Etch on G5: Yaboot grey screen

[sdubois92]

I attempted to install Debian on my Dual G5 Power Mac and everything appeared to go fine, except when i tried to booth Linux and OS X from yaboot, both just left me a grey screen.

When I held down option and tried to book either Linux or OS X, the result was the yaboot screen for about 20 seconds and then it cut back to the OF screen, but some of the colors were messed up.

I asked in #debianppc and I was instructed to chroot to my install and run ybin. I did so and it everything worked fine. But, that didn't do a thing. After an hour or so of struggling to fix this, I was instructed to ask here.

[987687]

I attempted to install Debian on my Dual G5 Power Mac and everything appeared to go fine, except when i tried to booth Linux and OS X from yaboot, both just left me a grey screen.

When I held down option and tried to book either Linux or OS X, the result was the yaboot screen for about 20 seconds and then it cut back to the OF screen, but some of the colors were messed up.

I asked in #debianppc and I was instructed to chroot to my install and run ybin. I did so and it everything worked fine. But, that didn't do a thing. After an hour or so of struggling to fix this, I was instructed to ask here.

Even if yaboot is messed up you should be able to boot macosx by either holding down the option key on boot. or booting to open firemware and typing

Code: Select all

boot hd:X,\\:tbxi

where X is the mac partition #. ybin basically takes /etc/yaboot.conf and writes it to the 800Kb yaboot partition. Are you sure there are no errors in your yaboot.conf? this is the yaboot conf from my linux only server. Right now my sister has my other mac that dual boots, but I can post that config when I get the chance.

Code: Select all

boot=/dev/hda2
device=/pci@f2000000/mac-io@17/ata-4@1f000/disk@0:
partition=3
root=/dev/hda3
timeout=50
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
enablecdboot

image=/boot/vmlinux
        label=Linux
        read-only
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img

image=/boot/vmlinux.old
        label=old
        read-only
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img.old

Just be thankful you are not dealing with macos 9 and the damn graced partitions.. That used to be a serious pain...

[sdubois92]

boot=/dev/sdb2
device=/disk@0:
partition=4
root=/dev/sdb4
timeout=100
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot
enablecdboot
macosx=/dev/sdb3

image=/boot/vmlinux
label=Linux
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img

image=/boot/vimlinux.old
label=old
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img.old

[987687]

Interesting, the "install" and "magicboot" lines in our configs are different, I am not sure if that would cause the problem, but chrooting in and changing it is worth a try. Also my device line lists out the whole path to the drive "device=/pci@f2000000/mac-io@17/ata-4@1f000/disk@0: " and yours only specifies the drive, I know it matters on an old G3, and on some G4's, I am not sure about a G5.
The first thing I wolud try is to change the "install" and "magicboot" lines, and then run ybin from the chroot.
From the chroot you can also try yabootconfig which will help you configure yaboot. You don't have to be in a chroot for that one if your boot CD has yabootconfig on it.

[sdubois92]

I just copied it down wrong, doh!

[sdubois92]

So does anyone else have any ideas? I asked in #debianppc twice and nobody could figure out what is wrong. The mailing list wasnt of any help either.