ata 66 and blue and white g3

[James Rooker]

Paul--

When I have tried this with YellowDog 3.0 and 4.0 -- I will get one  
of two results on multiple tries. Either a pci at 80000 error and the  
installer cannot find a linux kernel to boot from so I get just a  
boot: prompt -- or everything boots fine -- I can do the partitioning  
step and package selection -- However after package selection when it  
actually tries to write the partition table to the HD and format then  
write packages to the HD it locks down -- no error message -- in fact  
everything appears to work normal and I can switch to other consoles  
just fine -- again no obvious error messages...just no activity  
either. Now with the Fedora Core 4 or 5 installers for ppc -- the  
machine always boots and finds a kernel... no pci at 80000 error ever --  
and I can do partitioning and package selection just fine -- but at  
the end of that when it normally writes and formats the partitions  
everything locks down. Please understand that by mentioning YellowDog  
3.0 and 4.0 and Fedora Core 4 and 5 -- I have all of those discs  
burned and have actually tried each one.

The Intech ATA patch I mentioned is part of a package they make  
called SpeedTools.
The full SpeedTools package is expensive -- but they have a High- 
Capacity ATA patch that was only $25 -- I think it is a MacOSX kernel  
patch but really am not sure. As to what OF patch level this machine  
is actually at I could not tell you -- I am currently running MacOS  
10.4 and for some reason the Apple System Profiler from 10.4 crashes  
every time I run it. I do have a Firewire port on this B&W G3 and  
have heard there is some issue with that and Apple System Profiler.   
I have not tried booting the Fedora installers with the nodmraid  
option you mentioned -- so I may try that ....If I format this  
machine entirely over to linux and had the option of doing MacOSX  
through Mac-on-Linux if that still works I would do that. Prior to  
the advent of MacOSX
I have had some form of PPC Linux running on a PowerMac 6100 - a  
7100- and a Umax J700 Mac clone with MacOS 7.5.3 - 9.2 -- I also have  
run every version of RedHat and Fedora Core on regular PC's going  
back to Redhat 5.0 -- I am not bragging -- just pointing out that the  
Linux part of things I pretty much understand but there may be some  
interaction between Linux and MacOSX or OF in the install process  
that I do not have a clue about. I also have an older G3 Imac that  
runs Fedora Core 4 with no problem whatsoever.

I would strongly prefer to have Linux on this box - but need some  
access to MacOSX for Dreamweaver and Photoshop which I use quite a  
bit for work. I know that the 137gb thing is something to do with OF  
-- so there may be enough problems there that I just really need to get
an ATA controller card and skip the whole issue...but it will be a  
bit yet before I have the funds for that.

Anyway sorry to be longwinded and thanks for the help!!
I may try the -nodmraid option and see if that changes anything.

James Rooker-

On Nov 2, 2006, at 6:10 AM, Paul Nasrat wrote:

>>
>
> What sort of patches are you talking about - Open Firmware/FCode  
> patches
> or OS X kernel patches?
>
> Also are you running the most recent firmware patches from Apple  
> for the
> B&W?
>
>> I would like to set
>> this machine up dual boot -- MacOSX and Fedora ppc
>> linux. However with both Fedora Core 4 and Fedora Core
>> 5 ppc installers -- I can boot the machine just fine
>> and run the installer to the partitioning stage -- but
>> it never actually writes any linux packages to the HD
>> at all the installer locks up when I try to write
>> partitions to either drive ...
>
> Can you give more details on the lock - is it just a lock or is it a
> traceback/error message. Can you switch ttys to tty3 and tty4? If  
> so are
> there any messages there?
>
> Paul
>