OK, now it is certain, than quite any Linux distro can be installed to a GPT-partitioned drive in PowerMac
. First of all, you need to be sure that your OpenFirmware version can read GPT drives (I don't know all versions & their capabilities). Simplest way (may be) - partition something (HDD, USB flash or whatever) to GPT & create HFS partition. Later - try to use dir command in OF console & see the drive directory structure. (This all in brief to give all of us the idea what to do). As for now - reinstalled Debian to another IDE drive (Seagate 250Gb), GPT partitioned in Gentoo.
A bit of console output here
.
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 232,88 GiB, 250058268160 bytes, 488395055 sectors
Disk model: ST3250820A
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: ED67B67F-1F47-4B8F-9BDE-96BDFC2CA9CA
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 4196351 4194304 2G Apple HFS/HFS+
/dev/sdb2 4196352 488394751 484198400 230,9G Linux filesystem
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# mount | grep /dev/sd
/dev/sdb2 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdb1 on /boot/grub type hfs (rw,relatime,uid=0,gid=0)
root@PowerMacG5-QUAD:~# uname -a
Linux PowerMacG5-QUAD 5.14.0-1-powerpc64 #1 SMP Debian 5.14.6-3 (2021-09-28) ppc64 GNU/Linux
As you see, drive is GPT, 2 partitions. The idea to create a standalone partition for /boot/grub came from aforementioned video (but that guys don't finalize bootloader configuration & use pram reset, which is clumsy work). (BTW, I made this patition way too large - 2 GB, confused it to kernel storage place.) And (U)EFI-based systems uses EFI System Partition, whic is mounted to /boot/efi usually (well, this does not work for Intel Macs). Installation was quite simple. (Not to mention inability to select hfs partition at drive partitioning stage, so I left it unused). After packages install - do not use stage "install (yaboot|GRUB) bootloader", skip it directly to next pphase, BUT DO NOT REBOOT. Now we need to go to shell & chroot to our fresh installation; chroot /target/ /bin/bash. Mount our hfs partition to /boot/grub (mount /dev/sdXY, your drive letter & partition number here). Afterward - install grub2 (apt install grub2), it have to install grub-ieee1275 packages. Now install grub intself: grub-install (hfs partition). Check if our hfs partition is now populated (ls /boot/grub). Instead of creating grub image, I just copied quite everything from /usr/lib/grub/powerpc-ieee1275/ to /boot/grub/powerpc-ieee1275. You may try to reboot now (I made several reboots & amendmens before it all works & drive become shown in boot-picker). Several boot was made fro OF console (of paths is something to remeber
). From actual system I've made ofboot directory in our hfs partition, placed very minimalistic ofboot.b config there.
(ofboot.b)
<CHRP-BOOT>
<COMPATIBLE>
MacRISC MacRISC3 MacRISC4
</COMPATIBLE>
<DESCRIPTION>
DEBIAN SID
</DESCRIPTION>
<BOOT-SCRIPT>
boot /ht/pci@9/ata-6@d/disk@1,:\grub
</BOOT-SCRIPT>
</CHRP-BOOT>
You can laugh but for about 2 or 3 attempts to boot from boot-picker I've just FORGOT to write command "boot" in this config
. (You see here is no OS-BADGE - If ever I can somehere find Debian logo or something else ...). Here Debian is bootable from boot picker, using GRUB2
. This post does not pretend to be full detailed manual, just to give the idea what to do for GPT booting
. This articles helps alot:
http://cynic.cc/blog/posts/running_grub2_on_powerpc_macs/
wiki.gentoo.org
(Congratulations are welcome
). (Interesting - is it possible to make such trcks with OpenSUSE..?
)