Problems installing YDL 2.1 on PowerMac 7600. Help?

[dakidd]

Hiya folks...
Just got around to trying to install 2.1 on a PowerMac 7600 today, but I've
run into a problem that seems to be unsolvable with my own know-how. Maybe
somebody on the list can assist? The archives don't appear to have anything
like what I'm having trouble with, so...

Machine notes:

PowerMac 7600/120 w/CPU upgrade - PPC 604 @ 132 MHz
Two HDs:
Drive #1 = Fireball SE2.1S at ID 0 on internal SCSI chain. MacOS 8.6 installed.
Drive #2 = Fireball 1280S, at ID 2 on internal SCSI chain. Empty.
Stock CD-ROM at ID 3
Zip 100 at ID 5 on external SCSI chain.
AppleDesign keyboard (ADB) with Apple ABD mouse II daisy-chained.
RAM = 64 MB (8 matched/interleaved 8MB DIMMs) VM set to 65MB on drive #1
VRAM = 2MB (stock)
monitor = Macintosh 12 inch RGB (Yeah, I know it's tiny. You gonna buy me a
bigger one? :) )
All PCI slots empty
Localtalk-connected to my LAN

No "funny stuff" installed that I know anything about. The MacOS install is
a little over a week old, and the #2 drive, where I intend to put YDL, is
freshly (as of today) formatted.

Now, on to the problem I'm seeing...

I follow along with the installation instructions - Partition the drive,
choose the bootloader (BootX, obviously, since this is an "old world" Mac)
run the BootX installer, and punch for a restart when it completes.

Restart goes well - I get the BootX screen, and after eyeballing things for
sanity, hit the "Linux" button. The disk whirs, everything looks good, I
get a black screen full of white text. The only thing I have time to read
is "Welcome to Linux" at the top, then the screen clears. About a second,
maybe two seconds later, I'm presented with a completely hashed screen.
Sometimes it looks like the "sandstorm" test that TechTool does, sometimes
it looks like a synch and/or refresh-rate failure. By squinting *JUST
RIGHT*, I can make out what appears to be a penguin (spaced out across the
width of the screen - It's almost like the graphic is "wrapping" - sort of
like a poorly wrapped usenet message.) I've got mouse control - I can tell
I'm moving a cursor around, but it's so spread out (again, like it's being
"line-wrapped") that it covers about 2/3 of the screen as a pattern of
streaks and dashes. There is nothing even *SLIGHTLY* legible on the screen,
although it's obvious that something is sitting there waiting for my input,
but I can't see/read it to tell what's needed.

I've cabled the 7600 to my 637CD so I could apply the Open Firmware
video/startup drive patch from Alan Mimms (originally sent to the
linux-pmac list back in 1997) without getting any useful result, and since
nothing that seems to apply is leaping out of the archives at me, I'm
looking to you folks for an assist if anybody has any ideas.

So... Does anybody have any ideas?

Any assistance appreciated!

If you want to contact me off the list, that's fine. The email address is
good (and protected by SpamAssassin) so you'll have no trouble there.

Thanks for reading!







Don Bruder -  dakidd@sonic.net      <--- Preferred Email - unmunged
I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart