Nelson wrote:

> Anyone tried this yet, I have a 8600 with a G3/400 Upgrade CPU XLR8, 320
> megs of ram, and a 18 gig scsi drive, and when I load BootX it just sort
> of starts then stops and does nothing else, I have to reboot by unplugging
> the machine..... Any help ????

Is MDK already installed or are you trying to install it?

Ok maybe, but where do I start?
Does these cd's need to be bootable, I downloaded from linuxiso.org and used
Nero 6 on a PC to burn them They seem to be all there, but when I put the cd
in the drive it just shows on the desktop and nothing else, I need to go
into it to do anything , which isn't much.

wrote in message
news:bXNbc.15118$lt2.2272@newsread1.news.pas.earth link.net...
> Nelson wrote:
>
> > Anyone tried this yet, I have a 8600 with a G3/400 Upgrade CPU XLR8, 320
> > megs of ram, and a 18 gig scsi drive, and when I load BootX it just sort
> > of starts then stops and does nothing else, I have to reboot by
unplugging
> > the machine..... Any help ????
>
> Is MDK already installed or are you trying to install it?

In article <2cZbc.19926$n37.1517677@read2.cgocable.net>,
"Nelson" writes:
>
> wrote in message
> news:bXNbc.15118$lt2.2272@newsread1.news.pas.earth link.net...
>> Nelson wrote:
>>
>> > Anyone tried this yet, I have a 8600 with a G3/400 Upgrade CPU XLR8, 320
>> > megs of ram, and a 18 gig scsi drive, and when I load BootX it just sort
>> > of starts then stops and does nothing else, I have to reboot by unplugging
>> > the machine..... Any help ????
>>
>> Is MDK already installed or are you trying to install it?
>
> Ok maybe, but where do I start?

You didn't answer the question, although I suspect you're trying to
install Mandrake....

> Does these cd's need to be bootable, I downloaded from linuxiso.org and used
> Nero 6 on a PC to burn them They seem to be all there, but when I put the cd
> in the drive it just shows on the desktop and nothing else,

First, what files do you see on the CD-R when you try to view it (either
on a Mac or on a Windows PC)? One common mistake when burning Linux CD-Rs
is to burn the CD-R image file as a file; you need to tell the CD-R
software to burn the file as an image (aka an "ISO image" or something
similar). When done correctly, you'll probably see several files on the
CD-R, including documentation and directories that hold the files you
want to install. I don't know precisely what the Mandrake PPC CD-Rs
contain, though.

As to booting the CD-R, I don't know about your computer in particular,
but on my iMac, bootable CD-ROMs can be booted by holding down the "C"
key while starting the computer. I also don't know offhand if the
Mandrake PPC CD-ROMs are supposed to be bootable. Still, it's something
you might try.

If the CD-ROM isn't bootable, or if your Mac can't boot from a CD-ROM,
you'll need to launch the installer in some other way, such as through
BootX, which you said earlier doesn't work. If you want to try that, I
suggest you read the Mandrake documentation to see what options you need
to pass to BootX to get it to start the installer. If you have problems,
include that information in your next post; nobody can help you if your
post lacks the necessary diagnostic information, such as the BootX
options you've used.

> I need to go into it to do anything , which isn't much.

I have no idea what you mean by this. If you're trying to say something
important with this, please rephrase.

--
Rod Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking

Nelson wrote:

> Ok maybe, but where do I start?
> Does these cd's need to be bootable, I downloaded from linuxiso.org and
> used Nero 6 on a PC to burn them They seem to be all there, but when I put
> the cd in the drive it just shows on the desktop and nothing else, I need
> to go into it to do anything , which isn't much.

The CDs (correctly burnt or not, I assume they are) won't boot on an Old
Mac. I also assume you're talking about MDK 9.1 for PPC. First, you need to
have a MacOS up and running because installing and running Linux on an Old
Mac requires you to use BootX (while on a new Mac you would use Yaboot).
You'll also have to partition your disk so that MacOS and Linux can reside
on the same disk, because non-destructive partioning tools are kind of rare
for Macs, you'll probably have to partition, then reinstall MacOS.

