Installing Debian on PowerBook

[Alan DuBoff]

I finally got a new PowerBook (geez, that took some time;-) and can't get it
to recognize the Debian CD as being bootable.

I looked over the FAQs and such, and did get into the Open Firmware, but
couldn't change anything that would let it boot from the CD.

Does anyone know the secret to installing on a PowerBook?

I'll cc Daniel Jacobowitz as he is probably the person to answer this...just
thought some of you in the Bay area might have done this before...Dan, you
gave me 2 CDs at LinuxWorld in March/April, and I ended up downloading the iso
image to make a CD here, thinking it may have changed, but I get the same
results, MacOS tells me it's not bootable. Do I need to change something in
Open Firmware?

Damn, it's amazing how long this PowerBook lasts on batteries...It can
actually play an entire DVD on batteries...amazing...it lasts for about 6
hours of normal PC usage...the PowerPC rocks! (and no refrigerator cooling
pack needed on the CPU;-).

For extra credit, the PowerBook has a keyboard and mouse on it, I was thinking
I couldn't use a second keyboard unless I upgraded to the 2.4 kernel (which is
where I remember USB support being). Is that correct? The Mac uses USB for the
serial though, so it might not allow me to use one of the USB->Serial adapters
without the 2.4 kernel. Maybe someone can set me straight on that...

I'm trying to get the hard disk re-partitioned so that it will have a 800k
partition for yaboot, and be able to boot Mac OSX or Debian. I don't think
it's possible to run mac-fdisk from the MacOS9 on it now, so think I either
need a bootable CD or do a floppy boot, which I don't have a floppy to use
for...:-(

-- 

Alan DuBoff
Software Orchestration, Inc.