Re: Cannot boot installer on PowerBook6,8

[Julio Merino <julio%meroh.net@localhost>]

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 3:46 PM, Sevan Janiyan <venture37%geeklan.co.uk@localhost> wrote:
> On 03/12/2017 20:26, Julio Merino wrote:
>> I've just got a PowerBook6,8 (the last G4 model, with 768MB of RAM)
>> and am trying to install NetBSD on it. Unfortunately... I haven't even
>> been able to even boot the installer yet :-( I knew this was going to
>> be difficult based on past experience with a Mac Mini, but this one
>> seems much harder...
>
> I have a 1.3Ghz 12" PB which runs -current fine.

That's good to know. This reports:

Apple PowerBook6,8 4.9.0f0 BootROM built on 01/10/05 at 10:39:14

What about yours? Just trying to rule factors out.

Did you recently install the system or have you just been going
through upgrades over time?

>> Here is what I get:
>>
>>>> NetBSD/macppc OpenFirmware Boot, Revision 1.12 (Wed Nov 29 04:07:01 UTC 2017)
>> 6068324+127544=0x5e8e60
>>  start=0x100000
>>
>> Decrementer exception at  %SRR0: 00000000  %SRR1: 00083030
>>  ok
>> 0 >
>>
>> I've tried infinite combinations of: different partition schemes (MBR,
>> APT), different file systems (MSDOS, UFS, HFS, HFS+), different
>> versions of ofwboot (xcf/elf, and -current/5.0/5.2 because the one in
>> 5.0 is what worked for my old Mini) and even different media (mostly
>> from a USB stick, but also tried copying the loader and the
>> installation kernel to the existing HFS+ partition for Mac OS X). None
>> have worked, though sometimes the error changes to "invalid memory
>> access".
>
> Are you using a gzipped kernel?
> The ofwboot.xcf had an issue loading the kernel, stock, uncompressed.

Oh yes, I tried with a gzipped kernel as well, but the majority of my
tests have been with an unzipped one because I was under the opposite
impression.

Makes no difference though... I just tried gzipping it and trying
again to be sure, both with -current's ofwboot.xcf and an old
ofwboot.xcf from 5.0, and I get the same kinds of errors :-(

FTR, I remember that, on my Mac Mini, similar problems were caused by
the partitioning scheme / file system I chose to use as the
installation media. Only one of the many combinations worked but I
cannot remember which one. Once the system was installed, booting it
was never a problem though. (And now that I say that, I tried to
reconfigure my USB drive as the system would look (with APT and a tiny
HFS partition to hold ofwboot)... but didn't work.)

Which install media did you use (CD, USB, etc.)? Do you recall exactly
what specific setup you got to work?

Thanks!

-- 
Julio Merino -- http://julio.meroh.net/