Re: Installation, Debian 12, iMac G5, USB thumb drive => “Your installation media couldn’t be mounted. “

Hey Joe,

If you want to continue troubleshooting your built-in Ethernet, try:

sudo ip link set enP1p3s15f0 up
sudo dhclient

then:

ip link show enP1p3s15f0

If it still shows NO-CARRIER, this could mean no cable is plugged in or
driver/firmware issue.

Try: dmesg | grep -i eth

or

dmesg | grep enP1p3s15f0

and see if there's any messages about the kernel complaining about
firmware.

On Wed, 2025-09-03 at 08:09 -0400, Joe Flowers wrote:
> Thanks, Cedar!
> 
> The machine is working great except for the built-in Ethernet
> adapter, but I can live with the USB to Ethernet dongle.
> 
> John's response pushed me to the "Guided" setup, and it worked great!
> 
> Thanks for the GUI recommendations. I have made a note of them.  
> 
> 
> MacOSX is long gone on this machine. ifconfig is not on Debian,
> apparently.
> 
> But, below are other enumerations of the Ethernet setup. Would be
> nice to have the built-in working, but beggars...
> 
> 
> Thank you, in any case!
> 
> 
> ----
> 
> 172.16.99.227         04-69-f8-ec-83-23  <----- This is my USB to
> Ethernet adapter that is working.
> 
> 
> joe@debian1:~$ sudo ifconfig
> [sudo] password for joe:
> sudo: ifconfig: command not found
> joe@debian1:~$ 
> 
> 
> joe@debian1:~$ ip link show
> 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
> mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
>     link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
> 2: enP1p3s15f0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc
> fq_codel state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
>     link/ether 00:0d:93:4a:42:d2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
>     altname enx000d934a42d2
> 3: enx0469f8ec8323: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc
> fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
>     link/ether 04:69:f8:ec:83:23 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
> 
> 
> joe@debian1:~$ ip addr show
> 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
> group default qlen 1000
>     link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
>     inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
>        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
>     inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
>        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
> 2: enP1p3s15f0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc
> fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
>     link/ether 00:0d:93:4a:42:d2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
>     altname enx000d934a42d2
> 3: enx0469f8ec8323: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc
> fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
>     link/ether 04:69:f8:ec:83:23 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
>     inet 172.16.99.227/24 brd 172.16.99.255 scope global dynamic
> noprefixroute enx0469f8ec8323
>        valid_lft 86253sec preferred_lft 86253sec
>     inet6 fe80::669:f8ff:feec:8323/64 scope link noprefixroute
>        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
> 
> 
> joe@debian1:~$ nmcli device status
> DEVICE           TYPE      STATE                   CONNECTION
> enx0469f8ec8323  ethernet  connected               Wired connection 1
> lo               loopback  connected (externally)  lo
> enP1p3s15f0      ethernet  unavailable             --
> joe@debian1:~$ 
> 
> 
> joe@debian1:~$ lspci | grep -i ethernet
> 0001:03:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Inc. Shasta (Sun GEM)
> joe@debian1:~$ netstat -ie
> 
> ---
> 
> 
> On Tue, Sep 2, 2025 at 2:01 AM Cedar Maxwell <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > On 8/28/25 23:41, Joe Flowers wrote:
> > > 
> > > OK. Thanks to the command-line ideas from Jeroen and Cedar, I was
> > > able 
> > > to get much further (plus I know how to get into the command-line
> > > now! 
> > > Yay!), but I'm not exactly sure what caused it to finally see the
> > > USB 
> > > stick for the Installation media step.
> > > 
> > > The installation seemed to go OK and finish OK, but on restart,
> > > the iMac 
> > > will not boot. I get the Mac icon that means bootable media
> > > cannot be found.
