Lombard PowerBook G3 Won't Boot Off 8.6 CD

[Chris Horn]

> Chris Horn wrote:
>
>>I installed YDL 3.0.1 on a Lombard PB G3, but want to put Mac OS 8.6 back
>> on
>>it.  Unfortunately, I can't get the machine to boot off the system CD.
>> When
>>I either hold down the 'C' key or select 'c' from Yaboot:
>>
> If I'm wrong on this someone will correct me but: Shouldn't you have
> done all the Mac installs >first< i.e., set up your free space for
> Linux, installed the Mac stuff, then the Linux? It may be that "you
> can't get there from here"--i.e., you can't install a Mac OS now that
> you have Linux nailed in place first. Bad news if true--as said, someone
> please correct me if wrong.

You're mostly right.  While I have the drive partitioned into two (plus
some silly mac-specific partitions) for both Linux & Mac, sadly, I want to
obliterate everything and just have Mac OS on there.  So, while YDL Linux
boots off the hard drive (a good thing, in general), not being able to
boot off my Mac CD is a really, really bad thing.

My only guess as to why it won't boot into Mac OS off the CD now is that
the Mac OS boot CD needs to set up some swap space (Virtual Memory) or
something on the disk, but the partitioning is wrong for it.  While I'd
love to wipe the disk clean and see if that fixes things, I don't want to
be left with a truly dead machine (no Linux, no booting off CD).

FWIW - I also can't boot off the YDL CDs that I used to install YDL just a
couple of weeks ago.  This leads me to believe that something more serious
is wrong with the machine than just not booting off it's OS 8.6 CD.

Does putting Linux on the machine fundamentally change any of the boot
process?  I know that Yaboot has replaced whatever on the MBR, so could my
problem be related?

>>Please help, my fiancee is going to kill me!
>>
> My sympathies. I really want to switch my wife's iBook to a
> predominantly-Linux box; but know that, if I don't get it absolutely
> perfect right out of the gate. . . . Hell hath no fury. . . . !
>
> Good luck!    --Harvey

Thanks, I'm going to need it!