On Tuesday, February 18, 2003, at 02:40  PM, Louis Guillaume wrote:

>
>> You've got an Open Firmware 1.0.5 system, and it doesn't support HFS
>> partitions.
>
> Actually it claims to be version 2.0. Maybe it doesn't know itself! I 
> think I tried updating it with System Disk a while ago, maybe that 
> spoiled something.

I have a PowerBase as well, and it does claim to have Open Firmware 
2.0.  I don't think System
Disk is supposed to work with these machines.  The Bootvars utility is 
handy though...

>
>> Your best bet is probably a CD-R or netboot (if the PowerBase has a
>> built-in ethernet interface).  Alternatively, if you've got a Zip 
>> drive,
>> you can format it in DOS and put ofwboot.xcf and the installation 
>> kernel on
>> there.
>
> I can't seem to reference anything on the SCSI bus without getting 
> "invalid partition number, using 0" messages. I have a feeling that 
> the ATA bus may be more cooperative, so I may try a drive on that bus. 
> If HFS doesn't work I'll try DOS.

I had trouble with the ATA interface and switched to SCSI.  I have been 
able to get it to boot from
a MS-DOS floppy (not 1.6, files too big), but not from an ISO9660 
filesystem.  I can't get a directory
command to work on the CD drive either.

There was some discussion of installing on a Performa 6400 back in 
October 2002 which should be
the same motherboard as the PowerBase. I recently sent an email to 
Allen Briggs requesting hints.
Perhaps he will share with us how he was able to install it...

Mike