Clean install of FC4 on G3 iMac DV

[stormdragon]

Hello, I've read through some of the postings, and I *think* I've done this right but I would sure apreciate some help...

This is my first attempt at installing a Fedora distro on the PPC, so bear with me... :)

I start with a clean, unformatted 10GB drive.

Using the *manually partition* option in FC4, I create:
Apple bootstrap: 1MB
swap: 512MB
/ : fill up the rest

At this point it usually takes me through the NIC config, etc. When it gets to where it's supposed to be creating and formatting the file systems, I sometimes get a message telling me that the kernel isn't aware of changes made to /dev/hda, at which point the installer dies and I have to reboot. When I come back to the partition screen, the Apple bootstrap is gone, and the ext3 partition hasn't been formatted. I thought it may have been a bad drive but the unit checks out fine.

One time, it actually *did* go through everything and properly ejected the installation DVD and prompted me to reboot. After it did, all I got was the "OS not found" flashing questionmark folder icon.

Do I HAVE to have OS X installed? I'd rather just have Fedora...

Any help would be greatly welcome! I'm going nuts!

- Storm Dragon

[Spoon!]

I don't know much about Linux on PPCs at all, but I can say a few things:

Apple bootstrap: 1MB
I've read (http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/yaboot/doc/mac-fdisk-basics.shtml) that it must be partition #2, 800K in size, and have type "Apple_Bootstrap"; make sure you have that

Do I HAVE to have OS X installed?
no

[pedrobl]

Hello, I've read through some of the postings, and I *think* I've done this right but I would sure apreciate some help...

This is my first attempt at installing a Fedora distro on the PPC, so bear with me... :)

I start with a clean, unformatted 10GB drive.

Using the *manually partition* option in FC4, I create:
Apple bootstrap: 1MB
swap: 512MB
/ : fill up the rest

At this point it usually takes me through the NIC config, etc. When it gets to where it's supposed to be creating and formatting the file systems, I sometimes get a message telling me that the kernel isn't aware of changes made to /dev/hda, at which point the installer dies and I have to reboot. When I come back to the partition screen, the Apple bootstrap is gone, and the ext3 partition hasn't been formatted. I thought it may have been a bad drive but the unit checks out fine.

One time, it actually *did* go through everything and properly ejected the installation DVD and prompted me to reboot. After it did, all I got was the "OS not found" flashing questionmark folder icon.

Do I HAVE to have OS X installed? I'd rather just have Fedora...

Any help would be greatly welcome! I'm going nuts!

- Storm Dragon

I had the same problem as yours on an iMac g3, blueberry, i think. The problem is that the installer can't continue if you change the HD partitions, so if you got them right the first time, when it boots for the second time, you just need to assign them a format (swap, ext3) and a mount point, and continue with the installation from there (the DiskDruid part).

Hope that helps,

Pedro.