install on7200

[Jay Savage]

On Friday,  05, 2002, at 01:42PM, Michael Boyne <m-boyne@northwestern.edu> wrote:

>Steve,
>    I am having similar problems installing on a 7300.  Something you might
>want to try is to boot into mac os and the run the boot x app from the
>control panel.  This allows you to boot into linux and skip the start up
>problems.  Unfortunately, I can't get past formatting the disk in the
>installer, maybe you'll have better luck.
>
>Mike
>
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I am new linux on macintosh, and would like to install it on a 7200. I
>> have (3) 7200's but after partitioning the harddrive, and installing
>> BootX. The system will not start linux install. I selected text install
>> over graphic install, in case of conflict (even though I'm using Apple
>> graphics and an Apple monitor). When I hit the linux tab, the system
>> pauses, and the screen shuts off, then nothing happens.
>> Actually I have never got BootX to work, even on my beige G3. I am using
>> YDL on my ibook, which uses yaboot.
>> 
>> I would figure that since 7200 is a supported machine, I would have no
>> trouble, of course Linux is always a little trouble, since I use Red Hat
>> all the time.
>> 
>> There is probably a quick fix to this, but the question is "should"
>> there be any fix? Should it not work right the first time?
>> Anyway anyones help would be most appreciated.
>> Thanks
>> Steve

A couple of thoughts:

1)  How much memory do your systems have?  There are a couple of known issues with low memory instlls on older hardware, particularly crashing during the partitioning stage.  Take a look at the low memory how-to about turning setting swapon during installation.

2)  Which kernel is BootX set to use?  If it is automatically loading a 2.4 kernel, that may also be part of the problem on machines that old.  Make sure you have the correct kernels installed and the correct BootX options set.

3)  For partitioning issues, also take a look at the 7500/100 howto, which deals with some potential issues relating to installs on machines with old (7.5.x and earlier) versions of MacOS.

4)  For boot issues, I would take a look at your extensions and see if there are conflicts with other extensions that might want to load before BootX.  Try booting with everything except BootX turned off, and see if things don't run more smoothly.  Flush the PRAM, too.

5)  What hardware, particularly SCSI devices and PCI cards do you have installed?

An installation on a 7200 (and, presumably a 7300, although I've never tried) it pretty straight forward, except with MacOS earlier than 7.6, or low memory, although I can't speak for YDL 2.3.

Hope this helps,

--jay