I have not seen a how-to for this, except a couple places online, but they all differ from the way that i did it, so I thought I would put this up for posterity: How To install Debian on a Powerbook 1400 (nubus / PowerPC). I will gear the wording toward the 'intermediate' user, since a stark newbie should try installing on a supported machine before trying to pull off dirty tricks anyway, and since this would be wasted on an expert user who could figure it out without my help.
-THE CHALLANGE: The 1400 is a nubus(tm) architecture machine with limited RAM capacity (max 64Megs using proprietary stackable </= 70ns FPM modules) and somewhat limited networking--it has two PC-card slots are STRICT PCMCIA 16-bit... no cardbus cards will work, and a slot for an internal ethernet or video output card... but none are installed from the factory-- and proprietary chips for the video driver, busses, ROMs, etc. The ROM is also 'oldworld' style, in that the boot ROM and Apple Toolbox commands for all the low level hardware functions are burnt onto a ROM chip, and run off it while the operating system is booted, and will ONLY boot supported MacOS versions natively. It also has a hot--swapable drive bay that is also unsupported, and can host a CD-ROM, HDD or Floppy (no DVD), and an external SCSI port, ADB port and sound in/out. They all sport an IBM/Motorola 603e processor in either 117MHz with no cache, 133MHz with 256k L2, or a 603ev with 256k L2.
That all being the case, we have a few hurdles: limited RAM headroom, unsupported hardware, no way to natively boot Linux of any kind!
That means a few things: a special kernel, a special bootloader, some driver tweaks, and a small, fast Debian configuration: NO BLOATED DESKTOPS! I installed KDE 3 just to try it and it was AGONIZINGLY slow... GNOME as well, and even a stock Xfce4 install. The Debian Sarge X11 install will give you a ton of options in this regard... too many to list, but Fluxbox or anything as light or lighter works fine.
-MY HARDWARE SPECS: I have three different Powerbook 1400 machines, with processors ranging from 117MHz to 166MHz and RAM ranging from 16M to 64M, and I have gotten Sarge up on all three: even running X11 and Fluxbox and wireless networking on the 117MHz/16M machine, and it actually funtioned acceptibly... as in very slowly, but that arrangement + Dillo made for a usable online experience as long as you don't mind using command line for most other tasks. I also have an old Orinoco wireless LAN card which is (fortunately) automatically configured by Debian.
-WHY DO IT?: Because you can get an old NuBus Powerbook for $20, and it makes for a nice little machine to surf thew web on, do basic word processing, play little games, etc when you are away from home on a trip or at a coffee shop, etc... and it makes for a good (big) PDA substitute, and since the net investment is so low, you don't have to stress out about loss/damage/theft.
-WHY NOT JUST USE MAC OS?: One reason... "APT-GET"!!! The software that will run on MacOS 9.1 and under is ANCIENT, and the various Debian window managers are mugh lighter than MacOS, and make the computer a bit more spry. Another option is to use an older macOS like 7.6.1 and run the most modern software you can find... system 7 is pretty zippy and acceptably modern enough to use, but the biggest probel is the lack of decent web browsers.
-IMPLIMENTATION: OK, I will focus on a 'netinstall' scenario, although, if you want to download all 18 CDs and install them that way... be my guest! The basics are the same. ALSO, this how to focuses mainly on "Sarge" since there are already 2.4 customized kernels available (I will expound upon this in the following 'prerequisites' section) BUT... I DID get Etch to "work"... with a few caveats. As we all may know, Etch is happiest with kernel 2.6+, and as of yet, there are no 2.6 kernels around for this vintage of machine, but they are apparently in the works! Regardless, you can run Etch if you wantch out and are very careful about what you upgrade... make sure the 2.4 kernel will support a package before installing it. I moved to Etch by doing a base install of Sarge and then carefully updating the core and then being very selective about which packages I added.
-This will take all day, so be prepared and unplug the phone!
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How To install Debian on a Powerbook 1400 (nubus / PowerPC)
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
PREREQUISITES: To use this method you will need a few thing
*Debian Sarge disk-- For a network install: A powerbook 1400 (or 5300) with a supported 16-bit wireless card and a CD-ROM drive (internal IDE or external SCSI) PREFERABLY with the RAM maxed-out (if you want to use a graphical desktop environment) and a few gigs of hard drive space.
