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ive got a challenge for you all...

B

BWalen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 1, 2005
23
0
so i decided that i wanted to fool around a bit with Linux (mandriva) on my 4-month old powerbook g4. I was asked to and proceeded to format my HD and unfortunately the install didn't completely finish...guess for some reason a bootstrap wasn't installed to the HD.

So i decided to ditch my linux experiment and go back to Tiger...but with a problem. I get to the install portion of the setup process and a HD isn't recognized. I go to the disk fixing utility but i don't get any response other than the swirling cursor...

anyone have any ideas on how to format my HD back to regular Mac format so that I can get my Tiger back up and running?

thanks in advance!
--brandon
 
i'd like to do that except mandriva doesn't offer a live cd for PPC...it just has the 3 disk format...unless you know of another linux company/type that will support the PPC?
 
I actually ran into the same problem when installing Mandriva on a PC. I'm not really sure why it happens. It has scared me away from Mandriva though even though it looks gorgeous.
 
BWalen said:
anyone have any ideas on how to format my HD back to regular Mac format so that I can get my Tiger back up and running?
Click to expand...

If you can boot the linux install CD then you are running Linux. from there bring up a console and run "fdisk" and delete all the partitions do a "w" (write) to save
Next boot the tiger install DVD and it will format the disk.

I'm a long time UNIX user and after that Linux user from day zero. Now I'm learning a little about Mac OSX. From what I see OSX, or really "Darwin" is very, very much like Linux.

If you have an old Mac and want to learn about UNIX try Darwin. It's on the Apple web site and it's free. It runs on any PC or PPC it need not be Apple hardware But then if you have Tiger you have Darwin.
 
I had the same kind of trouble with Mandrake/Mandriva on my PC. It's the only Linux distro I've tried that wouldn't successfully boot after installing.
 
ChrisA said:
If you can boot the linux install CD then you are running Linux. from there bring up a console and run "fdisk" and delete all the partitions do a "w" (write) to save
Next boot the tiger install DVD and it will format the disk.

I'm a long time UNIX user and after that Linux user from day zero. Now I'm learning a little about Mac OSX. From what I see OSX, or really "Darwin" is very, very much like Linux.

If you have an old Mac and want to learn about UNIX try Darwin. It's on the Apple web site and it's free. It runs on any PC or PPC it need not be Apple hardware But then if you have Tiger you have Darwin.
Click to expand...

k so there's good news and bad news. Good news is that i finished my install of linux, though the bad news is that i can't get it to boot up right, and i get an error message when loading the kernel... i downloaded Ubuntu live and regular discs and it doesn't boot up into anything, and now not even the MacOSX will boot with the new linux OS on my system...so im still stuck :( that's the problem. Help anyone?
 
BWalen said:
what is the default format system on Mac HD? Fat32?
Click to expand...
lol no - that's windows.

It would be the Mac OS Extended format.

There are several variations of that to choose from, as well as Unix file system.
 
Josh said:
lol no - that's windows.

It would be the Mac OS Extended format.

There are several variations of that to choose from, as well as Unix file system.
Click to expand...

actually isn't windows NTFS? at least that what i've been formatting mine to because from what i've researched its the best to do...

anyhow, i'm thinking that the reason why my HD isn't recognized in the MacOSX install process is because there isn't any space on the HD that is formatted to it; i think all i'm using for my linux formatting is Linux Ext2 or Ext3 formatting. im able to format the HD by doing a reinstall of linux and can try to reset the partitions so that i can maybe get a portion of it to be MacOSX compatible, then hopefully it will be recognized during my MacOSX install???

here are my format options:

Linux Swap
Linux Native
Journalised FS: Ext3
Journalised FS: Reiser FS
Journalised FS: XFS
Journalised FS: JFS
Apple Bootstrap
Apple HFS Partition
PPc PReP Boot

which format type would be most readily used by MacOSX???
 
BWalen said:
im able to format the HD by doing a reinstall of linux and can try to reset the partitions so that i can maybe get a portion of it to be MacOSX compatible, then hopefully it will be recognized during my MacOSX install???
Click to expand...

