Install Linux on a firewire drive?

[Phil St. Romain]

I would like to install Yellow Dog Linux on a partition on a firewire drive but am unable to do so using the installation CD that came with YDL. It's easy enough to install on a partition on my powerbook or iMac, but I need all the space I can get for OS X and Classic on those hard drives.

Anyone have any idea how I could do this? I think it would be easy enough to boot from the fw drive, but am not completely sure about that either.

I'd like to have OS X and YDL on that fw drive and have partitioned it correctly and installed X. Just can't get YDL to "see" the fw drive.

Could an install of YDL on the powerbook be cloned somehow to the fw drive? I realize that I'm really reaching, here.

[Glanz]

This worked with Mandrake so I imagine it will work with Ol' Yeller....

It
is neccessary to create a custom ramdisk containing the following
modules: scsi_mod, sd_mod, ieee1394, ohci1394 and sbp2. Then the custom
linuxrc must be made:

<snip>
#!/bin/nash

echo Mounting /proc filesystem
mount -t proc /proc /proc
echo "Loading ieee1394 module"
insmod /lib/ieee1394.o
echo "Loading ohci1394 module"
insmod /lib/ohci1394.o
echo "Loading scsi_mod module"
insmod /lib/scsi_mod.o
echo "Loading sd_mod module"
insmod /lib/sd_mod.o
echo "Loading usb-storage module"
insmod /lib/sbp2.o
echo scsi add-single-device 0 0 0 0 > /proc/scsi/scsi
cat /proc/scsi/scsi
echo "Loading reiserfs module"
insmod /lib/reiserfs.o
echo Creating root device
mkrootdev /dev/root
echo 0x0100 > /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev
umount /proc
echo Mounting root filesystem with flags notail,noatime
mount --ro -t reiserfs /dev/root /sysroot notail,noatime
pivot_root /sysroot /sysroot/initrd
echo Remounting devfs at correct place if necessary
handledevfs
</snip>

The important part is to mount the /proc filesystem before loading the
modules and use the "echo scsi ..." command to tell the controller that
the disk is there (it is not auto-detected). With this and the stock MDK
9.0 kernel I was able to create the bootdisk which allowed me to boot
MDK 9.0 from the external FireWire drive.
Note that similar procedure should be used to install/boot the system
from external USB drives. (just replace ieee1394, ohci1394 and sbp2 with
usb-core, usb-uhci <or> usb-ohci, usb-storage).

[Glanz]

We succeeded once at the university at installing (most of) Debian on a firewire drive. The trick is to make a wee partition on the principle drive for bootx or yaboot and the kernel, which isn't that big ..., and the proc and dev files. There were more, but I forgot. I would have to find that info in a mass of paperwork ordered like those caverns that Hercules was condemed to clean before the job.

In other words, files, apps, and the stuff that really takes up space can be kept on the firewire drive, but the "motor" probably should be on the main.

Nevertheless, check the "Custom Ramdisk" method I posted earlier. It worked with Mandrake.

[Phil St. Romain]

Thanks, Glanz! That's a bit over my head, but you give me something to chew on and research a bit more. Much appreciated.