[ydl-gen] Problem with yaboot/YDL 4.0.1

[Keith Mitchell]

I have actually done all that... but I am installing these machines via 
kickstart (i.e. without the normal GUI).... perhaps that is broken.

Derick Centeno wrote:
> Ok.
>
> I'm not clear what "I told YDL" actually means in this context.
>
> Does it mean that you bought the system directly from Terra Soft and 
> spoke to someone there regarding what you wanted?
> That however may be unlikely, as they are very good at not making this 
> kind of error.
>
> Or do you mean you merely started the YDL installation on the Mac 
> without preparing the installed mac hardware to be able to use YDL?
> My intuition tells me that this is probably what you did.
>
> You did not boot your Mac so that it ran from your Installer disk.  
> You also did not invoke Disk Utility as instructed.
> You did not tell Disk Utility to partition the entire hard drive so 
> that there would be 1 partition called Untitled and that partition 
> would be formatted by Disk Utility as Free Space.
>
> As you did not do the above that is why you are where you are as 
> regards this difficulty.
>
> Linux needs to see that partition created by Disk Utility which Disk 
> Utility formats as Free Space.
> Then the installation proceeds.
>
> You may not need to know this but the Unix format option within Disk 
> Utility exists for an older version of what was years ago known as 
> Apple Unix; which is different and predates OS X.  That version of 
> Unix doesn't know ext2 or ext3 which Linux does use.  Sometimes a 
> little more information helps; sometimes it doesn't.
>
> In this situation, you merely started with the Unix format option in 
> Apple's Disk Utility or you thought that merely installing YDL onto a 
> Mac whose hard drive is preformatted and loaded with OS X (expecting 
> YDL to merely erase it) would just somehow work.
>
> The fault here is a mere lack of understanding the nuances of hard 
> drive formatting procedures.  Every Linux installation needs something 
> on the hard drive it can see or recognize telling it that it can 
> proceed to do things it's way.  If it doesn't see what it expects, it 
> doesn't know why and it won't care, nor will it complain or tell you 
> something.  It will work as best it can with what it thinks you want 
> it to do.  This is exactly where a little knowledge is a dangerous 
> thing because you understand one thing and it another and this can go 
> on for months and you won't have a clue as to why your installation is 
> so odd from every other Linux installation.
>
> Every company, Apple included, formats their hard drive in a 
> proprietary manner which only that operating system may use.
>
> Linux by definition is open source which means it's for everyone.  No 
> Linux utility has the proprietary codes which each company keeps to 
> itself; rather Linux can see when it is allowed to format a drive it's 
> way.
>
> In Apple's case, the signal or data Linux needs to see is that the 
> hard drive is prepared for Linux as Free Space by the Disk Utility 
> application.  Linux doesn't see the information the same way Disk 
> Utility does, but it will recognize the Free Space formatting 
> structure and treat it differently from the Unix formatting structure.
>
>   If Linux doesn't see the Free Formatting structure as prepared by 
> Disk Utility, we arrive where you already are.
>
> It is quite possible that I'm completely wrong but the output you 
> originally reported got there somehow, and it is not a normal Linux 
> installation, pure and simple.  The directions I supplied prior to 
> this email applies for installing only YDL (replacing Mac OS X with 
> YDL) -- although sadly Terra Soft's explanation does not emphasize 
> that.  Maybe they will highlight or elaborate upon that one day; 
> meanwhile I've also wiped out OS X replacing it with YDL (several 
> times); the steps I'm discussing and emphasizing -- works.
>
> Best wishes ...
>
> On Feb 28, 2006, at 8:00 AM, Keith Mitchell wrote:
>
>>
>>  This machine does *NOT* have Mac OSX installed on it.  I told YDL to 
>> clear the partition table and use the whole disk.
>
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-- 
Keith Mitchell                         |        |         |
kamitch at cisco.com                      |       :|:       :|:
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