[ydl-gen] [YDL5] Install DVD won't boot (bad media?) and relatedquestions

[Richardson, Joshua A.]

Oooppss...there is a 49.95 version for Apple :)  Ignore my deductive
reasoning :)

Joshua A. Richardson
(703) 272-1761 -- Office
(540) 383-9093 - Cell


-----Original Message-----
From: yellowdog-general-bounces at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
[mailto:yellowdog-general-bounces at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com] On
Behalf Of Jon "NeoAmsterdam" Levy
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 5:03 PM
To: yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Subject: [ydl-gen] [YDL5] Install DVD won't boot (bad media?) and
relatedquestions

Hello!  I bought a print of YDL 5 as soon as it became available from  
the store and it arrived a few hours ago.  When I opened up the DVD  
case and took out the Install DVD, I noticed that the underside of  
the medium was DVD-dye-blue.  It looked as if it had been burnt by  
someone at home, and not the usual silver underside as if it had been  
pressed at a printing facility.

I didn't pay it much attention at the time - I was overcome with  
enthusiasm as I held down the "C" key at startup.  But the install  
DVD didn't boot.  In fact, when my PowerBook (15" G4 867MHz) finished  
its startup routine(s), I didn't even see the YDL 5 DVD on the Desktop.

I figured that the Mac OS didn't recognize the filesystem (which  
would have explained why it didn't show up) and that it was possible  
that I didn't press "C" soon enough.  So, I restarted and tried again  
but only to result in the same.  I tried holding down the Option key  
to see if my Mac was even recognizing that the DVD was in the drive,  
but it did not show up in the list of discovered devices.  I was even  
bold/crazy enough to drop into OpenFirmware and try `cd:,\\tbxi` -  
Same result.

I figured that maybe my internal combo drive was out of whack (it's  
seen better days), and I'd try using an external DVD drive connected  
on the FireWire port.  Maybe the PowerBook didn't like booting up  
from an external device, but whatever the reason, that didn't work  
either.  So I decided to try to boot my G5 Quad from the YDL 5 DVD  
and install to the PowerBook while in target-disk mode.  Again, the  
Quad dropped into Mac OS X and the DVD was nowhere on the Desktop.   
Finally, hoping that my intuition was wrong, I tried to boot the Quad  
from the DVD without any external devices present.

If that had worked, I wouldn't be writing this email.

I suspect that I have a bad print of the YDL 5 Install DVD (The  
sources' DVD mounts properly, though).  I used `pdisk` on OS X to  
determine the location of the Install DVD, and came across the  
following:

	Top level command (? for help): L
	pdisk: can't open file '/dev/rdisk1'  (Permission denied)
	pdisk: can't open file '/dev/rdisk0'  (Permission denied)
	
	Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/rdisk2'
	#:                type name    length   base    ( size )
	1: Apple_partition_map Apple        2 @ 1
	2:           Apple_HFS PBOOT  7609424 @ 16      (  3.6G)

	Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=7609440 (3.6G)
	DeviceType=0x1, DeviceId=0x1

With the disk number and slice number of YDL's installation  
partition, I ran `md5 /dev/disk2s2` to verify the checksum.  It  
returned an `input/output error`.  Even if it had worked, I cannot  
locate YDL 5's ISO MD5 for Apple Macintosh (the Sony Playstation MD5  
was easily found at the Argonne National Labs's Yellow Dog mirror).

My intuition tells me that I probably have a bad media.  I hope not  
because bought the DVD from the YDL store *specifically* because I  
wanted to avoid having bad burns (I also wanted to go around the  
office with that nice, big, "I'm on the cutting-edge and you have to  
wait another two weeks to download the ISO from the mirrors you bunch  
of freeloaders" smirk).  So, I have a few questions...

(1) What is the MD5 correct for the "PBOOT" partition?

(2) Could the short length of the Apple partition map affect booting  
from the DVD?

(3) Are the YDL 5 prints' undersides supposed to be blue?

(4) Is it possible to launch the YDL 5 installer from within YDL 4?   
(Note: I know the answer will most likely be that I have to boot with  
YDL 5 to install it, but I'm asking anyway)

(5) Did I just waste $49.95 (plus shipping) on a coaster?  (Note: If  
so, it'll be used to "coast" my YDL coffee mug)  And...

(6) How can I be absolutely sure that the media is bad, and what can  
I do about getting a replacement?, and...

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment that you can shed on this  
situation.
	- NeoAmsterdam
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