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Help with install on old Mac

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  Help with install on old Mac Bob McGowan <bob@bnlmcgowan.net> - 2020-12-05 09:10 +0100
    Re: Help with install on old Mac didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com> - 2020-12-05 11:10 +0100
      Re: Help with install on old Mac Bob McGowan <bob@bnlmcgowan.net> - 2020-12-11 02:30 +0100

#229344 — Help with install on old Mac

It is a Power PC G3 running Mac OS 9.

I've gotten CDs for Jessie 8.11, the last Debian release to support 
Power PC architecture.

I set up a second SCSI hard disk with an Adaptec controller and 
installed to it successfully.  However, upon reboot the system does not 
start immediately.  When it finally does, it boots the old Mac OS 9.

It turns out the existing disk is on an Advansys controller (?) that 
needs non-free firmware.  I figured this might be the cause of the 
reboot failure.

So I have rebooted from the CD and tried to access firmware on a USB 
stick.  I've tried several directory locations and had no success with 
the installer finding the files.  This may be due to the size of the 
stick (32G), I'll try something smaller later.

The real issue I need help with is that I can't figure out how, or even 
if it is possible, to use virtual consoles with Debian for Power PC, 
during install.  It would help if I could get a virtual console to work 
so I can take a look at what is going on behind the scenes.

Does anyone here have any experience from ages past with this 
environment?  Any suggestions for web sites with useful information for 
such old hardware?

I'm doing this for fun and learning, so I'm good with the restrictions 
all this will impose, particularly the old OS. ;)

Thanks,

Bob

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#229346

Hello

Disclaimer: I am not familiar with Apple (old or new) hardware

There is the Debian Jessie installation manual for the powerpc architecture:
 https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/powerpc/index.html.en

the 3.6.1 section could explain why you have difficulties to boot from your hard disk:
 https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/powerpc/ch03s06.html.en#invoking-openfirmware
but the link indicated to upgrade is broken

http://gnats.netbsd.org/43952 provides an updated link:
 wget http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_X/System_Disk_Utility.smi.bin

On a side note, NetBSD, FreeBSD and OpenBSD all seem to have present version of their OS for the mac powerpc architecture:, NetBSD probably being the most advanced and supported (FreeBSD: WIP):
 http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/

keep us informed if you have succeeded :-)
   

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#229649

On 12/5/20 1:47 AM, didier gaumet wrote:
> Hello
>
> Disclaimer: I am not familiar with Apple (old or new) hardware
>
> There is the Debian Jessie installation manual for the powerpc architecture:
>   https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/powerpc/index.html.en
>
> the 3.6.1 section could explain why you have difficulties to boot from your hard disk:
>   https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/powerpc/ch03s06.html.en#invoking-openfirmware
> but the link indicated to upgrade is broken
>
> http://gnats.netbsd.org/43952 provides an updated link:
>   wget http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_X/System_Disk_Utility.smi.bin
>
> On a side note, NetBSD, FreeBSD and OpenBSD all seem to have present version of their OS for the mac powerpc architecture:, NetBSD probably being the most advanced and supported (FreeBSD: WIP):
>   http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/
>
> keep us informed if you have succeeded :-)
>     

Hello Didier,

Thanks for the links.  I too had noticed some of the Debian links were 
broken.

I did try a different, smaller, USB stick for the firmware, but it did 
not help.  Plus some of the info from other pages suggested at least one 
partition name might be wrong.  So I decided to follow your suggestion 
to look into the BSD systems.

I chose NetBSD and have successfully installed it.  But again, getting 
the system to boot into it is proving a challenge.

Since I'm now using NetBSD, I'll be taking this conversation over to 
their lists.

But I may ultimately retry getting Linux up on the machine.

We'll see how it goes.

Thanks again,

Bob

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