Trying to Install YDL on G3 Beige

[Clinton MacDonald]

Ms. Lee:

Lola Lee wrote:
>> Well, that's odd. You know, of course, that an Old World Mac (such as 
>> yours) is unable to boot directly from the CD-ROM (you probably do 
>> know that if you read the "Companion to Installation," but it bears 
>> repeating).
> 
> Okay, I'll have to take another look at this. This in regards to 
> booting into Linux from the cd when starting up the Mac? I know you can 
> boot off the CD in OS 9 by holding down "C", of course.

That's right. You can boot an older Mac off a *Macintosh* installation 
CD by holding the "C" key, but not off any other system CD (like Yellow 
Dog Linux). "New World" Macs (iMacs and later) do not have this limitation.

>> The Mac OS *must* be installed within a single partition within the 
>> first 8 GB of the boot drive. Is this how you have it set up?
> 
> Right. I don't remember how the Drive Utility labels the partitions, 
> but I do remember that I specified 2 partitions, the bottom one being 
> 30GB and the top one the rest of the HD. I installed OS 9 into the 
> bottom partition. Maybe the partition should actually be the other way 
> around?

Ah! I would bet that is your problem. There is a trick to setting up a 
partition to accept YDL. One must leave the partition unallocated, but 
not in the obvious way. Look here:

<http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/pipermail/yellowdog-newbie/2003-October/005046.html>

> And are you saying that partition 1 must be exactly 8GB?

Yes, the first partition (the top one in Apple's Disk Utility), which 
will contain the Mac OS 9 operating system, must be 8 GB (or less).

> What I'm seeing on the screen now is text-only
> instructions, with the background being grey and red
> boxes surrounding "OK", "Back", and navigation is by 
> the tab or arrows. I was expecting to see an GUI 
> interface;

The text installation is not necessarily bad (though the GUI 
installation is more comforting). It has the advantage of being more 
generally compatible with different video systems (a common Linux -- and 
YDL -- hang up).

> and now I'm here at work. I'll see if I can get my 
> husband to take a picture of the screen so you can
> see what I'm talking about.

That might not be necessary (unless you want to get him involved in this 
bit of techno-sleuthing). I think that if you repartition the hard drive 
according to the instructions in the link above, many of your problems 
will disappear.

> BTW, thanks for the warm welcome!

It is our pleasure! This is a fun and welcoming group. You will enjoy 
being involved with it (even if YDL itself is sometimes frustrating).

Good luck!

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>