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z970

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2017
3,589
4,541
If by boot menu you mean Option key, no .

Linux can only be started from the yaboot menu on PowerPC or you can boot into open firmware also to do this but then you need to know the exact openfirmware paths of your drives/partitions.

On Intel Mac's you can get around this with Refind but not on PowerPC.

What would be the OF command for getting into yaboot?

How would one typically get into Linux on their PowerPC Mac?
 

Lastic

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2016
879
757
North of the HellHole
What would be the OF command for getting into yaboot?

How would one typically get into Linux on their PowerPC Mac?

Typically the bootstrap partition would be in the beginning of the drive after the Apple Partition Map and Yaboot would start allowing you to choose your OS that you want to boot.

Yaboot on PowerPC is nothing but a boot menu wrapper performing Open Firmware commands in the background to start up your OS , basically the install creates the yaboot.conf file which indicates where Yaboot can find the initrd (init ramdisk to load the kernel), kernel (vmlinuz) and once the kernel is started it will startup your drivers,up to mounting your disks and switching to your root partition on disk to startup your Linux.

You can boot into Open Firmware and then boot Yaboot as described here in section 5.1.2.1
(the partition would be the number of your bootstrap partition)

https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/powerpc/ch05s01.html

Using printenv or devalias in OF can help you find your harddisk-name
 

z970

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2017
3,589
4,541
How can I make an HFS partition? (No plus, just regular HFS.)

I think that's the problem. Ideas?
 

z970

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2017
3,589
4,541
Well, I formatted the boot partition as HFS, rearranged all the partitions so they're all in the right order, and installed Ubuntu on a Ext4 partition, HFS newworld boot partition, and linux-swap, and then it doesn't go into yaboot.

I go into Open Firmware and try to manually kickstart it, and I get nowhere.

bot.jpg


I've been weeks at this damn problem and I'm getting flippin' fed up.

What the f*ck am I missing?! What am I doing so wrong?!
 

Lastic

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2016
879
757
North of the HellHole
Well, I formatted the boot partition as HFS, rearranged all the partitions so they're all in the right order, and installed Ubuntu on a Ext4 partition, HFS newworld boot partition, and linux-swap, and then it doesn't go into yaboot.

I go into Open Firmware and try to manually kickstart it, and I get nowhere.

View attachment 704158

I've been weeks at this damn problem and I'm getting flippin' fed up.

What the f*ck am I missing?! What am I doing so wrong?!

Well I suggest if your patience is running out, to open a topic on the Ubuntu PowerPC forums.

https://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=328

These are people who might be able to pinpoint the problem faster than me.

I don't have experience with a dual disk setup nor when the second disk has a OS X data partition on it.
Do you still have the Apple HFS+ OS X data partition as the first partition on sdb ?

As regarding to your Open Firmware attempt, devalias should give you an alias for your 2nd disk ,
maybe this helps understanding the drive paths in Open Firmware.

Open Firmware uses device paths like for ex. these

/ht@0,f2000000/pci@7/k2-sata-root@c/k2-sata@0/disk@0:

so for easier use there is a devalias to have a shortcut to this long path.

"https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/powerpc/ch05s01.html

At the prompt, type

0 > boot hd:x,yaboot

replacing x with the partition number of the HFS partition where the kernel and yaboot files were placed, followed by a Enter. On some machines, you may need to use ide0: instead of hd:. In a few more seconds you will see a yaboot prompt"

So you need boot <devalias of your 2nd disk>:<bootstrap partition NUMBER>,yaboot
 

z970

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2017
3,589
4,541
Well I suggest if your patience is running out, to open a topic on the Ubuntu PowerPC forums.

https://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=328

These are people who might be able to pinpoint the problem faster than me.

I don't have experience with a dual disk setup nor when the second disk has a OS X data partition on it.
Do you still have the Apple HFS+ OS X data partition as the first partition on sdb ?

As regarding to your Open Firmware attempt, devalias should give you an alias for your 2nd disk ,
maybe this helps understanding the drive paths in Open Firmware.

Open Firmware uses device paths like for ex. these

/ht@0,f2000000/pci@7/k2-sata-root@c/k2-sata@0/disk@0:

so for easier use there is a devalias to have a shortcut to this long path.

"https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/powerpc/ch05s01.html

At the prompt, type

0 > boot hd:x,yaboot

replacing x with the partition number of the HFS partition where the kernel and yaboot files were placed, followed by a Enter. On some machines, you may need to use ide0: instead of hd:. In a few more seconds you will see a yaboot prompt"

So you need boot <devalias of your 2nd disk>:<bootstrap partition NUMBER>,yaboot

Thank you, I'll try that.
 

z970

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 2, 2017
3,589
4,541
Is it the path after Ultra/Sd1? Because that didn't work.

If it is, would it then follow with ":2,yaboot"? Because that doesn't work either. It just says that it cannot open the file.

So far, the command is "boot ?:2,yaboot".

Yaboot is located on the second hard drive, on the second partition. I've tried many things to get it to boot with that, but it always comes up with either an error, or the forbidden sign. What do I type in the hard drive portion??

To reiterate, what's happening is that in Open Firmware, I'm putting in "boot hd1:2,yaboot". 'hd1' being that everything Linux is on the second hard disk, and '2' because it's on the second partition, ON the second drive. So after that's entered, some text gets thrown up for a split second, there's a bit of orange, and then it goes to a grey screen as if an OS is being booted up, only the "forbidden" or "cross-inside-a-circle" sign comes up and doesn't go away. I'm absolutely stumped! Anything you might have in mind?

Remember, this was even done after the automatic install by the CD desktop installer.
 
Last edited:
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