Install on a Beige G3

[John M. Wright]

On Sat, 9 Apr 2005, Barry <barrynyc at gmail.com> typed:
  
 > I have a beige G3 and have succeeded in installing YDL 2.2 on it, but
 > have failed to get YDL 2.3 or 3.01.
 > 
 > My attempt to put YDL 2.3 was some time ago; I don't remember the
 > particulars. I've seen here that people have succeeded with much later
 > versions on a G3, so I thought I'd try again.
 > 
 > The YDL 3.01 installer starts OK, but only gets to the third question
 > -- what type of media I'm going to use to install. It's the CD, but
 > the tab key doesn't register here (though it did on the two keyboard
 > questions) to move to 'OK'. The only key that works is space bar
 > registers, and then only once. At that point I'm frozen.
 > 
 > I tried Debian (Woody), too, and a similar thing happened. The
 > installer started and I am able to do a question or two about the
 > keyboard but then the installer goes into an endless loop.
 > 
 > Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 > 
 > This machine has:
 > 
 > A 266 mhz processor
 > 320 megs of ram
 > ATI 3D Rage I/II 215GT video card
 > 
 > Also, a usb card -- an OPTi 82C861
 > 

I had no problems installing YDL 2.3 on my 233 MHz beige G3 (I may
have needed to use the text installer - it was a long time ago and
I just don't remember).  However, when I first attempted to install
3.01 using either the text or graphic installer, it hung up early on.
Recently I tried a suggestion I had seen either in a YDL howto or
on this list (again, can't remember) and stripped the box of most
of the add-ons; in my case, PCI USB, ethernet, and wide SCSI cards,
plus external SCSI disk and CDRW drives.  I left in the extra memory
I had installed (total 640 megs).  After that, the installation of
3.01 proceeded normally, and once the install was done, I put all
the cards and drives back.  So, maybe just temporarily removing
your USB and video cards will allow you to install successfully.

I did end up with one annoying glitch - there is no cursor visible
in the text consoles.  No combination of arguments to tset, tput,
or setterm that I have tried has any effect. Makes editing from a
text console a dubious proposition.

John Wright

 Dr. John M. Wright, Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry, M/S 0314, UCSD,
 La Jolla, CA 92093-0314; email: jwright at ucsd.edu; phone: 858-534-3049

()  ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail 
/\                        - against microsoft attachments