Re: Booting into Tumbleweed on a G5

On 2/28/19 10:47 AM, David Faure wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'm trying to install tumbleweed ppc64 onto an old Mac G5 for a friend (completely replacing the old OS X on the machine).
> The install (from a DVD-RW) actually went fine... but I can't boot into it.
> All I see on boot is the finder icon alternating with a "?", like it can't find any boot partition or boot code.
> The installer did create a "PowerPC PreP boot" partition on /dev/sda1, but somehow the ?BIOS? doesn't find it?
> 
> Do you have any hints as to what might be wrong, and/or how to debug this?

My PowerBook G5 is a 32-bit processor. Is the desktop version 64-bit?

Selecting a distro for the 32-bit units is not easy. Given my natural 
inclinations and prejudices, I tried everything I could to get anything but 
Ubuntu to work. Initially, Mint worked, but its PPC version was dropped. I thus 
ended up running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. It works fine for what I do, which is 
generate modern kernels to test for bugs. Most PPC development is done for 
64-bit systems, and it is not always correct for PPC32. Over the last 3 years, I 
have detected about 1 bug per year that causes a boot failure. I seldom can 
determine the fix, but at least I am able to bisect to the bad commit.

If you decide to go the Ubuntu route, write me privately, and I will give you 
some additional pointers.

Larry
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