Tried to install on mac mini G4
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-09-23/debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso
but grub fails to install. The installation process reports it was not able to install on /dev/sda3.
I've tried booting in rescue mode from the debian CD above and from shell I've tried to give a "grub-install /dev/sad3" but it reports
"grub-install: errore: la partizione selezionata non è una poartizione PReP"
Hi!
I have just built and uploaded updated Debian Ports installation images.
These images contain an updated apt-setup package which fixes the APT
problem that occurred during installation with the 2021-09-21 images.
I have performed a successful test installation on sparc64 and will
perform a test on ia64 on my RX2660 later as well.
I will provide more images updates in the following days which will
contain more fixes such as for the hd-media installation as well as improvements on Apple PowerMac.
The images can be obtained from [1].
Thanks,
Adrian
[1] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-09-23/
I translated what Sante said the error message was via Google Translate:
The error is this:
"grub-install: error: the selected partition is not a PReP partition"
I hope all is well, Adrian. Aside from trying to get X working on Linux
in general (which I’ve failed to do so with my iMac G3 in both VoidPPC
and Debian Ports Sid with a proper XOrg configuration (with monitor
Modelines and everything. It sees the internal display, it just can’t
use any configurations from the display no matter what I try.)
Hi!
I have just built and uploaded updated Debian Ports installation
images.
These images contain an updated apt-setup package which fixes the APT
problem that occurred during installation with the 2021-09-21 images.
I have performed a successful test installation on sparc64 and will
perform a test on ia64 on my RX2660 later as well.
I will provide more images updates in the following days which will
contain more fixes such as for the hd-media installation as well as improvements on Apple PowerMac.
The images can be obtained from [1].
Thanks,
Adrian
[1] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-09-23/
Many thanks for keeping Debian alive on these old architectures.
I just dusted off my XServe-G5 (ppc64) and gave this snapshot a go.
The very good news is that it boots all the way to the installer.
The less good news is that it stops pretty quickly as none of the
required drivers are actually in the install media.
To be able to install Debian, you would at least need:
CONFIG_SATA_SVW (sata)
CONFIG_TIGON3 (Ethernet)
For the record, please find below the lspci captured on the machine.
I'd be happy to test a future version of the install media if you
decide to respin it at some point, and/or to provide more data
should you need any.
Many thanks for keeping Debian alive on these old architectures.
I just dusted off my XServe-G5 (ppc64) and gave this snapshot a go.Alex Perez:
The very good news is that it boots all the way to the installer.
The less good news is that it stops pretty quickly as none of the
required drivers are actually in the install media.
To be able to install Debian, you would at least need:
CONFIG_SATA_SVW (sata)
CONFIG_TIGON3 (Ethernet)
<div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Hi Marc!<br><br>On 10/5/21 18:10, Marc Zyngier wrote:<br>> Many thanks for keeping Debian alive on these old architectures.<br><br>You're welcome.<br><br>> I just dusted off my XServe-G5 (ppc64) and gave this snapshot a go.<br>> <br>> The very good news is that it boots all the way to the installer.<br>> The less good news is that it stops pretty quickly as none of the<br>> required drivers are actually in the install
While you're at it, if you could also add SATA_SIL24 to the default build, this is, by far, the most common legacy SATA PCI controller that's used in legacy PCI-based PowerPC Macs.
[1] https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=linux&arch=powerpc&ver=5.14.3-1%7Eexp1&stamp=1631474298&raw=0
The very good news is that it boots all the way to the installer.
The less good news is that it stops pretty quickly as none of the
required drivers are actually in the install media.
[1] https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=linux&arch=powerpc&ver=5.14.3-1~exp1&stamp=1631474298&raw=0
It looks like we reached the same point in parallel! I also realise I
should have given a few more details about my setup, because it isn't
at all obvious from my email.
The machine I use has no CDROM (it is what Apple used to call a
Cluster node), and cannot boot from USB. So the only way to install
Debian is to dump the NETINST image on the hard drive (take it to
another box, dd the image, move it back) and boot from that. It works
fine and I land in the installer
However, as the initrd doesn't contain the SATA driver, it is unable
to mount the image where all the udeb for the kernel modules are, and
at this point I was stuck.
Oct 5 17:32:43 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sdb3'
Oct 5 17:32:43 grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
Oct 5 17:32:43 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --macppc-directory=/boot/grub --no-nvram --force
Oct 5 17:32:44 grub-installer: Installing for powerpc-ieee1275 platform.
Oct 5 17:32:46 grub-installer: grub-install: error: filesystem on /boot/grub is neither HFS nor HFS+.
Oct 5 17:32:46 grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install --macppc-directory=/b=/t/grub --no-nvram --force failed.
I need to see whether there is any way to convey this requirement to
the installer at partition-time, but it will probably be a week-end
thing now.
Hi Marc!
On 10/5/21 18:10, Marc Zyngier wrote:
The very good news is that it boots all the way to the installer.
The less good news is that it stops pretty quickly as none of the
required drivers are actually in the install media.
Not sure what installation media you used, but the CD-ROM image should contain both the sata_svw and tg3 kernel modules.
Grep for "tg3.ko" and "sata_svw.ko" in the build log [1].
Can you check whether the drivers are missing below /lib/modules? If
yes, I have to check the configuration for the debian-installer cdrom
initrd image.
Hi Marc!
