I have a PMac 7500/100, currently running MacOS 8.1. *Someday* it will run Potato. With your help.
I can't quite figure out how to boot the PMac. Well, what I really mean is I can't boot it with Debian stuff, because I can boot it other ways. Details: This PMac is base 32 meg system. PPC601 processor 100 MHz, I'm not overclocking the CPU, it has the original 1 gig SCSI2 HDD, and I believe it has the original 4x Apple CDROM. PMac boots Apples Network Access floppy disk. PMac boots MacOS 8.1 from internal HDD. PMac can boot via some CDs: MacOS 8.1 boots via CD, Suse live trial boots from CD for Suse version 6.2 only (6.3 won't boot). Can't boot Debian Potato PPC via CD. MacOS 8.1 is installed on HDD, it can read from potato CD (I can read HTML and made a floppy image from CD - read on). Assuming CDROM drive is OK, and assuming CD is burned OK. Possibly a relevant issue: HDD may have been initialized via Lido7, or possibly another freeware SCSI formatter (I forgot whether I used Apples' formatter... and *may* have used one of the other formatters instead). I'm guessing I used Apples formatter though, because I *believe* I am running HFS+ (forced by MacOS 8.1), which of all the formatters I own, only Apples formatter can create HFS+. Yet the HDD drivers shouldn't come into play until after booted. Thus: the first problem seems to me to be "Read CD but no boot CD". Q1] Macs' CD Boot loader not recognizing Potatos boot stuph? If I could get the CD to boot, I'd gladly format the HDD with Debian tools, so the formatter concerns should not be a big issue afterward; though third party formatters do install their own SCSI drivers onto the bootsectors. Ok, so lets move on... Then, knowing I could and should make a rescue floppy, well, I did that. Mac won't boot from the rescue floppy. Spits it out, sometimes I see an X over the floppy icon, sometimes not. Indicative, if memory serves me, of a disk without a viable system in it. Remember, PMac system is known to be able to boot from Network Access disk via floppy, so it isn't hardware. Ok, so I burned it again, in light of the odd floppy reliability comments (odd: I've never had a floppy which had good media fail to record data as mentioned in the comments). But, as I've only used about 30 floppy drives in my life, what's the reason for *not* trying what Debian suggests? So I reburned. Reburned floppy is no different. Argh! Second rescue floppy I burned has 3 files: System, Finder, and I forgot its filename - something my MacOS thinks is a text document. Second possible issue: I burned the floppy via Apples DiskCopy 6.2 (6.2? definitely 6.something). Yeah, I was told to use Rawrite.... I have no functional DOS installations which can also read the Debian CD.... a long process that depends on M$... no M$ software is functional on local PCs (far away PCs, yes: WinME... but no CDROM drivers, so a WinME floppy still won't read Debian CD... I know, do the sneakernet floppy shuffle!!). Anyway, on the rescue floppy, System file is tiny.... as in a few hundred Kbytes and when doubleclicked (in MacOS 8.1), it is empty. Thus Q2] Maybe I missed something in the help/installation instructions? Thanks for any help... Flames and "Dope slaps" also welcome. =:^)
