On Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 03:47:47PM -0500, Colin Walters wrote: > A while ago, it was decided that PowerPC, like most other > architectures, would use the 2.2 kernel. However, this kernel simply > does not work on newer PowerMac hardware, and it is also less than > ideal even on older systems. > > So I've been working on a "new-powermac" installer, which will use the > 2.4 kernel. Currently, I'm using benh's tree. Please, please test > this installer! I've done a few successful installs with it, and I've > gotten other success reports as well. There are just two minor > problems, which I'll mention below. But first: > > http://people.debian.org/~walters/debian/installer/new-powermac > > The biggest problem that I haven't been able to figure out is that > "reboot" is a noop. You'll need to reboot manually at the end with > Control-Command-Power. The second problem is that you might see > strange characters while the base files are downloading; these can be > safely ignored. > > Please let me (or debian-boot@lists.debian.org) know of any other > problems! My modifications should make it into the mainline installer > after 3.0.18 is released.
Ok, I bit. It worked surprisingly well. 1) We need to compile hfs support into the supplied kernel. I still couldn't mount hfs disks (where a Mac user would have put his drivers and rescue.bin). I mounted a linux partition where I had a copy, and used that. Then when I got to Configure Modules I added the hfs module and presto! I could mount hfs volumes. 2) The harddisk installation dialog is really hosed, whether I choose harddisk or already-mounted. I tried dozens of different valid paths, it kept telling me were invalid, the only way I could get it to work was using the harddisk option (so it knew what partition it was using at least), and just putting a single / in the path, then using the ... to browse to the directory I wanted. Its bad. 3) I used the basedebs.tgz from Dec04, and it worked very well. The base system was installed in less than 3 minutes. 4) More disk space: 225 MB was not quite enough to install the standard packages (after tasksel without selecting any tasks). I'll update the docs to point this out. 5) base-config went into an infinite keymap loop at the end. Filed #124148 on base-config. -- *------v--------- Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 --------v------* | <http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/installmanual> | | debian-imac (potato): <http://debian-imac.sourceforge.net> | | Chris Tillman [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | May the Source be with you | *----------------------------------------------------------------*
