I've got a Rev A (with Rev B ROM) beige G3 upgraded via Sonnet's 1GHz G4 ZIF that I'm trying to jam Ubuntu Jaunty onto. My configuration is as follows:
- OS 9.2.2
- 384 MB RAM
- Apple ROM 40 GB EIDE hard drive out of a Digital Audio G4 (boot drive for Mac OS, single device on bus 0)
- 320 GB SATA hard drive
- Apple ROM combo drive out of an MDD (single device on bus 1)
- Built in video w/ 6MB VRAM being used
- Radeon 9200 in top PCI slot not being used (I've got an extension conflict somewhere)
- Sonnet Tempo SATA 2port PCI card in middle slot
- No-name OHCI USB card in bottom PCI slot
- BootX 1.2.2 from here http://penguinppc.org/historical/benh/
- Ubuntu CD with Jaunty on it
- Apple Adjustable Keyboard & numpad, Alps Glidepoint trackpad
- Apple Studio Display (original 15" purple/dark blue LCD)
I generally tried to follow this thread: http://www.applefritter.com/node/8936, but vmlinux and initrd.gz are no longer in the install folder on the CD. That post matches well what is on the OldWorld Ubuntu Community page here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/OldWorldMacs So using those references, here's what I did.
I put the BootX extension into the Extensions folder. I put the BootX app/control panel in the Control Panels folder. I copied Ubuntu_PowerPC_jaunty:casper:powerpc:vmlinux to the System Folder. I copied Ubuntu_PowerPC_jaunty:casper:initrd.gz to the System Folder. I selected vmlinux and initrd.gz in BootX, and I rebooted.
Linux starts up but right after it initializes the ethernet interface, it drops back to the BusyBox shell with a message that it "gave up waiting for the root device."
I've tried some kernel arguments
- root=/dev/ram
- root=/dev/hdc
- casper/enable=true casper-udeb/snapshot/backing-file=/cdrom/casper/filesystem.cloop --
In BusyBox, I've even tried
mkdir /mnt; mount /dev/hdc /mnt
with hopes to chroot to it or something, but that failed with "invalid argument".
So now I'm stuck. Does anybody have any ideas? I can't seem to get past the "gave up waiting for root device" error. I'm wondering if I should try a different optical drive configuration...
Help would be much appreciated!
Peace,
Drew
For kicks, I tried an older Debian live CD I have around (Debian 4, whatever name that was). I have the same problem - it just hangs forever at "waiting for root device."
So I'm thinking it's a hardware oddity on my machine, and probably not a Linux thing. But if anyone has any advice, I'm all ears (or eyes).
-
Drew
Okay, I tried two new things today with no improvement.
1) Set the combo drive to master instead of cable select
2) Swap the combo drive for a 32x Apple ROM CD-ROM drive from a B&W set as master
Like I said, no change. The system still bails out with a "gave up waiting for root device" message.
I'm at a loss. I read one page somewhere that said the Rev A beige G3 can't be coerced into booting Linux. It sounded dubious to me, but...
Anybody have any ideas?
Peace,
Drew
I've done it. I too have a Beige G3 w/ G4 ZiF Upgrade, and i've had it booting Linux. Don't know how much i can help besides to tell you that it CAN be done. It took a fair bot of cursing, but, i did manage to get my Beige running Ubuntu 5.x a while back.
Hey Drew, I've got no experience with any Linux installs, but you've got an awful lot of non-standard hardware in that box. How about cleaning out everything non-essential for starters, then once you've got it running you can start adding bits back.
dan k
Aye, i think i may have had to remove the G4 upgrade to get the install going. I was able to put it back in once Linux was happily installed.
you have to load the G4 upgrade software in MacOS before you run Linux
see similar story with a G3 upgrade card here
http://lowendmac.com/stotler/06/0905.html
Regards
Jeroen
http://mac.linux.be
Still no love.
I removed all the PCI cards (SATA, Radeon 9200, USB), and the machine still won't boot Linux. Next up (probably this weekend sometime), I'll restore the G3 ZIF and see where that gets me.
Peace,
Drew
Hi alk,
I just came upon this article:
http://lowendmac.com/thompson/06/1106.html
I only skimmed over this thread and only skimmed the first half of the article as I didn't have time to try to comprehend it, but it occurred to me it might have some relevance to your issues here--don't know, but I thought I'd just throw it in for you to see.
Nope, not really relevant. The Sonnet SATA card has alwaysworked fine. But the problem remains even with no PCI cards installed at all.
Peace,
Drew
More no progress to report. I pulled the G4 and put back the 266 MHz G3, but there was no change. I also tried swapping busses between the hard drive and optical drive, but that still didn't help. The box still stops with the "gave up waiting for root device" message.
Any other ideas?
Peace,
Drew