/dev/hda is the gentoo 2005.0 livecd. What the?

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

I'm using an old blue and white g3 mac. i'm not sure which revision it is.

Basically when i boot using the live cd and run mac-fdisk /dev/hda and then hit p to show the partition list it shows me the partition list of the live cd. it does exactly the same thing if i go mac-fdisk /dev/cdrom but i assume it's meant to do that. So i can't install it because i can't see my hard drive. Does anyone have any clues as to whats going on?

Also can anyone tell me how to boot from the CD if there is a bootable HD in the machine. I have only been able to do it once so i'm using another ide hard drive. But the one time it booted with that drive the same thing happened.

My third question is, is there a bios in these macs and if so how do you get into it? As you can tell i'm relatively new to macs.

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

i tried the yellow dog installer and it recognised my drive but i don't like yellow dog. Please any clues anyone?

nixnut · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 3:30 pm Post subject:

Do a quick YDL install on a small partition, then use that to install gentoo from on other partitions.
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i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

i downloaded the 2004.3 iso. if that works can i emerge to the 2005 version. But if the the gentoo drivers don't work properly with my ide bus when i install gentoo 2005.0 won't i not be able to boot it?

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

2004.3 doesn't work either. how would i go about doing what nixnut said?

Meaulnes · n00b Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 49

Odd that I would stumble across this post today. I was attempting to install Gentoo on a Blue & White G3 myself and hit the same wall. In order to fix it, I had to put the cd drive and the hard drive on the same bus. What I ended up with was this:

cdrom = /dev/hda
harddrive = /dev/hdb

I managed to get through the stage 3 install, but now I can't get it to boot. Yaboot seems to be configed properly, but it won't boot. Does anyone know if yaboot has to be on a certain spot? I.E. does yaboot have to boot the primary master? or the secondary master?

BTW on that B&W G3, only one ide bus was detected, so aparrently there is a problem detecting the bus marked 'ultra ata' on the motherboard.

DJ_Max

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

Thanks DJ the problem is i'm using a normal windows keyboard and pressing the c key hasn't been working but i'll blame that on the keyboard. So is there an equivalent key on a windows keyboard for the option key, like the windows key?

And thats interesting Meaulnes I will try that. Have you tried moving the drive back to the other ide cable. I'm thinking that the mac bios will only boot from drives on that bus. but that will probably mean things will go wrong later. I know in ubuntu and yellow dog that the hard drive comes up as hdc when it's in the normal place.

Is this something that should be reported as a bug?

MACSRULETHEWORLD · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Apr 2004 Posts: 131

the equivenlent of the option key in windows is the "alt" key.

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

what about the command key?

edit: what is the command key. i was just looking at a mac keyboard and there ia a control, option (alt), and some funny key with an apple logo. Is that the command key and is it the equivalent of the windows key.

Meaulnes · n00b Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 49

I have not yet tried moving that drive back to the Ultra bus.

As a matter of fact, I was only installing Gentoo as a lark, just to play with Gentoo/PPC a bit. It now has OpenBSD on it, and I am getting the same problem, so maybe the drive does need to be on that bus. Odd. I did wonder about that when ofpath /dev/hdb returned ultra1:

I may go back to Gentoo. This machine is going to be my replacement firewall / router / proxy server, and it has been a few years since I have messed with iptables ... guess I will have to weigh my options there.

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

When the LiveCD was made, the driver for the IDE chipset on B+W Macs was left out. You can try the module in the post linked from here, it should allow you to see the hard disk from the 2005.0 LiveCD. If it doesn't please let me know so we can fix the issue.

http://dev.gentoo.org/~josejx/cmd64x.ko.bz2
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i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

awsome i'll try that thanks jose.

hawaiian717 · n00b Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 71

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

does anyone know how to load that module without it being on the livecd or how to get it onto the live cd and then how i would go about mounting the HD once that is done. I have tried and failed.

firun · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 2:00 pm Post subject:

i had the very same problem - but that module fixed it.

just copy it over via scp(got to start sshd & set a root pw of course) and load the (extracted) module with "insmod"!
it instantly gave me hdc & hdd (my two hdds..

thanks JoseJX!

greetz & peace
andi
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JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

Just as a reminder also, since the module is loaded later than your cd device, the drive order will probably be different when you boot with your own kernel set up. Make sure your fstab reflects this!
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i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

It worked for me too but i'm getting ide errors but i don't think they are causing anny problems. but now i'm getting compile errors. i'll post both the errors i'm getting soon

edit https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-326115-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-ipfwcompat.html
that fixed my compile error. hopefully that won't cause any probs

and hopefully my ide errors aren't serious

Ok my latest problem is setting up yaboot. in the yaboot.conf what do i put in it since currently hdc is my root drive but thats going to change to hda on restart. so what should i put in there?

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

ok this is what i have in my yaboot.conf file. is this right. i have been playing with things and i can't get it to work. Basically i have a cdrom and a hard disk on one ide line and a hard disk on the other. so this is what i've got:

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

Probably, your best bet is to boot the kernel manually the first time.

Start into OF (Apple + Option + O + F) and type:

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

thanks jose i'm trying that now. i've been playing with other versions of linux and they all put that main drive as hdc. so maybe everything should be hdc. but i suppose doing what you said should tell me.

edit ok that worked hda it is. but now my logitech usb keyboard isn't working once it finishes booting. grumble. i suppose that is a kernel problem. i suppose this means recompiling again.

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

If it does show up as hdc, then you'll have to swap the hda for hdc in your fstab and on boot for the root= value.

Let us know what it turns out to be!
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i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

Jose I'm having no luck. i can get it to boot now but i get a few error and the keyboard will not work.

OK the best i can get it to do is when everything is set to hda. these are the error messages i get:

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

ok i'm starting too get sick of gentoo now.

i_know_tim · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 18

jose, do you know what driver i have to include to get my cdrom ide bus working? cause i have now discovered i can't get access to my cd drive once i have booted into gentoo from the hard disk. and i can't install pciutils cause it hangs when i try too emerge it.