Installation of Debian Sid on Quadra 605 from scratch.

I have an old Quadra 605 that was gathering dust so I decided to install Debian once Thorsten Glaser had updated and compiled gcc 4.4 and associated libs. I was following this on the m68k mailing list.

My specs were;
System is Quadra 605 with FPU upgrade (because some Mac m68k cpu's can't run Linux)
a 1GB 50 pin hd
138mB memory
AAUI<->10bT network adaptor and PDS AAUI card
standard keyboard and mouse
14" Apple monitor
and another system with Linux

This system has a 50MB Mac 7.5 partition with penguin 0.19 running as the boot loader. Partition table is MacOS=/dev/sda3, Linux=/dev/sda4, swap=/dev/sda5. I recommend a minimum of 32mB ram and 1gB hard disk, if you have a more use it. I did not alter the Mac startup partition, you may need an external drive or a Disk Tools disk if you need to alter the Mac Startup Partition.

Before starting, check the system can run linux by downloading Penguin and starting the kernel and ramdisk pair. Once you have made it to the "Please press Enter to activate the console." prompt, press <enter> and then type reboot Now that we know the system can boot Linux, BACKUP all data and then check that you can read it. Now you are ready to partition.

Required files:
A way to partition to AU/X under macOS. I used "HD SC Setup (patched)"
A kernel / ramdisk pair. (anyone want to make a recent pair and put them on SF.net?)
A recent kernel
Penguin 0.19
A Debian Image (thanks to Thorsten Glaser)
And since the above image does not have Mac networking.
net-tools_1.60-23_m68k.deb
iproute_20100519-3_m68k.deb
ifupdown_0.6.10_m68k.deb
dhcp3-common_3.1.2p1-1_m68k.deb
dhcp3-client_3.1.2p1-1_m68k.deb

This is a destructive process, anything on your HD will pretty much be toast. Last chance to back out. The finished system is only a ssh'able command prompt, don't expect too much from old macs.

I created new set of partitions with "HD SC Setup (patched)". I recommend a Mac startup partition size min 50mb (you need space for a system folder with networking, iCab, Penguin, 2 kernels and a ramdisk), a second mac partition min of 100mb at the end of the drive, with AU/X for the remainder (~850mB) in the middle.

Downloaded the image to another computer, xz decompressed and then gzipped the .tar image. Downloaded the new kernel and changed filename, tarred kernel modules.

otherSystem# wget http://people.debian.org/~tg/f/m68k/base.cow-m68k-20110204.txz
otherSystem# xz -d base.cow-m68k-20110204.txz
otherSystem# gzip base.cow-m68k-20110204.tar
otherSystem# wget http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian/pool-m68k/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.32-5+m68k.5-mac_2.6.32-30+m68k.5_m68k.deb
otherSystem# dpkg-deb -x linux-image-2.6.32-5+m68k.5-mac_2.6.32-30+m68k.5_m68k.deb .
otherSystem# mv boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5+m68k.5-mac vmlinux-2.6.32-5.gz
otherSystem# tar cvf lib.tar lib

I setup the startup partition with min system folder with networking, iCab, kernels, ramdisk and penguin on the startup mac partition. I then copied all the .deb's, the lib.tar and the gzipped debian image to the second mac partition (this become swap later :). I did this by placing them on my webserver and downloading them using iCab.

Booted into old system using penguin 0.19. Command line on Options tab contained root=/dev/ram , Selected the 2.6.21 kernel and ramdisk pair on the Kernel tab.

Pressed enter at the prompt, formatted new target partition to ext2 with mke2fs and mounted target system under /target, mounted the second mac partition under /mac

ramdisk# mke2fs /dev/sda4
ramdisk# mkdir /mac /target
ramdisk# mount -t ext2 /dev/sda4 /target
ramdisk# mount -t hfs /dev/sda5 /mac

Changed directory to target, copied the debs and untarred the image.

ramdisk# cd /target
ramdisk# cp /mac/*deb .
ramdisk# tar zxvf base.cow-m68k-20110204.tar.gz

Went and watched a 1 hour TV program. :) Came back, changed directory to base.cow, fixed root password (sed stripped the * from :*:), moved all files to the root of /dev/sda4, added kernel modules, added lost+found, added a hostname, fixed the fstab, unmounted /mac and setup swap.

ramdisk# cd /target/base.cow
ramdisk# grep root /etc/shadow
<-- showed the line root:*:15009::::::
ramdisk# sed 's/root:*:15009/root::15009/' etc/shadow > etc/temp | mv etc/temp etc/shadow
ramdisk# mv * ..
ramdisk# cd /target
ramdisk# cp /mac/lib.tar .
ramdisk# tar xvf lib.tar
ramdisk# mkdir lost+found
ramdisk# echo "target" > etc/hostname
ramdisk# echo "/dev/sda4 / ext2 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 0
ramdisk> /dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
ramdisk> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0" > etc/fstab
ramdisk# umount /mac
ramdisk# mkswap /dev/sda5

then rebooted into new system using penguin 0.19. Command line on Options tab contained root=/dev/sda4 devtmpfs.mount=1 Selected the 2.6.32 kernel on the Kernel tab. Unchecked the ramdisk.

Logged in at prompt :)

Login: root

Set password, fixed the date and got networking going.

target# passwd
target# date -s "Feb 16 0 2011"
target# dpkg-deb -x net-tools_1.60-23_m68k.deb .
target# dpkg-deb -x iproute_20100519-3_m68k.deb .
target# dpkg-deb -x ifupdown_0.6.10_m68k.deb .
target# dpkg-deb -x dhcp3-common_3.1.2p1-1_m68k.deb .
target# dpkg-deb -x dhcp3-client_3.1.2p1-1_m68k.deb .
target# dhclient

then updated apt.

target# apt-get update
target# apt-get install dialog apt-utils
target# apt-get install ssh ntpdate ifupdown lockfile-progs iproute dhcp3-client nano procps

Tried to open a second console with Option-F2, passwd was not working so redid passwd.

target# dpkg-reconfigure passwd
target# passwd

Now I have a working, ssh'able Debian m68k computer! (though the init.d script doesn't yet boot dhclient automatically at start?). Boots in about 1 min, install is currently ~300mB and seems pretty stable with occasional 1-5 sec freezes. Install takes around 2-4 hours. There are probably a few other setups you will want to do, go play :)

Michael 20110217