Ubuntu/Kubuntu on Mac G5.

[Larry Grover]

Brian Durant wrote:
> On 22. jan 2006, at 20.50, Larry Grover wrote:
> 
>> To my eyes your yaboot.conf file looks OK, *except* that I think  your 
>> hard drives should probably be sda and sdb, not sdb and sdc.  
>> Information from gparted for each of your drives would help, or  else 
>> the output from fdisk:
>>
>> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
>> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
>> sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc
>>
>> If you can fix your yaboot.conf file, you can install yaboot using  
>> the "ybin" command.  This may be as simple as changing "sdb" to  "sda" 
>> and "sdc" to "sdb", but let's see some information on how  your drives 
>> are partitioned first.
> 
> 
> OK, here is the output:
> 
> ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
> /dev/sda
>         #                    type name                  length    
> base      ( size )  system
> /dev/sda1     Apple_partition_map Apple                     63 @  
> 1         ( 31.5k)  Partition map
> /dev/sda2         Apple_Bootstrap untitled                1954 @  
> 64        (977.0k)  NewWorld bootblock
> /dev/sda3         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 untitled           150386719 @  
> 2018      ( 71.7G)  Linux native
> /dev/sda4         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap                 5912751 @  
> 150388737 (  2.8G)  Linux swap
> 
> Block size=512, Number of Blocks=156301488
> DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
> 
> 
> ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
> /dev/sdb
>         #                    type name                  length    
> base      ( size )  system
> /dev/sdb1     Apple_partition_map Apple                     63 @  
> 1         ( 31.5k)  Partition map
> /dev/sdb2              Apple_Free                       262144 @  
> 64        (128.0M)  Free space
> /dev/sdb3               Apple_HFS Untitled           319910838 @  
> 262208    (152.5G)  HFS
> /dev/sdb4              Apple_Free                           10 @  
> 320173046 (  5.0k)  Free space
> 
> Block size=512, Number of Blocks=320173056
> DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
> 
> ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc
> ubuntu at ubuntu:~$
> 
> Hope this helps. Please advise as to what I should do to get Ubuntu  on 
> track.

OK, it looks like sda is your linux drive:  sda2 is the bootstrap 
partition and sda3 is the /  partition (sda4 is your linux swap 
partition).  OSX looks to be on sdb3.

If you can get access to sda3, you can probably fix things.  I haven't 
worked with the live-CD much, but I think you should be able to do use 
it for this.  You will need to get into /etc/yaboot.conf on the sda3 
partition and edit it.  I've edited the yaboot.conf.copy file you posted 
earlier -- I think the changes I made will allow yaboot to install -- 
and I'll include it at the end of this email.

Once you've edited the yaboot.conf file, and saved it, you will need to 
get to a command line (open a terminal window) and run the ybin command. 
   Because the live-CD is not running from your hard dirve, you will 
need to give ybin the full, correct path to your yaboot.conf file.  The 
command you run should be like this:

sudo ybin --config /full/path/to/yaboot.conf -v

You will need to substitute in the correct path to your yaboot.conf 
file.  I'm not sure where the live-CD will mount your sda3 partition -- 
or even if it will automatically mount it.  You can find out if sda3 is 
mounted by opening a terminal window and running the commant:

mount

...with no options:  it will list all the mounted partitions.  If sda3 
is not automatically mounted, you can manually mount it:

sudo mkdir /mnt/linux
sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sda3 /mnt/linux

In this case, the file you edit will be in /mnt/linux/etc and the full 
path to your yaboot.conf file will be /mnt/linux/etc/yaboot.conf

Make a note of the output from the ybin command -- post the output if 
you have troubles.

Before you reboot from the live-CD, you should probably check the 
/etc/fstab file (on the sda3 partition).  It should include a line that 
reads:

/dev/sda3     /       ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro    0     1

...assuming your / partition is ext3 and not some other filesystem.

Let us know how things go.

Good luck!
Larry

-------- edited yaboot.conf starts below ----------
## yaboot.conf generated by the Ubuntu installer
##
## run: "man yaboot.conf" for details. Do not make changes until you
## have!!
## see also: /usr/share/doc/yaboot/examples for example configurations.
##
## For a dual-boot menu, add one or more of:
## bsd=/dev/hdaX, macos=/dev/hdaY, macosx=/dev/hdaZ

boot=/dev/sda2
device=/k2-sata at 0/disk at 0:
partition=3
root=/dev/sda3
timeout=100
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
enablecdboot

# to boot OSX by default
# to boot linux by default, change to defaultos=linux
defaultos=macosx

macosx=/dev/sdb3

image=/boot/vmlinux
	label=Linux
	read-only
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="quiet splash"

image=/boot/vmlinux.old
	label=old
	read-only
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img.old
	append="quiet splash"