in 2019, I have today posted a particular snapshot of Debian Ports' ppc Sid repositories during the last day of the full software freeze into the Install Guide, as well as linked to a build of the most recent Sid installer.
Due to the way Debian's package progression works, the Debian Sid repositories are the exact same as the Debian Stable repositories leading up to and during the time of a stable release. Meaning, one can effectively get a frozen snapshot of a Debian Sid build in exactly the same state as an official stable build on release day, with there being virtually no difference between the two, therefore culminating in a sort of 'unofficial' stable release for, in this case, 32-bit PowerPC (ppc).
I hope that was helpful.
Due to the way Debian's package progression works, the Debian Sid repositories are the exact same as the Debian Stable repositories leading up to and during the time of a stable release. Meaning, one can effectively get a frozen snapshot of a Debian Sid build in exactly the same state as an official stable build on release day, with there being virtually no difference between the two, therefore culminating in a sort of 'unofficial' stable release for, in this case, 32-bit PowerPC (ppc).
I hope that was helpful.
1. Current (more or less) Debian NetInstall iso have working repo built in (deb.debian.org/debian-ports/).
2. Current iso don't support creating AppleBootstrap partition from partition submenu (don't know, is it bug or intentionally removed).
So I've just reinstalled (at least console level for now) Debian, which took nearly 2 days of trials & errors. Got most recent yaboot-based iso, installed Deb with bare minimum level (repo can be added at manual selection screen but without debian-ports keyring installer refuses to work with it - didn't found workaround). After first boot edit your sources.list, insert this:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports unstable main
Next, fixing barking about NO_KEY. Issue this: apt update --allow-insecure-repositories.
It'll bark about repo unsigned & so on. Fixing: apt install debian-ports-archive-keyring.
Look carefully & press Y. After package installation - repeat apt update. Now it should work OK.
Next big trouble: if you try to update or install anything straight ahead - it is high probablility that system will intend to update libc6 but wouldn't be able to do that (there are some kind of circulatr dependencyes, if I understood it right - bugreport here, despite being it for AMD64 - symproms are identical https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=974552). Solved is so: apt install ibcrypt1. Afterwards try to install something (mc htop p7zip-full I think anything will trigger update of libc6 ). But it have to work OK now. Well, you can now install packages you need & still use yaboot, but it is dumb I on my Quad it cannot do something when LSI2041E-R installed (drops with words mptsas unsuported). (BTW -forgot ot mention. For this installation, to reduce prossibility of confusing among bootloaders, I've disconnected all HDDss, except second at IDE bus - power cable stuck really hard & there are not too much place to work, but it didn't caused troubles ). (Excue my English, I'm really sorry.)
The last - GRUB2 installation & setup (have I said that yaboot is dumb? )
apt install grub2, it'll get everything what we need. Setting it up as default is a bit more tricky. Used this pages: http://cynic.cc/blog/posts/running_grub2_on_powerpc_macs/ - a bit outdated, current grub-mkimage requires option -p, which is not mentioned. And main article: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB_on_Open_Firmware_(PowerPC) (Gentoo Rules! ). I've modified my setup with all possible modules installation for GRUB2. It is described in both articles, but I've used part from first one. Several unsuccessful reboots was cased with my carelessness - some paths were wrong in ofboot.b, but files operational. Now it's all fixed & boots up fully unmanned .
I'm a bit confused, are this 2 repos identical? http://ftp.ports.debian.org & http://deb-debian.org ?
Does it worth to add first to sources.list?
2. Current iso don't support creating AppleBootstrap partition from partition submenu (don't know, is it bug or intentionally removed).
So I've just reinstalled (at least console level for now) Debian, which took nearly 2 days of trials & errors. Got most recent yaboot-based iso, installed Deb with bare minimum level (repo can be added at manual selection screen but without debian-ports keyring installer refuses to work with it - didn't found workaround). After first boot edit your sources.list, insert this:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports unstable main
Next, fixing barking about NO_KEY. Issue this: apt update --allow-insecure-repositories.
It'll bark about repo unsigned & so on. Fixing: apt install debian-ports-archive-keyring.
Look carefully & press Y. After package installation - repeat apt update. Now it should work OK.
