Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Can't get 8500 ppc to boot cd or floppy
A friend of mine obtained serveral old ppc's from someone I and I told him I'd see waht I could do in order of installing linux on one, but my problem is I cannot get it to boot any sort of linux boot image, cd or floppy. I've mostly been attempting Debian Woody as I assumed it would probably be best for this machine. I followed the guide on Debian's website for making a boot floppy but it won't work. The system currently has a sort of working installation of I believe OS 7.5. I've tried both "c" while booting, and Command+Option+Shift+Delete and none of them make any difference, and it just kicks the floppy out, rejecting it as non-bootable media.
Any other thricks I am missing here?
tlyons
03-08-2005, 08:38 PM
I had problems with 2 of my 4 Debian image disks. Make an extra copy of each, and try again.
A sort of working installation of OS 7.5? Old world Macs (beige) usually need a bootable Mac OS to boot with so that BootX can load the linux kernel and then load a full blown Linux distro (unless you use Quik, which is much harder to make work).
- Are there already partitions set up for Linux?
- If so, have you installed and configured BootX?
- If you're going to try to use Quik instead (and boot without Mac OS), have you read up on the open firmware bugs specific to the 8500?
- Did you try Yellow Dog? Version 3.x works with the 8500.
PenguinPPC - Bootloaders (http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/)
Yellow Dog Installation (use v.3) (http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/installation/)
- T.
When I say sort of working, I mean that I can boot it up but there are almost no lirarys or software insatlled because I erased the old hardrive, keeping only the System Folder. I have not partitioned the drive yet as I have not succeeded in even booting an installation cd or floppy.
Yellowdog I have indeed not tried, but I will and post back.
Alright, I have tried both YDL 3.1 and also 2.3, neither works.
Hitchhiker
03-11-2005, 10:49 PM
YDL 3.1 does NOT support PowerPC 8500. You must use YDL 3.0, or lower.
Also, it is important to erase existing petitions during installation, and recreate necessary petitions. Just in case you haven't done that.
Furthermore, properly working Mac OS must be installed, i.e. MacOS 9.
No, neither partitions or OS 7 installation has anyhting to do with my problem--I can't get it to boot anything period.
StarKnight83
03-12-2005, 05:06 AM
isnt this an old-world machine (ive only worked w/ new-world macs.) and if such needs bootx to boot the linux kernel
XiaoKJ
03-12-2005, 07:06 AM
go to the YDL site and read the guide to installation for YDL on old-world macs