Re: partitioning & install help on late PowerBook

[Valery Ushakov <uwe%stderr.spb.ru@localhost>]

On Thu, Oct 05, 2023 at 01:18:15 +0200, Riccardo Mottola wrote:

> at the end, I am a little confused about the many details, but I want to
> install NetBSD on my PowerBook G4 Aluminium. It is a later model and has
> openfirmware 4.
> 
> I discovered that the installation guide is not totally correct and to
> follow.
> I verified that just a plain install using sysinst and "whole disk" will
> result in an unbootable system
> I understand I need a bootloader partition, be it MSDOS or FAT and that
> MSDOS is creatable from the installer CD (or should... I am unable too). I
> need to source the bootloader and copy it there.
> 
> How to but all these things together? Up to now, I failed.

Unfortunately disk partitioning is the worst part of the process.  I
don't do it often enough to have all the commands/details in my
memory.

MBR with FAT and NetBSD partitions should be doable with just the
tools you have on the install CD.

1. Erase the beginning of the disk.  1MB is probably already an
   overkill.

2. Use fdisk to create the MBR label and two partitions.  The first
   one is FAT32.  I used 2GB for mine so that I can throw in a backup
   kernel and sets and what not, but a smaller one will do if you only
   use it for the tiny ofwboot.

3. Create netbsd disklabel.  That's the tricky part b/c I can never
   remember the right options to make it create one and make it stick.
   I have to re-learn it every time :)

   Make c the whole disk and d the netbsd mbr partiton.  Use b for
   swap and either use a for the single root filesystem for everything
   or create separate disklabel partitons for usr, home, whatever.
   Use h for the FAT partiton from step 2 so that you can mount it und

   Actually you *might* be able to use sysinst at that point to do the
   dirty work for you.  Just create the c, d, h partitons and do the
   next step to get the bootloaders there.

   mbrlabel is probably not be available on the macppc install cd.
   IIRC it might be helpful, but I don't remember.

4. Now you can mount -t msdos /dev/wd0h.  Copy ofwboot.xcf *and*
   ofwboot.elf to that partition.  They are ./usr/mdec/ofwboot.* in
   the base set.  (You can also copy the install kernel and the sets,
   at least base and etc.  OFW boot command to boot that kernel is
   left as an exercise to the reader :)

5. You can now get back into sysinst and install netbsd on the
   partitions you created manually.

6. Configure OFW.

   I *think* the default boot-command is mac-boot (modulo spelling)
   and that should work.

   For the record, on a desktop machine

     setenv boot-command ." hello" cr " screen" output boot

   might be a better choice to make sure it does the right thing when
   booting without a monitor plugged in (which is obviously not a
   concern with a latop).

     setenv boot-device hd:,\ofwboot.elf
     reset-all

  I think elf is usually a better bet, but that's a different bug and
  a different can of worms.

Sorry this is vague.  Last time I had to do it, I did it on a new SSD
before I put it inside the mini, so I just did everything manually
without sysinst using host tools.

See my previous mail for the fdisk/disklabel partitions example.

Netbooting might be an option.  OFW 4 might want the dhcp server to
talk BSDP, in which case see

  http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2018/06/11/msg002525.html

-uwe