iMac Rev A -- newbie help

[Goofus]

That does help a little, but not only can I not install OSX on here, I don't
have $120 twice a year to keep it up to date anyway.   :-)     I was told by
my Mac guru that the original Rev A Bondi boxes can only support 96mb of
RAM, and OSX needs 128.  That's fine since I don't like OSX, but I
digress...

I've tried literally EVERY partitioning scheme known to man, even deciding
at one point to just trash the MacOS and install Linux exclusively.  Same
thing happened, nothing.

Now, something interesting happened just last night that I *think* might be
one problem, maybe the only one -- during install attempt #13,504 the YDL
installer forced itself into text mode.  THAT suddenly made me think "gee,
you know all this may be being caused by my lack of VRAM" (I only have 2mb),
so I made a call this morning and have the 4mb iMac upgrade chip on the way
for a mere $13.

That *could* solve my problem, and could also explain my boot-freeze and the
occassional "input/output" error I see after various installs.

Any thoughts?  Or did I waste $13?  Actually no, I didn't waste $13 either
way, this thing really does need more than 2mb of VRAM no matter what it
ends up running.   ;-)

D.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Suzanne Payne" <s.payne@gold.ac.uk>
To: <yellowdog-newbie@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 7:45 AM
Subject: Re: iMac Rev A -- newbie help


>
>
> --On Tuesday, May 27, 2003 7:24 am -0400 Goofus <thegoofuskac@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Mac OS 9 installed just fine, YDL 3.0 installed just fine, Yaboot's
> > loading at startup just fine but it won't send me anywhere.  I select
"l"
> > for Linux and it freezes at "please wait, loading kernel...", I select
> > "m" for Mac OS and it freezes at "booting MacOS..."
> >
> > Specs:
> >
> > iMac, Rev. A (Bondi)
> > 30gb hard drive
> > 233 mhz
> > 96mb RAM
> > Rage IIC (Mach64), 2MB video
> > Rage and Frustration in potential user: uncalculable
>
> I had this happen to me on a Bondai Blue (Rev B I think it is though!).  I
> put it down to installing OSX/9 and Linux on the wrong partitions.  On the
> 3.0 installation bumf it lists the order of the partitions on which you
> should install YDL and the various MacOss.   I repartitioned, changed the
> order and it all worked.  Of course, I helpfully now can't remember the
> order!  I can tell you, however, from my molrc that the two mac partitions
> are hda7 (OSX) and hda8 (OS9), so I assume that hda10 is the 1mb yaboot
> bootstrap loader doobrie which leaves hda11 as my swap and hda12 as the
YDL
> install itself.  I think that's it!  But I'd check the installation guide
> for sure!
>
> Hope this helps
> Suzanne