YDL 4.0.1 FireWire drive installation failure

[Jeffrey Paul Burger]

> Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:44:40 -0700
> From: Jeffrey Paul Burger <jeff at sedona.net>
> Subject: YDL 4.0.1 FireWire drive installation failure
> To: <yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
> Message-ID: <BF1FC358.8CBD%jeff at sedona.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> 
> I've been trying unsuccessfully to install YDL 4.0.1 on an external 130GB
> FireWire drive from a new Aluminum G4 laptop. I joined YDL Enhanced and
> downloaded the four YDK 4.0.1 ISOs including
> yellowdog-4.0.1-orion-20050208-install1.iso. I seem to have successfully
> burnt the CDs using Toast on OS X. (The YDL installer verified the media on
> discs 2-4, but one disc 1 said "Unable to read the disc checksum from the
> primary volume descriptor. This probably means the disc was created without
> adding the checksum. I didn't perceive this as a deal-breaker). The
> installer CD indeed booted with a YDL FireWire logo and showed the FW drive.
> The FW drive originally had a single partition formatted for OS X. I told
> the installer to partition automatically and remove all partitions so that
> the entire drive would be dedicated to Linux.
> 
> The installation process concluded with an indication that it was
> successful, however the FW drive doesn't show up when I restart or
> cold-start holding down the Option key on either the new Aluminum PowerBook
> or an older 800MHz Titanium. (FYI, the optical drive on the Ti-book is
> flakey, so I can't try installing from that machine even though it will be
> my primary host for this FW Linux drive).
> 
> After I realized the installation didn't seem effective, I started part of
> the way back into the installation process to see what Disk Druid could tell
> me and I see /dev/sda broken down into the following:
> 
> /dev/sda2 Apple Bootstrap 1 1 1
> /dev/sda3 ext3 129951 1 16567
> /dev/sda4 swap 1020 16567 16697
> /dev/sda5 ext3 100 16697 16710
> 
> I'm a relative Linux newbie. Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Jeffrey Paul Burger
> 
> 
> When you reboot with ALT + APPLE KEY + O + F You should see a boot
> prompt and at this prompt type:
> 
> boot fw/node/sbp-2/disk at 0:2, yaboot
> 
> norberto at quintanar.net
> 
Thanks, Norberto, but this didn't work. Just got "can't open device or
file".
 
 
> Two ways to do this one, elbow deep in command line, or retry with manual
> partitioning (disk druid)
> 
> disk druid:  Remove all the partitions on the drive.  Create minimum 2
> partitions (1 ext3 partition mounted at /, and 1 apple bootstrap partition).
> Dont create swap unless you really need to, it's kinda slow over FW.  Then
> just
> install as normal.
> 
> 
> For the hard way, I'll need two more bits of info would help to figure this
> out.
> 
> 1.  Grab me the disk labels for /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda5
>    - boot into installer, switch to console (alt+ctrl+F2)
>    - Type:
>           e2label /dev/sda3 [enter]
>           e2label /dev/sda5 [enter]
> 
> 2.  Mount up which ever label returns a "/" or "/1" and check out the
> yaboot.conf file:
>     - from the console you are on type:
>           mkdir /tmp/mnt
>           mount /dev/sdaX /tmp/mnt -text3          (where X= the "/" device)
>           cd /tmp/mnt/etc
>           cat yaboot.conf
> 
>      - send me what the "boot=" and "device=" lines read.
> 
> Chances are the bootstrap partition didn't get installed, or yaboot.conf is
> pointing to the wrong place.
> 
> I'll have the beta ironed out shortly, but once we figure out where we are it
> should be simple to get you up and running.
> 
> -Bill

Thanks, Bill... both for your help and clear step-by-step newbie directions.

I tried your suggestion #2 first. sda3 returned a "/" and sda5 returned
"/boot". After typing the sequence of commands (and substituting "3" for "x"
and double-checking my spelling), typing the final line "cat yaboot.conf"
returned "no such file or directory"... even though ls shows that yaboot is
listed in the directory. ls actually lists it as "yaboot.conf ->
../boot/etc/yaboot.conf". Thinking that this is might be an alias, I poked
around but found no directory "../boot/".

So, I tried suggestion #1. I used Disk Druid as suggested, deleting all
partitions on the FW, then creating a 1MB bootstrap and letting the rest be
taken by ext3. Installation claims to have completed successfully.
Restarting wth Option key down still doesn't show the FW drive.

I then tried Norberto's Open Firmware suggestion and got "can't open device
or file" again.

Finally, I ran your suggestion #2 again after the reinstall. e2label for sd3
gave me "/", e2label for sda5 gave me "no such device or address while
trying to open /dev/sda5". Same for other sda numbers I tried just for yucks
(including sda2). I assume that's because of the fewer partitions this time
around. I was able to complete the rest of your instructions this time:
"boot=/dev/sda2" and "device=fw/node/sbp-2/disk at 0:" I also took the
installer back as far as Disk Druid again to give me the following revised
info about /dev/sda:

/dev/sda2 Apple Bootstrap 1 1 1
/dev/sda3 ext3 131071 1 16710

Hopefully that's enough info to give you what you need. Let me know if you
need me to try anything else.

BTW, while I didn't install the swap disk this time, I'm not sure if I need
it or not. I've been trying to figure out how to create a virtual disk (if
that's the correct term in Linux) or RAM disk to use in a Perl script. I'm
using Perl and Gimp-Perl to write Gimp files to disk that are only
temporary, and sometimes are accessed by another app. I'd like to shorten
the read/write times by using memory instead of disk. (I've tried tmpfs but
returns that the command is not found.) Any info on this would be
appreciated, especially in light of your suggestion to nix the swap
partition. Or is that just for the boot process?

Thanks mucho!


Jeffrey Paul Burger

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is."
                                    --Albert Einstein