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Today we're going to try and install Debian 11 Sid on a PowerMac G5, which is known to have a broken bootloader and almost installing from the netinstall CD. The catch is I've already successfully installed it once, but I don't remember exactly how I did it. So today, let's try to reproduce the install for posterity, and then explore bleedingedge Debian Linux on a 20 year old Power Mac!

LINKS:

Download Debian Sid for ppc64: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/po...
Debian Sid MacRumors forum: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/...
The PowerProgress community: https://www.powerprogress.org/en/
TinkerDifferent: https://tinkerdifferent.com/

INSTRUCTIONS TO INSTALL & FIX BOOTLOADER:

1. Boot from the Debian ppc64 Netinstall ISO linked above
2. Choose "Default Install"
3. Run through the simple prompts in the installer, use the full disk during partitioning, and choosing all defaults is fine.
4. When you get the message about GRUB install failing, IMMEDIATELY press AltF2 to open a console, and hit enter to start it.
5. Type the following:
chroot /target
wget https://repo.powerprogress.org/debian...
chmod u+x grubfix32.sh
./grubfix32.sh /dev/sda2 (or whatever your partition was called during partitioning)
6. If you see "GRUB installed with no errors reported" in the wall of text, you're good! Press AltF1 to go back to the install, and choose "Install without bootloader"
7. Run through the rest of the prompts, and reboot into your shiny new Debian install!

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#Macintosh #Linux #PowerPC