Successfull 6.4 install via USB thumb to PowerBook3.5 (Titanium IV), PowerBook5,8 (G4 15")

[Wolfgang Pfeiffer]

Hi everyone,

First off:

  Thanks, lots, to everyone having made it possible to install OpenBSD
  to these two old and dear Macintosh Powerbooks - the hardware on
  both of them - after minor repairs - after that many years seems be
  still okay - which is close to a being a miracle given that nowadays
  hardware does not seem to be even close as robust as the one on
  these two machines. One of those Macintoshs is from 2002, the other
  one from 2006.

This message isn't an installation report - just a quick note that an
install with these two images, dd-ed to a USB drive, installed
successfully OpenBSD to both machines.

Images used:

install64.iso
 sha256sum:
66924962734ca189657d9e37c9d9f59488cbd3d15ccceaa429794f759fcda587

and
install65.iso - downloaded a few days ago
 sha256sum:
4ed18cf0bc3b7205bd25b2c58cbd20c82e83056613c1601b03a1b9289c672c6f

[    note 0:
  6.5 was unable to pull new packages after the successful basic
  install - with messages along the line of:

   "Can't install ... can't resolve package ..."

   ... no idea what went wrong.  6.4 seems to work when installing new
   packages after the initial install.
     
     note 1:
  Both installers, IIRC, 6.5 and 6.4, don't ask for a keyboard
  language setup. So be careful about the passwords you type in
  during the install procedure.   ]

A quick instruction on the install via USB:

You need to enter Open Firmware mode of your Macintosh: after powering
on the machine quickly hold down

   <Apple Key>-<Alt> plus O and F

Keep holding all four keys until OF shows up.

At the OF prompt type:

0 > dev / ls

        A device tree is drawn: Search for lines like those:

     /pci@f2000000
      /usb@18
        /disk@1

        Note they are mixed with other lines in the tree. And they
        might look different on your machine, like e.g.
   
    /pci@f2000000
      /usb@15
        /disk@1
     
        Now type:

0> devalias
       
        Look for lines that match a /usb number from above: one might
        look like so:

     usb0  pci@f000000/@15

        Here's the final part that worked here. Type something like
        this - taking into account the last example line from OF, and
        the ones above ("/usb@15 /disk@1") to boot the openbsd
        installer:

boot usb0/disk@1:2,ofwboot /6.4/macppc/bsd.rd
       
        You have lots more details on this usb install on the
        following page - a page that was instrumental to help me
        understand this install mode:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2012/08/msg00042.html

After successfully installing the two mentioned images I didn't have a
known boot manager like grub, yaboot etc.. instead I again needed
to enter OF:

Once there
         
        boot hd:,ofwboot /bsd

   might work right after install of OBSD 6.4 if the OS boot fails. To
   see whether this works repeat looking at the output in OF from
   above:

   dev / ls
and
   devalias

Please also note:
https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.4/macppc/INSTALL.macppc
and this part of that page:

---------------
  Autobooting OpenBSD/macppc

      It is possible to automatically boot into OpenBSD (selectably
      into Mac OS) by setting up the following:

setenv auto-boot? true
setenv boot-device hd:,ofwboot

     [to save the results into NVRAM]
reset-all
----------------

Might be a good idea to update INSTALL.macppc instructions, provided a
few more installs by others can verify the described procedure.

Anyways: preliminary, quick patch draft is attached below. Diff done
to an INSTALL.macppc being already a few days old.

Thanks again!

And success to the lucky ones still having an old PPC Macintosh
around ... :)

Regards,
Wolfgang

The diff:

--- INSTALL.macppc 2019-02-26 23:41:53.297984851 +0100
+++ INSTALL.macppc.new 2019-03-11 16:39:37.853061662 +0100
@@ -226,6 +226,7 @@
  HFS partitions (bootloader/kernel only, using another media for d/l)
  Remote NFS partition
  HTTP
+ USB
 
 The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation
 depend on which method of installation you choose.  Some methods
@@ -295,6 +296,47 @@
  Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the
  information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next
  step in the installation or upgrade process.
+
+
+You can also boot the installer with a USB thumb: To do that enter
+Open Firmware - see below how to do that. At the OF prompt type
+
+0 > dev / ls
+
+     A device tree is drawn: Search for lines like those:
+
+     /pci@f2000000
+      /usb@18
+        /disk@1
+
+        Note they are mixed with other lines in the tree. And they
+        might look different on your machine, like
+    
+    /pci@f2000000
+      /usb@15
+        /disk@1
+    
+ Now type:
+
+0> devalias
+
+ Look for lines that match a /usb number from above: one might
+ look like so:
+
+     usb0  pci@f000000/@15
+
+ Here's the final part. Type something like this - taking into
+ account the last example line from OF, and the ones above
+ ("/usb@15 /disk@1") to boot the openbsd installer:
+
+boot usb0/disk@1:2,ofwboot /6.4/macppc/bsd.rd
+        
+ You have lots more details on this usb install on the
+ following page - a page that was instrumental to get this
+ USB install working:
+
+https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2012/08/msg00042.html
+
 
 If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
 OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your

[Wolfgang Pfeiffer]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 04:56:05PM +0100, Wolfgang Pfeiffer wrote:

>This message isn't an installation report - just a quick note that an
>install with these two images, dd-ed to a USB drive, installed
>successfully OpenBSD to both machines.

