Robert Bar wrote:

> hi,*
>
> (English isn't my native language ...)

Hello, Robert. Long time, no read... (604 to 603, if I recall
correctly).

> I'm looking for some google keywords to find a solution for yaboot.conf
> to give me a choice at boottime between different linux-systems:
> - debian/sarge (2.6.5) which is just running fine;
> - gentoo to which I'd like to give an "chance"
>

I'm not sure whether the Yaboot howto
is clear
enough on the matter.

Perhaps the best method would be to set up two Yaboots and use the Mac's
boot manager to choose between them (and OS X).

> or - if it wouldn't be trivial - any hint to get there.
>
> What about adding a linked '/boot'-partition (ext2) which will contain
> all kernel-files _and_ the yaboot.conf-file (which I will have to link
> too to any distributions '/etc' in order to touch only one file instead
> of two ...)?
>
> Are there any experiences outside with such a configuration?
>

I believe this is all too complicated.

How do you dual-boot between your one Linux installation and Mac OS X
now?

Anyway, you might not know that when you press "alt" during the boot
chime (on a somewhat recent New World machine) you will get a graphical
menu that displays icons for all bootable partitions for you to select
from.

Maybe that will already solve your problem?

Otherwise you'd have to go into more detail. What's your partition setup
etc.?

--
Andrew J. Brehm
Fan of Woody Allen
PowerPC User
Supporter of Pepperoni Pizza

(Character width set to 110)

Andrew J. Brehm wrote:

> Hello, Robert. Long time, ...

hi Andrew, please to meet you - again ... indeed, long time ago

> ..., no read... (604 to 603, if I recall
> correctly).

You do.
Things have changed:

I got this G4/466 on easy terms at just that moment when I tried to get a 40 GB-IDE disk working in my 7500 =>
:-(.
As on an SCSI-only-system there were only few troubles running one Linux-distribution (debian) _and_ MacOS.
[This machine is working now as a 'substitution' for a IIfx; seems to be a good choice running _this_ sort of
harware ...]


My wife left at about the time when I'was going to install gentoo on any machine I could put my fingers on. I
took a notice of that detail as I returned from a cicle-tour and found my letter-box flowing over ...


> Robert Bar wrote:
> (...)
> > [keywords]
>
> I'm not sure whether the Yaboot howto
> is clear
> enough on the matter.

Since about a week or two one of my favourite sites ;-)

> Perhaps the best method would be to set up two Yaboots and use the Mac's
> boot manager to choose between them (and OS X).

-v (, please)

> > What about adding a linked '/boot'-partition (ext2) which will contain
> > all kernel-files _and_ the yaboot.conf-file (which I will have to link
> > too to any distributions '/etc' in order to touch only one file instead
> > of two ...)?

What I'm looking for is something similar to the GRUB-menu.

(24 hours later
I've been playing around with mac-fdisk, fstab & yaboot.conf, now I got:

selbst@g4l:~$ sudo mac-fdisk -l /dev/hdb
/dev/hdb
# type name length base ( size ) system
/dev/hdb1 Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1 ( 31.5k) Partition map
/dev/hdb2 Apple_Bootstrap bootstrap 1600 @ 64 (800.0k) NewWorld bootblock
/dev/hdb3 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap 2457600 @ 1664 ( 1.2G) Linux swap
/dev/hdb4 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 boot 409600 @ 2459264 (200.0M) Linux native
/dev/hdb5 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 debian 12492800 @ 2868864 ( 6.0G) Linux native
/dev/hdb6 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 gentoo 12492800 @ 15361664 ( 6.0G) Linux native
/dev/hdb7 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 home 50310886 @ 27854464 ( 24.0G) Linux native
/dev/hdb8 Apple_Free Extra 10 @ 78165350 ( 5.0k) Free space

Block size=512, Number of Blocks=78165360
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0

and /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
/dev/hdb3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdb4 /boot ext2 noauto 1 2
/dev/hdb5 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

/dev/hdb7 /home ext3 defaults 0 0

with /boot containing all the kernel-files and my yaboot.conf:

## Example yaboot.conf for ybin and yaboot >= 0.6
## see man yaboot.conf for more details.

boot=/dev/hdb2
device=ultra1:
partition=4 ### = /dev/hdb4 - kernel's residence
delay=10
defaultos=linux
timeout=60
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot

#fgcolor=black
#bgcolor=green

macosx=/dev/hda9
macos=/dev/hda10
enablecdboot
enableofboot

#gentoo (working)

image=/kernel-2.6.1
label=gentoo-2.6.1
root=/dev/hdb6
sysmap=/System.map-2.6.1
append "video=aty128fb"

# debian (working):
image=/vmlinux-2.6.5
label=debian-2.6.5
root=/dev/hdb5
append "video=aty128fb"

image=/vmlinux-2.4.25
label=debian-2.4.25
root=/dev/hdb5
read-only
append "video=aty128fb"

As shown in the doc-files (yaboot-howto, man) now I can choose between

l Linux
m MacOSX
c CDROM
o OF-Boot

Typing 'l' I get the boot-prompt where I can do the next choise using the 'Labels' defined in my yaboot.conf.
Maybe that 'delay' and 'timeout' could be shorter but there is no hurry and all together it's just less time
than OF scanning bootable devices.

