[vsurfer]

After reading a good part of the SuSE manual, it seems to skip over the obvious question. How do I choose, at startup, whichOS I want to boot into. Naturally Linux, OSX and OS9 will be on separate partitions, but how do I get say Mac OS to be the default, and, if I want, boot into Linux by say pressing some key combination at startup. Or could i get it to load from the OXS CLI?

(Mac-on-Linux is not exactly the solution I am looking for and looks liek it will be a bear to config anyway. What I am really looking for is dual boot, or even triple boot: OSX; OS9; Linux)

Many thanks in advance.

____

PS I am asking these questions in advance of my installation, cos I know once I hit the CD-ROMS, reformat my drive and install 3 OSes simultaneously - well it might be a while before I get back up and running !!

[jimbobkeler]

Originally posted by vsurfer:
<STRONG>After reading a good part of the SuSE manual, it seems to skip over the obvious question. How do I choose, at startup, whichOS I want to boot into. Naturally Linux, OSX and OS9 will be on separate partitions, but how do I get say Mac OS to be the default, and, if I want, boot into Linux by say pressing some key combination at startup. Or could i get it to load from the OXS CLI?

(Mac-on-Linux is not exactly the solution I am looking for and looks liek it will be a bear to config anyway. What I am really looking for is dual boot, or even triple boot: OSX; OS9; Linux)

</STRONG>

The short answer is it depends. The long answer is a little more involved. You end up making new partitions and reformatting them. Then depending on what distribution you are tying to run and the type of loader it uses it gets fuzzy. Just going by what I have and what I have been going through I can give you an idea, just remember that your linux distro can be totally different!

1 You should have a relatively small mac hfs partition called /boot. Linux will put a folder in there that looks and tastes like a system folder, but really boots your computer into linux. Once you change this partition over to your startup disc via the startup disc control panel, your computer fires up, starts to load the OS, finds the new system folder, and loads linux. The first time it does this (and usually every time after) a screen pops up with a countdown timer asking which partition to boot off of and allowing you to type in any partition (hope you wrote down the partitions) . If things get really messy you can usually boot off of a mac os cd by holding down the c key during startup, then change your startup disc back to the origional, and play with things from there.

2 If you have a new world computer and a nice new distro, things get a lot slicker, but the chances to screw up are greater. This time you shoehorn into the open firmware of the system and change what the computer does before it even tries to boot. Yaboot is probably the loader you would use, but all is subject to change. With things installed, up, and running linux, you find the yaboot configuration file and lightly massage it in a text editor, run ybin and roboot. And Viola! you hope. A place to look and ask is

here If you're very astute you will notice I asked the very same question recently.

Hope I didn't confuse you more, or turn you off of Linux, 'cuz its kinda fun to mess with. Until you really get into it it'll seem like the linux developers are about as organized as a herd of kittens in a thunderstorm, but they get things done. (they still look like a herd of kittens to me, but I'm not far enough into it yet)

Jimbob

[jimbobkeler]

Originally posted by vsurfer:
<STRONG>After reading a good part of the SuSE manual, it seems to skip over the obvious question. How do I choose, at startup, whichOS I want to boot into. Naturally Linux, OSX and OS9 will be on separate partitions, but how do I get say Mac OS to be the default, and, if I want, boot into Linux by say pressing some key combination at startup. Or could i get it to load from the OXS CLI?

(Mac-on-Linux is not exactly the solution I am looking for and looks liek it will be a bear to config anyway. What I am really looking for is dual boot, or even triple boot: OSX; OS9; Linux)

</STRONG>

The short answer is it depends. The long answer is a little more involved. You end up making new partitions and reformatting them. Then depending on what distribution you are tying to run and the type of loader it uses it gets fuzzy. Just going by what I have and what I have been going through I can give you an idea, just remember that your linux distro can be totally different!

1 You should have a relatively small mac hfs partition called /boot. Linux will put a folder in there that looks and tastes like a system folder, but really boots your computer into linux. Once you change this partition over to your startup disc via the startup disc control panel, your computer fires up, starts to load the OS, finds the new system folder, and loads linux. The first time it does this (and usually every time after) a screen pops up with a countdown timer asking which partition to boot off of and allowing you to type in any partition (hope you wrote down the partitions) . If things get really messy you can usually boot off of a mac os cd by holding down the c key during startup, then change your startup disc back to the origional, and play with things from there.

2 If you have a new world computer and a nice new distro, things get a lot slicker, but the chances to screw up are greater. This time you shoehorn into the open firmware of the system and change what the computer does before it even tries to boot. Yaboot is probably the loader you would use, but all is subject to change. With things installed, up, and running linux, you find the yaboot configuration file and lightly massage it in a text editor, run ybin and roboot. And Viola! you hope. A place to look and ask is

here If you're very astute you will notice I asked the very same question recently.

Hope I didn't confuse you more, or turn you off of Linux, 'cuz its kinda fun to mess with. Until you really get into it it'll seem like the linux developers are about as organized as a herd of kittens in a thunderstorm, but they get things done. (they still look like a herd of kittens to me, but I'm not far enough into it yet)

Jimbob

[vsurfer]

Jimbob,

No don't worry I'm not turned off.

I got into it realizing I was going to have to mess with .conf files and whatnot.

What concerns me most is that my instincts tell me that the latest iMac open firmware update 4.1.9 may well now interfere with booting Linux. I read this on the SuSE site:

&lt;&lt;Apple Cronology

* January 2001
* [b]These machines have a newer firmware, the bootloader is unable to open the textmode[/B}
* iMacs can be used with 7.1
* Cube, Titanium Powerbook G4 can be used with 7.1
* G4 can be used with 7.1, the Radeon and nVidia cards are unsupported, remove the SCSI card, onboard ethernet may not work
* iBook2 works (unconfirmed), enter "boot cd:,\\yaboot" on the firmware prompt.


* August 2000
* These machines have a newer firmware, the bootloader is unable to open the textmode
* G4, Cube, iMac, iBook, Powerbook can be used with 7.0, kernel 2.2.18 recommended
* the available Radeoncards are unsupported&gt;&gt;


Hmmm, would seem to imply that the latest firmware update that i ought to activate when i install OS 10.1, is going to preclude SuSE Linux?

[Yuzzum]

Hi!

I'm new to all this so bear with me, please.

I have simmilar, but not quite the same problem. I've installen Mandrake/PPC 8.0 on my "New World" iBook (G3 500). If I hold down the option (alt) key while booting, I come to a screen wich gives me two choises, either boot Mac OS or Mandrake. I then choose Mandrake and I come to a screen where I can choose l or m or 2-3 other options. I choose m and come to an other screen saying "Boot:"

I do nothing an after a little while the login/boot continues, and every thing seems to be running along smoothly. But then, while the message "Detecting USB interface" is shown, the whole thing freezes.

Can anyone help?

Cheers,

Peder

[ 12-06-2001: Message edited by: Yuzzum ]

[v0id7]

sounds like compatibility issue, you might want to check the hardware support on linux-mandrake.com

Originally posted by v0id7:
<STRONG>sounds like compatibility issue, you might want to check the hardware support on linux-mandrake.com</STRONG>

I have an iMac and am wondering what do you think the best Linux distribution is for me since I have never used Linux before. I have a DV 400.