HELP installing linux on imac (rev A) (Yellow Dog Linux Installed.

[hoihtah]

argg... this is really frustrating.

i recently bought an iMac 233 (rev. a) for $130.
i upgraded the HD to 40gb Maxtor 7200rpm.
and i also raised the ram by 64... total of 96.

the problem is... when i got the computer, i didn't get the OS cd.
so with my new HD, i have no way of installing MacOS.

so i figured i can install Linux.

i've tried Mandrake 8.2, Yellowdog, and Woody(debian)

i can go through the installation fine...
but when i restart for the first time... i'm stuck at the folder with ? icon.
it goes back and forth between ? to mac face... and then stays at mac face folder.

nothing more.

i figured i might need to do a firmware upgrade.
so i got Apple iMac Firmware 3.0.f2 built on 04/23/99.
i think it was firmware upgrade 1.2

anyhow... that didn't help.

when i was installing Mandrake, it was telling me to use

setenv boot-device ultra1:2,\\tbxi

command line in firmware.
but it says it can't open it.

is there anyone else using linux on imac? or a mac?

thanx in advance

 

[hoihtah]

anyone?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Put the old hard drive back in.

Get a firewire enclosure for the other hard drive.

Format the firewire'd 40GB drive with HFS or whatever.

Copy the system folder, and maybe other folders over to the newer hard drive.

Switch hard drives.

Cross fingers, sacrifice a goat, or whatever you do 😉

Boot.

There, Mac OS 9 on the new hard drive.

If you want Linux, make the Mac OS 9 partition less than the entire drive (100MB at most is what you should need, as long as you dont have a lot of crap, some people I have talked to can get it down to ~30MB). Copy the files over to that, read the linux PPC install guides, and install. I know OpenBSD needed (doesnt look like it still does) a small Mac partition to get booted because of development issues.

The ? folder usually means it cant find a Mac OS installation, so that is my recommendation. Look for more detail at the sites of the distros you are trying to install.

 

[hoihtah]

thanx for that suggestion n0cmonkey.

however, my imac is a rev A. it's the tray loading one...
one without the firewire port.

and since i don't have a firewire hd enclosure,
it would not have worked either way.

and the os that's in the original hd... is 8.1.

🙁 if it were 8.5, i'd have more options. i can network to my pc.
but all that doesn't happen at 8.1.

so i decided to purchase os x, which should have os 9 along with it.
so... i guess i'll have to dual boot... with os9 and Linux.

 

[hoihtah]

i got so frustrated with the drive...
i almost gave up.

but when i dug a lil' deeper... i had a feeling that it might be the hd...
not the firmware.

maxtor d740 has a very picky jumper.

so i changed it to my 60gb 5400rpm hd from WD.

and voila... hd problem solved.

but other linux problem still exists.

 

[hoihtah]

posting from my brand new imac rev. a.
with mac os x & os 9.2


but still no linux.

 

[hoihtah]

ok...
after many different attempts...

i finally got the yellow dog linux installed.

posting from it right now.