*A supported MacOS installer CD... preferably OS9 or at least OS 8.6, and no higher than 9.1 since this machine will not boot 9.2.1 or 9.2.2 natively. but you can do it with many of the older systems that Apple has freely available on their support archive website, burnt to a bootable CD (have fun with that). It is just that OS9's built-in disk tools will write multi-partition disks in mixed Mac HFS and UNIX formats. Plus it is easier to set up wireless networking and peer-to-peer connections with modern computers in OS9 if you want to jump on the 'net or another system that you have around if you need to grab any utilities or whatever.
*A Debian Sarge net install CD (or regular CD set or at least the first few in the set, although the X-system on there seems to be harder to setup) Make sure it is the R5 or R6 versions. The installer is slightly different, and the earlier ones can screw things up easier... but if that is all you can find, it can work--with care! The buisinesscard CD won't work because Sarge is now "oldstable" and the CD is obsolite unless you modify it, and will fubar your install.
*A boot loader: There are two ways to go about this:
1) Install MacOS as a base and then dual-boot Linux (recommended)
2) bypass MacOS and only boot Linux (not recommended)
I used Apple's MkLinux Boot loader from my old MkLinux CD: this hearkens back to the days of Apple MkLinux DR3. It works as an Extension/Mach Kernel/Control-Pannel trio providing a menu at boot to select either MacOS or Linux, as well as access to the Lilo configuration file for the bootloader. That allwos me to boot into MacOS if anything goes wrong and start over. Alternately, you can use BootX, but I have not had as much luck with it. For option #2, you can use a premade MiBoot disk. I didn't have an old mac to alter the disk for my configuration, so I tried to use it by copying the files onto a hard drive so that I could edit it AND keep it bootably 'blessed' for the machine (it is set to use /dev/hda8 as the root and a G3 upgrade CPU with additional L2 cache... which did not match my hardware), but the boot process way quirky, and fubar'd my installations a few times.
You can get the files from the nice people at "PPC/Linux for NuBus Power Macs" here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... p_id=10972 They have done a LOT of hard work and I am very greatfull!
Not all the files or methods will work... and I tried them all! I recommend a basic MacOS install with the addition of the MkLinux Booter using the kernels "Linux 2.4.32 with Debian Sarge installer" for booting into the installation... which you will swap for "Linux 2.4.30-pre1+PB1" to boot and finish configuration and then to run the system (I will explain later).
*Lots of time/coffee/cigarettes/snacks/movies/a PlayStation, whatever is your fancy. You will be twiddling your thumbs for long periods of time (it will take a few hours to do all this since the CPU is so slow) BUT you can't leave the computer alone because you need to tweak it as it goes.
*OPTIONAL: pdisk! This is an ancient Apple utility that will let you view the entire partition table of a disk... you will use this to determine the partition numbers. you don't NEED this because the Debian installer will give you the number of the boot partition before you reboot, but if you want to det it all up before-hand, this makes it easier. Here: http://www.cfcl.com/eryk/linux/pdisk/dist/index.html
*A supported MacOS installer CD... preferably OS9 or at least OS 8.6, and no higher than 9.1 since this machine will not boot 9.2.1 or 9.2.2 natively. but you can do it with many of the older systems that Apple has freely available on their support archive website, burnt to a bootable CD (have fun with that). It is just that OS9's built-in disk tools will write multi-partition disks in mixed Mac HFS and UNIX formats. Plus it is easier to set up wireless networking and peer-to-peer connections with modern computers in OS9 if you want to jump on the 'net or another system that you have around if you need to grab any utilities or whatever.
*A Debian Sarge net install CD (or regular CD set or at least the first few in the set, although the X-system on there seems to be harder to setup) Make sure it is the R5 or R6 versions. The installer is slightly different, and the earlier ones can screw things up easier... but if that is all you can find, it can work--with care! The buisinesscard CD won't work because Sarge is now "oldstable" and the CD is obsolite unless you modify it, and will fubar your install.
*A boot loader: There are two ways to go about this:
1) Install MacOS as a base and then dual-boot Linux (recommended)
2) bypass MacOS and only boot Linux (not recommended)
I used Apple's MkLinux Boot loader from my old MkLinux CD: this hearkens back to the days of Apple MkLinux DR3. It works as an Extension/Mach Kernel/Control-Pannel trio providing a menu at boot to select either MacOS or Linux, as well as access to the Lilo configuration file for the bootloader. That allwos me to boot into MacOS if anything goes wrong and start over. Alternately, you can use BootX, but I have not had as much luck with it. For option #2, you can use a premade MiBoot disk. I didn't have an old mac to alter the disk for my configuration, so I tried to use it by copying the files onto a hard drive so that I could edit it AND keep it bootably 'blessed' for the machine (it is set to use /dev/hda8 as the root and a G3 upgrade CPU with additional L2 cache... which did not match my hardware), but the boot process way quirky, and fubar'd my installations a few times.