> (...)
> I believe this is all too complicated.

not at all

> Anyway, you might not know that when you press "alt" during the boot
> chime (on a somewhat recent New World machine) you will get a graphical
> menu that displays icons for all bootable partitions for you to select
> from.

Maybe that I was missing something but 'my' OF doesn't discern the 'debian/gentoo'-partitions but is showing a
disk bootable into (indifferent) Linux (plus the others disks/partitions: MacOS_X, MacOS 9, CDROM).

> (...)

so long, Andrew; I'm quiet shure not to encrease such a posting-delay when trying to configure gentoo. AFAIK
the difficulties (min.: a suitable German keyboard-layout) are lying in wait for me.

Let's have a look on what's coming. Greetings to you & the yours.

Robert
--
(~/.mailfilterrc)
[...]
DENY=^Content-Type:.*multipart/[alternative|related|mixed]
[...]

Robert Bar wrote:

> (Character width set to 110)
>
> Andrew J. Brehm wrote:
>
> > Hello, Robert. Long time, ...
>
> hi Andrew, please to meet you - again ... indeed, long time ago

So, how's life? :-)

> > ..., no read... (604 to 603, if I recall
> > correctly).
>
> You do. Things have changed: I got this G4/466 on easy terms at
> just that moment when I tried to get a 40 GB-IDE disk working in my 7500
> => :-(. As on an SCSI-only-system there were only few troubles running one
> Linux-distribution (debian) _and_ MacOS. [This machine is working now as a
> 'substitution' for a IIfx; seems to be a good choice running _this_ sort
> of harware ...]

A G4/466 will do nicely, I think. I still use my G4/450 DP of a few
years ago.

>
> > Robert Bar wrote: (...) > [keywords]
> >
> > I'm not sure whether the Yaboot howto
> > is clear
> > enough on the matter.
>
> Since about a week or two one of my favourite sites ;-)

Very good.

> > Perhaps the best method would be to set up two Yaboots and use the Mac's
> > boot manager to choose between them (and OS X).
>
> -v (, please)

?

> > > What about adding a linked '/boot'-partition (ext2) which will contain
> > > all kernel-files _and_ the yaboot.conf-file (which I will have to link
> > > too to any distributions '/etc' in order to touch only one file
> > > instead of two ...)?
>
> What I'm looking for is something similar to the GRUB-menu.

OF's boot manager is somewhat like the GRUB menu. What's missing?

> (24 hours later I've been playing around with mac-fdisk, fstab &
> yaboot.conf, now I got:
>

Snipped.

>
> As shown in the doc-files (yaboot-howto, man) now I can choose between
>
> l Linux m MacOSX c CDROM o OF-Boot
>
> Typing 'l' I get the boot-prompt where I can do the next choise using the
> 'Labels' defined in my yaboot.conf. Maybe that 'delay' and 'timeout' could
> be shorter but there is no hurry and all together it's just less time than
> OF scanning bootable devices.

Yes, but I'm still not sure why you don't use the OF boot manager. What
am I missing?

> > Anyway, you might not know that when you press "alt" during the boot
> > chime (on a somewhat recent New World machine) you will get a graphical
> > menu that displays icons for all bootable partitions for you to select
> > from.
>
> Maybe that I was missing something but 'my' OF doesn't discern the
> 'debian/gentoo'-partitions but is showing a disk bootable into
> (indifferent) Linux (plus the others disks/partitions: MacOS_X, MacOS 9,
> CDROM).

OF displays one icon for each "blessed" folder ("\\" in OF syntax)
containing a CHRP script (":tbxi" in OF syntax) or boot loader (like
Yaboot, also ":tbxi").

So if you set up your GNU/Linux installations in a way that they have
one boot partition containing an installation of Yaboot configured for
its Linux installation each, you'd have a decent boot menu.

> > (...)
>
> so long, Andrew; I'm quiet shure not to encrease such a posting-delay when
> trying to configure gentoo. AFAIK the difficulties (min.: a suitable
> German keyboard-layout) are lying in wait for me.
>
> Let's have a look on what's coming. Greetings to you & the yours.

Ok. I'll keep watching this group.

--
Andrew J. Brehm
Fan of Woody Allen
PowerPC User
Supporter of Pepperoni Pizza

Andrew J. Brehm wrote:

> (...)
> A G4/466 will do nicely, I think. ...

it's the one with 133-MHz system bus (aka 'digital audio').

> So if you set up your GNU/Linux installations in a way that they have
> one boot partition containing an installation of Yaboot configured for
> its Linux installation each, you'd have a decent boot menu.

(at the moment I wouldn't like to run another test but

does it mean I'd better install another bootstrap partition - one for
each distribution I'd like to get running?

!_IIRC_!:
as I changed partition table of /dev/hdb to get a '/boot'-device using
mac-fdisk there was a message while trying to create a
20_GB-'spare-partition' /dev/hdb8 - between /dev/hdb7 aka '/home' and
/dev/hdb9 aka 'Apple_Free Extra' - that there wouldn't be enough space
on disk to do so; therefore I added these 20 GB on disk to '/home'.

