On Sun, Sep 24, 2000 at 11:11:58AM +0100, John Winters wrote: > > This seems to address my problem exactly. I've got an iMac DV and it > won't boot the Debian CD. Can you point me in the direction of > instructions for what these two files are and how to use them please? > I'm completely new to Macs but well versed in Linux so once I've got the > thing to boot I should be OK.
ftp.debian.org:/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-powerpc/current/powermac/linux
ftp.debian.org:/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-powerpc/current/powermac/images-1.44/root.bin
you also need a yaboot binary, you can get that from my web page (see
my .sig)
put all this at the root of your macos partition and create a
yaboot.conf like this:
device=hd:
image=linux
label=debian
initrd=root.bin
initrd-size=8192
then boot into OpenFirmware (command option o f) and run:
boot hd:,yaboot
you might have to specify a partition, im not sure what that is, there
are many useless cruft partitions macos hides from you, try 5, 6, 7
and 8 one will work.
you should then be in yaboot, press enter and you should be in
dbootstrap.
another option if you have another *nix box around is netboot, see my
netboot howto on my page too.
> Am I right in thinking that once I've got something to boot I can
> partition the hard disc (even though I've booted from it) and create the
> itsy partition at the front, then a MacOS partition then the relevant
> Linux partitions?
yes that is how i installed my system for the first time (back when
yaboot was buggy and would not work on scsi disks)
see my partitioning doc on my web page too. if you want to ditch
macos (an excellent idea) then clear the partition table so you don't
have all that sh*t cluttering it up. (my doc tells how to do this)
as usuall, first partition: 800K type Apple_Bootstrap.
> The machine also has a USB Zip drive - can it boot from that?
i don't think so.
let me know if you need any more help.
--
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
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