You can get the files from the nice people at "PPC/Linux for NuBus Power Macs" here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... p_id=10972 They have done a LOT of hard work and I am very greatfull!
Not all the files or methods will work... and I tried them all! I recommend a basic MacOS install with the addition of the MkLinux Booter using the kernels "Linux 2.4.32 with Debian Sarge installer" for booting into the installation... which you will swap for "Linux 2.4.30-pre1+PB1" to boot and finish configuration and then to run the system (I will explain later).
*Lots of time/coffee/cigarettes/snacks/movies/a PlayStation, whatever is your fancy. You will be twiddling your thumbs for long periods of time (it will take a few hours to do all this since the CPU is so slow) BUT you can't leave the computer alone because you need to tweak it as it goes.
*OPTIONAL: pdisk! This is an ancient Apple utility that will let you view the entire partition table of a disk... you will use this to determine the partition numbers. you don't NEED this because the Debian installer will give you the number of the boot partition before you reboot, but if you want to det it all up before-hand, this makes it easier. Here: http://www.cfcl.com/eryk/linux/pdisk/dist/index.html
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
INSTALLATION STEP 1) Boot from the Apple installer CD
STEP 1) Boot from the Apple installer CD
Since this is not an Open Firmware machine, that means putting the CD in the drive and after you hear the Apple atartup tone, hold down Shift-Option-Apple(command)-Delete until the CD spins up and you see a happy little Mac Classic on the screen. If you have less than 32M of Ram, the CD will boot with the extensions off automatically... this is no big deal really. IF it asks you to erase your internal hard drive... go ahead just to shut it up.
*note* the CD drives on these machines are OLD and often pretty worn out, so you may have some glitches/freezes when you boot off the CD, but just keep trying if you have any problems.
Since this is not an Open Firmware machine, that means putting the CD in the drive and after you hear the Apple atartup tone, hold down Shift-Option-Apple(command)-Delete until the CD spins up and you see a happy little Mac Classic on the screen. If you have less than 32M of Ram, the CD will boot with the extensions off automatically... this is no big deal really. IF it asks you to erase your internal hard drive... go ahead just to shut it up.
*note* the CD drives on these machines are OLD and often pretty worn out, so you may have some glitches/freezes when you boot off the CD, but just keep trying if you have any problems.
Last edited by AletheianAlex on 2007-10-06 04:40, edited 1 time in total.
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
SETP 2) Partition the disk
SETP 2) Partition the disk
-If you are running OS9, just go to the 'Utilities' folder on the CD and double-click on the "Drive Setup" icon.
-Click on the icon of your internal hard drive to highlight it
-Click "initialize" (*note* you can 'zero all data' or do a 'low level format' first if you are really obsessive about such things... I never bother)
-You want to customize the partition table with the little button at the bottom left (depoending on what version of the program you have). You have to use Apple's tools if you want it to be bootable into MacOS. It is pretty self-explanitory, but you want to make at least three partitions... HFS to install MacOS to, A/UX root to install Debian to, and A/UX swap. Click on the partition to hilight it and then just drag the bars to resize, and then set the typw from the pulldown menu on the right. If you are slick (drag over the relevant files, bless the System Folder), you can do a very small bootable Mac partition (I did <50Megs) but if you want to use the Apple installer, or if you want a fully functional MacOS install, then you will need more room. If you are using a 10 GIG disk or larger (i had a 40 Gig sitting around that I used for one insatll)... then no worries, but if you are in a small disk (I used a 1 Gig disk on another of my installs) you should keep the HFS partition to a few hundred KB. Set the SWAP to whatever you want and use the rest for the Debian root partition... or break it up for /home /etc WHATEVER direcotries you prefer. You will have to re-format all but the Apple partitions in the Debian installer, but if you use the Debian partman to SET UP the partitions on the disk (more on that later), you will not be able to boot it in MacOS and you will have to re-initialize and start over!!!
-If you are running OS9, just go to the 'Utilities' folder on the CD and double-click on the "Drive Setup" icon.
