Installing YellowDog 2.0 on an Apple Network Server

!!!!! WARNING !!!!!

this document is NOT complete yet,

contact me if you have changes / additions

eddieb (at) xs4all (dot) nl

(1) get my kernel

http://www.xs4all.nl/~eddieb/linuxppc/ANS/ANS-YDL2-2.4.9.tar.gz

inside there is :

/boot/vmlinux-2.4.9
/boot/System.map-2.4.9
/boot/vmlinux-2.4.9.coff
/lib/modules/2.4.9/*
/usr/src/linux/.config


This kernel is build out of BenH's tree. You can get it with rsync :

cd /usr/src/linux-2.4-benh
rsync -avv penguinppc.org::linux-2.4-benh .

The patches for loading the ramdisk floppies ARE NOT IN THERE YET !!!!
Be patient, if everything works they will be there ...


I know this is a 2.4.6 kernel but that is the one I spend the most time on... If everything works, I'll upgrade it to the latest kernel.

This kernel DOES eject floppies between ramdisk1 and ramdisk2 and ramdisk3. If you have problems try again.. If you keep problems, please contact me

THIS kernel might work on YDL1.2.1 systems to.
it has USB and "new-input-layer" support, because the YDL2 installer needs it !

If you use the modules, you need to recompile it on YDL2, because the modules need glibc2.2

This kernel HAS serial-console support ...
Just add " console=ttyS0,38400" to the boot arguments, and you can view what is happening thru the serial.

(2) prepare the floppies

Get 4 new error-free floppies

Copy the vmlinux-2.4.9.coff to the 1st floppy as vmlinux.coff if your floppy is hfs formatted or vmlinux.cof if you are using a dos formatted floppy.


copy the ramdisk-text.image.gz from the YDL2 cd onto the other floppies :

floppy 1:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880
dd if=ramdisk-text.image.gz of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880
floppy 2:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880
dd if=ramdisk-text.image.gz of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 skip=2880 count=2880
floppy 3:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880
dd if=ramdisk-text.image.gz of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 skip=5760 count=2880
the last one wil copy about 900 blocks or so ....


(3) boot from the OF prompt

hold down <CMD><OPTION>OF while powering on to get there ...

I did not change any values in OF, except for :
real-mode? false
I did not change the load-base ...

OpenFirmware1.1.22
To continue booting from the default boot device type:
BOOT<return>
 ok
 0 > boot fd:vmlinux.coff root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:0
if you are using a dos formatted floppy, type:
 0 > boot fd:,vmlinux.cof root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:0

If all goes well (that means you used good quality floppies), the boot floppy is ejected and somewhere on the screen is asked for the 1st ramdisk floppy... (between some ADB messages ....)

insert the ramdisk-floppies in the right order ...

If you get errors from swim3 ...

After the floppies are loaded, you get in the YDL2 installer. make sure the YDL2 cd is in the CDrom drive

answer the questions ...

you can choose about minimal and custom information during installing, I choose custom ...

partitioning :

edit the partitions ...

the partitions are only formatted if you delete them and create NEW ones .....

DONT create the bootstrap partition !!! it is for NewWorld machines (iMac and newer)

leave the Apple Partition Map where it is ....

make sure that you create the partition where your kernel is going to live
is the 1st ext2 partition on the disk, so if swap is /dev/sda2,
make the partition where your kernel is going to be /dev/sda3 ....

I created :

pdisk -l /dev/sda

Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/sda'
 #:                type name      length   base    ( size )
 1: Apple_partition_map Apple         63 @ 1      
 2:     Apple_UNIX_SVR2 boot       40961 @ 64      ( 20.0M)
 3:     Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap      262145 @ 41025   (128.0M)
 4:     Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled 4101319 @ 303170  (  2.0G)

Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=4404489 (2.1G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0

If you have problems to create a partition map, you need to boot with the YDL2 rescue disk.
In there is "parted", which is able to create Apple_partition_map's ...

*****

If you don't have an Apple_partition_map, you need to get one....
One way to do that is get the rescue.image.gz from the YDL2 tasty CD.
copy that to 3 floppies just like the installer and boot of that set of floppies
the same way you would from the installer.
You need to specify "rw" to create the node for the scsidisk
 0 > boot fd:vmlinux.coff root=/dev/fd0 rw load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:0
or if you are using a dos formatted floppy, type:
 0 > boot fd:,vmlinux.cof root=/dev/fd0 rw load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:0
After it loads you get to a linux prompt ..
you need to create a /dev node for the scsi disk ..
mknod /dev/sda c 8 0

now you can start "parted" and create a Apple_partition_map

this program has lot of help in it ...

reboot back in the installer and continue ...
*****


After that you can choose the type of installation ...

On my ANS, after choosing a full install, it takes more than 10 minutes before there actually starts to happen something on the screen. So be patient !! A full install takes a while and you need, I think, about 1.5G to store everything. (I used a 2GB disk ...)

Answer "YES" on the question about installing quik ...
for now it looks like quik is installed and a /etc/quik.conf is created
but quik is not run by the installer, so you have to do that late by hand ...


The installed /etc/quik.conf is wrong it won't boot ....
it creates a
partition=4
line and that could be the problem that it won't work ....

This is my /boot/quik.conf
# Example of how can be quik.conf set up
timeout = 100
read-only
default = vmlinux-2-4-6
init-message="\n\n\nWelcome to YellowDog Linux!\n\nHit <TAB> for boot options.\n\nHit <ENTER> to continue !\n\n\n"
image = /vmlinux-2.4.6
        label = vmlinux-2-4-6
        root=/dev/sda4
        append="ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:2 devfs=nomount"

image = /vmlinux-2.4.8-ben0
        label = vmlinux-2-4-8
        root=/dev/sda4
        append="ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:2 devfs=nomount"

image = /vmlinux-2.4.8-ben0
        label = serial
        root=/dev/sda4
        append="console=ttyS0,38400 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:2 devfs=nomount"

image = /vmlinux-2.4.6
        label = ramdisk
        root = /dev/fd0
        append="debug console=ttyS0,38400 load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:2 devfs=nomount"

image = /vmlinux-2.4.6
        label = ramdisk-c
        root = /dev/fd0
        append="load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:2 devfs=nomount"
******************************************************************************
the default works :)

after the install finishes you need to boot once more from the floppy to modify the quik.conf, put the kernel on /boot and run quik

(4) boot once more from the OF prompt

OpenFirmware1.1.22
To continue booting from the default boot device type:
BOOT<return>
 ok
 0> boot fd:vmlinux.coff root=/dev/sda4 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:0
or if you are using a dos formatted floppy, type:
 0> boot fd:,vmlinux.cof root=/dev/sda4 ncr53c8xx=tags:0,verb:0
You get into your newly installed system now :)

transfer the ANS-YDL2 kernel from my tar file to /boot and the modules to /lib/modules,
create the appropriate symlinks in /boot

modify /boot/quik.conf

run quik
quik -v -v

If all is well, a reboot should bring you into quik and the default kernel is loaded ....

*****************************************************************************************
At this moment my ANS boots from HD into quik and than the kernel works fine :)

Have fun,

Eddie

It is