[slackintosh-users] Re: OldWorld (beige G3) support?

  • From: Mikael Andersson <manders@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: slackintosh-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 10:01:00 -0400

Thanks for your help everyone - here are my results:

1) Trying to boot using the kernel (/boot/vmlinux) and initrd (/boot/initrd) on the Slackintosh 10.1 install CD #1 using BootX, with various boot parameters (including the one Adrian mentioned, 'root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk_size=10240 rw') causes the machine to reboot, then produces a black screen with Tux in the top left corner. I'm not sure if at this point the machine is frozen or if stdout is just directed somewhere other than my console. I have not tried other kernels yet, so if anyone has a kernel suitable for Slackintosh setup known to work on a beige 233MHz G3, feel free to pass it my way!

2) I also tried the boot- and rootdisks found at http://mike.quintero.staff.noctrl.edu/slackintosh/ (for 8.1) and with some slight modifications to the root disk managed to get load the initrd on the Slackintosh 10.1 install CD #1. However, when I get to "choose your keymap" my keymap is all screwed up - Enter maps to j, Backspace maps to comma, e maps to Backspace, F5 maps to Enter, and so on, unlike any keymap I have ever heard of. My keyboard is an Apple ADB (probably 101 key) US qwerty layout. It may be worth noting that prior to this point, the keymap seems to be accurate, because when I'm asked to press Enter after inserting the root disk it obeys without any hassles. Could this problem be related to BusyBox in some way, and/or ADB keyboard maps?

Anyway, I realize that what I'm doing is not supported so don't feel compelled to reply to me in any way... but if you have some insights and feel so inclined, please let me know! I would absolutely be willing to write a HOWTO on this if/when I succeed.

Thanks,

Mikael Andersson
Computer Technician
McMaster University
Humanities Media & Computing

Adrian Ulrich wrote: 
As Marco said:

 We don't own an oldwork Mac.. so we can't test it.
 But the compiled binaries should work on your hardware..

 The defaultkernel could be the biggest problem..
 I have no idea how good it will work on 'oldworld' macs ;-)

 If something is missing, i could create a 'customized' kernel for you..


I'm assuming I would simply copy the kernel and initrd setup file to my HFS partition, tell BootX to mount the CD as a root file system, 


BootX doesn't need to care about the CDROM.

Checkout
 http://workaround.ch/pub/slackintosh/10.2/boot

You'll need:

 vmlinux -> Uncompressed Kernel image
 initrd  -> Installer Rootfs

Somhow you'll have to boot the kernel (or a different kernel with ext2
support) using 'initrd' as 'initrd' and with
this arguments (append) 

'root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk_size=10240 rw'

(See: http://workaround.ch/pub/slackintosh/10.2/boot/yaboot.conf)

You shouldn't run into any trouble after you got your system
booting using the initrd..
Just run setup, skip the yaboot configuration and reboot..




Any caveats? 


No idea ;-)

Would be nice if you could write a howto if you got it working..

 -- Adrian


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