Lombard PowerBook G3 Won't Boot Off 8.6 CD

[Chris Gehlker]

On Dec 15, 2003, at 11:10 AM, Chris Horn wrote:

>> 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).

I think that the behavior of booting of the CD when the 'c' key is 
down, as well as the behavior of presenting the OF boot menu when the 
option key is held down are in Open Firmware. The YDL installer 
modifies the OF program to present the present YABoot menu. The way to 
restore the original behavior is to clear parameter ram. Hold down 
Cmd-Option-P-R during boot and wait through 3 to 5 chimes.

HTH - Chris