Hi all,
The partition instructions recommended in the installation instructions aren't clear to me. Currently I have a G3 iBook (600) dual-booting 10.3.9 and the latest OS9.
In particular I never knew there was such a thing as an "Apple driver partition" - how do I make one of these? I also have no idea how to "create a 1 Mb bootstrap partition for the yaboot installer." I think the "bootstrap" terminology is throwing me off. Partitions 3 and 4 seem clearer; 3 is a partition the size of your RAM, while 4 is just the rest of your free space. Am I overthinking this and this is all something the installer will take care of?
If not, can anyone who has successfully gone through this shed some light here? I'm a bit paralyzed because I don't know how to get my drive ready for MintPPC.
Thanks for reviving this project!
First question: do you want to keep any of your Apple OS partitions ?
@admin I have better OSX machines and it's only an 8GB HD so I'd say no for this one. 🙂
Please make a picture of the partitions scheme.
@admin Hi! Here are some pictures:
As you can see, the HD is small but it does dual boot OS9 and 10.3.9. Honestly if I could keep both and add a small MintPPC installation, great! Otherwise, I'm OK to start over with MintPPC - like I said, I have better OS9/OSX machines and the drive here is a bit small. Whatever is easier for you to describe a little more step-by-step is fine for me.
I recommend to only install MintPPC. I would like to see a picture from the partitions as you startup the Debian installer. Follow the installation instructions and just make a picture of the partitions. Just don't continue from there yet.
Hi there, here it is:
I'll be darned, there's an exactly 32.3kb partition already. So does this mean I just delete all the other ones, then create three new ones: 1MB, 128MB (RAM size), and then the last one that just has the remainder of the free space?
I don't understand this from the instructions in any case:
- Partition #2 should be a 1 Mb bootstrap partition for the yaboot installer -- How do you configure it this way? Is it an option when you do guided partitioning?
- Partition #3 should be a swap partition the size of the RAM; is that something I need to configure in any way?
- The last partition, with all the rest of the free space, should be "format[ted] in ext4 and [given] the / (root) mountpoint" - again, anything I need to know about how to do this? Will it just be an option when I go to do guided partitioning?
As you can tell, a lot of this is me just knowing what I don't know, and not seeing the answers spelled out in the docs. Thanks for your patience!
As you said, keep the first partition and delete the rest. You will find out if you get there.
Okay, you were right. I was able to work through the partitions, I think. But now I'm stuck because "enter information manually" isn't working to find the mirror. Here are some fresh screenshots to explain the partitions and the mirror problem:
I've now done this twice with two separate verified-working wired ethernet connections so I'm stuck. Any idea why this isn't working?
PS - I threw an extra 512MB ram stick in it so my swap partition is now 640MB instead of 128.
enter 'ftp.ports.debian.org' for the mirror, and '/debian-ports/' for the directory
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/debian-sid-installation-guide-powerpc.2146795/
Hi, I was following the install instructions and got up to the same point as above. I entered the mirror and directory info as per admin advice and also followed the link instructions. The result is the same with a failure to load software. I have repartioned the drive twice with same result. Is there another mirror that can be used? I have been trying to install Linux on my old G4 mini mac for weeks and this is the first distro to boot from USB so I am hopeing you can assist.
Somewhere this week I will do an installation on an G4 iBook myself as per the instructions to see whether I need to amend it or not. I will let you know here when I have done that.
I did not yet have time to do it but I did not forget it...
Hi, glad this hasn't been forgotten about. I'm OP and just as a reminder, mine is not a G4 but rather a G3 at 600 MHz and 640MB of RAM.
Sounds like Gazza is having the same problem though; the mirror seems not to be working. It's not easy to set mine up so it has an ethernet connection, so I don't want to try again until I hear it's been tested. 🙂
Ok guys, thanks for reporting this. I just did an installation. The iso that you and I used has an expired debian-ports keyring and can therefore not access the debian-ports mirror. I will have to make a new iso...I don't know when I have the time for that but I will keep you updated.
