miboot revisited | YDL 3.0 install | some questions

[Alexander Holst]

Hi List,

I just attempted a fresh YDL 3.0 install on a PM 7500/100 via miboot - =20=

it certainly works!!

So my earlier posted MiniHOWTO [Re: miboot documentation? (really =20
minimal BootX)] from 08-April-2003 is still applicable for YDL 3.0 =20
installs, at least for OldWorld Macs, if you intend to have a YDL only =20=

machine. If desired, I could write it up again a bit more detailed =20
(maybe it could be put on the YDL site - didn't get a T-shirt yet ;) as =20=

well as put an image of my HFS boot partiton online somewhere.

Although the ramdisk image for YDL 3.0 is only 7MB expanded, the =20
specified "initrd-size=3D16384" in boot.conf did work. I guess a bigger =20=

amount specified than neccessary does not hurt. Note: I still use the =20=

miboot setup from the LinuxPPC2kQ4 CD. I have yet to try the latest =20
miboot stuff that is included in the BootX 1.2.2. I copied both kernels =20=

to the "Linux Kernels" folder on my HFS partition and created two =20
sections in the boot.conf file:

image =3D vmlinux-2.4.20-8dBOOT
label =3D install_YDL3
initrd =3D ramdisk-3.0.image.gz   # was renamed due to other ramdisks =20=

allready there
initrd-size =3D 16384
root =3D /dev/ram0
append =3D ""


image =3D vmlinux-2.4.20-8d
label =3D bootYDL3
root =3D /dev/sdc7
append =3D ""

The installation went very smoothly - good job Terrasoft guys! I chose =20=

Workstation as installation method ("Custom" with some manually added =20=

packages freaked out when the actual install was about to begin - so I =20=

figured a default install would be appropriate first). I took around =20
2hrs to install. The only thing I couldn't do during the installation =20=

was to give a mount point for any HFS partition. It would have been =20
nice for getting access to my HFS boot partition and be able to alter =20=

boot.conf if neccessary. Fortunately I knew the partition number for / =20=

beforehand, so I had it in there. I had to manually add the HFS boot =20
partition to fstab later. BTW. the old installer did allow to specify =20=

mountpoints for HFS partitions, as well as for allready existing =20
partitions that won't be formatted during install - or did I just not =20=

see it in the new installer? No big issue though ;) Oh, there was =20
another "little" issue: no matter, which keyboard layout I chose in the =20=

installer (I have a German keyboard), the installer would stick to the =20=

US layout. I did see some xkb (or such) messages on the "log" screen, =20=

but obviously they were not doing the desired thing - well, not a big =20=

deal either, except when entering passwords. YDL people, maybe you =20
could quote that somewhere - could save some headaches for people using =20=

non alphanumeric characters for their root password, as for booting =20
into the freshly installed system, keymappings most likely will be =20
according to selected languages during install whereas the root =20
password was entered with US keymappings.

Booting into the freshly installed system worked right away! My only =20
problem was that cups took ages to start - I don't know, whether that =20=

will be the same on subsequent boots, I haven't rebooted as of yet :). =20=

Being in Germany, the selected localization from within the installer =20=

did work very nicely as well, except for the console font. I chosse =20
"Text" as login and all keys worked as expected, except the Umlauts =20
(=F6=E4=FC=DF). I checked the scripts and tried to find out how the =
console =20
font was set and figured out that setfont needs a "-m 8859-15" for =20
everything to work. All the scripts I checked will never issue that =20
parameter to setfont. /etc/sysconfig/i18 contains all the correct stuff =20=

after selecting German as additional and default language:
LANG=3D"de_DE.iso885915@euro"
SUPPORTED=3D"en_US.iso88591:en_US:en:de_DE.iso885915@euro:de_DE:de_DE.iso8=
=20
85915:de"
SYSFONT=3D"lat0-sun16"
SYSFONTACM=3D"iso15"
Anybody else having these problems? X btw. got the mapping correct from =20=

the beginning, so if someone won't use the console, they wouldn't even =20=

realize.

As time permits, I'll try and get my ANS up and running YDL 3.0 :) =20
Eddie didn't have success as of yet :(

So far, so good - now some questions:

Zapping through the screens while the install was taking place, I =20
noticed that the tools for LVM are there, as well as the raid tools =20
(looking into all the different bin and sbin directories revealed many =20=

commands containing lvm and vg :). Is it possible to create raid =20
volumes and then install on them and/or create volume groups via LVM =20
and use them? It would certainly make for interesting and usefull =20
enhancements.

Is there reason, why mouse-button emulation changed to F10 & F11 =20
instead of F11 & F12 between YDL 2.x and 3.0?

Sound on the 7500 was not detected during install nor after install =20
through system settings in KDE. There is also no terminal bell/beep in =20=

a console. How can I enable sound on that machine? (My other PM 7500 =20
running YDL 2.2 has no problems with sound)

Greetings,
Alex


Alexander Holst
Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences
<holst@fh-pforzheim.de>
ph: +49 [0]7231 28-6837
fx: +49 [0]7231 28-6040=