Re: iBook Boot Issue (was Re: PowerBook G3 Wallstreet Hang Using Debian Kernel)

Hi Stan,

Stan Johnson wrote:
> Hi Riccardo,
>
>
> According to Linux, my Wallstreet has a "3D RAGE LT PRO". My Lombard 
> is similar to your iBook; the Lombard also has a "3D RAGE LT PRO".
>

lspci tells me:

0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 
[AMD/ATI] Rage Mobility L AGP 2x (rev 64)

dmesg instead:

[   10.872103] atyfb 0000:00:10.0: enabling device (0086 -> 0087)
[   10.872231] atyfb: using auxiliary register aperture
[   10.872922] atyfb: 3D RAGE Mobility L (Mach64 LN, AGP 2x) [0x4c4e rev 
0x64]
[   10.873034] atyfb: 4M SDRAM (2:1) (32-bit), 14.31818 MHz XTAL, 230 
MHz PLL, 70 Mhz MCLK, 53 MHz XCLK
[   10.878457] atyfb: monitor sense=0, mode 20
[   10.930965] aty: Backlight initialized (atybl0)
[   10.931072] atyfb: fb0: ATY Mach64 frame buffer device on PCI

if the chip is similar, it could be a good thing to verify 
configurations and other things in our quest. My PowerBook G3 is long 
gone :( so I only have this iBook.

Of course i have a small 800x600 screen, the only real complaint about 
the iBook, together with the single USB.
>
> Which bootloader are you using? Your system appears to be a New World 
> Mac, so either Yaboot or GRUB is supposed to work (though as far as I 
> know, GRUB doesn't work if you want to be able to boot Mac OS 9 or Mac 
> OS X from the GRUB menu). Also, GRUB doesn't work at all on the 
> Lombard, so it might not work on your iBook (I'm not sure since I 
> don't have an iBook to test). If you're using Yaboot, you can specify 
> as many kernels as you want (same as in GRUB).

yaboot. I choose long ago, I think back then GRUB was guaranteed not to 
work, or I had issues installing it from the installer CD, I don't 
remember exactly
The bad

>
> With Yaboot, you can edit the yaboot.conf file directly. You can use 
> "mac-fdisk -l" or "parted -l" to determine your Apple_Bootstrap 
> partition, then mount that partition (e.g. "mount /dev/sda9 /mnt" if 
> your Apple_Bootstrap partition is /dev/sda9). I usually keep a copy of 
> the last working yaboot.conf in /etc and in the Apple_Bootstrap 
> partition as yaboot.conf.old and then edit the real yaboot.conf 
> directly (if you make a mistake, you can boot into Mac OS X by holding 
> down the option key at boot, then mount the Apple_Bootstrap partition 
> there to fix yaboot.conf or copy yaboot.conf.old back to yaboot.conf).

MacOS is gone for me, I installed a small SSD PATA and squeeze out all 
space. Also, I have no use for Classic

but thangs for reminding me that /boot/yaboot.conf is the source, but 
not the actual used file. After using Grub, I got confused.

Up to know yaboot does its job though, although the GRUB menu is 
convenient for testing many kernel versions.


My yaboot.conf is much simpler, it just has two entries one for current, 
one for old kernel, but essentially it is enough

I'll post separately about my compatibility findings and maybe they help 
you.

Riccardo