On 10/5/21 19:46, Marc Zyngier wrote:
It looks like we reached the same point in parallel! I also realise I should have given a few more details about my setup, because it isn't
at all obvious from my email.
The machine I use has no CDROM (it is what Apple used to call a
Cluster node), and cannot boot from USB. So the only way to install
Debian is to dump the NETINST image on the hard drive (take it to
another box, dd the image, move it back) and boot from that. It works
fine and I land in the installer
However, as the initrd doesn't contain the SATA driver, it is unable
to mount the image where all the udeb for the kernel modules are, and
at this point I was stuck.
Did you use the NETINST or netboot image? Those are not the
same. netboot are for actual netboot and contain different drivers.
Either way, I will check the d-i configuration for cdrom and check whether those modules are not included in the debian-installer build.
Can you just tell me whether it offered to create an HFS /boot
partition?
#1 32.3 kB Apple
#2 256.0 MB f hfs untitled /boot/grub
#3 478.8 GB f ext4 untitled /
#4 1.0 GB f swap swap swap
25.1 kB FREE SPACE
The whole GRUB installation process is a solved problem. It can just
be that the "partman-hfs" package is missing in this installer
image. It's required to set up and format the HFS /boot partition.
However, as the initrd doesn't contain the SATA driver, it is unable
to mount the image where all the udeb for the kernel modules are, and
at this point I was stuck.
[1] https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/blob/master/build/pkg-lists/cdrom/powerpc.cfg
[2] https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/blob/master/build/pkg-lists/cdrom/ppc64.cfg
Either way, I'm going to fix it.
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/commit/6c7c4846451b3d89d7f75058a614610feb39fbee
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/commit/bfc78dfccd40e311207eb9ad348289039c7aee85
Either way, I'm going to fix it.
Awesome!
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-10-05/
Hello Marc!
On 10/5/21 19:46, Marc Zyngier wrote:
However, as the initrd doesn't contain the SATA driver, it is unable
to mount the image where all the udeb for the kernel modules are, and
at this point I was stuck.
I just had a look at the debian-installer package lists and indeed, the sata-modules udeb is not included in the initrd for powerpc [1] and
ppc64 [2].
Strange that no one stumbled across this before. I wonder how people managed to install on the G5 desktops in the past. Apparently it must have worked someone or these machines use PATA emulation?
Either way, I'm going to fix it.
Hello Sante!
On 10/5/21 15:35, Sante Nocciolino wrote:
Tried to install on mac mini G4Could you provide your installation log file so I can figure out what went wrong?
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-09-23/debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso
but grub fails to install. The installation process reports it was not able to install on /dev/sda3.
I've tried booting in rescue mode from the debian CD above and from shell I've tried to give a "grub-install /dev/sad3" but it reports
"grub-install: errore: la partizione selezionata non è una poartizione PReP"
Also, if you repeat the installation, please perform it in English because I don't
speak Italian.
Adrian
the boot partition not being the first partition in the system (it
really looks like it is, but the installer may be confused by the
Apple partitioning system). I ignored it.
The installer then fails with:
Oct 5 21:50:23 base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/no_codename
Oct 5 21:50:34 main-menu[283]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 1
Oct 5 21:50:34 main-menu[283]: WARNING **: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' failed.
I didn't have this problem with the previous versions, so that must be something new that changed in the meantime.
Hello!
On 10/5/21 21:00, Marc Zyngier wrote:
Either way, I'm going to fix it.
Awesome!
Please try either of these images, they should fix both issues:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-10-05/
The installer then fails with:
Oct 5 21:50:23 base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/no_codename
Oct 5 21:50:34 main-menu[283]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 1
Oct 5 21:50:34 main-menu[283]: WARNING **: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' failed.
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-10-06/
Hi Marc!
On 10/5/21 23:58, Marc Zyngier wrote:
The installer then fails with:
Oct 5 21:50:23 base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/no_codename
Oct 5 21:50:34 main-menu[283]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 1
Oct 5 21:50:34 main-menu[283]: WARNING **: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' failed.
Please try these updated images. A test installation on sparc64 worked fine for me:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-10-06/
If it fails, please report back with the install log (from /var/log/syslog).
Finally got a chance to test this more thoroughly. It turns out that
the install is failing because of my odd install method (dump the
install image on the disk, boot on it, overwrite the install media
with the install).
This used to work until your images from 23/9/2021, but fails with the
latest ones.
However, using the disk to boot and then a USB key to
provide another set of install media worked perfectly, and I now have
a brand new XServe-G5!
I don't think it is worth worrying much about the odd install method.
This is unnecessary in most cases, and the workaround is easy (at
least in my case).
Thanks again for your precious help in getting this going!
Hello Marc!
On 10/6/21 23:55, Marc Zyngier wrote:
Finally got a chance to test this more thoroughly. It turns out that
the install is failing because of my odd install method (dump the
install image on the disk, boot on it, overwrite the install media
with the install).
Well, that can't work. The installation media is used during installation
to retrieve packages. It's not a pure network installation despite the name NETINST.
The NETINST image should rather called SMALL because the basic set
of packages is actually being sourced from CD. Only netboot images
are installing everything over the network.
This used to work until your images from 23/9/2021, but fails with the latest ones.
That's pure accident. It's not expected to work, really.
However, using the disk to boot and then a USB key to
provide another set of install media worked perfectly, and I now have
a brand new XServe-G5!
That's great. Since you have a kernel.org email address, maybe you
can help work on the PowerPC kernel a bit ;-).
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