-Click on the icon of your internal hard drive to highlight it
-Click "initialize" (*note* you can 'zero all data' or do a 'low level format' first if you are really obsessive about such things... I never bother)
-You want to customize the partition table with the little button at the bottom left (depoending on what version of the program you have). You have to use Apple's tools if you want it to be bootable into MacOS. It is pretty self-explanitory, but you want to make at least three partitions... HFS to install MacOS to, A/UX root to install Debian to, and A/UX swap. Click on the partition to hilight it and then just drag the bars to resize, and then set the typw from the pulldown menu on the right. If you are slick (drag over the relevant files, bless the System Folder), you can do a very small bootable Mac partition (I did <50Megs) but if you want to use the Apple installer, or if you want a fully functional MacOS install, then you will need more room. If you are using a 10 GIG disk or larger (i had a 40 Gig sitting around that I used for one insatll)... then no worries, but if you are in a small disk (I used a 1 Gig disk on another of my installs) you should keep the HFS partition to a few hundred KB. Set the SWAP to whatever you want and use the rest for the Debian root partition... or break it up for /home /etc WHATEVER direcotries you prefer. You will have to re-format all but the Apple partitions in the Debian installer, but if you use the Debian partman to SET UP the partitions on the disk (more on that later), you will not be able to boot it in MacOS and you will have to re-initialize and start over!!!
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
STEP 3) Install MacOS and reboot into the system
STEP 3) Install MacOS and reboot into the system
I won't bore you with the details. It takes about 15-20 minutes for a basic install. Before you restart, pop open the system folder and look in the control panels folder and the extensions folder to make sure you installed tye CD driver extension and the startup disk control pannel. If you have those, you are golden!
I won't bore you with the details. It takes about 15-20 minutes for a basic install. Before you restart, pop open the system folder and look in the control panels folder and the extensions folder to make sure you installed tye CD driver extension and the startup disk control pannel. If you have those, you are golden!
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
STEP 4) Setting up the Boot Loader
STEP 4) Setting up the Boot Loader
-Get the MkLinux booter and patched kernels to your hard drive by whatever means you like.
-Open up the MkLinux folder and drag the components to the areas in the system folder where it tells you to, except for Apple's Mach Kernel... you will not need that.
-Rename the "Linux 2.4.32 with Debian Sarge installer" to Mach Kernel and drag it to System Folder >> Extensions
*optional* open up pdisk and type in a capital L and hit enter. this will show you your partitions so that you can see the number of your linux root... make a note of it. Mine is usually 11
-Open the 'control Panels' folder and double Click on the MkLinux icon. When the panel opens, you want to set up the preferences for your custom LILO setup, so click on the button to bring it up.
*Delete all the #commented junk in there and make it say this:
#rootdev= /dev/hda<put the number of your linux boot partition here>
rootdev= /dev/ram
mach_options= keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1 video=nbpmacfb
When you have set up Debian you will change it to boot off the partition instead of the ramdisk. The #commented line "#rootdev= /dev/hda<put the number of your linux boot partition here>" should be set to the number that you got from pdisk or the number that you WILL get (hopefully) from the Debian installer... mine is /dev/hda11 I use pdisk because a few times, the Debian installer failed to give me the partition number... better to be safe than to try to boot off your swap partition
If you have upgraded to a G3 card, you have to enter in your L2 cache address settings here too. I will not walk you through that because I hate you for having a G3 card... you suck!!! Anyway, you can find out how to do it from a link on that sourceforge page.
-Save the file and go back to the MKLinux control panel.
***!!IMOPORTANT!!*** Make sure that MacOS is selected as the system to boot, because the Debian installer will restart your system when it is finished and you need to boot back into MacOS before you boot into Debian for the first time so that you can swap out the installer Kernel for the run kernel!!! Otherwise you will crash and possibly screw up your install! Every time you boot, you will have the choice to select linux or MacOS, but if you don't click on the button in time, it will default to whatever the control panel sets as the boot system.
*optional* The booter has a 10 second delay before it chooses an operating system. If that is not long enough, go to System Folder>>preferences and open up the "MKLinux.prefs" file and set the bootdelay value to whatever you want.
-Slide in your PCMCIA network card. you will get a MacOS warning message about missing drivers... ignore it and DON'T eject the card.
-Get the MkLinux booter and patched kernels to your hard drive by whatever means you like.
-Open up the MkLinux folder and drag the components to the areas in the system folder where it tells you to, except for Apple's Mach Kernel... you will not need that.
-Rename the "Linux 2.4.32 with Debian Sarge installer" to Mach Kernel and drag it to System Folder >> Extensions
*optional* open up pdisk and type in a capital L and hit enter. this will show you your partitions so that you can see the number of your linux root... make a note of it. Mine is usually 11
-Open the 'control Panels' folder and double Click on the MkLinux icon. When the panel opens, you want to set up the preferences for your custom LILO setup, so click on the button to bring it up.
