Setting up a G4...

[Chaz McGarvey]

On Friday, August 8, 2003, at 01:01 PM, rjgoos@ydl.net wrote:

> I've been offered a Power Mac G4 and 17 inch monitor at a price that I 
> can't
> refuse.  I was thinking of replacing the 9 gig hard drive for a much 
> larger
> one, and setting it up as both a 9.2/0Sx, as well as aYDL machine.
>
> OK...let me outline the steps I would take to set up these drives.  
> Please
> offer any suggestions/corrections.  Let's assume I get an 80 gig hard 
> drive.
>
>
> 1.  I'd boot with a OS 9 disk.  I'd format, say 50 gigs of the hard 
> drive
> (which format?), and I would leave 30 gigs of it "unallocated."

While you're partitioning your disk, I would recommend you put OS X and 
OS 9 on separate partitions.  Classic Mode in OS X still works (and has 
less problems) and you can add OS 9 and OS X as separate bootable 
operating systems in yaboot so you can boot into any of the three 
operating systems with the touch of a button on startup.  You would 
also use either HFS or HFS+ (actually, OS X may require HFS+, but YDL 
can't mount HFS+ partitions [i think]--though that's not a problem if 
you don't need to transfer files between partitions).

> 2.  I'd install OS 9 onto the 50 gig partition.

Yes, unless you put it on its own partition.

> 3.  I'd upgrade to 9.2.2 on the 50 gig partition.

Ok...

> 4.  I'd install YDL on the 30 gig unallocated portion.

Good...

> 5.  I'd install OS X on the 50 gig side.

Again--yes, unless you put it on its own partition.

> 6.  I'd install my apps on their respective partitions.

OK.  Sounds good.

> I am only familar with Boot X.  Should I use Boot X or yaboot?

Definitely yaboot.  Boot X is great because it allows Old World 
machines to boot linux, but it's a hacky way to load an operating 
system.  Avoid it if you can, and you can.

> Is there some kind of partitioning format that will allow both the YDL 
> and the
> 9.2/OS X to see the same files?

I believe YDL can mount HFS partitions with special commands but I 
forget what they are right now (I'm not in Linux now).  I'm not sure 
about HFS+, though.  Seems like I read somewhere that it will only 
mount HFS partitions, but maybe we can get some more opinions on the 
matter.

Good luck,
Chaz