[K12OSN] Getting eMacs to boot.

[Peter Scheie]

Actually, K12LTSP comes with an image for PowerPC Macs.  In most cases, 
just setting the Mac to netboot is all that's necessary.

Jon, our annual LTSP conference starts tomorrow in Minneapolis and runs 
through Friday.  Jim Kronebusch, who did a bunch of the grunt work of 
getting PPC Macs to act as clients, will be there.  We've even got a Mac 
client running for the conference.  Come up for one or both days and I'm 
sure we can help you.  See www.nclinux.net for details.

Peter

Todd O'Bryan wrote:
> I've never done this before and I could be completely wrong, but I'll
> take a stab at helping...
> 
> The problem is that the Macs are PowerPC, not i386 based, so they need
> to download a different set of software to boot up. The good news is
> that you can store both images on the same server and serve up the right
> one based on MAC addresses. Once they've loaded the image and booted,
> they're just creating an XWindows session to the server, so they can run
> the same software on the server.
> 
> That's the theory, anyway, I think. You'll need to create a PowerPC thin
> client image and serve that to the Macs when they boot. Other people may
> be able to give you more specific info, but at least that gives you
> somewhere to start.
> 
> Todd
> 
> On Wed, 2007-06-13 at 12:56 -0500, Jon Harder wrote:
>> Hi. I'm the technology coordinator at the Mountain Lake public school.
>> I've been using Linux servers for years. This summer I decided it was
>> time to convert an aging lab and two classroom mini-labs to ltsp.
>>
>> I have never tried ltsp software until a week ago. It loaded right
>> up and it was trivial to get a PXE-based net boot PC and floopy-boot
>> PC to come right up. Adding ldap authentication and the remote directories
>> of 500+ users was only delayed a day because of a typo in the ldap
>> configuration. Even allowing for the fat-finger typing, that all worked
>> out much slicker than I anticipating.
>>
>> I'm stuck on getting a newish eMac to net boot. The server log shows
>> that it is checking in for its DHCP assignment, and the client screen
>> starts scrolling. Just before it goes all black it says (if this is
>> helpful):
>>
>>   xmon
>>   setup_arch: enter
>>   setup_arch: bootmem
>>   ardn: exit
>>   openpic: enter
>>   openpic: timer
>>   openpic: external
>>   openpic: suprious
>>   openpic: exit
>>
>> then the screen is blanked, a line flashes in the middle that may
>> include the word "welcome" but it is really too fast to decipher.
>>
>> I would appreciate any pointers on how to get the eMac to boot. I
>> suspect the answer will also allow me to boot the very oldest
>> slot-loading iMacs. Then I'll be back to see how to hd-boot the
>> older pre-slot loading iMacs. The success of my transition to ltsp
>> depends on reusing these old macs ...
>>
>> --
>> Jon Harder
>> Mountain Lake, MN
>>
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