Re: install help - mounting external firewire cd-rom drive

[Glen Henshaw <glen.henshaw%gmail.com@localhost>]

It does have a USB port, but this particular generation of Mac won't
boot from USB devices. Hence, the firewire drive.

On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 10:37 PM, Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 8:28 PM, Glen Henshaw 
> <glen.henshaw%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>> I'm trying to save an ancient Apple iBook by install NetBSD 5.0.1 on
>> it. Unfortunately the machine does not have a working floppy or CD
>> drive, so my best option seems to be to install from an external
>> FireWire CD-ROM drive I have. I can get the installer to run from this
>> drive, but I stall at the point where the installer asks where to get
>> the install sets. I can't figure out which device the external
>> firewire drive is. It isn't cd0, cd1, cd2, sd0, sd1, or sd2, or any
>> other reasonable entry in /dev I can think of. I've even aborted out
>> of the installer and looked at /dev to see if I could figure it out,
>> but I can't. Can anyone help?
>
> I'm not entirely sure that firewire is supported by the install
> kernel. You could check the dmesg to see if it got picked up, you
> should be able to do:
>
> dmesg | more
>
> I think you're in one of those weird places where the firmware will
> support loading a kernel from that device, but once the kernel is
> booted it won't support the device it was booted from.
>
> Your only option might be to netboot the install kernel, although I'm
> not sure what that will get you if you don't have a network card. Does
> it have USB? A USB cd device might work too.
>
> Andy
>