Newbie with Power Mac G5.

[Brian Durant]

On 22. jan 2006, at 0.49, Brian D. Carlstrom wrote:

> Brian Durant writes:
>> If the above works more or less as described, would there be any
>> problems with the OpenFirmware and yaboot if I installed Linux with
>> the OS X drive unplugged, just in case - up in space?
>
> with linux on drive "b" with the "a" drive unplugged? the only  
> concern I
> would have is that it might make the /etc/fstab mount tab assuming  
> that
> since its the only drive that its the "a" drive. Then again, it should
> know what drive it is from the controller. I don't think you'll break
> anything, and at worst I can imagine that you could just boot and fix
> the /etc/fstab after the fact.
>
> -bri

Hmm. Interesting, but short lived experience. I booted into the  
Fedora Core 4 PPC install CD, verified the disk and went to the start  
of the install procedure. When I got to choosing the keyboard, I got  
the following error message:

"The partition's data region doesn't occupy the entire partition."

Then:

"Attempt to read sectors 16-18 outside of partition on /dev/sdb"

Then:

"The partition's data region doesn't occupy the entire partition."

Then:

"Attempt to read sectors 16-18 outside of partition on /dev/sdc"

I kept pressing "ignore" and then finally got to the partitioning  
issue. The only choice that looked safe was to try a manual partition  
as you are not allowed to choose which drive to automatically  
partition (!!!!???). I started to add partitions to "sdb" which is  
the drive I want to install Linux on, but then all of a sudden the  
kernel bonked out and the system did an emergency exit.

I tried once again on a reboot. This time, all of the places where  
choices are made "back", "next" or "select" something were all  
flashing in rotation. I got as far as the partition dialog, again  
with the same errors, but I didn't dare to go any further, as it was  
unclear as to what drives were going to get partitioned :-( (I should  
mention that this is the same in YDL.) Very unfortunate interface on  
this issue.

Cheers,

Brian