Installing FreeBSD 6.2 on PowerPC 7400 (G4)

[Robin Stevens]

Hey guys.

I'm about to install FreeBSD 6.2 (or attempt to) on my PowerPC 7400
(G4) 400Mhz Tower.
Specs: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_400_agp.html

I tried a day ago, but ran into problems, and well, I tried installing
some other distributions.

My first attempt after FreeBSD was NetBSD. I was having problems with
that too, so I THOUGHT I was installing OpenBSD, but I had put the
wrong disc in the drive, and ended up installing Debian (which btw,
was very easy, so that was nice). Well, Debian isn't what I'm used
too. I'm used to BSD's and frankly, I feel they are more stable, but
thats another topic.

So then I went back to trying to install NetBSD, and gave up on that.
So I switched to OpenBSD, but that was even more cryptic. I gave up on
FreeBSD because I thought it was impossible ( or really difficult
because there wasn't "official" support for PPC ).

Anyway, 'nuff said. I've gained some good experience from those other
distributions. I'm ready to tackled my favorite again (FreeBSD). I'm
pretty sure the reason why it was failing before was that I didn't
understand partitioning very well. I know what partitioning is, but
I'll admit, I didn't do my homework on filesystem types etc. So, armed
with this new knowledge, here is what I'm going to attempt. I was
hoping I could get some feedback on if it sounds reasonable or not,
and if any of you know common pitfalls, could give me a heads up.

Partitions:
4.00 MBs of HSF+ (Mac OS Extended) for /boot
256.00 MBs of HSF+ (Mac OS Extended) for swap
*.00 GBs of HSF+ (Mac OS Extended) for / (root)

So I'll have three partitions. I think that should be enough.

I've got 6.2 iso on a CD-R, and I'll be booting off that from the mac
(either with the 'C' key or via OpenFirmware)

Once there, I will follow the instructions on screen, and partition (
apparently I do it again here? I'm not sure, maybe its just telling
FreeBSD which partitions to use ) my / (root).

Then I guess I need to drop down into 'disklabel' and tell it to use
my swap partition as the swap. I'm not sure how to accomplish this
without interrupting the installation process. Tips/explainations on
this would be great.

I'll try and document my steps with your help and write a small
tutorial that is really straightforward for more novice users like
myself.

So anyway, once I get all my partitions set up (I really think this is
where I was borking it) I'll pick developer or minimal (I like
installing things myself) and just let it do its thing.

Cross my fingers, and try not to pull my hair out.

What do you all think? Sorry for the HUGE email :) Thanks for bearing with me.

Cheers,

-- Robin