FC4 cannot be installed on iMac G5

[Ramón Rey Vicente]

First thing before continuing reading:  FC4 cannot be installed on  
iMac G5.  Although I asked in the list if iMac G5 were supported and  
I received the answer of which "it would have to work" :), it does  
not work. My intention was to have only GNU/Linux installed, so I  
made a backup of the data and reboot.

I first boot appeared this message

"hvc_console: no vty associated with tty"

In the next boots of the installation dvd, dont.

The installation starts, first in text mode.  It detects and it loads  
drivers of the disk controller SATA and of USB and it asks to me if I  
want to verify the integrity of the disc, I skipped it and  
automatically detect the video card, the mouse and the monitor and  
run the graphical system of installation, Anaconda.

I choose language, I select keyboard and some error messages appeared

"The partition data region doesn´t occupy the entire partition"

"Attempt to read 16-18 outside of partition on /dev/sda"

Switching to terminal show me this

"Parted exception"

I choose "desktop" and then "automatic partitioning" (or something  
similar) and select erase the existing partitions.  All good and  
error messages continue appearing (nothing fatal).  When appears the  
button to begin the installation and I think was the moment to make  
the filesystems on the disc, appeared a message of new error, and  
this it does not have return back, the installer has failed when  
trying to create the partitions.

Second try. Reading the debugging messages I deduced that the  
automatic partitioning uses LVM and thought a related command has  
failed.  Great deception.  So I tried again until the installation  
system got the moment that appeared Anaconda. The I take the terminal  
and using fdisk, I deleted all the partitions and created a new  
partitions profile with a Darwin bootstrap of 1 MB included. Wrote  
the partitions table, I swith to Anaconda again and using the custom  
installation and partitioning

Is the moment of  the package installation and... begins to  
install.   Half an hour later it finishes.  It appears a message  
saying that it executes post-installation command and installs the  
booting manager .  Reboot and..  plonk!  Nothing.  A blinking icon  
notifies to me that there is nothing to boot.  The installation  
system has not worked properly again.

Whats happening?

[Michael A. Peters]

On Wed, 2005-06-15 at 00:11 +0200, Ramon Rey Vicente wrote:

>  
>  Is the moment of  the package installation and... begins to  
>  install.   Half an hour later it finishes.  It appears a message  
>  saying that it executes post-installation command and installs the  
>  booting manager .  Reboot and..  plonk!  Nothing.  A blinking icon  
>  notifies to me that there is nothing to boot.  The installation  
>  system has not worked properly again.
>  
>  Whats happening? 
I don't know about the above stuff I snipped, but did you have SELinux
configured?
I was unable to get a successful rawhide install with SELinux enabled on
a G3 iMac (summer 2000) - always failing at the post-installation
command.

I did not try with SELinux for FC4 final.

[Ramón Rey Vicente]

El 15/06/2005, a las 1:45, Michael A. Peters escribió:

>  I don't know about the above stuff I snipped, but did you have
> SELinux
>  configured?
>  I was unable to get a successful rawhide install with SELinux  
>  enabled on
>  a G3 iMac (summer 2000) - always failing at the post-installation
>  command.
>
>  I did not try with SELinux for FC4 final. 
Selinux was active. Mmmm, great tip, tomorrow I´ll try without  
SELinux :-)

[Ramón Rey Vicente]

El 15/06/2005, a las 1:45, Michael A. Peters escribió:

>  I don't know about the above stuff I snipped, but did you have
> SELinux
>  configured?
>  I was unable to get a successful rawhide install with SELinux  
>  enabled on
>  a G3 iMac (summer 2000) - always failing at the post-installation
>  command.
>
>  I did not try with SELinux for FC4 final. 
Same problem with SELinux disabled. The installation finished and  
then, reboot and nothing more, blinking icon...

--
Ramón Rey Vicente
http://ramonrey.net

[Paul Nasrat]

On Wed, 2005-06-15 at 18:57 +0200, Ramón Rey Vicente wrote:
>  El 15/06/2005, a las 1:45, Michael A. Peters escribió:
>  
>  > I don't know about the above stuff I snipped, but did you have SELinux
>  > configured?
>  > I was unable to get a successful rawhide install with SELinux  
>  > enabled on
>  > a G3 iMac (summer 2000) - always failing at the post-installation
>  > command.
>  >
>  > I did not try with SELinux for FC4 final.
>  
>  Same problem with SELinux disabled. The installation finished and  
>  then, reboot and nothing more, blinking icon... 
Can you try the following:

boot into OF (cmd option of)

printenv boot-device

Let me know what that is.

Also try booting CD1 into rescue mode:

boot: linux rescue

See whether we find your system install and partitions.

attach /mnt/sysimage/etc/yaboot.conf
parted /dev/hda print (or whatever drive you have).

Without more data it's impossible to debug what happened.

Paul