Successfull 6.4 install via USB thumb to PowerBook3.5 (Titanium IV), PowerBook5,8 (G4 15")

Hi everyone,

First off:

  Thanks, lots, to everyone having made it possible to install OpenBSD
  to these two old and dear Macintosh Powerbooks - the hardware on
  both of them - after minor repairs - after that many years seems be
  still okay - which is close to a being a miracle given that nowadays
  hardware does not seem to be even close as robust as the one on
  these two machines. One of those Macintoshs is from 2002, the other
  one from 2006.

This message isn't an installation report - just a quick note that an
install with these two images, dd-ed to a USB drive, installed
successfully OpenBSD to both machines.

Images used:

install64.iso
 sha256sum: 
66924962734ca189657d9e37c9d9f59488cbd3d15ccceaa429794f759fcda587

and
install65.iso - downloaded a few days ago
 sha256sum:
4ed18cf0bc3b7205bd25b2c58cbd20c82e83056613c1601b03a1b9289c672c6f

[    note 0:
  6.5 was unable to pull new packages after the successful basic
  install - with messages along the line of:

   "Can't install ... can't resolve package ..." 

   ... no idea what went wrong.  6.4 seems to work when installing new
   packages after the initial install.
     
     note 1:
  Both installers, IIRC, 6.5 and 6.4, don't ask for a keyboard
  language setup. So be careful about the passwords you type in
  during the install procedure.   ]

A quick instruction on the install via USB:

You need to enter Open Firmware mode of your Macintosh: after powering
on the machine quickly hold down 

   <Apple Key>-<Alt> plus O and F

Keep holding all four keys until OF shows up.

At the OF prompt type:

0 > dev / ls

        A device tree is drawn: Search for lines like those:

     /pci@f2000000
      /usb@18
        /disk@1

        Note they are mixed with other lines in the tree. And they
        might look different on your machine, like e.g.
    
    /pci@f2000000
      /usb@15
        /disk@1
     
        Now type:

0> devalias
        
        Look for lines that match a /usb number from above: one might
        look like so:

     usb0  pci@f000000/@15

        Here's the final part that worked here. Type something like
        this - taking into account the last example line from OF, and
        the ones above ("/usb@15 /disk@1") to boot the openbsd
        installer:

boot usb0/disk@1:2,ofwboot /6.4/macppc/bsd.rd
        
        You have lots more details on this usb install on the
        following page - a page that was instrumental to help me
        understand this install mode:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2012/08/msg00042.html

After successfully installing the two mentioned images I didn't have a
known boot manager like grub, yaboot etc.. instead I again needed
to enter OF:

Once there
         
        boot hd:,ofwboot /bsd

   might work right after install of OBSD 6.4 if the OS boot fails. To
   see whether this works repeat looking at the output in OF from
   above:

   dev / ls
and 
   devalias

Please also note:
https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.4/macppc/INSTALL.macppc
and this part of that page:

---------------
  Autobooting OpenBSD/macppc

      It is possible to automatically boot into OpenBSD (selectably
      into Mac OS) by setting up the following:

setenv auto-boot? true
setenv boot-device hd:,ofwboot

     [to save the results into NVRAM]
reset-all
----------------

Might be a good idea to update INSTALL.macppc instructions, provided a
few more installs by others can verify the described procedure.

Anyways: preliminary, quick patch draft is attached below. Diff done
to an INSTALL.macppc being already a few days old.

Thanks again!

And success to the lucky ones still having an old PPC Macintosh 
around ... :)

Regards,
Wolfgang

The diff:

--- INSTALL.macppc	2019-02-26 23:41:53.297984851 +0100
+++ INSTALL.macppc.new	2019-03-11 16:39:37.853061662 +0100
@@ -226,6 +226,7 @@
 	HFS partitions (bootloader/kernel only, using another media for d/l)
 	Remote NFS partition
 	HTTP
+	USB
 
 The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation
 depend on which method of installation you choose.  Some methods
@@ -295,6 +296,47 @@
 	Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the
 	information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next
 	step in the installation or upgrade process.
+	
+
+You can also boot the installer with a USB thumb: To do that enter
+Open Firmware - see below how to do that. At the OF prompt type
+
+0 > dev / ls
+
+    	A device tree is drawn: Search for lines like those:
+
+     /pci@f2000000
+      /usb@18
+        /disk@1
+
+        Note they are mixed with other lines in the tree. And they
+        might look different on your machine, like
+    
+    /pci@f2000000
+      /usb@15
+        /disk@1
+     
+	Now type:
+
+0> devalias
+	
+	Look for lines that match a /usb number from above: one might
+	look like so:
+
+     usb0  pci@f000000/@15
+
+	Here's the final part. Type something like this - taking into
+	account the last example line from OF, and the ones above
+	("/usb@15 /disk@1") to boot the openbsd installer:
+
+boot usb0/disk@1:2,ofwboot /6.4/macppc/bsd.rd
+        
+	You have lots more details on this usb install on the
+	following page - a page that was instrumental to get this
+	USB install working:
+
+https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2012/08/msg00042.html
+
 
 If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
 OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your