Debian/PPC install on the iBook Firewire 2nd edition Introduction ------------ Dat is my experience with installing Potato Debian on my iBook DVD, using the rev0 CDs. This is not a Guide to Debian installation, rather a step-by-step guide (doh!). And write down what you're doing (especially partition numbers, that the reason why I'm writing this and reinstalling everything from scratch for the second time) Enjoy. Instructions ------------ 1. Boot the laptop with the iBook install, by pressing "C" during the chime sound 2. Launch the Drive Setup, on the CD, in the Utilities directory 3. I created 2 partitions. First one is the Linux Place Holder, one big fat partition that we'll split into all your Linux partitions during the Debian install process. The second one is for MacOS. You might want to create 3 partitions (respectivily for Linux, MacOS, and an HFS one for sharing files between Linux and MacOS). I'm only using MacOS to play DVDs, so it's no big deal for me. 4. Install MacOS on the MacOS drive (don't install on the place holder for Linux!) 5. Reboot the 'puter, it should work, otherwise bring your iBook back to the shop and jump off a cliff. 6. Now that we're sure that the iBook and MacOS works, reboot up, and press Option-Apple-O-F during the chime to access the Open Firmware. 7. type in "boot cd:\\yaboot". Try "boot cd:\install\powermac\yaboot" if the former fails. 8. On the yaboot prompt, enter "debian video=aty128fb:vmode:10:depth:8:" where debian is the name of the image you're gonna be using to boot (hit to list the available ones). 9. Select your keyboard, and Partition your HD, following Ethan Benson's mac-fdisk-basics.txt (see at the bottom for URL). 11. At this point I have this kind of partitioning: hda1 to hda8: MacOS crap hda9: Apple_Bootstrap partition hda10: / (root) hda11: swap hda12: /home (home) hda13: /opt (opt) hda14: MacOS (...Later...) 10. When asked if you want to "Make Linux Bootable Directly From Hard Disk", get to another console and get a shell (on the iBook, it's a bit dodgy, keep pressed in this order Apple-fn-F2). 11. Run this line to get your bootstrap partition initialized: mkofboot --boot /dev/hda9 -m /target/etc/ofboot.b --root /dev/hda10 --partition 10 12. In the present state, you wouldn't be able to boot Linux because of the (lack of) novideo option in the default yaboot.conf Edit the /target/etc/yaboot.conf. Here is what it looks like after all the editing: boot=/dev/hda9 device=hd: timeout=20 install=/boot/yaboot magicboot=/boot/ofboot.b image=/vmlinux label=Linux root=/dev/hda10 read-only partition=10 novideo 13. Run that to be able to run Linux: ybin -C /target/etc/yaboot.conf -m /target/etc/ofboot.b 14. Reboot the system, and get into the Open Firmware again 15. To boot your linux system, type in: boot hd:9,yaboot (...Later...) 16. Voila, you still need to configure your computer (X-Window, dial-up, desktop...), but at least it will boot up normally =) 17. to boot up by default with Linux, run "setenv boot-device hd:9,yaboot" within the Open Firmware. Press the Option key during the chime to boot MacOS. URLS ---- - Ethan Benson's site, contains mac-fdisk-basics.txt and the yaboot FAQ http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/ - Hadess.net, the website for updates (if necessary) of this document http://localhost/files/ppc/ibook/ Thanks ------ Thanks to Ethan Benson, Michel Danzer, and Daniel Jacobowitz for their technical help.