Re: Installing 8.0 on a Powerbook6,8

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hello,

On Tue, 19 Mar 2019 18:45:23 -0700
Jason Thorpe <thorpej%me.com@localhost> wrote:

> I have a PowerBook G4 (PowerBook6,8) that I'm trying to install
> NetBSD on.  The OS X installation on it is toast, and so I have
> nothing I care to preserve.  It also means I don't have any native
> tools, but if I absolutely have to, I can scavenge a FW 400<->800
> cable and put it into Target Disk Mode and fiddle around with
> partitions from my iMac.
> 
> So, I burned a NetBSD 8 macppc installation CD, and booted it thus:
> 
> 0 > boot cd:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd.macppc
> 
> ...OFW proceeds to load the boot loader, and the boot loader runs and
> loads the kernel... BUT, the kernel fails to start.  First attempt
> yielded a decrementer exception, and the second attempt yielded
> invalid memory access.
> 
> Booting the ELF version of ofwboot fails with "unrecognized Client
> Program format".

Huh, I thought all OF 3.x or newer understand ELF. Are you sure your
ofwboot.elf wasn't corrupted somehow?
Either way, there are options.
First, did you try -current? uwe@ fixed a bug in ofwboot which caused
this kind of symptoms on Minis.
Second, you can try to netboot a kernel directly ( just to see if that
works... ) - "boot enet:,netbsd", all you need is a dhcp and tftp
server, and a kernel that's no more than 5MB or so. If you netboot
sharks or Suns you have it all there.
Unfortunately there's a third option, some G4 PowerBooks are known to
Just Not Work(tm) for so far unknown reasons. I don't have the hardware
so I can't investigate - all of mine work :/
"options FIRMWORKSBUGS" seems to help *some* of them.

have fun
Michael