I don't kniow put here is how to find out. Use Linux's fdisk to delete all the partitions. Or if your instaler uses some graphical front end do the same with it. Next do an OSX install. Back to Linux ask fdisk to print the partition table and see what Mac OSX wrote.

Your choises of what kind of partition to make are much larger than the list you gave. So I suspect you may be using some kind of front end to fdisk that limts the available choises. I think the partition type is a byte - two hex digits.

fdiskitself will print a longer list that includes stuff like "fat16" and "minux" and i'm pretty sure "HFS+" which is likey what you want.
 
ChrisA said:
I don't kniow put here is how to find out. Use Linux's fdisk to delete all the partitions. Or if your instaler uses some graphical front end do the same with it. Next do an OSX install. Back to Linux ask fdisk to print the partition table and see what Mac OSX wrote.

Your choises of what kind of partition to make are much larger than the list you gave. So I suspect you may be using some kind of front end to fdisk that limts the available choises. I think the partition type is a byte - two hex digits.

fdiskitself will print a longer list that includes stuff like "fat16" and "minux" and i'm pretty sure "HFS+" which is likey what you want.
Click to expand...

thanks for all the help and support all. you all have given me WAY more advice and technical knowledge than any of the linux support forums i've visited, and for that i'm truly thankful.

Here's the situation i'm currently in. I've installed Mandriva on the HD and it will boot to the boot loader with three options...one to boot to mandriva, 2 for CDROM (which doesnt really boot any cdroms i throw into my superdrive except for the mandriva install cd and the Tiger CD, and the 3rd option is to go to OpenFirmware. I can't actually access mandriva (the GUI portion) because there's an error message when i try, and i cant seem to find support on how to fix that error in any of the linux forums i've visited, so accessing the Fdisk isn't a possibility.

the mandriva installer (its a GUI installer) will allow me to patition a hard drive using the formats listed above. However, in order for the whole format process to complete (to wipe the hard drive clean) i have to set up the format in the way that linux wants...a swap, a "/" and a "root" at least, mostly using Ext2 or Ext3 formatting.

On my initial install of Mandriva (and subsiquent attempts too) i chose to wipe the drive clean, and the install commenced without a problem. then when it came time to installing a boot loader, i got an error saying

"an error occured, output in file /mnt/etc/modprobe.conf failed: No such file or directory"

and when i click the "ok" box i dont get any response from Mandriva...and then i have to start my mac all over again.

i really dont know what to do but am really at the point to where i just want tiger back. can i format using openfirmware? or my other idea was just to format a portion a custom partition job to a mac format?

my main issue with my install of Tiger is that when i get to the screen (4th maybe?) where it asks me to select a drive to install tiger onto, nothing shows up, and i think it is because it's not formatted to a mac format...but could there be other reasons why?
 
so i figured out that it must have been the CD's that i was using to burn my images must have been of low quality, because all i did was switch to a new set of CD-Rs and i got Kubuntu to install first try

now heres the question: what command do i throw into the Console (Konsole for me) to get fdisk to work...for now i put in "fdisk" and it tells me that i need a device arguement but i'm not sure of the proper protocol for doing that...ive experimented for a good hr here on my own with no luck...

so close, yet so far.
 
BWalen said:
actually isn't windows NTFS? at least that what i've been formatting mine to because from what i've researched its the best to do...
Click to expand...

I don't know of any OS that has used Fat32 as the default besides windows or OS/2 (both being from MS).

NTFS didn't come around until WindowsNT, and even yet (with XP) it is still not the default,

NTFS is the better choice for performance and archiving.
 
k soooo i had no idea that if i plug in my laptop to another mac i can just use the disk fixing utility from the other mac to fix my computer...

i think i must have spent 10-20 hrs working with linux, installing, reinstalling and the like trying to get something on there so i can use Fdisk...only to call the apple store today and have someone tell me that all i had to do was plug my laptop in via firewire, hold T during startup and force the laptop into being used by my school's eMac as an external drive, and then using the eMac to format using the disk utility...

wow. coulda saved me a lot of trouble had i known that. hopefully this thread proves useful for someone else.

i now have a clean install of tiger and couldn't be happier to have a working, functional machine.
 
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