Hello,
I'm trying to learn how to create a livecd that will run on PowerPC
(specifically, a G4 Mac Mini) and boot into a minimal shell environment with a
few basic tools available.
So far I've been taking inspiration from the Jessie installer DVD
(debian-8.11.0-powerpc-DVD-1.iso) with the goal of just getting _something_ to
boot. Taking a look at /.disk/mkisofs on that image and removing everything
related to Jigdo I've ended up with the following:
genisoimage \
-joliet-long -r \
-V 'Debian 8.11.0 ppc 1' \
-o 'test_live.iso' \
--iso-level 4 \
--netatalk -hfs -probe \
-map ./hfs.map \
-hfs-parms MAX_XTCSIZE=15625000 \
--chrp-boot \
-part -no-desktop \
-hfs-bless CD1/install \
-hfs-volid Debian/PowerPC_jessie \
CD1
However, trying to boot an ISO built with these options (including kernel,
initrd, yaboot, etc. also taken straight from the installer disk) in qemu with
qemu-system-ppc -L pc-bios -boot d -M mac99,via=pmu -m 2048 -cdrom "$image"
-nographic
just results in
/pci@f2000000/mac-io@c/ata-3@21000/cdrom@0:0,yaboot.conf: Unknown or corrupt
filesystem
Can't open config file
Burning the image to an actual disk and inspecting it it with `diskutil info`
in macos shows that
it has a filesystem of "ISO Rockridge" and partition type of "CD_ROM_Mode_1";
for comparision the official Debian installation disk has a filesystem of "HFS"
and partition type of "Apple_HFS".
The NetBSD boot cd instructions
(https://netbsd.org/docs/bootcd.html#macppcimage) suggest that further steps
are required after the initial creation of the ISO to modifiy the partition
table and render it bootable by appending a driver file of some kind. However,
having had a rummage through the debian-cd 3.1.17 build scripts for Jessie, I
can't seem to find any post-processing steps for PowerPC that look promising.
Can anyone with more PPC experience please point me in the right direction?
Given that all the pieces I'm using come from a known-working Debian
installation DVD, I suspect I'm just missing some small option or step, but all
the livecd tutorials I can find assume x86.
Thanks,
--
Mike
