User:Tonyr/Journal/Sep07

06Sep07

Netboot Revisited
Vagrant got the common infrastructure ppc netboot set up, and we tested it on a G3 iMac in the Mac area. With a little coxing and head scratching we got it to find yaboot and yaboot.conf, but after that the process couldn't find any of the other boot files. I'll transcribe the boot trace as best I can here.

<in OpenFirmware>
> boot enet:0,ubuntu-installer\feisty-ppc\yaboot
CLIENT: 00039315657e 192.168.2.128
SERVER: 00163e6c369e 192.168.2.29
<and some other stuff that winked in before switching to...>

<yaboot monitor>
Transfer FILE: /boot.msg
FTP ERROR response 1 File not foundWelcome to yaboot version 1.3.13
Enter "help" to get some basic usage information
boot: <cr>
Please wait, loading kernel...

CLIENT: 00039315657e 192.168.2.128
SERVER: 00163e6c369e 192.168.2.29
Transfer FILE: /vmlinux
TFTP ERROR response 1 File not found
Can't read Elf  e_ident/e_type/e_machine info
boot:

Vagrant said he grabbed the boot files from the feisty-ppc distribution. That's a problem right there, since the initrd file there doesn't work for several reasons, and there are some simple pathname mods necessary in yaboot.conf. My mods are on the resident G3 tower station (in the MacBuild area) on the Desktop in a folder named ubuntu_ppc_netinstall, free for the taking. That doesn't address the issue of not finding the rest of the boot files. The solution to that is down the dhcp/tftp/boot-server path somewhere.

14Sep07

eMac Video Resolution
Feisty installs on an eMac just fine, but the Xorg configuration is inadequate. The default configuration results in no X display of any kind. The vertical refresh rate is wrong. Reconfiguring the xserver doesn't fix anything.

These posts

• [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=468671&highlight=emac+display+xorg] and
• [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=246129&page=2]

suggest another horz/vert rate modification, but also shows how to use programs gtf and read-edid to construct the appropriate Modelines for the supported display resolutions. That's the next thing to try.

Netboot Revisited
Vagrant installed my modified boot files on the netboot server (whatever that means). I tested netboot/install on an iMac, and it worked. Well, at least it started the install process. The iMac was defective (severe power and video issues) and died early on in the process. Let's just say it worked well enough. More testing to come.

15Sep07

eMac Video Resolution
Extracted from one of the links I mentioned yesterday, here are the mode lines that I insert into the Monitor section of xorg.conf to get the display to work.

Modeline "1024x768" 99.190000 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 810 +HSync +VSync
Modeline "1280x960" 122.240000 1280 1328 1424 1696 960 961 964 1002 +HSync +VSync

There is a HSync line modification, also. Here is the whole Monitor section:

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier      "iMac"
       Option          "DPMS"
       HorizSync       71-73
       VertRefresh     70-140
       Modeline "1024x768" 99.190000 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 810 +HSync +VSync
       Modeline "1280x960" 122.240000 1280 1328 1424 1696 960 961 964 1002 +HSync +VSync     
EndSection

I had mentioned earlier that the program gtf could be used to generate modelines. I tried that, and the mode lines that were generated for 1280x960 an 1024x768 were different tan the onesused here. The resulting displays were shifted severely to the left. The progrm read-edid might produce better results, but I haven't tried that.

Netboot Revisited
We used the netboot/install setup to do a complete install on another iMac today. Works well. The process still needs an automated clock setter early in the installation.

18Sep07

Ubuntu Gutsy
Vagrant suggested that MacBuild might want to start investigating the next Ubuntu release, 7.10 or Gutsy Gibbon. Currently, the alternate install iso image is "Oversized" (too big to fit on a 700Mb CD). It is not too big to fit on a 800Mb CD, but MacBuild doesn't have one. I thought it moight be worth a shot to try a netinstall, so I burned a netboot mini.iso image. The installation didn't work. I tried to do it with the Ubuntu desktop, the Xubuntu desktop, and no desktop. The Ubuntu desktop installation didn't complete, complaining about package problems. The Xubuntu desktop and No desktop installation finished, but the subsequent boot failed, bailing out to busybox.

Debian Etch
I also burned a Debian Etch PPC netinstall image. Vagrant would like to pursue LTSP for PPC, and needs an Etch PPC box. I started that install this evening and will let it run overnight, since it might take several hours to download the installation packages from the Net.