More than 3 bootable partitions

[M. Rowen]

I have a single 60GB drive in the system. The first 10GB I left
unallocated for use by YDL. The second 10GB partition was a Standard HFS
for MacOS9, the 3rd another Standard HFS 10GB for another MacOS9
partition, and finally an Enhanced HFS partition for MacOSX. As it
turned out, about 4GB was left allocated beyond the MacOSX partition.

I installed MacOS9, on the 1st HFS partition and then on the 2nd one.
Then I installed MacOSX on the Enhannced HFS partition. At that point I
was using the startup disk settings in MacOS to bounce between them as I
wanted. I am using a CD set that I purchased from YDL. I simply started
up from the YDL CD and did the install. One thing that I did have
problems with was setting my own partitions up in the YDL installer. I
ended up selecting the automatically partition option within YDL. It
properly grabbed only free space and set up the "/" and swap space for
me. I made sure to check the button to verify the automatic settings
before committing them. This was fine for my purposes, so I went with
it. Everything installed properly and I have had no issues with
accessing any of the bootable partitions, except for the Yaboot issue
that prevents me from accessing multiple MacOS9 partitions. I can boot
into any of these from the open firmware menu however. I'm not sure what
issues you may be struggling with on your system. I have installed Linux
on dozens of Intel systems and the PPC install is about the same. The
only strange thing to me has been using the Apple partitioning tool. I
don't fully understand some of its odd behavior.

I think the most important thing to verify is that you place Linux in
the very first partition on your disk or at least the /boot filesystem
if you use one (I don't). I hope this helps a little. I'm happy to
review your setup in more detail if you like. I'm pretty new to PPC, but
not to Linux.

-Mike Rowen


On Thu, 2003-10-23 at 12:14, Steven Gross wrote:
> Mike, I have a G4 (New World ROM machine as is your iMac) and have tried to
> install YDL 3.0 using the 3.0 installer from the ftp site. I have 3
> different hard disks and prior to attempting to install ydl, I used the
> Option key to boot into either OSX or OS9. The installer messed up by boot
> partitions and I had to repair them using pdisk.  Can you tell me exactly
> how you installed YDL...which installer, etc. I though that the firmware
> (option key) would detect the Linux OS, but it did not in my
> case...obviously it CAN. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> steve gross
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "M. Rowen" <mike@bcmr3.net>
> To: <yellowdog-newbie@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 11:47 AM
> Subject: Re: More than 3 bootable partitions
> 
> 
> > Since I have a G4 iMac, I can boot while holding down the "option" key
> > on the keyboard. The open firmware boot displays all four of my bootable
> > partitions; 1 - Linux, 2 - MacOS9 partitions, and 1 - MacOSX partition.
> > So, I'll have to assume that either Yaboot can't handle more that three
> > partitions, or (more likely) I don't know how to properly configure
> > yaboot.conf yet. Any ideas?
> >
> > -Mike
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 2003-10-23 at 10:39, M. Rowen wrote:
> > > I did try adding another "macos" line to the yaboot.conf file, but this
> > > did not result in any additional boot choices (I did run ybin after the
> > > update). I guess I will have to dig deeper into Yaboot. I'm still not
> > > sure if this is a Yaboot limitation or one imposed by the hardware and
> > > the open boot firmware. Although I've worked with single partition Macs
> > > in the past and have worked with Linux on Intel systems, this is the
> > > first time I've done any multiple partition stuff with a Mac. I guess my
> > > next attempt will be to bring up the firmware open boot menu to see what
> > > is presented there. I'll let you know what I find.
> > >
> > > -Mike
> > >
> > > On Thu, 2003-10-23 at 07:30, Robert Fernandes wrote:
> > > > I have not tried this (I only have the "normal" three partitions), but
> > > > I believe that what you need to do is to edit the /etc/yaboot.conf
> file
> > > > by hand and then update yaboot by running ybin. You need to do this as
> > > > root.
> > > >
> > > > Login and open a command line, then type su, then enter the root
> > > > password. You can use vi if you like, but I usually use one of the
> > > > wysiwyg editors like kate, so I would then type kate /etc/yaboot.conf
> &.
> > > >
> > > > Toward the end of the yaboot.conf file, you will see two lines for
> your
> > > > macos and macosx partitions. You will need to know the partition
> number
> > > > for your other macos partition - you should be able to figure this out
> > > > based on the numbers for the listed yaboot partitions. I would try
> > > > adding another line but I am guessing that you will need to call it
> > > > something other than macos, perhaps macos2. What yaboot will do with
> > > > this, I don't know. I assume it will asign some letter key to boot it
> > > > since it doesn't let you choose? Anyone?
> > > >
> > > > Once the file is saved, type ybin - this will update the bootloader.
> > > > Reboot and good luck!
> > > >
> > > > On Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 11:55 PM, M. Rowen wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > All of these partitions are on a single 60GB disk. The MacOS9
> partition
> > > > > in question is still there, I just don't get a choice from Yaboot to
> > > > > boot from it because it appears limited to allowing only three
> > > > > partitions.
> > > > >
> > > > > -Mike
> > > > >
> > > > > On Wed, 2003-10-22 at 21:56, Steven Gross wrote:
> > > > >> How did you install without issues? Did you have to unplug your
> > > > >> drives etc?
> > > > >> WHen I tried to install using 3 drives (one for OSX one for OS9 and
> > > > >> one for
> > > > >> Linux (YDL 3.0), it casued a problem with my boot partiions and I
> > > > >> have to go
> > > > >> through lengths to resore them using a special pdisk from Yellowdog
> > > > >> (Terrasoft), and I could never get yaboot to boot up at all...
> > > > >> thanks
> > > > >>
> > > > >> steve
> > > > >> ----- Original Message -----
> > > > >> From: "M. Rowen" <mike@bcmr3.net>
> > > > >> To: <yellowdog-newbie@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
> > > > >> Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 10:31 PM
> > > > >> Subject: More than 3 bootable partitions
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>> This question may be more about Macs in general, but may relate to
> > > > >>> Yellow Dog Linux. I partitioned my 800MHZ G4 iMac a few days ago.
> > > > >>> When I
> > > > >>> did so, I created 2 MacOS9 partitons, 1 MacOSX partition, and left
> > > > >>> unallocated space for Yellow Dog. I installed Yellow Dog without
> any
> > > > >>> issues today. But when configuring Yaboot, it only allowed me to
> > > > >>> select
> > > > >>> 1 MacOSX partition and 1 OS9 partition. Is there a way to get
> Yaboot
> > > > >>> to
> > > > >>> recognize two MacOS9 Partitions? They both show up in the device
> list
> > > > >>> when I configured Yaboot.
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> -Mike Rowen
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> _______________________________________________
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> > > > >>>
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> > > > >>>
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