> > > I'm guessing maybe I made a partitioning mistake or a
> > > partitioning quirk 
> > > or grub?
> > > 
> > > Here is my partitioning setup:
> > > 
> > > LVM VG vg1, LV lv1 - 398.5 MB Linux device-mapper (linear)
> > >       #1    398.5 MB    f    ext2    /boot
> > > LVM VG vg1, LV lv2 - 398.5 MB Linux device-mapper (linear)
> > >       #1    398.5 MB    f    HFS    /boot/grub
> > > LVM VG vg1, LV lv3 - 75.2 GB Linux device-mapper (linear)
> > >       #1    75.2 GB    f    ext4    /
> > > LVM VG vg1, LV lv4 - 4.0 GB Linux device-mapper (linear)
> > >       #1    4.0 GB    f    swap    swap
> > > SCSI2 (0,0,0) (sda) - 80.0 GB ATA WDC WD800J-40GB
> > >       #1    32.3 kB        Apple  
> > > <---------------------------------------- bet this is the
> > > problem? I 
> > > should have deleted this first?
> > >       #2    80.0 GB       K    lvm    untitled
> > >               25.1 kB        FREE SPACE
> > > SCSI6 (0,0,0) (sdb) - 4.0 GB General UDisk  <-------- my
> > > thumb drive
> > 
> > I'd recommend starting the installation over and choosing "Guided -
> > Use 
> > Entire Disk" once you get to partitioning.  I don't know if you
> > meant to 
> > create an LVM, but I'd recommend against that for your first 
> > installation for simplicity's sake.
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > If the USB doesn't work this time, I need to dig through a
> > > filled-up 
> > > cave for blank CD-R, DVD-R, or DVD+R discs (Thanks, Ken!).
> > > Hopefully, 
> > > the CD/(DVD?) drive will work.
> > > 
> > > The Built-in Ethernet hardware is apparently bad, and MacOSX
> > > still would 
> > > not recognize either, but the Debian Installation did recognize
> > > the 
> > > Apple USB-to-Ethernet dongle.
> > 
> > I doubt your built-in Ethernet went bad on it's own.  I've had
> > similar 
> > issues before with both Mac OS X and Linux.  If you type "ifconfig"
> > in 
> > Terminal in OS X, what does it output?
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Anyway, please offer any advice on where I may have messed up, so
> > > I can 
> > > get this thing booting.
> > > 
> > > BTW, any recommendations for a lightweight GUI to install?  I
> > > need this 
> > > machine mostly for gcc (some g++) and TCP/IP and thread
> > > programming, 
> > > gdb, SSH/SCP.
> > > 
> > 
> > XFCE or LXQT are generally considered to be the top choices.
> > 
> > > 
> > > Thank you!
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Aug 28, 2025 at 7:53 AM Joe Flowers
> > > <[email protected] 
> > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> > > 
> > >      On the “Detect and mount installation media” step, I get,
> > > “Your
> > >      installation media couldn’t be mounted. “
> > > 
> > >      I burned debian-12.0.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso on a 4GB USB
> > > drive with
> > >      rufus-4.9p.exe. Rufus said it had to use the dd method.
> > > 
> > >      When the iMac G5 is booted up with Mac OS X Version 10.5.8,
> > > I can
> > >      see and browse the USB drive and read text files on it.
> > > 
> > >      I can boot to the USB drive with Federico Vaga’s excellent
> > > post
> > >      (https://lists.debian.org/debian-
> > > powerpc/2024/02/msg00007.html
> > >      <https://lists.debian.org/debian-
> > > powerpc/2024/02/msg00007.html> =>
> > >      boot usb0/disk@1:,\boot\grub\powerpc.elf), and the Debian
> > >      installation seems to proceed fine until I get to this
> > > error.
> > > 
> > >      “Your installation media couldn’t be mounted... “ “Retry
> > > mounting
> > >      installation media?”
> > > 
> > >      I have not been able to get the Built-in Ethernet port nor a
> > > USB to
> > >      Ethernet dongle to work when booted in Mac OS X, but I was
> > > hoping
> > >      the Debian installation media could work with either of
> > > those two
> > >      Ethernet hardware options. I do not have a WiFi card in this
> > > iMac
> > >      G5, apparently.
> > > 
> > >      Any ideas, please?
> > > 
> > >      ---
> > > 
> > >      debian-12.0.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso
> > >      SHA256:
> > > 1483ae25b215e69cbd2268b4aa58b23bc7f5522f6fc5697213af39cee6704c50
> > > 
> > >      rufus-4.9p.exe
> > >      SHA256:
> > > 497f796e6d076d4855d697965c04626e6d3624658fce3eca82ab14f7414eede2
> > > 
> > >      ---
> > > 
> >