iMac Rev A -- newbie help

[Goofus]

OK, tried it, same result -- only this time it told me I only had 512k of
VRAM instead of the 2048k (accurate) number.  Still froze at "loading
kernel...please wait" just like 15,000 previous attempts.

I'm putting this project on hold until I get that 4mb VRAM upgrade in the
mail, hopefully by Friday.  After that, I'll be abandoning this project
altogether, pulling the RAM chips and 30gb hard drive and sticking this
waste of plastic up on eBay for $20.

Apple screwed long-time users like me with the switch to a Unix-based OS,
leaving users like me with $1300 iMac boxes that are nothing more than
useless four years later (with one year of payments still left to go I might
add).  Now it's looking like I can't even run Linux on this overpriced
heater.

My venture into the Mac world back in '93 was mostly to do my small part to
fight the evil that is Microsoft, plus the Mac environment took me less than
20 minutes to learn and I couldn't get enough of it.  Now that I'm hooked
Apple wants nothing more than to upgrade their new OS every six months and
render previous versions invalid and (also) unusable.  I've had enough and
I'm done fighting with them.

My Windows XP machine sitting next to me has done everything I need it to do
and 300% more (built it myself by the way), so I'll just stick with that for
now -- if I decide to re-enter the Linux world I'll take that 30gb hard
drive, shove it in here, and try a dual-boot Windows/Linux system.

This iMac has cost me to date $1825 (including RAM upgrades, new hard drive,
and a compatible printer) plus almost three weeks of non-stop Linux
battles -- this XP machine I'm running @ 800mhz...?  $410 (including
monitor, hard drive addition, 128mb RAM, keyboard, mouse, and video capture
card).  It even ran MacOS9 for a month before I realized it was useless on
here.

I'm starting to babble, so I'll shut up for now.  Suzanne -- THANK YOU!!!!
Even though your tip didn't help (yet), you managed to somehow find an
option I had not tried -- you get HUGE thanks (and congratulations) for
that!  Any more tips are certainly welcomed!

Thanks again!

D.   ;-)



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Suzanne Payne" <s.payne@gold.ac.uk>
To: <yellowdog-newbie@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 4:57 AM
Subject: Re: iMac Rev A -- newbie help


Ok...not wishing to tell you what you already know, I guess the easiest is
to start with just YDL.  So..boot off a macos CD and format the drive.
Make the whole of it "empty space" as opposed to some sort of hfs
partitioning (set the single partition to 0Mb).  Then boot off YDL disc
one.  You might try the text install instead, it's very easy and is less
demanding of the vram, but that's up to you.  Select all the bits and
pieces you want until you get to partitioning.  You should already have I
think 6 partitions with various apple names, and a lot of "free space".
Don't delete the apple partitions already there, click on the free space
and create a 1mb bootstrap partition, a 192mb swap space and fill the rest
of the drive with a single ext3 partition with the mount point of /  Then
sit and feed it CDs, make a cup of coffee, walk the dog, answer a few
questions whilst it tries to set up X, personally I'd set it to have a text
login not a graphical login (you type "startx" once you're logged in to
start X Windows), reboot, and hopefully.....fingers crossed...voilą!

Hope this helps!  I have to say the install on my Rev B Bondi Blue iMac has
been far less problematic than on my Pismo!