lubuntu-qa team mailing list archive

["Str8bs" <str8bslinux@xxxxxxxxx>]

Prairie Zephyr,

I speculate many USB PPC boot troubles come from confusion because of two
factors:
1. default devalias names change across different firmware versions and
later versions include the disk in the alias path.
(IE: usb@1/disk@1:2 vs UD:2, etc. ) Some don't even have an alias for the
USB unless you create it yourself.
2. Depending on how the stick was formatted before the DD, there can be
trouble finding the "blessed" partition.

I theorize the process could possibly be simplified with an instruction set
that focused on using the full open firmware and file paths.
This would mean a longer boot command for the end user, but fewer steps to
get there and a more "universal" approach.
If you are still interested in attempting a Wiki, I can outline the steps
and take some Open Firmware screenshots to better illustrate what I mean.
(I'm terrible at  instruction documentation.)

Maybe we could then get some people to test the instruction set to see if it
is valid?

Regards,
Str8

-----Original Message-----
From: prairie zephyr [mailto:prairie_zephyr@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 3:43 PM
To: Str8bs
Cc: lubuntu-qa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: ppc USB boot [Lubuntu-qa] 

	Thanks! I'd heard rumours of usb boot workarounds before but never
the recipe.
	I've done lots of firewire target mac installing (saved me a couple
of times) but got nowhere aiming Linux ISOs at mounted FW targets trying
from OSX Mtn Lion, getting less Unix all the time.
	G4/5 = Leopard-max / G3 Tiger-max, ppc needs Linux or die. These ATI
cards are useless for video but 1.42 & 1.25 GHz are still half-decent
machines, G5s can still do some heavy lifting. My G3 is more like toy
status; I just reinstalled OS9 after a LVM install claimed ownership: what a
blast from the past! (y2k) lol  All this info gives me incentive to try
again to get the DVD-less testing, do what I can to keep ppc demand for
distros alive - wish I'd gotten the 13.04 radeon cards tested in time to
file better bug reports ...next time, thanks again


On 2013-04-12, at 2:26 PM, Str8bs <str8bslinux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> ..Regarding graphics. IMHO, that problem is somewhat self-propagated 
> by the PPC community in general downloading Xorg.conf workarounds or 
> disabling drivers instead of letting developers know that PPC users 
> exist and care by filing and following up on bug reports.
> 
		Yes + Mac had <5% of the market in ppc era - they're not the
target PCs are 4 Linux

> For creating the bootable USB, I always do it from within Linux and 
> don't use the hdiutil stuff.
> **CAUTION** dd will overwrite/destroy anything after the "of=" and it 
> won't ask if you are sure first.
> Make sure you are writing to your USB stick.
> 1. sudo fdisk -l and note the location of your USB stick. Will be 
> something like /dev/sdb (or /dev/sdc, etc.) 2. sudo dd 
> if=/Downloads/Whatever/nameofyourdownloaded.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M; 
> sync Where if=the path to your ISO download and of= the path to your 
> USB stick.
> 
> **The following is specific to PPC.
> 
> Booting. I've never tried a G4 and haven't succeeded on G5 yet. I'll 
> try a better detail later, but for now this is on a G3:
> (Note: early G3's that do NOT have a firewire port generally do not 
> support USB boot either.) 1. Hold <command><option><o><f> at power on.
> 2. without quotes "dev / ls" and enter 3. You are looking at a tree 
> view of the path. Note that anything indented will have a "parent" 
> above it. In other words, to get the whole path you have to look at 
> the lines above.
> 4. Verify you can "see" inside the disk using dir and the path you noted.
> Example: /pci@f2000000/usb@19/disk@1:2,\ 5. Once you see a directory 
> listing, Just change it to "boot 
> /pci@f2000000/usb@19/disk@1:2,\\yaboot" where the path matches yours.
> 
> You can also type "devalias" to get a list of short names and use 
> those instead. The PPC FAQ has more on that.
> 
> Alternate method for booting oversize ISO's if you have more than one 
> FireWire equipped Mac and one has DVD/SuperDrive.
> You can use that Mac as an external DVD drive. "Backwards Target Mode"
> 1. Put your burned DVD/DVD-RW in the MAC with DVD drive.
> 2. Put it in "Target Mode" by holding down "t" at power on.
> 3. Connect FireWire cable between that Mac and the one you are 
> installing to.
> 4. Boot this second Mac holding the alt key. You should see the DVD in 
> the other Mac as a boot option.
> 5. Select it and click the right arrow.
> *Note. The installer will see the hard drives in BOTH Mac's. Make sure 
> you pick the correct one to install on.
> *Never install Linux TO a target, but only FROM. Unlike OSX, it is 
> important the installer detects hardware on the machine it will be booting
from.
> I've only tested this using a first gen G5 as the "external target 
> mode drive" installing to a G3.
> 
> Hope that helps.
> Str8
> 
> From: Lubuntu-qa
> [mailto:lubuntu-qa-bounces+str8bslinux=gmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> On Behalf Of prairie zephyr
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 12:40 PM
> To: lubuntu-qa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Lubuntu-qa] lubuntu/daily/ size larger than stated
> 
> ...If anyone in the ppc
> world knows how to circumvent the ppc USB boot problem and has time to 
> write a short primer for me, I'll post it (credited) on my ppc Lubuntu 
> wiki so its recent googleable. I've looked and haven't found.

>   Every new Linux kernel seems to have a new reason why radeon doesn't
work.
>