Re: LinuxPPC and Pismo Powerbook

From: Ethan Benson <redacted>

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On Tue, Mar 28, 2000 at 11:03:29PM -0800, Henry Worth wrote:

quoted

quoted

* STEPS :
1.  partitioned the HD into three partititions: MacOS, Linux, Swap

=20
I'd strongly recommend a small HFS boot partition (~32MB).

32MB??  lord no, 800K is more then enough for yaboot.

I filled 32MB up quite easily with test kernels. Of course
normal users won't have that problem.  You should
leave enough room for several kernels so you can have a
basic rescue kernel and ramdisk, a good stable kernel, and
that spiffy new kernel that's going to mess everything up
and require you to use that rescue kernel. Also if you start
experimenting with the system folder approach you'll be dupping
yaboot and conf into the system folder.

this partition should also be given a partition type of
Apple_Bootstrap to prevent Macos from mounting, and subsquently
screwing it up.  (it removes the `blessing' from anything that might
not be a valid macos system folder)

Hm, didn't have that problem when I was using that.

quoted

2) Set up a "blessed" system folder in the HFS boot partition
   containing yaboot and yaboot.conf. There is a link to tool
   on Ben's website to help with that (or copy the system folder
   from the LinuxPPC 2000 CD). You can then:

the tool i think you are refering to is ybin, which i wrote to format
bootstrap partitions in such a way that OpenFirmware will boot from
them with its default settings.

the following is required for this to work:

* bootstrap partition must be placed BEFORE the macos partition.

* bootstrap partition must NOT be mountable by macos, otherwise it
will undo my changes.  so you MUST use the Apple_Bootstrap partition
type.

once you have this, you can run the following command with ybin 0.11
(0.12 will be a bit better)

mkofboot --boot /dev/hda5 --magicboot /boot/ofboot.b=20

you must have yaboot installed at /boot/yaboot and the yaboot.conf at
/etc/yaboot.conf, if not specify the paths with -i /path/to/yaboot and
-c /path/to/yaboot.conf=20

ofboot.b is a small openfirmware script, i include 2, one is intendted
for linux only systems, the other has a mini boot menu, you need to
edit them to correct the OF partitions for macos and the bootstrap
partition. =20

now what mkofboot does for you is create the HFS filesystem on the
bootstrap partition (example above is /dev/hda5, adjust for your
system) and copy yaboot, yaboot.conf, and the ofboot.b OF script to
the boot partition.  it then sets the filetype on the ofboot.b script
to `tbxi' and blesses the root directory.  this way when you reboot
you can hold down:

command option o f=20

while your system boots to reset OF to default values, and up comes
the multiboot menu. neat eh? no need to enter OF at all under most
circumstances.=20

quoted

   a> Set that partition as the default boot partition from
      the MacOS partition.

no need. and you can't, if macos is allowed to mount the bootstrap
partition it will remove the blessing and OF will reject the partition
as bootable.

Didn't have that problem with OS/9, and it is a widely suggested
method. Still it's not the nice solution.

=09

quoted

=20
   c> The OF boot-device and boot-file variables can be set to change
      the default boot partition and file. With this approach you
      don't need the system folder, see the maillist archives.

if you must set the boot-device (i have not had to on my blue g3, you
might for a scsi system) set it to:

hd:<#>,\\:tbxi

where <#> is the partition number of the bootstrap partition.

You shouldn't need the system folder nonsense if you also set boot-file.
Which is one of the nice things about this approach if a Linux-only
system.

quoted

=20
3) There are examples of some slick dual-boot OF scripts in the
   recent mail archives. I need to find them again myself (there was
   a thread with a good writeup), and set my system up that way, it's

there is a simple one with ybin, fancier ones may be found elsewhere,
just drop whichever one you prefer in /boot/ofboot.b and ybin will use
it.

ybin is available at my web page (.sig) or at
http://www.linuxppc.org/ybin/

The problem I had with ybin (of course my perpective is someone
trying to debug support for a machine that will not boot and
install Linux yet), is that this has to be done from Linux.
It would be a lot more usefull if it was a MacOS tool
or you at least had seperate docs, after downloading it I couldn't
unpackage it in MacOS and with no docs decided it wasn't worth
the trouble to transfer to my x86 system to see what it consisted
of. Until someone produces some definitative consolidated
documentation for yaBoot and these other tools, so users can plan
ahead, they are already going to have their system repartioned and
have reinstalled MacOS and install Linux to find out they are going
to have to do it all over again, yeh...right.

