Re: yaboot installation media

Hi,

Thanks for the help everyone.

I'm pretty confused now -- I burnt the March 24 image (https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2022-03-24/debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso) as Adrian suggested.

Following Ben's instructions (thanks!!!) I can't seem to mount the USB stick, and also I burnt the ISO to a CD-RW (wodim -eject -v dev=/dev/sr0 ./debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso) and that isn't working either.

The disc isn't found in the startup menu, and if I execute `boot cd:,\boot\grub\powerpc.elf` in OF I have the error: "DISK-LABEL: read of block0 failed ATAPI-DISK: open of DISK-LABEL failed".

I am led to believe one of two things is possible: 1) OF somehow can't read into the filesystem? 2) I am doing something trivial wrong?

The disc is read successfully on the Linux machine I burnt it on, but I suppose that isn't saying much.

Thanks

Sam

On Sun, Mar 27, 2022 at 7:22 PM Ben Westover <kwestover.kw@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Sam,

> If I try to boot from Open Firmware, I try "boot
> usb1/disk@1:,\\grub.img" and the error after quite a long pause is
> "can't OPEN: usb1/disk@1:,\\grub.img Can't open device or file"
> Of course I can't rule out the possibility that I'm using Open Firmware
> wrong, after some searches of this list and on the Internet I didn't
> specifically find a description of the boot line and I'm really not an
> OF wizard.

GRUB is located at /boot/grub/powerpc.elf most of the time. The command
you're looking for is `boot usb1/disk@1:,\boot\grub\powerpc.elf`.
You can also see what's on it with the command `dir usb1/disk@1:,\`,
adding directories at the end to go deeper.

My G4 was unable to even recognize USBs in Open Firmware, but the fact
that yours showed up is a good sign. That means it should be able to
boot from the drive provided it can read the filesystem.

I use variations of these commands on my G3 all the time with success,
and some others have managed to get them to work on their G4s. The
NetBSD installation guide for macppc[1] was a wonderful resource about
all these Open Firmware commands (I believe it was even cited in the
Debian Wiki as being a massive help).

[1] https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-9.2/macppc/INSTALL.html

Regards,
--
Ben Westover