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Linux on iMac G3
May. 22nd, 2008 04:09 pmAfter spending two days of installing and reinstalling different distros on Linux (Gentoo and Debian) on an old iMac G3 (tray-loading, Rev. B) I've finally got it working.
The problem was that yaboot wouldn't load the kernel after rebooting from the end of installation. I was completely flummoxed by this. Last night when all seemed to be lost I had a look on Google and found out what the problem was.
It turns out that these iMacs have a flaw. They will only read system files at boot if they exist within an 8GB partition near the start of the disk (as well as the Apple partition map and the Apple Boot partition). I hadn't actually done this, of course, as there was nothing in any documentation to suggest that this was needed.
So this morning I started from scratch and made sure to create a 64MB /boot partition straight after the two required Apple partitions. Lo and behold everything works.
Now I just need to get the last few bits and pieces going and everything will be OK! :)
The problem was that yaboot wouldn't load the kernel after rebooting from the end of installation. I was completely flummoxed by this. Last night when all seemed to be lost I had a look on Google and found out what the problem was.
It turns out that these iMacs have a flaw. They will only read system files at boot if they exist within an 8GB partition near the start of the disk (as well as the Apple partition map and the Apple Boot partition). I hadn't actually done this, of course, as there was nothing in any documentation to suggest that this was needed.
So this morning I started from scratch and made sure to create a 64MB /boot partition straight after the two required Apple partitions. Lo and behold everything works.
Now I just need to get the last few bits and pieces going and everything will be OK! :)