Next big trouble: if you try to update or install anything straight ahead - it is high probablility that system will intend to update libc6 but wouldn't be able to do that (there are some kind of circulatr dependencyes, if I understood it right - bugreport here, despite being it for AMD64 - symproms are identical https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=974552). Solved is so: apt install ibcrypt1. Afterwards try to install something (mc htop p7zip-full I think anything will trigger update of libc6
). But it have to work OK now. Well, you can now install packages you need & still use yaboot, but it is dumb I on my Quad it cannot do something when LSI2041E-R installed (drops with words mptsas unsuported). (BTW -forgot ot mention. For this installation, to reduce prossibility of confusing among bootloaders, I've disconnected all HDDss, except second at IDE bus - power cable stuck really hard & there are not too much place to work, but it didn't caused troubles ). (Excue my English, I'm really sorry.)The last - GRUB2 installation & setup (have I said that yaboot is dumb?
)apt install grub2, it'll get everything what we need. Setting it up as default is a bit more tricky. Used this pages: http://cynic.cc/blog/posts/running_grub2_on_powerpc_macs/ - a bit outdated, current grub-mkimage requires option -p, which is not mentioned. And main article: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB_on_Open_Firmware_(PowerPC) (Gentoo Rules!
). I've modified my setup with all possible modules installation for GRUB2. It is described in both articles, but I've used part from first one. Several unsuccessful reboots was cased with my carelessness - some paths were wrong in ofboot.b, but files operational. Now it's all fixed & boots up fully unmanned .I'm a bit confused, are this 2 repos identical? http://ftp.ports.debian.org & http://deb-debian.org ?
Does it worth to add first to sources.list?
OMG... I somehow managed to mix up distributions & installed 32-bit Debian. Reinstalled already ppc64 - all the same done to get working system .
(What's good with macs - no disgusting squeaks when using autocompletion in console ).
.(What's good with macs - no disgusting squeaks when using autocompletion in console
).
OK, now it is certain, than quite any Linux distro can be installed to a GPT-partitioned drive in PowerMac . First of all, you need to be sure that your OpenFirmware version can read GPT drives (I don't know all versions & their capabilities). Simplest way (may be) - partition something (HDD, USB flash or whatever) to GPT & create HFS partition. Later - try to use dir command in OF console & see the drive directory structure. (This all in brief to give all of us the idea what to do). As for now - reinstalled Debian to another IDE drive (Seagate 250Gb), GPT partitioned in Gentoo.
A bit of console output here.
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 232,88 GiB, 250058268160 bytes, 488395055 sectors
Disk model: ST3250820A
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: ED67B67F-1F47-4B8F-9BDE-96BDFC2CA9CA
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 4196351 4194304 2G Apple HFS/HFS+
/dev/sdb2 4196352 488394751 484198400 230,9G Linux filesystem
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# mount | grep /dev/sd
/dev/sdb2 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdb1 on /boot/grub type hfs (rw,relatime,uid=0,gid=0)
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# uname -a
Linux PowerMacG5-QUAD 5.14.0-1-powerpc64 #1 SMP Debian 5.14.6-3 (2021-09-28) ppc64 GNU/Linux
As you see, drive is GPT, 2 partitions. The idea to create a standalone partition for /boot/grub came from aforementioned video (but that guys don't finalize bootloader configuration & use pram reset, which is clumsy work). (BTW, I made this patition way too large - 2 GB, confused it to kernel storage place.) And (U)EFI-based systems uses EFI System Partition, whic is mounted to /boot/efi usually (well, this does not work for Intel Macs). Installation was quite simple. (Not to mention inability to select hfs partition at drive partitioning stage, so I left it unused). After packages install - do not use stage "install (yaboot|GRUB) bootloader", skip it directly to next pphase, BUT DO NOT REBOOT. Now we need to go to shell & chroot to our fresh installation; chroot /target/ /bin/bash. Mount our hfs partition to /boot/grub (mount /dev/sdXY, your drive letter & partition number here). Afterward - install grub2 (apt install grub2), it have to install grub-ieee1275 packages. Now install grub intself: grub-install (hfs partition). Check if our hfs partition is now populated (ls /boot/grub). Instead of creating grub image, I just copied quite everything from /usr/lib/grub/powerpc-ieee1275/ to /boot/grub/powerpc-ieee1275. You may try to reboot now (I made several reboots & amendmens before it all works & drive become shown in boot-picker). Several boot was made fro OF console (of paths is something to remeber ). From actual system I've made ofboot directory in our hfs partition, placed very minimalistic ofboot.b config there.
