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HotblackDesiato42
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Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Thu Aug 20, 2020 7:23 am    Post subject: PowerBook G4: installation media not found Reply with quote

I am trying to install Gentoo on my PowerBook G4 17" Aluminium.

I followed the Wiki, I downloaded the installation iso (install-powerpc-minimal-20200806T103528Z.iso), burned it on CD and booted the PowerBook from CD.

Contrary to the Wiki, it boots with Grub, not yaboot. OK, shouldn't be a problem.

I choose the ppc32 boot option. It starts to boot, loads a kernel and after a while it searches for the installation medium - but there is none. It only finds /dev/ramXX entries, no /dev/sr0 etc. I checked it myself, no device entry for the CD ROM. I followed the advice to include the 'scandelay' option in the kernel boot parameters, but a 60s scan delay doesn't help either. I also tried 'ppc32 (cached)' grub option, but no change.

As I find no other advice in the Wiki or elsewhere, maybe someone in this forum might know. I have some Gentoo experience, as I used Gentoo a couple of years ago on my old x86 desktop, so I am not totally new to the Gentoo-way ...
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Tratkazir_the_1st
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Joined: 18 Feb 2020
Posts: 16

PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:08 pm    Post subject: Re: PowerBook G4: installation media not found Reply with quote

HotblackDesiato42 wrote:
I am trying to install Gentoo on my PowerBook G4 17" Aluminium.

I choose the ppc32 boot option. It starts to boot, loads a kernel and after a while it searches for the installation medium - but there is none. It only finds /dev/ramXX entries, no /dev/sr0 etc. I checked it myself, no device entry for the CD ROM. I followed the advice to include the 'scandelay' option in the kernel boot parameters, but a 60s scan delay doesn't help either. I also tried 'ppc32 (cached)' grub option, but no change.


Not sure if this will work.. M.b. try to edit your selection & add "toram"? "linux /boot/ppc32 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc " - after this
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schwarzygesetzlos
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Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 187
Location: Funeralopolis

PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There is a new boot iso from 2020-10-27. This one should boot properly.
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Talos II. [Gentoo Linux] | PMac G5 11,2. PMac G4 3,6. PBook G4 5,8. [MorphOS 3.18 / Gentoo Linux] | Vampire V4 SA [ApolloOS / Amiga OS 3.2.2]
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salfter
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 02 Jan 2003
Posts: 89

PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 3:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

schwarzygesetzlos wrote:
There is a new boot iso from 2020-10-27. This one should boot properly.


I just brought Gentoo up on my old G4 Mac mini, with the most recent minimal ISO (dated 16 Nov). It wouldn't boot from a copy that had been dd'd to USB flash, but I found a DVD-RW, burned the image to that, and booted from it (had to use an external USB DVD drive as the built-in one is kaput...a replacement should arrive tomorrow).

I replaced the 80-GB hard drive with a 240-GB M.2 SATA SSD in an adapter that converts it to a 2.5" PATA device. RAM had been maxed out to 1 GB years ago. Other than that, it's stock...not like there's much you can do inside one of these things. It's one of the late-2005 builds, with a 1.5-GHz CPU.

One thing about the new boot image: it uses GRUB, which the Gentoo PPC handbook knows nothing about. The description [url=https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB_on_Open_Firmware_(PowerPC)]here[/url] is pretty straightforward; follow it and as long as your Mac is new enough (GRUB apparently needs Open Firmware 3.0 or later), you can get your PPC Mac running the same bootloader that the x86/AMD64 crowd uses.
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