Linux on PowerPC FAQ-O-Matic : MkLinux :
ftp new linux files with MacOS then --> your Linux partition
For those of us without Ethernet, the original installer has to be downloaded onto our Mac HDD using FTP (recommended: Anarchie, found at ftp.stairways.com/ since you can recommence any aborted or broken downloads by reconnecting and double-clicking on the file saved by Anarchie for this purpose) anyway, if you have to get your MkLinux kernels or RPMs by downloading onto your Mac HDD, there is a step in the installation README for example, which wasn't immediately obvious to a bumbling beginner like myself (actually, a lot of things weren't obvious to me at the time, including my root password, which lifted my bumbling to a new and precarious height -- thankyou to the people who put the Q & A for this one into the FAQ-O-Matic :-)
OK. You download your installation files onto your Mac HDD and follow instructions for installation (see my cut-down MkLinux-on-a-budget installation details for a PB1400 elsewhere in this FAQ-O-Matic) then, later on, you see new and fascinating kernel pairs coming out (No, Clytie, don't touch! You don't know what you're doing! ... True, you never knew what you were doing, but at least put on the polaroid goggles) or you decide to add some RPMs to your very basic installation.
You download the new files by ftp onto your Mac HDD. In the case of a new kernel pair, you rename and keep the old Mach Kernel (e.g. Mach Kernel OLD) extension somewhere on your Mac HDD, and rename the unzipped Mach_Kernel file Mach Kernel as usual, and bung it in your Extensions folder. Then you have the other half of your new kernel, _not_ an installer, sitting coyly gzipped on your Mac HDD, but supposed to be put in the /mach_kernels directory at root level of your main Limux partition. In the case of RPMs, you have also downloaded them by ftp onto your Mac HDD, and they are also sitting around like unclaimed baggage, also having to head over onto your Linux partition.
When you did your original installation, the installer asked you if you wanted to mount any other partitions. [If you have not mounted your Mac partition, you can go back and run the original installer again and make sure that you do mount it.] At this stage of the installation, you can mount your main Mac partition (determine its designation, e.g. /dev/hda7, using pdisk in Mac OS, and giving it a name, e.g. Mac1.5Gb) as _read only_, which doesn't seem much, but means that in MkLinux, you will be able to list files, particularly those at the highest level of your Mac HDD, and you will also be able to COPY them over to your Linux partition.
e.g. from root, in MkLinux, copying file vmlinux.GENERIC_8alpha21.gz from the highest level of my Mac HDD (using the name I gave my main Mac partition when I mounted it at the next level under root, when installing), simply over to the root (/) level of my Linux partition: (copy old-location/filename new-location) cp /Mac1.5Gb/vmlinux.GENERIC_8alpha21.gz /
Listing (ls) at root level will now show that file.
You can then gunzip it (gunzip filename).
Listing (ls) then shows the bare file.
You can then move (mv) it, in this case to the /mach_servers directory: (move old-location/filename new-location) mv /vmlinux.GENERIC_8alpha21 /mach_servers/
Change directory to /mach_servers (cd /mach_servers) and you can list (ls) and see that file.
Since this is an alpha release, and you can still see your original vmlinux file in /mach_servers, you might like to move that one back to the root level, renaming it for safety, in case you need it again: (move old-location/filename new-location/new-filename) mv /mach_servers/vmlinux /vmlinux.old
You can then rename the new vmlinux with the move command: (move location/filename same-location/new-filename) mv /mach_servers/vmlinux.GENERIC_8alpha21 /mach_servers/vmlinux
Now, in the /mach_servers directory, list (ls), and you will see one vmlinux file, the new one.
Go back one level (cd ..) to the root directory, and list (ls), and you will see your vmlinux.old file tucked away there just in case.
With RPMs, you can copy them across to your Linux partition, then run the program which installs them: rpm -ivh filename rpm is not a simple program, and has a lot of options, but the purpose of this information was only to show how to get the RPMs over onto the Linux partition so you can start running it.
clytie@riverland.net.au
SCSI or ATA???