(ofboot.b)
<CHRP-BOOT>
<COMPATIBLE>
MacRISC MacRISC3 MacRISC4
</COMPATIBLE>
<DESCRIPTION>
DEBIAN SID
</DESCRIPTION>
<BOOT-SCRIPT>
boot /ht/pci@9/ata-6@d/disk@1,:\grub
</BOOT-SCRIPT>
</CHRP-BOOT>
You can laugh but for about 2 or 3 attempts to boot from boot-picker I've just FORGOT to write command "boot" in this config. (You see here is no OS-BADGE - If ever I can somehere find Debian logo or something else ...). Here Debian is bootable from boot picker, using GRUB2. This post does not pretend to be full detailed manual, just to give the idea what to do for GPT booting . This articles helps alot: http://cynic.cc/blog/posts/running_grub2_on_powerpc_macs/
wiki.gentoo.org
(Congratulations are welcome). (Interesting - is it possible to make such trcks with OpenSUSE..? )
. First of all, you need to be sure that your OpenFirmware version can read GPT drives (I don't know all versions & their capabilities). Simplest way (may be) - partition something (HDD, USB flash or whatever) to GPT & create HFS partition. Later - try to use dir command in OF console & see the drive directory structure. (This all in brief to give all of us the idea what to do). As for now - reinstalled Debian to another IDE drive (Seagate 250Gb), GPT partitioned in Gentoo.A bit of console output here
.root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 232,88 GiB, 250058268160 bytes, 488395055 sectors
Disk model: ST3250820A
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: ED67B67F-1F47-4B8F-9BDE-96BDFC2CA9CA
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 4196351 4194304 2G Apple HFS/HFS+
/dev/sdb2 4196352 488394751 484198400 230,9G Linux filesystem
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# mount | grep /dev/sd
/dev/sdb2 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdb1 on /boot/grub type hfs (rw,relatime,uid=0,gid=0)
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# uname -a
Linux PowerMacG5-QUAD 5.14.0-1-powerpc64 #1 SMP Debian 5.14.6-3 (2021-09-28) ppc64 GNU/Linux
As you see, drive is GPT, 2 partitions. The idea to create a standalone partition for /boot/grub came from aforementioned video (but that guys don't finalize bootloader configuration & use pram reset, which is clumsy work). (BTW, I made this patition way too large - 2 GB, confused it to kernel storage place.) And (U)EFI-based systems uses EFI System Partition, whic is mounted to /boot/efi usually (well, this does not work for Intel Macs). Installation was quite simple. (Not to mention inability to select hfs partition at drive partitioning stage, so I left it unused). After packages install - do not use stage "install (yaboot|GRUB) bootloader", skip it directly to next pphase, BUT DO NOT REBOOT. Now we need to go to shell & chroot to our fresh installation; chroot /target/ /bin/bash. Mount our hfs partition to /boot/grub (mount /dev/sdXY, your drive letter & partition number here). Afterward - install grub2 (apt install grub2), it have to install grub-ieee1275 packages. Now install grub intself: grub-install (hfs partition). Check if our hfs partition is now populated (ls /boot/grub). Instead of creating grub image, I just copied quite everything from /usr/lib/grub/powerpc-ieee1275/ to /boot/grub/powerpc-ieee1275. You may try to reboot now (I made several reboots & amendmens before it all works & drive become shown in boot-picker). Several boot was made fro OF console (of paths is something to remeber
). From actual system I've made ofboot directory in our hfs partition, placed very minimalistic ofboot.b config there.(ofboot.b)
<CHRP-BOOT>
<COMPATIBLE>
MacRISC MacRISC3 MacRISC4
</COMPATIBLE>
<DESCRIPTION>
DEBIAN SID
</DESCRIPTION>
<BOOT-SCRIPT>
boot /ht/pci@9/ata-6@d/disk@1,:\grub
</BOOT-SCRIPT>
</CHRP-BOOT>
You can laugh but for about 2 or 3 attempts to boot from boot-picker I've just FORGOT to write command "boot" in this config
. (You see here is no OS-BADGE - If ever I can somehere find Debian logo or something else ...). Here Debian is bootable from boot picker, using GRUB2. This post does not pretend to be full detailed manual, just to give the idea what to do for GPT booting . This articles helps alot: http://cynic.cc/blog/posts/running_grub2_on_powerpc_macs/GRUB on Open Firmware (PowerPC) - Gentoo wiki
(Congratulations are welcome
). (Interesting - is it possible to make such trcks with OpenSUSE..? )
Side effect - this GRUB partitions are mounted automatically by Mac OS (at least Leopard). Be careful!