*Delete all the #commented junk in there and make it say this:
#rootdev= /dev/hda<put the number of your linux boot partition here>
rootdev= /dev/ram
mach_options= keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1 video=nbpmacfb
When you have set up Debian you will change it to boot off the partition instead of the ramdisk. The #commented line "#rootdev= /dev/hda<put the number of your linux boot partition here>" should be set to the number that you got from pdisk or the number that you WILL get (hopefully) from the Debian installer... mine is /dev/hda11 I use pdisk because a few times, the Debian installer failed to give me the partition number... better to be safe than to try to boot off your swap partition
If you have upgraded to a G3 card, you have to enter in your L2 cache address settings here too. I will not walk you through that because I hate you for having a G3 card... you suck!!! Anyway, you can find out how to do it from a link on that sourceforge page.-Save the file and go back to the MKLinux control panel.
***!!IMOPORTANT!!*** Make sure that MacOS is selected as the system to boot, because the Debian installer will restart your system when it is finished and you need to boot back into MacOS before you boot into Debian for the first time so that you can swap out the installer Kernel for the run kernel!!! Otherwise you will crash and possibly screw up your install! Every time you boot, you will have the choice to select linux or MacOS, but if you don't click on the button in time, it will default to whatever the control panel sets as the boot system.
*optional* The booter has a 10 second delay before it chooses an operating system. If that is not long enough, go to System Folder>>preferences and open up the "MKLinux.prefs" file and set the bootdelay value to whatever you want.
-Slide in your PCMCIA network card. you will get a MacOS warning message about missing drivers... ignore it and DON'T eject the card.
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
STEP 5) Booting into the Debian installer and CD
STEP 5) Booting into the Debian installer and CD
*note* If you have any ADB pointer devices or keyboards plugged in... unplug them now or you will hang the installer
-Put the Debian PowerPC netinst CD into your drive and reboot. You will see MacOS starting to load but after the Mac Picasso logo pops up, you will see an MKLinux window When that pops up, click on the MKLinux button (the one on the left side) to boot into the Debian installer CD.
-If all went well, you should see lines and lines of drivers initializing for about a minute or two. You might hang for 10-30 seconds a few times as it scopes out your system, but don't worry. If the screen goes black, it is just the PMU. There is a brightness controll on the side of your screen... use it. The TREX drivers take the longest to load and occasionally hang for a bit.
*note* if you have very little RAM installed, you will be plunked into Debian's low memory install... no problem, you will just not be able to set your language and keyboard layout. You can do that later.
-Let the installer do it's thing. I will only mention the relevant points since I assume everyone here had installed Debian at least once. Let me say now that you will get a bunch of warning messages... you can ignore them all pretty much. Here are the relevant deviations from a regular install:
*You will not be able to set the keyboard format... don't worry about it. It is irrelevant for now, so ignore the warning message. SOMETIMES it will magically let you set it up, but 99% of the time it will jkust fail, so don't get all worked up about it.
*You will get warning messages about missing modules and kernel conflicts that will cause the install to fail... they are dirty lying popup windows so ignore them. They are irrelevant to what we are doing and everything you need will be in the run kernel when we switch to that (except a few optional patches that you can download and install later from that Sourceforge page that I listed earlier).
*use advanced install options when possible... eg. priority=low so that the installer does not try to plunk every package possible on your system: there are a few of the optional packages that will hang the installation. I have not tried every one of the infinite configurations, so you are on your own as far as optional components.
*Do not select to configure the system from the installer... it will most likely hang (but not always)
* Elect to install each package seperately and only install the base system, networking, etc from the CD... no X11, etc. if you install X11 from the CD and set it up, you will not be able to get your monitor working... I don't know WHY, but that is the way of it.
*You will get a message about a missing bootloader... ignore it obviously since we are using our own bootloader.
*You may get some PCI related warning messages from a few packages... ignore them.
*You will get a warning from the partition setup... ignore it and choode to configure the partition table manually. Don't use the whole disk or you will wipe out the MacOS partition and you will not be able to boot without a booter CD. Then just run the partition setup as usual, ignoring the first 7 or 8 apple driver and boot partitions. Don't forget to set the A/UX root partition up as 'bootable' and mount it as "/" ... that is, root (unless you did a multi-partition setup). I use ext2 format since it seems faster on these old systems, but ext3 works fine too ans is probably a much safer bet.
Loading the installer data from the CD will take about 30 minutes, and you are not likely to get many popups, so fire up the Play Station or make a sandwitch.
*note* If you have any ADB pointer devices or keyboards plugged in... unplug them now or you will hang the installer
-Put the Debian PowerPC netinst CD into your drive and reboot. You will see MacOS starting to load but after the Mac Picasso logo pops up, you will see an MKLinux window When that pops up, click on the MKLinux button (the one on the left side) to boot into the Debian installer CD.
