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

On 11/3/25 4:02 AM, Riccardo Mottola wrote:
> 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.

Depending on your disk space, keeping a very small Mac OS 9 (around 
100-200 megabytes minimum) can be helpful, especially when problems come 
up. For example, you can use NetBSD's pdisk program in Mac OS 9 to 
change disk partitions, even for the active disk (risky but useful in 
some situations).

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

It's possible to test multiple kernel versions with either GRUB or Yaboot.

By default, GRUB keeps a running list of all the kernels. However, there 
seems to be a bug where the UUID of the first GNU/Linux volume is 
duplicated for other volumes; this can be fixed by editing the grub.conf 
file to correct the affected UUID(s). GRUB can be used just like Yaboot; 
i.e. once you have a working grub.conf file, you can edit it to use 
/boot/vmlinux and /boot/initrd.img for each GNU/Linux volume, then use 
symbolic links to point each vmlinux and initrd.img to the appropriate 
kernel and initrd file. I save the real grub.conf to grub.conf.save so I 
can restore grub.conf in case the system updates it. It also works to 
disable or delete the grub package.

> 
> 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