Subject: Jumping Thru the Hoops
From: John Twelker (twelker@maui.net)
Date: Mon Oct 30 2000 - 16:37:05 MST
Aloha from Maui,
I posted a question several days ago on Installing YDL on a new iMac 500
with OS9, OSX and Linux boot options ... and thanks to all who have
tried to help. By trying all the suggestions over several days time,
combining the variables in all possible ways, I finally found the
correct syntax for yaboot.conf and OF to dual boot YDL and MacOS9 (but
not triple boot MacOS X as well):
For yaboot.conf:
default = linux
image = hd:9,\\\\vmlinux
label = linux
And for OF,
setenv boot-device hd:9,\\bootscript
This works on my newest iMac 500 series machine for boot options OS 9
and Linux.
From my point of view, YDL Manual instructions need to be less ambiguous
and more user friendly.
The instruction of page 6.9 of the new CS1.2.1 Manual reads:
"copy the following files ... yaboot, yaboot.conf and vmlinux". I think
it should add, "and if you plan to dual boot Linux and MacOS,
bootscript as well".
Also on pg 6.9, the manual reads "In the line
"Image=hd:,\\vmlinux":,"hd,:" means the kernel is on the first HFS
partition of the first IDE hard disk. "\\" means "in the System Folder".
"vmlinux" is the kernel's name". Note the confusing colon or comma
after "vmlinux"!!!
IMO, the instruction would be more user friendly and less ambiguous if
it read, "In the line "Image=hd:,\\vmlinux", "hd:[partition number],"
refers to the partition number you copied the vmlinux kernel to, and so
on. Following the syntax as given ("hd:,") does not work for my machine
and neither does the "\\" ... it's got to be four "\\\\" .
On page 6.10, the manual reads: ... type setenv boot-device
hd:,\\bootscript
Again, the partition number must be included and the instruction would
be far clearer if presented this way:
type setenv boot-device hd:[partition number],\\ bootscript
Configuring yaboot for dual boot reminds me of "jumping through the
hoops". It took me several hours spread out over several days to finally
get all the variables put together right so it worked. From my point of
view, YDL should finish their job and include configuring yaboot in the
install code!!! After all, Partition Magic has Boot Magic and Apple has
XBoot and IBM has "Boot Manager" and they all make configuring for dual
or multiple boot easy.
I'm looking forward to YDL doing the same and judging from the number of
inquiries on this newsletter, so might a lot of other users as well!
I think it great when we can all help each other but when it comes to
configuring yaboot to dual boot, I can't help but wonder why it's
necessary in the first place??? I think it should be included in the
installation ... as should be configuring xserver.
So, the good news is I finally got the syntax right. The bad news is, on
reboot, I got "kernel panic kernel access of bad area pc c 002964 lr
c00za91c address 0 tsk ohci-contgrol/7". I considerfed re-installing YDL
and rebooted to the Install CD and got the same error message!!! Since
it was late, I shutdown and hit the sack. This morning, I booted to
Linux and got in just fine. Whatever went wrong didn't happen again
after a night's rest. However, on typing "startx", everything seemed to
go OK until the screen displayed some crazy designs and convoluted
letters and then displayed
sh:/lib/cpp: no such file or directory ... xError: Bad Length ... 16
Major opcode:72
kum: failure during initialisation:aborting.
Waiting for xserver rto shut down server aborting
So, some new challenges! Any ideas?
Thanking you in advance and with aloha from Maui,
John Twelker
Aloha from Maui!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Mon Oct 30 2000 - 17:45:07 MST