-If all went well, you should see lines and lines of drivers initializing for about a minute or two. You might hang for 10-30 seconds a few times as it scopes out your system, but don't worry. If the screen goes black, it is just the PMU. There is a brightness controll on the side of your screen... use it. The TREX drivers take the longest to load and occasionally hang for a bit.
*note* if you have very little RAM installed, you will be plunked into Debian's low memory install... no problem, you will just not be able to set your language and keyboard layout. You can do that later.
-Let the installer do it's thing. I will only mention the relevant points since I assume everyone here had installed Debian at least once. Let me say now that you will get a bunch of warning messages... you can ignore them all pretty much. Here are the relevant deviations from a regular install:
*You will not be able to set the keyboard format... don't worry about it. It is irrelevant for now, so ignore the warning message. SOMETIMES it will magically let you set it up, but 99% of the time it will jkust fail, so don't get all worked up about it.
*You will get warning messages about missing modules and kernel conflicts that will cause the install to fail... they are dirty lying popup windows so ignore them. They are irrelevant to what we are doing and everything you need will be in the run kernel when we switch to that (except a few optional patches that you can download and install later from that Sourceforge page that I listed earlier).
*use advanced install options when possible... eg. priority=low so that the installer does not try to plunk every package possible on your system: there are a few of the optional packages that will hang the installation. I have not tried every one of the infinite configurations, so you are on your own as far as optional components.
*Do not select to configure the system from the installer... it will most likely hang (but not always)
* Elect to install each package seperately and only install the base system, networking, etc from the CD... no X11, etc. if you install X11 from the CD and set it up, you will not be able to get your monitor working... I don't know WHY, but that is the way of it.
*You will get a message about a missing bootloader... ignore it obviously since we are using our own bootloader.
*You may get some PCI related warning messages from a few packages... ignore them.
*You will get a warning from the partition setup... ignore it and choode to configure the partition table manually. Don't use the whole disk or you will wipe out the MacOS partition and you will not be able to boot without a booter CD. Then just run the partition setup as usual, ignoring the first 7 or 8 apple driver and boot partitions. Don't forget to set the A/UX root partition up as 'bootable' and mount it as "/" ... that is, root (unless you did a multi-partition setup). I use ext2 format since it seems faster on these old systems, but ext3 works fine too ans is probably a much safer bet.
Loading the installer data from the CD will take about 30 minutes, and you are not likely to get many popups, so fire up the Play Station or make a sandwitch.
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AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
STEP 6) Boot back into MacOS to switch the Kernels and the L
STEP 6) Boot back into MacOS to switch the Kernels and the LILO options
When the installer gets to the end, it will spit out the CD, give you your moot partition information and reboot (hopefully into MacOS if you rememberd to set up the MKlinux Control Panel)
-When you get to the MKLinux window, select MacOS
-When you get to your Mac desktop, go to the System Folder >> extensions and drag the Mach Kernel onto your desktop and rename it "Debian Installer Mach Kernel" for future use.
-Rename the "Linux 2.4.30-pre1+PB1" run kernel to Mach Kernel and drag it into the System Folder >> extensions.
-Go to System Folder >> Control Panels and double click on the MKLinux icon.
-open up the preferences and edit the LILO file to:
rootdev= /dev/hda<put the number of your linux boot partition here>
#rootdev= /dev/ram
mach_options= keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1 video=nbpmacfb
-Save that file (make SURE you saved it) and close the window. You may now safely choose to set MKLinux Control Panel up to boot from Linux as the default if you wish.
-REBOOT INTO YOUR NEW DEBIAN SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!
When the installer gets to the end, it will spit out the CD, give you your moot partition information and reboot (hopefully into MacOS if you rememberd to set up the MKlinux Control Panel)
-When you get to the MKLinux window, select MacOS
-When you get to your Mac desktop, go to the System Folder >> extensions and drag the Mach Kernel onto your desktop and rename it "Debian Installer Mach Kernel" for future use.
-Rename the "Linux 2.4.30-pre1+PB1" run kernel to Mach Kernel and drag it into the System Folder >> extensions.
-Go to System Folder >> Control Panels and double click on the MKLinux icon.
-open up the preferences and edit the LILO file to:
rootdev= /dev/hda<put the number of your linux boot partition here>
#rootdev= /dev/ram
mach_options= keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1 video=nbpmacfb
-Save that file (make SURE you saved it) and close the window. You may now safely choose to set MKLinux Control Panel up to boot from Linux as the default if you wish.