Note: 6.5 was only installed to the PowerBook5,8, IIRC. Version 6.4 is
now on both machines.

Wolfgang

>
>Images used:
>
>install64.iso
>sha256sum:
>66924962734ca189657d9e37c9d9f59488cbd3d15ccceaa429794f759fcda587
>
>and
>install65.iso - downloaded a few days ago
>sha256sum:
>4ed18cf0bc3b7205bd25b2c58cbd20c82e83056613c1601b03a1b9289c672c6f

[Christoph R. Winter]

Hello !

Good to hear, that things are working.

> [    note 0:
>  6.5 was unable to pull new packages after the successful basic
>  install - with messages along the line of:
>
>   "Can't install ... can't resolve package ..."
>
>   ... no idea what went wrong.  6.4 seems to work when installing new
>   packages after the initial install.

Check your /etc/installurl or, your $PKG_PATH as 6.5 is not out now so,
you need to replace it with snapshots, even uname reports, that it is
6.5.

>         note 1:
>  Both installers, IIRC, 6.5 and 6.4, don't ask for a keyboard
>  language setup. So be careful about the passwords you type in
>  during the install procedure.   ]
>

That is normal on this platform.

> If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
> OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your

Is there something missing ?

Regards,


Christoph

[Wolfgang Pfeiffer]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 06:52:12PM +0100, [hidden email] wrote:

>Hello !
>
>Good to hear, that things are working.
>
>>[    note 0:
>> 6.5 was unable to pull new packages after the successful basic
>> install - with messages along the line of:
>>
>>  "Can't install ... can't resolve package ..."
>>
>>  ... no idea what went wrong.  6.4 seems to work when installing new
>>  packages after the initial install.
>
>Check your /etc/installurl or, your $PKG_PATH as 6.5 is not out now
>so, you need to replace it with snapshots, even uname reports, that it
>is 6.5.

Aah, glad to hear I was just missing out on something ... might try
6.5 again .. ;)

>
>>        note 1:
>> Both installers, IIRC, 6.5 and 6.4, don't ask for a keyboard
>> language setup. So be careful about the passwords you type in
>> during the install procedure.   ]
>>
>
>That is normal on this platform.

Might be nice to warn people about it: I think I only was careful
about the keyboard because I was messing with Open Firmware long
enough before the install to remember the QWERTY keyboard .. ;)

Updated patch for INSTALL.macppc, attached .. ;)

>
>>If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
>>OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your
>
>Is there something missing ?

I assume you refer to the regular fresh install, right? If yes: No,
perfect: except my surprise after the install seeing a blinking folder
only, after rebooting to an otherwise empty screen ... ;)

I intend to send an install report as soon as I have my mail system on
6.4 up and running. (dmesg output etc ..) ... or get USB thumbs
mounted on OBSD to transfer the reports to a Linux system ... :)

Regards,
Wolfgang

updated diff:

--- INSTALL.macppc 2019-02-26 23:41:53.297984851 +0100
+++ INSTALL.macppc.new 2019-03-11 21:04:30.751223925 +0100
@@ -226,6 +226,7 @@
  HFS partitions (bootloader/kernel only, using another media for d/l)
  Remote NFS partition
  HTTP
+ USB
 
 The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation
 depend on which method of installation you choose.  Some methods
@@ -295,6 +296,47 @@
  Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the
  information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next
  step in the installation or upgrade process.
+
+
+You can also boot the installer with a USB thumb: To do that enter
+Open Firmware - see below how to do that. At the OF prompt type
+
+0 > dev / ls
+
+     A device tree is drawn: Search for lines like those:
+
+     /pci@f2000000
+      /usb@18
+        /disk@1
+
+        Note they are mixed with other lines in the tree. And they
+        might look different on your machine, like
+    
+    /pci@f2000000
+      /usb@15
+        /disk@1
+    
+ Now type:
+
+0> devalias
+
+ Look for lines that match a /usb number from above: one might
+ look like so:
+
+     usb0  pci@f000000/@15
+
+ Here's the final part. Type something like this - taking into
+ account the last example line from OF, and the ones above
+ ("/usb@15 /disk@1") to boot the openbsd installer:
+
+boot usb0/disk@1:2,ofwboot /6.4/macppc/bsd.rd
+        
+ You have lots more details on this usb install on the
+ following page - a page that was instrumental to get this
+ USB install working:
+
+https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2012/08/msg00042.html
+
 
 If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
 OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your
@@ -1019,9 +1061,12 @@
 When prompted, select the (U)pgrade option rather than the (I)nstall
 option at the prompt in the install process.
 
-You will be presented with a welcome message, and depending on how you are
-connected to the system, you will be asked to set the terminal type or to
-choose a keyboard layout.
+You will be presented with a welcome message, and depending on how you
+are connected to the system, you will be asked to set the terminal
+type or to choose a keyboard layout. But normally on this platform you
+won't be asked for a keyboard layout. So be aware you have a QWERTY
+keyboard when later on during the install you'll be asked for typing
+in passwords.
 
 The upgrade script will ask you for the existing root partition, and
 will use the existing filesystems defined in /etc/fstab to install the

[Christoph R. Winter]

> I assume you refer to the regular fresh install, right? If yes: No,
> perfect:

Nope, just thought copy and paste was not completed.