Install without booting

[Greg Dougherty]

On 1/3/03, Bill Hughes <billbohughes@netscape.net> writes:

>>Hi all,
>>
>>I have a 9600 with a 500 MHz G3 card, that refuses to boot from a CD
>>ROM (as in, it won't even SEE the CD drive if I boot without
>>extensions.  I went through 4 different Apple branded CDs w/o any
>>luck, so I'm just giving up on this).
>>
>>I downloaded the YDL CD image, and burned it onto a disk.  (IF I can
>>get YDL installed and running on my computer, I'll buy the
>>distribution, but given that my system is in the "should work"
>>category, I figure there's no point buying until I know I'm not
>>going to return it.)  Is there any way for me to install Yellow Dog
>>Linux onto my computer without booting from their CD?  I have a
>>completely blank 4 Gig SCSI HD I want to install it onto.
>>
>>TIA,
>>
>>Greg
> 
> That's really strange behavior for any (insert flavor) G3 upgrade
> card. Won't boot off of a CD at all? Are you sure that your SCSI bus
> is setup correctly (ie-correct/proper termination, no Bus ID setting
> conflicts, etc..)???

The CD is on the internal SCSI.  it shares it with an empty / unallocated drive
that I want to use as my Linux drive.  Since the CD works just fine when I boot
with extensions on, I'm assuming there are no termination issues (I have an APS
tape drive (off) at the end of my external SCSI chain, with its "Active
Termination" on, so I know everything is fine from that end :-) ).

> Well, as long as you can still boot Mac OS, then you needn't worry
> about it. The old world Macs have to boot into Mac OS "BEFORE"you
> can boot into YDL, via the "Boot X App". Basicly just a C.Panel and
> Extension that you install into your System Folder. It installs 2
> YDL RAMDisk Boot images, one terminal-based and one X (or GUI-based
> if you prefer). After you install this, you restart (as long as you
> have them enabled in Extensions Manager). The Boot X App is one of
> the first loaded Extensions (on my 9500 w/XLR8MACh Carrier G3/500,
> the XLR8 Extension/Splash Screen loads before Boot X, but I don't
> know if you're hardware/software you're using, so YMMV) and will
> give you 10 Seconds to decide if you want to boot Linux or MacOS.
> 
> So basicly, to make all of the above seemingly pointless, as long as
> you can access your CD-ROM drive AFTER booting into MacOS, you don't
> have to have a Bootable CD-ROM drive.

Ok.  I copied the "Install" folder to my HD, uncompressed everything compressed
/ MacBinaried / BinHexed, and ran BootX_Installer.  After about 5 minutes of
thinking, it launched, and ran.  So far, so good.

Then I restarted my computer.  I get the little box asking "Mac or Linux?"  I
select Linux.  It starts booting.  Oh happy day!

Then it fails.  VFS can't find any partitions.  This doesn't surprise me,
because nothing has given me the chance to create any partitions.  How do I do
that?

TIA,

Greg