-REBOOT INTO YOUR NEW DEBIAN SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!
-
AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
STEP 7) Configuring your base system
STEP 7) Configuring your base system
- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***
Since Etch became stable, Sarge is not classified as oldstable. The installer will want to link you to repositories labeled as "stable" which you CANNOT use to set up the basic system and X desktop with the kernel 2.4 that we will be running!!!:
*When asked if you want to add another apt source, answer 'yes' and then MAKE SURE to choose 'edit sources list by hand'.
*Now you can edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to point to "SARGE" directories instead of the "STABLE" directories that the installer WOULD have pointed you to!! (and probably ruined your install)
-Again, I won't hold your hand and walk through this one but here are some relevant deviations from the norm:
*I know that you will be tempted to "apt-get upgrade" or "apt-get install x-window-system" from your new "sarge" repositories... but DON't. Suck it up, open 'aptitude' and pick your packages by hand
*be very vigilant about packages that want to make you upgrade your kernel... better yet, block the kernel package!
*be sure to include "deb http://security.debian.org/ sarge/updates main contrib" in your sources.list file and not "STABLE"
*try to include at least one deb-src in your list
*XFree86 is a pain to setup! It may take a bit of trial and error. If you have any problems, ask here and I'll try to walk you through it. Some details:
+Make sure to use the framebuffer and set up the screen as a 'fbdev' when the option arises.
+Set your desired default bit depth to 15 bit in 800x600. 16 bit will mess up your life and make images look funky.
+You may have to go into your /etc/X11/ configuration files and manually remove the 24-bit options since the stupid installer puts them in there. If they are even present, it MAY prevent Xserver from starting up.
*Xorg on the other hand is a breeze as far as the display is concerned! BUT... it is more likely to cause dependency problems that you can't resolve with an old kernel, and install a few things that will disable hotswap and render your network card unusable!!! You were warned!
*when X setup asks you about your keyboard, I just say to keep the map from the kernel, but maybe there is another way around it...
* If you did a low-memory install, you may get some warnings from PERL about not being able to export your language yadda yadda... reconfigure X and locales to get rid ogf that, and set youe defaults to US or whatever... libconf and locales are two of the things that got screwed up by the kernel changeover, so if you accidently upgraded something that caused a dependency conflict and you have a mixed setup... you will likely not be able to fix that problem until you purge those new packages and reinstall the old ones
*cron gets cranky about the MacOS HFS partition occasionally at boot, especially if you chose ext3 format... don't panic, just let it do it's thing and ignore it
- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***- ***!!!IMPORTANT!!!***
Since Etch became stable, Sarge is not classified as oldstable. The installer will want to link you to repositories labeled as "stable" which you CANNOT use to set up the basic system and X desktop with the kernel 2.4 that we will be running!!!:
*When asked if you want to add another apt source, answer 'yes' and then MAKE SURE to choose 'edit sources list by hand'.
*Now you can edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to point to "SARGE" directories instead of the "STABLE" directories that the installer WOULD have pointed you to!! (and probably ruined your install)
-Again, I won't hold your hand and walk through this one but here are some relevant deviations from the norm:
*I know that you will be tempted to "apt-get upgrade" or "apt-get install x-window-system" from your new "sarge" repositories... but DON't. Suck it up, open 'aptitude' and pick your packages by hand
*be very vigilant about packages that want to make you upgrade your kernel... better yet, block the kernel package!
*be sure to include "deb http://security.debian.org/ sarge/updates main contrib" in your sources.list file and not "STABLE"
*try to include at least one deb-src in your list
*XFree86 is a pain to setup! It may take a bit of trial and error. If you have any problems, ask here and I'll try to walk you through it. Some details:
+Make sure to use the framebuffer and set up the screen as a 'fbdev' when the option arises.
+Set your desired default bit depth to 15 bit in 800x600. 16 bit will mess up your life and make images look funky.
+You may have to go into your /etc/X11/ configuration files and manually remove the 24-bit options since the stupid installer puts them in there. If they are even present, it MAY prevent Xserver from starting up.
*Xorg on the other hand is a breeze as far as the display is concerned! BUT... it is more likely to cause dependency problems that you can't resolve with an old kernel, and install a few things that will disable hotswap and render your network card unusable!!! You were warned!
*when X setup asks you about your keyboard, I just say to keep the map from the kernel, but maybe there is another way around it...
