On Tue, 2025-08-26 at 11:14 -0600, Stan Johnson wrote: > On 8/26/25 8:15 AM, Cedar Maxwell wrote: > > ... Could you confirm how exactly your partitioning looks like? > > I've gotten the kernel and initrd copied over and recognized by > > BootX, but never gotten the system to actually boot into Linux. > > > > I understand that the partitoning has to be done particularly for > > OS 9, > > and in turn, Linux to boot correctly. > > That sounds right. > > I have this disk partitioning (edited slightly for readability): > > # mac-fdisk -l > /dev/sda > # type name length base ( size > ) > /dev/sda1 Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1 ( > 31.5k) > /dev/sda2 Apple_Driver43 Macintosh 56 @ 64 ( > 28.0k) > /dev/sda3 Apple_Driver43 Macintosh 56 @ 120 ( > 28.0k) > /dev/sda4 Apple_Driver_ATA Macintosh 56 @ 176 ( > 28.0k) > /dev/sda5 Apple_Driver_ATA Macintosh 56 @ 232 ( > 28.0k) > /dev/sda6 Apple_FWDriver Macintosh 512 @ 288 > (256.0k) > /dev/sda7 Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh 512 @ 800 > (256.0k) > /dev/sda8 Apple_Patches Patch Partition 512 @ 1312 > (256.0k) > /dev/sda9 Apple_HFS MacOSX 16775392 @ 1824 ( > 8.0G) > /dev/sda10 Apple_HFS MacOS 4194304 @ 16777216 ( > 2.0G) > /dev/sda11 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 Debian_7 16777216 @ 20971520 ( > 8.0G) > /dev/sda12 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 Debian_sid 16777216 @ 37748736 ( > 8.0G) > /dev/sda13 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 Gentoo 33554432 @ 54525952 ( > 16.0G) > /dev/sda14 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap 1048576 @ 88080384 > (512.0M) > /dev/sda15 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 data 106242608 @ 89128960 ( > 50.7G) > > Block size=512, Number of Blocks=195371568 > DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0 > Drivers- > 1: @ 64 for 23, type=0x1 > 2: @ 120 for 36, type=0xffff > 3: @ 176 for 21, type=0x701 > 4: @ 232 for 34, type=0xf8ff > > > > Since I can't even get it to boot, my first thought is I > > partitioned my > > drive wrong. I just copied what that guy did in that article, > > which I > > can't verify is correct. > > > > > The article may be correct; I just didn't use Apple's tools to > partition > the drive. I used NetBSD's pdisk in MacOS 9 (look for pdisk in the > "installation/misc" directory of a NetBSD ISO. Either the ppc or the > mac68k version will work (oddly, the mac68k version works better in > some > cases). > > If you're comfortable using mac-fdisk or parted in Linux, those will > also work. You'll need to initialize the disk first in Mac OS 9 or > Mac > OS X to install the Apple drivers. If you only plan to run Mac OS 9 > and > Linux, you can use Drive Setup from Mac OS 9 to initialize the disk. > If > you are also planning to run Mac OS X, then you should use Drive > Setup > from Mac OS X (Jaguar, Panther or Tiger). > > > > How did you create a custom kernel based on your hardware? Could > > you > > share yours? > > > I cross-compiled a kernel on an i86_64 system (you should be able to > use > whatever system you are using as your QEMU host). I can send the > commands I use to cross-compile kernels if that would help. > > I don't mind sharing my .config file, though I don't want to spam the > mailing list. > And your hardware may be different, especially if you have > a 800x600 display; I have these ATI graphics options on two > Wallstreets > (both 1024x768): > > Wallstreet-1: > # dmesg | grep fb0: > [ 0.336988] fb0: Open Firmware frame buffer device on > /pci/ATY,264LT-G > > Wallstreet-2: > # dmesg | grep fb0: > [ 0.178132] atyfb: fb0: ATY Mach64 frame buffer device on PCI > > What "video=atyfb..." option are you passing to the kernel from > BootX?
Would you send your xorg.conf, etc., please? I can only seem to get Xorg to launch by passing in video=ofonly. I can't get it to work with fbdev either. > > It might make sense to install an older Debian from the ISO that > Adrian > mentioned. That way, you can use dmesg to examine your system's > hardware > (graphics, scsi, serial, network, etc.) and pick those same options > while configuring a custom 6.x kernel. If you pick only the options > that > you need, it doesn't take all that long to build a kernel natively on > a > Wallstreet. > > > > > > I don't have a faster G3 with SCSI, I had been taking the drive out > > and > > plugging it into my modern PC and doing the installation with > > QEMU. I > > do have 512MB of RAM though in my WallStreet :- > > ... > > That's interesting. I currently use QEMU only for m68k Macs but not > for > powerpc.
