I haven't been able to get any GRUB installation media to work on my >PowerMac G4. I've tried Debian, Gentoo, and Arch Linux, and every time
it doesn't recognize GRUB at all.
We're using grub-ieee1275, IEEE-1275 being the specification for Open Firmware. There is no issue getting GRUB to run on my G3, and most
others are having success on their machines, but my G4 just refuses to recognize GRUB in any way, only yaboot.
On Mar 24, 2022, at 6:49 PM, Ben Westover <kwestover.kw@gmail.com> wrote:
In case it's useful, here's the exact system I have: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powermac_g4_350.html
It's running Open Firmware 3.1.1 (1.2f2 BootROM). This is what it came with, and I was unable to find any upgrades online for this particular model.
--
Ben Westover
I haven't been able to get any GRUB installation media to work on my PowerMac G4.
I've tried Debian, Gentoo, and Arch Linux, and every time it doesn't recognize
GRUB at all. Even attempting to boot manually from Open Firmware just hangs. In all situations where I've tried, this issue has been solved with yaboot.
I tried to create some yaboot install media, but I've seen that it would require
patching debian-installer and I'm not sure where to start with that. If anyone
could help in this process of creating install media that uses yaboot instead of
GRUB, it would help me out tremendously.
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/7.11.0/powerpc/iso-cd/
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/9.0/powerpc/iso-cd/ https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/10.0/powerpc/iso-cd/ https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/ (anything before May 2019 should be Yaboot)
What is more likely is that you have bad memory modules in your machines and Yaboot
just happens to use different memory regions which is why it's not affected by the
problem.
Hmmm… this computer came from my High School's IT department, so its RAM was upgraded
by High Schoolers and may very well be bad. I just never thought it was because I never
ran into issues on OS X or the 2019 snapshot of Debian I got installed with yaboot.
I would suggest running a memory tester to check your RAM's health or replace all
modules with known good ones. Also, make sure that the machine has reasonable
amounts of memory.
I believe I have 384 MB. What program should I use for this?
You can either use the last stable installation images for PowerPC:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/7.11.0/powerpc/iso-cd/
and then upgrade from Wheezy to unstable but that's not going to be easy.
Why Wheezy when Jessie is available? Is that image not stable?
Or, you can use one of the older ISO images for PowerPC which were still
based on Yaboot:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/9.0/powerpc/iso-cd/
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/10.0/powerpc/iso-cd/
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/ (anything before May 2019 should be Yaboot)
Yeah, I've already managed to get the April 20 2019 image running. Upgrading to the latest sid is a nightmare though; I'll have to go in small steps utilizing
snapshot.debian.org if this is the case.
Reverting the installer system back to Yaboot is not an option for us since >> that would bring much more problems than it would solve. In particular, Yaboot
is no longer maintained upstream, does not work with modern filesystems and >> does not allow debian-cd and debian-installer code to be shared with other >> architectures as can be done with GRUB.
Yeah, I've already been made well aware of this. I'm not asking for debian-installer
to switch back to yaboot, many people are having success with GRUB; I was just asking
for assistance in creating my own special 2022 yaboot image.
https://wiki.debian.org/PortsDocs/CreateDebianInstallerImages?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryPorts%5Cb%29
A thank you goes out to all the people who have attempted to help me.
In all the excitement of this endeavor, my G4's motherboard has died.
Based on previous discussion, I believe the culprit in its failure to
load GRUB was the system's memory. Upon closer inspection of the machine during its autopsy, I found that the memory was mixed and matched with all four sticks having different capacities, speeds, and brands.
Seemingly the only PowerMac in the world that fails to boot GRUB has officially kicked the bucket.
[1] https://lowendmac.com/mail/07/0626.html
I am using the image from https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2022-03-18/non-free/ , which I burnt on a USB stick with "dd if=./debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso of=/dev/sdg bs=1M"
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2022-03-24/
On Sun, Mar 27, 2022 at 4:15 PM Sam Imberman <simberman@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
I'm actually having more or less the same problem with my Powerbook G4 Aluminum.
I am using the image from https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2022-03-18/non-free/ , which I burnt on a USB stick with "dd if=./debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso of=/dev/sdg bs=1M"
When I boot the machine while holding "option", the USB stick is not found.
I don't know about the G4's, but I know about the G5's. You cannot
boot a G5 from USB. You have to burn a CD and boot from the CD.
Jeff
Hello Ben!
On 3/25/22 21:48, Ben Westover wrote:
A thank you goes out to all the people who have attempted to help me.
In all the excitement of this endeavor, my G4's motherboard has died.
I'm not surprised.
Based on previous discussion, I believe the culprit in its failure toall
load GRUB was the system's memory. Upon closer inspection of the machine during its autopsy, I found that the memory was mixed and matched with
four sticks having different capacities, speeds, and brands.
That's almost never a good idea.
Seemingly the only PowerMac in the world that fails to boot GRUB has officially kicked the bucket.
I think you should be able to resurrect the machine. Either the capacitors
in the power supply hav gone bad or the ones on the mainboard. In both
cases,
it should be possible to replace them [1].
Adrian
[1] https://lowendmac.com/mail/07/0626.html
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
Hi,
I'm actually having more or less the same problem with my Powerbook G4 Aluminum.
I am using the image from https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2022-03-18/non-free/ , which I burnt on a USB stick with "dd if=./debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso of=/dev/sdg bs=1M"
When I boot the machine while holding "option", the USB stick is not found.
Hello Sam,
If I try to boot from Open Firmware, I try "boot
usb1/disk@1:,\\grub.img" and the error after quite a long pause is
"can't OPEN: usb1/disk@1:,\\grub.img Can't open device or file"
Of course I can't rule out the possibility that I'm using Open Firmware wrong, after some searches of this list and on the Internet I didn't specifically find a description of the boot line and I'm really not an
OF wizard.
GRUB is located at /boot/grub/powerpc.elf most of the time. The command you're looking for is `boot usb1/disk@1:,\boot\grub\powerpc.elf`.
You can also see what's on it with the command `dir usb1/disk@1:,\`,
adding directories at the end to go deeper.
My G4 was unable to even recognize USBs in Open Firmware, but the fact
that yours showed up is a good sign. That means it should be able to
boot from the drive provided it can read the filesystem.
I use variations of these commands on my G3 all the time with success,
and some others have managed to get them to work on their G4s. The
NetBSD installation guide for macppc[1] was a wonderful resource about
all these Open Firmware commands (I believe it was even cited in the
Debian Wiki as being a massive help).
[1] https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-9.2/macppc/INSTALL.html
Regards,
--
Ben Westover
I don't know about the G4's, but I know about the G5's. You cannot
boot a G5 from USB. You have to burn a CD and boot from the CD.
Am Sonntag, dem 27.03.2022 um 16:17 -0400 schrieb Jeffrey Walton:
I don't know about the G4's, but I know about the G5's. You cannot
boot a G5 from USB. You have to burn a CD and boot from the CD.
Booting a G5 PowerMac 11,2 from USB works well, I don't know about the
older ones.
See this mail on how to: https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/01/msg00035.html
The hacks from the powerprogress forum should not be necessary anymore.
Johannes
</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 3:19 AM Johannes Brakensiek <<a href="mailto:ml@codingpastor.de">ml@codingpastor.de</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Am Sonntag, dem 27.03.2022 um 16:17 -0400 schrieb Jeffrey Walton:<br>
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