Installation of Debian Wheezy/Sid on Quadra 650 from scratch.
I did this to check my 605 install and check out the new kernel and build candidate. The 2.6.38 kernel boots to console with this setup.
My specs were;
System is Macintosh Quadra 650
a 18GB 50 pin hd :)
138MB memory
AAUI<->10bT network adaptor and built-in AAUI
standard keyboard and mouse
14" Apple monitor
and another system with Linux
The linux install is about ~250MB, if you want more functionality you need more space. I don't run linux on smaller than 1GB partitions.
This system has a 500MB Mac 7.5 partition with penguin 0.19 running as the boot loader. Partition table is MacOS=/dev/sda3, Linux=/dev/sda6, (I had another install on 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-dev_20110315-1+b1_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 already had a set of partitions created with "HD SC Setup (patched)". You need space on the Mac partition for a system folder with networking, iCab, Penguin, 2 kernels, a ramdisk and possibly the Debian Image. You need to download the kernel and networking .debs, and the base-cow to your Mac partition and setup a MacOS system on the first mac partition. I downloaded these files to my webserver and the locally downloaded with iCab to the Qudara's Desktop. iCab out of the box needs the mv .. .gz or it mangles the kernel file as it transfers files as ascii by default.
otherSystem# wget http://people.debian.org/~tg/f/m68k/base.cow-m68k-20110513.tgz
otherSystem# wget http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian/pool-m68k/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.38-2-mac_2.6.38-5_m68k.deb
otherSystem# dpkg-deb -x linux-image-2.6.38-2-mac_2.6.38-5_m68k.deb .
otherSystem# mv boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-2-mac vmlinuz-2.6.38-2-mac.gz
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 /base.cow , mounted the mac partition under /mac that contained the Debian image.
ramdisk# mke2fs /dev/sda6
ramdisk# mkdir /mac /base.cow
ramdisk# mount -t ext2 /dev/sda6 /base.cow
ramdisk# mount -t hfs /dev/sda5 /mac
Copied the networking .debs and untarred the Debian image.
ramdisk# cp /mac/Desktop\ Folder/*deb /base.cow
ramdisk# tar zxvf /mac/Desktop\ Folder/base.cow-m68k-20110513.tgz
Went and watched a 1 hour TV program. (actually takes ~35 min) Came back, changed directory to base.cow, fixed root password (sed stripped the * from :*:), added lost+found, added a hostname, fixed the fstab, unmounted /mac and setup swap.
ramdisk# cd /base.cow
ramdisk# sed "s/root:*:/root::/" etc/shadow > etc/temp | mv etc/temp etc/shadow
ramdisk# mkdir lost+found
ramdisk# cat > etc/hostname
target
<control-D>
ramdisk# cat > etc/fstab
/dev/sda6 / ext2 defaults 1 0
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
<control-D>
ramdisk# umount /mac
ramdisk# cd /
ramdisk# umount /base.cow
ramdisk# mkswap /dev/sda5
then rebooted into new system using penguin 0.19. Command line on Options tab contained root=/dev/sda6 devtmpfs.mount=1 Selected the 2.6.38 kernel on the Kernel tab. Unchecked the ramdisk.
Logged in at prompt :)
Login: root
Set password, fixed the date (to 1am 20110514 UTC) and got networking going.
target# passwd
target# date -s "May 14 1 2011"
target# cd /
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 udev
Now I have a working, ssh'able Debian m68k computer! Boots in about 2 min, install is currently ~300MB and seems pretty stable with occasional 1-5 sec freezes. Install takes around 3 hours. There are probably a few other setups you will want to do, go play :)