* If you did a low-memory install, you may get some warnings from PERL about not being able to export your language yadda yadda... reconfigure X and locales to get rid ogf that, and set youe defaults to US or whatever... libconf and locales are two of the things that got screwed up by the kernel changeover, so if you accidently upgraded something that caused a dependency conflict and you have a mixed setup... you will likely not be able to fix that problem until you purge those new packages and reinstall the old ones
*cron gets cranky about the MacOS HFS partition occasionally at boot, especially if you chose ext3 format... don't panic, just let it do it's thing and ignore it
-
AletheianAlex
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 2007-10-02 00:12
STEP 8) Optional crud and misc notes
STEP 8) Optional crud and misc notes
-if you want a safety net against accidently upgrading outside of "sarge" you can create a file called apt.conf in /etc/apt/ and put this in it:
APT::Default-Release "sarge";
then if you want to install a specific package from etch, you can:
apt-get -t etch install <package name>
-if you get stuck, a soft reboot on these machines is ctrl-apple-on/off
-The reset button is a little rectangular tab on the back between the ports
-Most ADB pointer devices seem to 'just work', but I only have a few here to try out
-A good idea after you get the basic system set up is to clone your drive!!! Back it up to an image file and save it in case you screw anything up. That way you don't have to go through the whole install again.
-get used to doing a lot via command line, but any of the lightweight window managers work, including the few dozen options that Debian includes in the X11 desktop package
-If you use Fluxbox or some other WM that is very right-mouse-click-dependant, and you don't want to hook up an external mouse, in the newest version of Fluxbox, you can configure a keystroke (like the 'CTRL' key) + click to do the same thing as the right mouse button... OR if you have an older version, you can just set it up as a keystroke. Mine is CTRL-F1
-Firefox is a bit too heavy for this setup, but it runs if you MUST have it... I would look elsewhere though. Dillo FLYS, but it is limited. Have a text-only browser handy for BBS stuff and basic downloading of drivers, etc.
-I just realized that I have not tried out any of the sound stuff... I am not sure if it works or not
-USB and Firewire an NOT NOT NOT possible, so don't even think about it
-Synaptic WORKS, but it is horribly slow. If you only use it VERY occasionally, go ahead and install it, but otherwise, get used to aptitude
-the infared port seems to load up, but it is IRtalk NOT IrDA, so it is not very useful.
-X11 sometimes complains about the keyboard mapping, but it still works, so I have just delt with it since there is no specific map for this machine anyway. BE CAREFUL about which layout you try! I locked myself out by screwing up the keyboard setup once!
Special thanx goes out to the crew at nubus-pmac for making the kernels that make this possible!!! YOU ROCK! And if you see this post and need a helping hand with anything... just ask.
-if you want a safety net against accidently upgrading outside of "sarge" you can create a file called apt.conf in /etc/apt/ and put this in it:
APT::Default-Release "sarge";
then if you want to install a specific package from etch, you can:
apt-get -t etch install <package name>
-if you get stuck, a soft reboot on these machines is ctrl-apple-on/off
-The reset button is a little rectangular tab on the back between the ports
-Most ADB pointer devices seem to 'just work', but I only have a few here to try out
-A good idea after you get the basic system set up is to clone your drive!!! Back it up to an image file and save it in case you screw anything up. That way you don't have to go through the whole install again.
-get used to doing a lot via command line, but any of the lightweight window managers work, including the few dozen options that Debian includes in the X11 desktop package
-If you use Fluxbox or some other WM that is very right-mouse-click-dependant, and you don't want to hook up an external mouse, in the newest version of Fluxbox, you can configure a keystroke (like the 'CTRL' key) + click to do the same thing as the right mouse button... OR if you have an older version, you can just set it up as a keystroke. Mine is CTRL-F1
-Firefox is a bit too heavy for this setup, but it runs if you MUST have it... I would look elsewhere though. Dillo FLYS, but it is limited. Have a text-only browser handy for BBS stuff and basic downloading of drivers, etc.
-I just realized that I have not tried out any of the sound stuff... I am not sure if it works or not
-USB and Firewire an NOT NOT NOT possible, so don't even think about it
-Synaptic WORKS, but it is horribly slow. If you only use it VERY occasionally, go ahead and install it, but otherwise, get used to aptitude
-the infared port seems to load up, but it is IRtalk NOT IrDA, so it is not very useful.
-X11 sometimes complains about the keyboard mapping, but it still works, so I have just delt with it since there is no specific map for this machine anyway. BE CAREFUL about which layout you try! I locked myself out by screwing up the keyboard setup once!
Special thanx goes out to the crew at nubus-pmac for making the kernels that make this possible!!! YOU ROCK! And if you see this post and need a helping hand with anything... just ask.