On MDK 9.1 CD 1 there is a doc folder that contains the document
"mandrake-ppc.html". Before going any further, you should read it. In
addition, the BootX folder contains a .sit archive with BootX and some
additional documentation.

If you do not feel comfortable, do not attempt to perform a full install of
both MacOS and Linux the first time (*), just do some practice installs
first.

(*) meaning don't install a whole load of apps.

Once you've read the docs listed above, here are the common traps:

- Boot partitions need to be in the first 8GB of the disk on Old Macs. So,
you must squeeze a bootable MacOS and a bootable Linux in those first 8GB.
Adopt a partioning scheme so that the MacOS System and Linux / are inside
those 8GB and have additional partitions beyond the 8GB for additional Mac
volumes or Linux mount points such as /home, /usr and so on. Also think
about keeping the swap partition close to the beginning of the disk.

- Because you're using a SCSI drive, it is possible that, once installed,
your Linux won't boot via BootX because the SCSI driver won't be inside the
kernel. To solve that issue, it is always a good idea to have an HFS
(standard) partition of about 500MB/1GB that you can mount both in MacOS
and Linux. Using that partition you can restart the installer, use an
alternate console to access the /boot of the installed Linux and copy the
initrd image to the HFS standard partition. Once this is done, you can
restart in MacOS, copy the initrd and use it as ramdisk for BootX (so that
the SCSI driver will be loaded) and specifying the installed root as
argument.

For more information about these intricaties:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ol...=Google+Search
where the subject have been recurrently discussed.

HTH

Thanks for this bit of info it has started to load, I only had one partition
and that was maybe the problem, seems to be loading, so far so good....

wrote in message
news:Nf1cc.15173$Dv2.227@newsread2.news.pas.earthl ink.net...
> Nelson wrote:
>
> > Ok maybe, but where do I start?
> > Does these cd's need to be bootable, I downloaded from linuxiso.org and
> > used Nero 6 on a PC to burn them They seem to be all there, but when I
put
> > the cd in the drive it just shows on the desktop and nothing else, I
need
> > to go into it to do anything , which isn't much.
>
> The CDs (correctly burnt or not, I assume they are) won't boot on an Old
> Mac. I also assume you're talking about MDK 9.1 for PPC. First, you need
to
> have a MacOS up and running because installing and running Linux on an Old
> Mac requires you to use BootX (while on a new Mac you would use Yaboot).
> You'll also have to partition your disk so that MacOS and Linux can reside
> on the same disk, because non-destructive partioning tools are kind of
rare
> for Macs, you'll probably have to partition, then reinstall MacOS.
>
> On MDK 9.1 CD 1 there is a doc folder that contains the document
> "mandrake-ppc.html". Before going any further, you should read it. In
> addition, the BootX folder contains a .sit archive with BootX and some
> additional documentation.
>
> If you do not feel comfortable, do not attempt to perform a full install
of
> both MacOS and Linux the first time (*), just do some practice installs
> first.
>
> (*) meaning don't install a whole load of apps.
>
> Once you've read the docs listed above, here are the common traps:
>
> - Boot partitions need to be in the first 8GB of the disk on Old Macs. So,
> you must squeeze a bootable MacOS and a bootable Linux in those first 8GB.
> Adopt a partioning scheme so that the MacOS System and Linux / are inside
> those 8GB and have additional partitions beyond the 8GB for additional Mac
> volumes or Linux mount points such as /home, /usr and so on. Also think
> about keeping the swap partition close to the beginning of the disk.
>
> - Because you're using a SCSI drive, it is possible that, once installed,
> your Linux won't boot via BootX because the SCSI driver won't be inside
the
> kernel. To solve that issue, it is always a good idea to have an HFS
> (standard) partition of about 500MB/1GB that you can mount both in MacOS
> and Linux. Using that partition you can restart the installer, use an
> alternate console to access the /boot of the installed Linux and copy the
> initrd image to the HFS standard partition. Once this is done, you can
> restart in MacOS, copy the initrd and use it as ramdisk for BootX (so that
> the SCSI driver will be loaded) and specifying the installed root as
> argument.
>
> For more information about these intricaties:
>
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ol...=Google+Search
> where the subject have been recurrently discussed.
>
> HTH
>
>
>