• Common Commands
• Open Firmware Quick Reference

Both desktops have Open Firmware version 4 installed, which I haven't seen any docs that support booting BSD from there. They all focus on version 3.

However, here's some commands you can use to look around:

dir cd:,\

setenv boot-device cd
mac-boot

Find the device name:

dev / ls
dev /pci/path/to/usb ls

Boot:

setenv boot-device /path/to/usb/install
mac-boot

dev /openprom

devalias

printenv boot-device

Set boot device:

setenv boot-device foo

reset-all

shut-down

printenv

setenv auto-boot? false

Look for boot in this directory so you can know it can boot

words

Use this to completely reset the nvram back to defaults, and then reboot:

reset-nvram
reset-all

• FreeBSD PPC Project
• http://people.freebsd.org/~nwhitehorn/ppcinstall.txt
• https://wiki.freebsd.org/powerpc

This is the commands I patched together, but I can't get it working. It will throw a memory error.

boot cd:,\BOOT\LOADER cd:0

• Use dd to copy an ISO straight to a USB stick and boot off that
• Instead of using boot/loader as a symlink, give the full path to the file (link)
• Some G5s boot with half-CPU. FreeBSD ppc64 port is to get it up and running, not optimized. (link)
• Try boot cd:,\ppc\bootinfo.txt with 9.0 (link)
• Alternate install sources (link, context)
• FreeBSD 9.1 powerpc64 will boot into FreeBSD's Open Firmware bootloader, but it dies right after that, saying it can't locate 'kernel'

FreeBSD-9.0-CURRENT-powerpc64-20110707.nwhitehorn CD

Attempt #1: boot cd:,\ppc\loader cd:0 - boots kernel, yay! - has errors reading CD - eventually gets to mounting CD and continues from there (I wonder if OpenBSD was having CD issues and that's why it choked)

FreeBSD-9.0-CURRENT-powerpc64-20110707.nwhitehorn USB

• NetBSD Install Documentation
  • Getting to Open Firmware 3
  • Open Firmware boot syntax
  • Examples of Open Firmware boot commands
  • Finalizing Open Firmware settings
• NetBSD macppc FAQ
  • What can I do at the Open Firmware prompt?
  • Common Open Firmware Booting Problems

• “G5 models are supported as a 32-bit port in bridge mode only.” (context)
• Unsupported: “On-board SATA controller on G5 systems (these machines must be netbooted)” (context)
• I can view the CD just fine from Open Firmware on the “donated” G5, but I can't find the actual kernel anywhere (NetBSD 6.0.1). The docs say to use netbsd.macppc after owlboot. The owlboot file is there, but not the kernel with that name. The installation docs cover general install stuff, not specific ones for this release.

• OpenBSD/macppc
• OpenBSD macppc Installation
• macppc downloads

Same as FreeBSD, haven't had success booting.

boot cd:,\ofwboot /5.2/macppc/bsd.rd

• Maybe try a 5.3 snapshot?
• “Support for the 64-bit G5 (running in 32-bit mode) was added in OpenBSD 3.9.”
• Booting OpenBSD 5.2 on the “donated” G5 works, up until a point. It hangs on loading or accessing the drives. :(
• OpenBSD does *not* support PowerPC 11,2 (donated) tech
• You can boot from CD holding down 'c' while booting.

Boot from the PPC 2008.0 CD. It works great. Use the G5 kernel and these boot options:

G5 doscsi docache sleep=10

The kernel has a special default make option:

make g5_defconfig

Getting a working kernel was difficult on here. Use gentoo-sources-3.7.10. I've posted the kernel config here.

There were a couple of problems to start with: the server would hang on a reboot with SMP setup. The filesystem was sometimes slow / unresponsive. This kernel config, with some extra debugging checks turned on, seems to have fixed them. It runs fine and stable now.

I can get Monit (5.5 or 5.5.1) to run just fine, but it won't let me run status or summary for some reason.

Some hardware specs:

• sata_svw