Grrrr. How do I get this installed?

[Chaz McGarvey]

On Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 10:37 PM, <devilc@cox.net> wrote:

> Computer I'm trying to install on:
>
> iMac 350  blueberry slotload  happily running 9.1 until I decided to 
> give
> YDL a whirl.
>
> What goes wrong:
>
> 1) Despite the fact that I select the graphical installer, at the very 
> end I
> get a message about X server failing and am kicked into the text
> installer.  [Hoo boy, talk about making a baaaad impression on
> somebody who just shelled out for the disks and (useless) manual. If I
> had wanted the frikken text installer, I would've selected the frikken 
> text
> installer!]
>
> 2) Auto partion fails because I do not specify a root partition.  
> [Hello?
> It's called AUTOpartition.  Like, isn't it supposed to take care of 
> all that
> crap AUTOmatically?]  If it doesn't automatically set up a 
> root/boot/swap
> arrangement, WTF is it for?
>
> 3) The companion to installing tells you what to do in the GUI version 
> of
> Disk Druid, but gives no clue what to do when you've been put eyes
> front, trousers down by the text installer.  It talks about "apple
> bootstrap" and I do not see those words anywhere on my screen.
>
> [BTW, I do tech writing as a large component of my job.  The words 
> "Piss
> Poor" do not begin to describe the book and install guide.]
>
> 4) In DD I get
> /dev/hda
>   dev/hda1  (0mb in size, mount point N/A.  Which I cannot edit because
> it's the apple partition map)
>   dev/hda2  (6532mb hfs format, mount point N/A)
>   free space (0 mb in size.  I've tried to change the size of this, 
> but none
> of my guesses work.  I've tried calling the mount point here / but 
> it's not
> buying that, either.)
>
> 5) WTF is a mount point?
>
> 6) Because I don't have a / parition to install on, the installer does 
> not go
> any further.
>
> Would somebody, please, in excruciating detail, explain to me what I
> need to do to tell the OS where to go and live?  I'm not even trying to
> make it share the disk with Os X.  I was going to be nice to YDL and 
> give
> it it's very own home, and the frikkin dog just bit me.

If I understand you correctly, you do not have any "free space" on your 
hard drive to install Linux.  The installer will create the necessary 
partitions out of the "free space" that is available (and automatically 
if you choose), but since you have none, the partitions can't be 
created and Linux can't be installed.  Have you partitioned your hard 
drive with a Mac OS disk utility like (tada) Disk Utility?  Using this 
utility, you can create HFS (and HFS+) type partitions which Mac OS 
recognizes and uses and you can also set aside some of the disk as 
"free space" or "unallocated."  Once you do this, the installer should 
find the unused part of the disk and format as much of it as you want 
(probably the rest of it) for use by YDL.

Hopefully that's what you're looking for.  By the way, repartitioning 
your hard drive generally means that existing partitions and data on 
those partitions are erased so make sure you back up your files on your 
Mac OS partition.  Disk Utility is found on virtually all Mac OS 
install CDs.

As for why the installer dumped you into the text installer, I don't 
know enough about your specific model to say (besides, I'm a 
Linux-newbie myself).  A number of things could be happening, but it 
will be easier to troubleshoot once YDL is installed.

Good luck,
Chaz