Linux on a PowerMac 6100
First, if your PowerMac 6100 sounds a welcome tone, the hard disk spins up, and then ... nothing check the battery. The nominal voltage of the battery is 3.6, and according to Apple it should be replaced if it falls below 3.2 volt. This is a little conservative, a 3 volt battery will work, i.e. your mac will boot, but the date may be wrong. I have made a contraption consisting of 2 AA/LR6 batteries.
The following pages includes instructions on how to install Linux on a Nubus PowerMac (including the 6100):
If you follow the instructions above, the installation should be
relatively pain free. I used Mac OS 8.1 which can fit on 50 MB disk space. I
have used Yellow Dog 1.2.1 which may be downloaded
here or
here. I also
encountered a problem on the first start up after installation the
/etc/fstab file was missing, causing the root file system to be mounted as read
only. After reading some man pages I was able to mount it as read/write with
this command:
mount -n -o remount -w /dev/sda5
/
After which a fstab file was made:
/dev/sda5 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/sda6 swap
swap defaults 0 0
/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom auto
user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0
0
I have no idea if this is correct, but it seems to work.
Norwegian keyboard? Download mac-no-ext.kmap which works in console but not with X-windows.
August or September 1956 - is this the date after boot? Then probably your battery voltage is too low. If you have a network connection, a work-around follows: Copy the lines below to /etc/rc.d/init.d/rdate and then create symbolic links to this file from /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S12rdate through /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S12rdate.
#!/bin/sh
# set system clock - battery doesn't
seem to keep the clock ticking when
# the mac is switched off. If the first
doesn't work, try one of the other.
# knut 17/7-02
# a very crude way of checking if the computer is
connected to a network:
# if "ifconfig eth0|wc -l" returns 6, then the
network is not running (it is 7
# if it is running).
if [ `ifconfig
eth0|wc -l` = "6" ] then
exit 1
fi
# get date
rdate -s time.nrc.ca
#rdate -s
131.188.34.45
#rdate -s time.uconn.edu
#rdate -s time.nist.gov
#rdate -s time_b.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
exit 0
My name is Knut Backe and you may contact me via e-mail; knut.reitan.backe@ntnu.no. Last updated 6 August 2002.