Problems installing Yellow Dog Linux onto Old World Mac

[Derick Centeno]

Hi Jeffrey!

Regarding testing the CDs themselves:

There are two different procedures which may be useful:

1.  Test and compare the md5sum values of the .iso files which were 
downloaded, before they are burned onto a CD.
The md5sum values of the downloaded .iso files are compared against the 
official or standard values published by TSS and available at each 
public mirror for each version of YDL.  Expressed differently, each 
version of YDL has different official/standard md5sum values for each 
.iso; if the md5sum value of the downloaded .iso does not match with the 
official/standard version which TSS has published as the correct value 
-- then that .iso file is useless and you know at that point, before you 
burn the CD, that something is wrong with that file.

If you have OS X, then you can run the md5sum check test from within the 
Terminal application.  You can do:

$md5sum -b *.iso

And each .iso file will be listed together with the resulting md5sum 
values generated by the test.  Compare the results against what TSS 
published and that should identify a working file.  Although I do 
believe that there are ways to use the md5sum test in the classic (Mac 
OS 9 and earlier) environment, I don't recall what those are.

2.  Test the CDs themselves by using mediacheck.  Mediacheck is 
available from within the 1st YDL Install CD and can be run from there.  
Here's a brief detail regarding it's use:

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/resources/ftp_mirrors.shtml

A different bit of information which could be useful as you currently 
use dial-up.  Another participant here (John McGill) using yum 
discovered yum reporting the following Error numbers 4 and 256.  They 
appear as follows, note that here the ... refers to a directory name:

...gz:[Errno 4] Socket Error: timed out
...gz from base: [Errno 256] No more mirrors to try.

He discovered that these errors are essentially problems related to the 
fact that within yum.conf there is a variable called timeout which is 
defined as 30sec.  His solution (which he demonstrated as working) was 
to change the definition to 300sec, as follows:

timeout=300

If you discover that you need more time just put whatever number you 
choose to use as a replacement in terms of seconds.

May you have success in your endeavors...
=======

Jeffrey Rolland wrote:
> Derick,
>
> On Aug 20, 2006, at 6:29 PM, Derick Centeno wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi Jeffrey!
>>
>> I noted your earlier posting and thought the following link might
>> interest you:
>>
>> http://www.yellowdog-board.com/viewtopic.php?t=381
>>
>> It provides instructions on how to prepare BootX settings (and other
>> details) so that you will be able to use YDL 4.x as long as you  
>> need to
>> use that Old World Mac.
>>     
>
> This is essentially the same information as http://www.yellowdog- 
> board.com/viewtopic.php?t=249> ("how to install YDL 4.0 on old world  
> mac?"), but thanks for the pointer anyway.
>
>   
>> Regarding using earlier versions of YDL or any other Linux the  
>> important
>> thing to consider is not so much the software as it is the reason why
>> such a thing is necessary for you.  As you are probably aware, each
>> increasing version number usually addresses flaws, errors and other
>> problems not initially addressed in a prior version.  I tried to
>> consider the possibility of some Linux software which did not rely or
>> interact with or need support from the Linux kernel at some level (for
>> processing, recompilation or something else) and frankly I found  
>> myself
>> stuck.
>>
>> I'm not an engineer, nor does my knowledge base apply to the whole  
>> world
>> of Linux -- and so I can only state that my own opinion is that it is
>> best to move forward or in this case utilize YDL 4.0 at least.   
>> When you
>> become more familiar with these instructions then perhaps you could
>> attempt to develop a similar strategy presented in those instructions
>> and adapt them yourself to fit YDL 4.1.
>>     
>
> I agree; I will try to use 4.x if I can.
>
> <snip discussion of dial-up vs. DSL/cable>
>
>   
>> There is one good thing behind all this though, according to this  
>> webpage:
>>
>> http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/hardware/others.shtml
>>
>>     
>
>   
>> Your Mac should be able to run the current version of YDL as long  
>> as you
>> use BootX.  Keep in mind that BootX is not provided with any  
>> version of
>> YDL beyond YDL 3.0.  This means that the only guide to use the modern
>> version of YDL (while using BootX) is to use that above link.
>>     
>
> Yes, thanks for the heads up. Now we know that it *should* work; I  
> just haven't been able to get it to work yet.
>
>   
>> Just a different view, but did you bother to test the CD drive itself?
>>
>>     
>
>   
>> You could use the hardware diagnostic test which is on the original
>> Apple OS Install CD which came with that machine.  If you need to
>> replace the drive make sure to have that replaced drive be as close to
>> original Apple standard for that computer as possible.
>>     
>
>
> I believe the drive is fine; it works for everything else with no  
> problems. Of course, since I'm not getting YDL to install, everything  
> is theoretically suspect; having said that, I *really* don't believe  
> the problem is the drive.
>
> On the other hand, I haven't tested the CDs themselves, although I  
> will eventually get around to that part of the debugging process. One  
> way to do that is to test them on, say, a New World Mac (where we can  
> avoid all the BootX nonsense).
>
>   
>> Good Luck....
>>     
>
> Thanks, I'll need it! :)
>
> Sincerely,
> --
> Jeffrey Rolland
> <jrolland at softhome.net>
>