IBM 7025 F50, not getting anywhere..

[Rob Kramer <robk@starhub.net.sg>]

Hi all,

I bought a new toy at an auction for about US$40; a F50 dual 604e CHRP box. 
But now I'm having no end of difficulties installing linux on it..

I've read many documents on how to use yaboot on rs6k, how to install Debian, 
etc., but my installation process is stuck at the very start. I tried 
OpenFirmware CD booting, floppy booting, net booting -- and I'm getting 
nowhere. I've upgraded the microcode/firmware to the latest versions.

- CD boot: I've never been able to boot *any* file from CD. The SCSI CDROM 
device is tested OK on another machine.

- Floppy boot: For some reason, the boot file spec has to be all caps. I guess 
this is due to the FAT32 filesystem or something, but I can't find an 
explanation anywhere on the net. So 'boot floppy:,\install\yaboot' doesn't do 
a thing, but 'boot floppy:,\INSTALL\YABOOT' does.

For the latter boot attempt, yaboot actually starts, but then complains about 
a missing config file: 

    [drive]:-1,/etc/yaboot.conf: Unknown or corrupt filesystem

The '-1' partition is normal, apparently. Perhaps the 
lowercase /etc/yaboot.conf is the problem?  Is FAT32 even the right fs for 
floppy boot?

- Net boot: I'm not sure yaboot even supports this. Some docs seem to indicate 
it does, some don't. My guess is it doesn't support fetching a yaboot.conf 
etc. from the server.

If I don't use yaboot to just net-boot a (b?)zImage, how could I pass kernel 
boot parameters and an initrd file? I don't see how you can do for example a 
Debian install from bootp really..

Cheers,

    Rob

-- 
aibohphobia
      n. : fear of palindromes