Installing OS X over Linux problem

[Dinobrago]

I "inherited" a number of Mac G4s running Linux. I don't have the root password but I was planning on doing a clean install of OS X. When attempting to install OS X, the installer doesn't detect the internal scsi disk.

I believe that these are fairly vanilla machines and I see the same problem on each of the 4 machines.

Any ideas or suggestions of directions to investigate?

Thanks, Dino

 

[macmend]

it may not recognise the format of the disks, because it was done by a 3rd party disk utility.

When you get the first part of the install screen up, you should be able to go to the menu bar and go File>diks utility to launch the Disk Utility, from here you should be able to reformat the disk and replace the drivers, check and see if the disk utility can see them.

The get back to me macmend can be found at

http://www.macmend.com

 

[venkman]

you may need to boot a linux installer and totally repartition or unpartition your hard drive. As I recall the OS X disk utility (the part of OS X I hate the most, btw) does not recognize partitions made with the mac version of linux's fdisk.

If you still have linux on the computers, this will be much easier. Linux can repartition it's hard drives while running. Well...not actually. The partition changes are cached untill you reboot. If you boot to linux, you can use mac-fdisk to erase all the partitions, then reboot to the OS X cd.

-Venkman

 

[Dinobrago]

Very strange. Although the Disk Utility on the OS10 installer said that it formatted the disk, the Installer still did not see it. I tried the same thing with the "Install OS9 drivers" options and the problem was the same. While the disk drive utility would also partion the disk with no errors, the disk drive was still not visible to the installer.

After this, I tried the same thing with my OS9 installer. Again, didn't see the drive but at least the Disk Utility said "there is a problem" and would not format the disk. The two potential causes were an unrecognized driver or security software (not the problem).

 

[Jasen]

You don't need the root password for linux. At the ">boot:" prompt, type in "linux single", and it will boot to single user mode without asking for a password.
Also you could boot off of a yellowdog install floppy, and run it's fdisk program to delete all the partitions, then cancel the install.

You may also want to pull the jumper to reset the nvram. Yellowdog does alter a couple settings there as well if I remember correctly. ________
Remember, you're unique... just like everyone else.

 

[venkman]

Jasen-

Can you boot to single user mode in yellow dog? I thought redhat based linuxes still asked for the root password when you tried this. If this is the case there is a way around this by running the kernel and the bash shell and nothing else after boot. I can't remember the correct command for this though, and the book that I saw it in is at home.

-Venkman

 

[Dinobrago]

I will give all this a try today and report back.
-d

 

[Dinobrago]

OK.

1 - I couldn't boot ydl in single user mode, at least not the way jasen suggested.
2 - Resetting the nvram didn't help

Right now I am burning a ydl install disk to give that a try.

 

[venkman]

Were you able to boot ydl at all?

 

[Dinobrago]

Yes, I can boot the machines on ydl but, unfortunately, I do not have the root password or any account passwords for any of these machines.

I have been able to get OS X 10.1 running on a number of G4s (I have about 20) but I have not resolved the problem on the other machines. So now I have two piles - those with OSX and those with problems.

So on the machines with problems, how does reinstalling ydl help me if my goal is to get OSX running on them? Well, at least I'll know the root password and I can use fdisk to check the disks but I don't imagine that there are any utilities in ydl that will help me on the Mac side.

BTW, I see that it will cost $$ to go to 10.2. Is there any particular advantage over 10.1.3 (besides planned obselence)?

d-

 

[venkman]

During the first part of the ydl install there is a part where you re-partition the hard drive. You want to go up through this part of the install, and then reboot the machine with the os x cd. But if you can wait a day, I'll look up in my linux hacks book on how to log in to root without the root password. I'll post the instructions then.

-Venkman

 

[venkman]

Okay, here's the instructions I found:
From the lilo boot prompt (or ybin equivalent I guess for macs), type :

linux init=/bin/bash

This put's you into a shell prompt. From there type:
mount -o remount,rw /

This remounts the hard drive as read-write (which is the default mode you are in) so that you can change the password. Now type
passwd

This will ask you for the new root password. once you have entered this type:

mount -o remount,ro /

This remounts the hard drive as read-only, and thus commits the password change you made.
Now reboot the mac (power off, power on using the physical power buttons). boot into linux and login as root. From there you can run fdisk... probably will be:

fdisk /dev/hda

or

fdisk /dev/sda1

second one is for scsi drives, which I've never used, so I'm not sure if thats the correct name for the scsi device. maybe someone else who knows better can correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh, and all this is is paraphrased from the O'Reily book: Linux Server Hacks. Hopefully, I won't get sued for copyright infringement. :/

Good luck!

-Venkman

 

[Jasen]

Somehow I doubt they can copyright shell commands.
Every sysadmin out there would be sued just for using their OS! ________
Remember, you're unique... just like everyone else.

 

[Dinobrago]

Well, as far as I can tell, the common factor has been these SCSI disks and/or SCSI card. The scsi card is an Atto Express PCI UL2D. When I used the YDL install (2.3), it also has problems and cannot format the drives (same problem with OSX install). It's is probably a function of the driver/firmware in the card because there are several that seem to work fine.

We decided that it is cheaper & easier simply to replace the SCSI disk & card with IDE drives. So it doesn't "solve" the problem but it certainly resolves it.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[Jasen]

Have you tried the SCSI utility Atto has on their website? It might help.

http://www.attotech.com/software/app1.html

________
Remember, you're unique... just like everyone else.

 

[Dinobrago]

I finally resolved the problems but getting OS X 10.2.5 running on one machine. THen I took the offending SCSI card and disk and installed it on the running Mac. I was able to format the disks there and subsequently return the disks to the another Mac. I had no problem installing OS X on the SCSI drives there (The Atto SCSI utility did not work for this older SCSI UL2D cards).

Ultimately, I think the problem was related to missing drivers on the install disk and/or the formatting of the disk under Linux.

Again, thanks everyone for the advice.