Linux on PowerPC FAQ-O-Matic: Biege G3 locks up during actuall installation to external SCSI FWB disk

	Linux on PowerPC FAQ-O-Matic : Start Here! (Getting started/First day) : Biege G3 locks up during actuall installation to external SCSI FWB disk
	...using LinuxPPC R5 installer. The installation process gets underway - I can see by the disk activity light that files are being copied. Then, about 7% into the process, all of my external SCSI devices light up momentarily as if being polled, my FWB disk clicks, and the installer locks up (mouse won't move). Any ideas? c.scott@gilbert.cc
	No answer I'm afraid, but I'm having the same problem on my beige G3/300 when I'm installing on my external disk. Only difference is I used Drive Setup. -RZ msquadleader@hotmail.com
	I have a beige 266 G3 desktop, 192 MB RAM. I installed LinuxPPC 1999 on my external SCSI drive formated with Apple's drive setup. I only have one SCSI device (the hard drive LinuxPPC is to be on) attached at SCSI ID 4. I booted LinuxPPC from the CD-ROM and used pdisk to make the AUX partitions and then I started the X based install and followed the instructions. Everything was going well, but my system also locked when I tried to install the default packages. I tried installing different packages, but the install still locked up on me. I had the log window open, and the install locked on different RPMs, so I have no idea what the problem is. I tried just installing the first package listed, and this went through, but the result is a very basic system. I guess I can mount the CD-ROM and try installing all the RPMS that way, but it'd be nice if the X installer worked. Anyone heard any news from the LinuxPPC people about this? John Mack jmack@p3.net
	I'm using a beige G3/300 minitower, connected to my machine are a Zip drive, a Umax scanner, an external 2 Gig disk and a Lacie cd-rw. Only after disconnecting all of the SCSI devices I was able to install LinuxPPC on my external 2 Gig disk. It is running perfectly now. I haven't tried reconnecting the SCSI devices yet so I don't know if it will still run. I hope this helps! -RZ msquadleader@hotmail.com
	My Beige G3/300 Minitower locks up about 70% of the way through the R5 installation. It's installing Netscape 4.6 at the time. It craps out in the same place all the time. I'm installing from the CD. -- Mike robbins@bigplanet.com
	My beige G3 also locks up when using the XBoot-based installer. I've been unable to install Linux. Isn't there a fix for this yet??? steinman@sco.edu
	Same problem on a beige G3/233 with internal SCSI drive (in addition to the original ATA drive). Disconnecting my SCSI scanner and ADB Graphics tablet helped. Next problem - a lot of RPM's don't install and the system is unbootable.... aes adrian@aes.clara.co.uk
	I had the same problem, on my beige G3 mini-tower, but making sure that the destination drive was the ONLY device on the SCSI bus that was pwered up fixed it. This included disconnecting the tape drive I had installed in the same case as the hard drive. I simply powered down my CD-RW and scanner - I did not need to disconnect them. The X installer worked without a hitch after these changes were made. kmtillman@aol.com
	I've had my PowerCenter 150 lock up during the X installation. It seems like the installer is very picky with the SCSI bus. Freezes halfway though formating, or freezes halfway through fscking. RedHat installer works like a champ. I'm going to try cleaning up my bus (checking for proper termination, etc - stuff that MacOS is apparently more forgiving about) burnt@latexnet.org
	My box: Beige G3 233 MHz, 64 MB RAM, Standard 4G internal ATA + 1G Seagate SCSI drive (installed for LinuxPPC). My problem: Everything seemed to be good as far as disk partitioning until I tried to use the X Linux Installer (xli.pl) to format and mount the drive (the 1G Seagate). I was starting to get rather annoyed at the whole LinuxPPC GUI install thing (I'm a Unix CLI nut...), but then had the brilliant idea of looking here for... My solution: Assembled from various bits of advice found on this FAQ-O-Matic, I: 1) first partitioned the SCSI drive using Drive Setup on the MacOS side then, 2) shut down the machine and disconnected all other SCSI devices (in this case, my scanner), and 3) booted up the machine and flashed the (in Macintosh parlance) PRAM (aka NVRAM to us Unix geeks) (remember to do this several times, holding down the Command[flower]-Option-P-R key combo as the system first starts up -- I waited four boot cycles to be safe. This will reset various parameters on the Mac side (such as highlight color, etc. which you'll want to set back if you're dual-booting your machine), then, 4) booted up into the LinuxPPC X Linux Installer and, 5) launched an xterm window (click the mouse somewhere on the desktop and select XTerm) to run 6) pdisk (more help on pdisk is available elsewhere in this FAQ-O-Matic) to double-check my partitioning scheme (I'm one of those hackers that likes to set up many partitions), set the swap partition correctly, etc. and then ran 7) the Partition and Mount Drives GUI from the XLI menu. And voila! everything worked just beautifully and I went on to do a (nearly) full install! Of note... 1) I don't know which combination of the above did the magic for me, though I think the strongest candidate was discconnecting the scanner (IOW, rid thyself of any and all unnecessary SCSI devices from thine system, at least for the install, particularly if you're installing to a SCSI disk). 2) If you haven't already, check out the Open Firmware on your G3 machine, especially if you're a Unix nut coming from The World of Real Architecture, aka Sun, DEC, etc. gear with NVRAM/SRM/whatever firmware installed. Very cool stuff. Check out the docs available at http://developer.apple.com/ and/or do a web search on 'open firmware'. There are also some good tips on using the Apple Open Firmware on this FAQ-O-Matic. NOTE: Some of the Open Firmware boxes out there are pretty buggy in the NVRAM and are NOT upgreadeable, particularly the earlier PPC PowerBooks, such as the 3400 (thanks to Germ for pointing that out). Happy hacking! -Walther aka Shamus wdavies@liberate.com P.S. Sorry for any typos; I'm on my (hmmm..., let's see, two Murphy's, one Strongbow, one Boddington's, two Guinness... well I can still count!) sixth beer of the evening (it's now 03:20), and I'm about to get to some more hackin'! wdavies@liberate.com
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