Ubuntu/Kubuntu on Mac G5.

[Larry Grover]

Brian Durant wrote:
> On 24. jan 2006, at 3.35, Larry Grover wrote:
> 
>> I'm not sure why OSX won't boot, but perhaps it is related to the  
>> problem in setting the correct open firmware device name?
> 
> 
> Wow Larry, I am impressed:-) Well OK, fairly impressed. Now I can  boot 
> into Ubuntu, but OS X is still a no go. Yaboot simply can't load  OS X. 
> it tries, and the screen flickers, but nothing happens. After  three 
> tries, it says something like booting "Mac OS X..." and nothing  works, 
> so I have to do a hard reboot.

Whew!  Well it sounds like half your problem is sorted.

I'm quite puzzled by why OSX won't boot.  I know you've posted this 
before, but would you mind posting the following, from inside Ubuntu 
after you boot from your hard drive using yaboot:

(1) the output from "fdisk -l" /dev/sdb (your OSX system disk)

(2) the contents of your /etc/yaboot.conf file

> Any ideas will be appreciated. I am glad Ubuntu can boot, but I need  to 
> be able to boot both OS's and unplugging the hard drive every time  I 
> switch OS can't be an option.

Right, this is not a long-term solution.  I think there is something you 
can do in the interim, while you finish sorting out the problem with 
yaboot and OSX.

If you hold down the "option" key while you are booting your machine 
(start holding it down immediately after you power-on the machine or 
immediately after you start to reboot, and continue holding it down) you 
should get a graphical window showing you icons for all the bootable 
devices connected to your system (I think this is generated by 
OpenFirmware).  It should show you icons for both hard drives.  You can 
use the mouse to select your OSX or your Ubuntu drive, for booting.

You may find the following pages describe this better than me:
http://www.jacsoft.co.nz/Tech_Notes/Mac_Keys.htm
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303124

This is still inconvenient, but it is not as bad as having to go inside 
your case and manually disconnect or connect a hard drive.

> When I get this sorted, then I can get down to sorting Ubuntu out.  
> Windfarm, among other things isn't working :-(
> 
> Oh yeah, my path was as follows:
> 
> /ht at 0,f2000000/pci at 3/k2-sata-root at c/k2-sata at 0/disk at 0:

Regards,
Larry