All right, put it this way (was Re: Can FC4.ppc ...)

[Jurvis LaSalle]

On Aug 7, 2005, at 4:49 PM, beartooth wrote:

> On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 14:51:40 -0400, Jurvis LaSalle wrote:

>>   OpenFirmware (OF) should be able to boot
>> from your cd provided it *is* bootable without ever getting yaboot or
>> YDL involved. Have you tried holding down the option key when you hear
>> the startup chime?  OF should then present a screen of bootable OSs  
>> for
>> you to choose from (give it time- it's enumerating your entire device
>> tree and looking for OSs).
>
> The option key?? No. I've looked hard, and been asking in several  
> places
> after that, and never so much as seen it mentioned. What I did see
> mentioned was the C key; that's why I tried it.
>
> Holding the option key does produce a different result, but a cryptic  
> one.
> I see three things on the screen, none of which has a name, nor any
> explanation if I hold the cursor over it. All three seem to be buttons.
>
> One on the left is an arrow in the shape, more or less, of the letter  
> C,
> with the point at the top right, inside a rectangle.
>
> One on the right is an arrow pointing straight to the right, in a
> rectangle with a bordering line.
>
> One above the other two, larger, appearing to be pressed, looks like a
> large piece of sheet metal, taller than wide, with some indentations  
> which
> make it resemble a 1930-ish French automobile seen from the rear; at  
> its
> bottom right corner is what seems to be a sitting penguin, possibly the
> same image of Tux that YDL uses.
>
> I presumed the auto-plus-penguin to mean "click or hit enter (since it
> appears pressed) in order to boot YDL." Then the curved arrow might  
> mean
> reboot.
>
> So I clicked on the straight arrow. It showed me the usual boot  
> message,
> offering linux or dcrom; I hit C. It changed back to the previous  
> screen
> with the cryptic buttons.
>
> Same thing with the auto-penguin button.
>
> The round arrow produced a tiny image of a watch with the hands  
> spinning,
> then eventually a click from the cdrom drive, and no other result, even
> after several minutes.
>
> Maybe the ISO really is defective, despite the sums checking? I've been
> trying to find that out, too, for several days -- on the fedora lists,
> where I presume it belongs. No answer so far.
>
>> If this doesn't work, please privately send me a URL to this  
>> troublesome
>> ISO.  I have a little spare time and a blank CD that I could donate to
>> getting this problem off the list.
>
> Thanks for the implied offer. I have plenty of CDs, and a download&burn
> guru; I didn't mean to raise that issue here, but to find out if there
> were indeed some trick such as the option key which, apparently, only  
> the
> Apple-initiated know. (My d&b guru knows no more of Apples than I.)
>
> The command I downloaded the ISOs with contains no URL, but an ftp  
> address
> (all one line, despite formatting here) :
>
>  wget -N -nd --passive-ftp
>   
> ftp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/ppc/iso/FC4- 
> ppc-disc?.iso
>
> If RedHat's own server has a defective ISO, I guess I just let the  
> whole
> thing rest for some months, till it gets replaced. I just wish I knew
> that, or could get any answer to my queries on the fedora lists about  
> it.
>
> And if the problem really isn't YDL refusing for some reason to boot a  
> CD,
> as it appeared to me to be, then indeed I see the irrelevancy. In that
> case, pray accept my apologies. I'll endeavor not to pursue the issue
> further here, unless I can report a one-line solution, in the form of a
> URL, for anyone else who may also imagine it appropriate here.
>
> My thanks to all for their patience.

I didn't have any luck using ftp to get your ISOs.  I found them with  
my browser here:
	http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/ppc/iso/
Same difference I realize.  I downloaded the first disc and the SHA1SUM  
file.  I verified the SHA1 sum
using 'openssl sha1 <path_to.iso>'.  Proceeded through a verified burn  
and booted from it no
problem on an eMac.  Have you really checked the SHA1 sum on the ISOs  
you downloaded?
	As for holding the option key at boot, it's detailed in the  
troubleshooting section of the User Guide that
comes with New World Macs.  It displays all available startup volumes  
(partitions).  The circular arrow on the
left that you noted tells OF to look for startup volumes again (maybe  
you inserted another cd or just plugged
in a firewire or usb drive).  The arrow on the right tells OF to boot  
from the selected volume.  Every startup
volume found will appear as a "large piece of sheet metal, taller than  
wide."  If the volume is on the internal
hard drive, it will show an icon "which make it resemble a 1930-ish  
French automobile seen from the rear."
Startup volumes on CDs will show a CD icon.  You should see a CD icon  
with a little Tux down in the corner
when you've got a FC4 disk you can boot from.
	My final stab in the dark should all of this prove unfruitful would be  
this:
	Hold option and pop in the YDL disks that do boot properly.  See if  
they come up in the menu.  I suspect they won't.
You've probably got corrupt nvram settings.  Reset it using the  
instructions here: http://www.macgeekery.com/node?from=20
The relevant post is: "Enter Open Firmware with CMD-OPT-O-F after a  
restart and then type in reset-nvram then set-defaults and, finally,  
reset-all to restart the computer."

Finally, here's a link detailing a few more of the Mac boot keys:  
http://www.fif3.com/howto/archives/001983.html

hth,
JL