If this is right and not an effect of a fault of mine (while typing
'start'-blocks and 'length') = mac-fdisk-limitation up to 5 (usable)
partitions (except of 'Apple_partition_map', 'Apple_Bootstrap' and
'Apple_Free') I'd run into the same problems as on 'my' way, i.e. not
being able to run more than two different linux-systems if '/swap' and
'/home' will be on the same disk.
BTW.: booting Knoppix[tm] there are predefined mount points in
/mnt/hda1-12 and ...b1-8. That's what I took as a hint not to be on the
wrong tack ...

So: if I'd like to run more than two different linux-systems it could be
better to do it 'my' way _and_
- putting 'Apple_Bootstrap', '/swap', '/boot', '/home' (and '/spare) on
one disk and
- (up to) 6 systems on another one (hdd).
This way [I|you]'ll not have to install an additional 'Apple_Bootstrap'
for each distribution.

What do you think about?

so long & CU

Robert
--
(~/.mailfilterrc)
[...]
DENY=^Content-Type:.*multipart/[alternative|related|mixed]
[...]

In article <1geve7o.q17iou19f75hcN%rundablage@goehrde.net>,
rundablage@goehrde.net (Robert Bar) writes:
> I'm looking for some google keywords to find a solution for yaboot.conf
> to give me a choice at boottime between different linux-systems:
> - debian/sarge (2.6.5) which is just running fine;
> - gentoo to which I'd like to give an "chance"
>
> or - if it wouldn't be trivial - any hint to get there.
>
> What about adding a linked '/boot'-partition (ext2) which will contain
> all kernel-files _and_ the yaboot.conf-file (which I will have to link
> too to any distributions '/etc' in order to touch only one file instead
> of two ...)?

It's not much more complicated than it seems.
Some things that will make it simpler:
1) (as you said) Use the same boot partition in each linux-system
2) Only modify yaboot while debian/sarge is running. Then you only need to
have the yaboot.conf visible in debian/sarge.

If you don't do these things, it's still possible, but it's more
complicated.

Then you just have one "image" section for each linux-system.

If there's something in particular that confuses you, ask a more specific
question, and someone should be able to provide you a better answer.

Brian Sammon wrote:

> (...)
> It's not much more complicated than it seems.
> ...

I did it just the way I described in
Message-ID: <1geve7o.q17iou19f75hcN%rundablage@goehrde.net>.
I take it as a feature not to have 'easy' access to /.../yaboot.conf
without mounting /boot expressively.

BTW & JFTR - this was found in the afternoon:

Message-ID: <24et9-2z4-7@gated-at.bofh.it>
From: Clive Menzies
Newsgroups: linux.debian.ports.powerpc
Subject: Yaboot.conf- booting multiple debian systems
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 00:40:07 +0200

> Hi All
>
> I'm having trouble setting up yaboot to boot more than one Debian
> system. ...


Message-ID: <24guV-44J-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
From: Kaitlyn Hwang
Newsgroups: linux.debian.ports.powerpc
Subject: Re: Yaboot.conf- booting multiple debian systems
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 02:50:05 +0200
References: <24et9-2z4-7@gated-at.bofh.it>

> have you tried
>
> pick l for linux
> then press tab at boot: prompt
>
> (...)

"We are not alone ..."

regards
--
(~/.mailfilterrc)
[...]
DENY=^Content-Type:.*multipart/[alternative|related|mixed]
[...]

>
> Robert

Hi Robert, You need something like the attached yaboot.conf file. You
don't need multiple boot blocks, only one. The yaboot.conf "boot=" arg
should point to the single Apple_Bootblock partition. The "partition="
arg (you will have one for each image section) should point to the
partition containing the desired Linux version. You will select from the
menu by entering whatever label you have chosen to boot a particular OS.

Create a yaboot.conf file in /etc for your system and run ybin.
Remember: if you change a partition numeber with a partition editor, you
need to edit both yaboot.conf and the partition's /etc/fstab file.

Yaboot is a better solution than OF for a couple of reasons; yaboot is
faster and you don't have to hold down the apple key. I have made one
other discovery that you may find useful. My AGP G4 needed a second
drive (hdb) to boot Debian. Debian had a problem seeing hda partitions
without the second drive. It wasn't even necessary to partition the
second hard drive, just to have it connected. I think this is a bug as
it affects the Debian install software as well.

Hope this helps
Mark

boot=/dev/hda14
device=hd:
init-message="Welcome to PowerPC Linux!\n\nEnter y to boot Yellow Dog Linux\nEnter d to boot Debian Linux\n\n"
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot

#Yellow Dog
image=/boot/vmlinux-2.4.22-2f
label=y
partition=11
root=/dev/hda11
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.22-2f.img
#Debian
image=/vmlinux
label=d
partition=13
root=/dev/hda13
read-only
macosx=/dev/hda9
defaultos=linux
delay=10
enablecdboot

I should also add: You need to lose /dev/hdb4, this is the source of the
trouble (I think). Just have yaboot point to each kernel's partition.