SillyDog701

[wark]

Hey, i need some help here...i've tried (or atleast i think i have) everything and have searched everywhere, but here's my problem.

I bought a PowerBook 3400c off ebay a while back. Well last month I just found out about Yellow Dog Linux...being that i run linux on everything, i figured that i'd install it on the PowerBook. Well I installed it on there....but when i boot up the laptop, i get the famous Mac question mark. So honestly i don't really know anything about the OpenFirmware...but i do know that the hard drive does have Yellow Dog Linux on it. And I didn't do a dual boot either when i was installing it, i deleted the mac partitions and created Linux only partions on it.
(sorry if that paragraph sounded some what scattered brained)

So does anyone have any tricks to help me out?

many thanks in advance..

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.1; Linux)

[Antony]

Reinstall it. Either create a dual boot for your PowerBook or choose either just Mac OS or just YellowDog Linux

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/85.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/85.5

[wark]

Right on man, thanks for the tip. I totally appricate the advice. The only problem i currently have is that for some reason i can't get the PB to boot off the cd rom drive.

But one thing that i have been thinking about, is looking for a store online where I can find a 40GB or so drive and a copy of MacOS 8 on floppy disks. But I haven't found such a store yet....and those two things are somewhat rare to find off ebay.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.1; Linux)

[Antony]

did you install the BootX?

Can you boot from CD before?

I think you will need to press some key combinations to force boot from CD, I will need to search for that key combinations.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/85.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/85.5

[Edward]

If your Powerbook has a BIOS function similar to that of a PC, then it should have an option to change which will allow it to boot from the CD-ROM right at startup. The more recent BIOS' have this option (going back to at least 1998).

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007

[wark]

Auctually, it is said that if the "C" key, you'll beable to boot from a cd. But however that little trick isn't working on this PB. Now if you hold down "option-apple-o-f" It'll boot you into the OpenFirmware which is basically like a bios, except for it's all command line....and i haven't been able to find a good resource for openfirmware commands yet.


And yes, i did install BootX on the mac partition, before i started the YDL install....then i deleted the mac partitions....so maybe if i would copy the BootX onto a floppy disk, then that might work....the downside is that i need to find a stuff it expander that will work with linux, being that that's all i run...and the bootx file on the ydl disk is a .hqx(?) i dunno, it's one of those funky cool lookin mac compression extensions.


btw, i think the sillydog.org site rocks and i'm so glad i found it...i am totally expecting to waste countless hours of my life here in the future.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.1; Linux)

[Mandrake]

Yes, usually with a Mac one holds down the C key when the chime starts playing, if that doesn't work try holding command-option-shift-delete and see if that works.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007

[wark]

right on man, i'll give that a shot and let ya'll know what i come up with

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.1; Linux)

[Mac_Fanatic]

Okay, don't know if you have the issue completely resovled yet, but here's my two cents:

With the 3400c, which is considered an "Oldworld" machine, there is no messing with Open Firmware. BootX is the only option.
However, you have to keep atleast a minimum install of Mac OS on the hd in order for the power book to boot. Reason being the in accesiblity of Open Firmware. The first mac series that can boot with YDL alone are the Blue And White series G3's which can access OF. The G3 Pismo, Lomard etc powerbooks can also take advantage of this option. With the 3400 I would do a minimal install of 8.0 (Appox 80megs) for BootX to work and give the rest to YDL, tha's what I have done with my 1400cs,G3/300MT and 8600/300 and it runs without a hitch.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.17; Mac_PowerPC)