Installing FreeBSD 6.2 on PowerPC 7400 (G4)

[Peter Grehan]

Hi Robin,

> 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 use an OSX install to re-partition a system, and to set up OSX so 
that I can boot into that, and also use that to copy the FreeBSD loader 
to the root directory so it can be read from the loader.

> 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)

  That's the next step once the re-partitioning has been done.

> 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).

  That's right. The fastest way is to dump all the filesystems onto a 
single disk partition, and use another one for swap. Much like what you 
have above without the /boot partition.

> 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.

  Shouldn't need to do that: the partition can be marked as 'swap' in 
sysinstall.

> What do you all think?

  Let us know how it goes. I think I have the exact same config (400MHz 
G4), so should be able to help out if there are any h/w issues.

later,

Peter.