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

On Wed, Mar 29, 2000 at 11:20:17AM -0800, Henry A. Worth wrote:

I filled 32MB up quite easily with test kernels. Of course
normal users won't have that problem.  You should 
leave enough room for several kernels so you can have a 
basic rescue kernel and ramdisk, a good stable kernel, and 
that spiffy new kernel that's going to mess everything up
and require you to use that rescue kernel. Also if you start
experimenting with the system folder approach you'll be dupping
yaboot and conf into the system folder.

kernels do not belong on the HFS boot partition, they belong on the
ext2 root filesystem.  yaboot != bootx it boots the kernels from ext2
bootx does not.

Hm, didn't have that problem when I was using that. 

some don't, when i worked on a similer project we would have multiple
machines with the EXACT same OS version, one would consistently remove
the blessing and boot blocks, the other hardly ever...  

You shouldn't need the system folder nonsense if you also set boot-file.
Which is one of the nice things about this approach if a Linux-only
system.

people hate messing with OF settings.  deal with it.  that is why i
reccomend a non macos mountable bootstrap partition, with this
configuration you do not need to touch OF.

The problem I had with ybin (of course my perpective is someone 
trying to debug support for a machine that will not boot and 
install Linux yet), is that this has to be done from Linux.

ybin is a linux utility.  macos does not provide the infrstructure for
me to build something similer, it would require a C program, I am not
a macos programmer and don't want to be.  

It would be a lot more usefull if it was a MacOS tool

it might be useful to have a macos tool but my goal is to eliminate
the need to do everything from macos, also if you would read the web
page it explains quite clealy that the point of ybin is to provide a
quik/lilo like way to manage a bootstrap partition.  if that is not
what you want then ybin is not for you.

or you at least had seperate docs, after downloading it I couldn't 
unpackage it in MacOS and with no docs decided it wasn't worth 

tar.gz is hardly difficult to unpackage under macos.  lets leave the
misinformation out please.  there IS docs in the ybin package, not as
much as i would like, but 0.12 will have more.  

the trouble to transfer to my x86 system to see what it consisted 

this is rubbish you don't need to transfer it to a intel system to
unpack it.  you seem to think that macos is only capable of extracting
stuffit archives. 

of. Until someone produces some definitative consolidated 
documentation for yaBoot and these other tools, so users can plan
ahead, they are already going to have their system repartioned and 
have reinstalled MacOS and install Linux to find out they are going 
to have to do it all over again, yeh...right. 

I happen to be working on documenting all of this, and am more then
halfway there.  if you don't have a bootstrap partition then yes you
have to repartition or keep things on your macos partition. ybin will
allow you to install yaboot to a macos partition, but that
configuration forces you to screw with OF and that is why i don't
reccommend it.  i will not reccomend methods that require fscking with
OF becuase i know people don't want that.

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

Extracting *.tar.gz in MacOS - find
a) macgzip
b) suntar
in your favourite info-mac mirror in the directory 'cmp'


ftp://ftp.amug.org/pub/mirrors/info-mac/cmp/macgzip.hqx
ftp://ftp.amug.org/pub/mirrors/info-mac/cmp/suntar-222.hqx

On Wed, Mar 29, 2000 at 11:20:17AM -0800, Henry A. Worth wrote:

quoted

or you at least had seperate docs, after downloading it I couldn't
unpackage it in MacOS and with no docs decided it wasn't worth

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/