How to install Linux on a Daystar Genesis MP (BeOS too!)

Photo copyright 1996 Daystar Technologies, Inc.

With the help of a good friend I have successfully installed Linux with an SMP kernel on several Daystar Genesis MP (Mac Clones) computers. This may seem like a simple feat, but I have yet to find a single company selling a version of Linux for PowerPC that will provide support for this type install.

This page will hopefully fill this support gap.

George Herndon (my friend) was the first person that I personally knew who had succeeded at this task. Following his lead, I was able to reproduce his steps and experience the joy of seeing four Penguins (that's right, 4!) on starting Linux. If you don't already know, Linux displays a Penguin on bootup for each processor that it finds. These old Daystar's were the king of the Mac clones in their day, and some would say they have never been matched. Supporting up to 4 processors, 12 DIMM slots, 7 hard drive bays, two full-size expansion bays, and 6 PCI slots, these machines were built for future expansion. They came in a server-quality case that many people describe as "bulletproof". But I digress. Let's get back to installing Linux with SMP support on one of these beautiful machines.

Since I am on the topic of operating systems that support Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP), I will briefly also cover installing BeOS on these machines. BeOS was a wonderful implementation of an OS that was built around an SMP kernel. Since I had a copy of BeOS available, I decided to create a tripple-boot machine: MacOS, BeOS, and Linux.

To keep things simple, I configured the Daystar Genesis with three drives (you could also use partitions). One drive was for MacOS, one drive was for BeOS, and one drive was for Linux.

For MacOS, I chose to install version 8.5.1 because it is supposed to provide the best SMP support (limited to applications coded to take advantage of SMP) for these multi-processor machines of this age. Plus, since I was planning to run BeOS, I had to use a version of MacOS prior to version 9-- BeOS won't boot from a OS 9 startup disk. Something else to think about: there is not any support for PCI SCSI controller cards under BeOS for PowerPC so that limits you to installing BeOS on a drive on the Daystar's internal SCSI chain. It's something to think about when planning your drive setup. And one more thing: if you have an old SCSI Jazz drive laying around, BeOS will boot from an external or internal Jazz drive. You'll take a performance hit, but if you just want to try out BeOS and don't want to dedicate a full hard disk drive to the endeavor, this is a pretty decent option.

Since the BeOS and Linux drives will not be recognized by MacOS after they are formatted for their respective operating systems, I decided to create a very small HFS partition on each drive so that when I was in MacOS, I would see the drives mounted on my desktop as a reminder that the drives were there and spinning.

On the BeOS drive, I created two partitions using Apple's Drive Setup utility: a very small HFS partition (5 MB) and a larger (the remainder of the drive space) HFS partition that would later hold BeOS.

On the Linux drive, I also started with two partitions (using Apple's Drive Setup utility), a very small HFS partition (50 MB -- the linux partitioning tool crashed during the Linux install if I created a partition any smaller), and a larger "unallocated" partition (the remainder of the drive) for Linux.

The BeOS installation is extremely straightforward. Just insert the BeOS install disk, copy an extension into your MacOS System Extensions folder, drag the BeOS launcher to your desktop, and double-click the BeOS launcher. Follow the on-screen instructions (remember to choose the correct install partition) and several minutes later, you will have a successful BeOS install with full SMP support. When you restart your Mac, you will be presented with an option to boot into MacOS or BeOS. Boot into BeOS, and to see all four processors in action, go to the "Pulse" application in the top-right menu bar (Tracker) under "Applications". BeOS is really cool in that it will allow you to dynamically turn the processors on or off. Just click the green buttons beside each processor displayed in the Pulse application. Play around with some of the demo apps. After you are satisfied that your BeOS install went well, reboot your Mac, only this time, boot into MacOS.

Pulse

Now for the hard part: the Linux install.

I installed Yellow Dog Linux. Not because I know any more about it than any of the other implementations-- its just what I had on hand. George successfully installed SuSe Linux, using a similar procedure, so I know that implementation works as well.

The first thing I did was go to the Yellow Dog Linux web site to download the install instructions (the Yellow Dog Linux install cd comes without instructions). I won't go over all the instructions here-- you can read the full version from the YellowDog yourself, but I will cover some tips and gotchas that I learned during the install process.

The first thing to remember: be patient, and allow a lot of time for the install. Some processes take a long time to complete while you sit there wondering if the machine is doing anything. When you think you have waited long enough, wait a little longer before you even think about a forced reboot. In fact, try not to force a reboot during the install process. Doing so will likely require you to complete the whole process over from the beginning-- including formatting your drives.

The first thing you need to do is install the BootX application. You will find the BootX application as a compressed file on the CD. Drag the file to Stuffit Expander, and choose an install location for the application.

Next, double click the BootX installer. Your machine will ask to reboot after the install is complete. On reboot, you will see a new boot screen asking if you want to boot into Linux or MacOS (if you installed BeOS, you will first select MacOS at the prompt, then you will see the Linux loader next). Hit the TAB key to stop the Linux loader from timing out and loading an OS. Take a good look at the boot loader screen and the options but don't change anything. You will be coming back to this and you will need to know where everything is. When you are satisfied that you have seen it all, click the Linux button to launch the Linux installer. The next part of the install is well documented, so I won't go over it here. However, pay close attention to the Linux drive partitioning steps as those are very important. I also recommend the custom install option-- it's necessary if you are installing on a machine with multiple drives.

Eventually you will get to the package loader screens. Be prepared to wait. In fact, you could probably walk away to lunch without missing anything. Do the best you can with the other options. Most are pretty self explanatory, but if you have questions, it is well worth the time and effort to check the support site for answers. However, there is one very important option: Graphical vs. Command Line login. Here, definitely choose the "Command Line Login". You will want to thank me for that advice later.

When you complete the install you will see a success message and you will reboot the machine and boot into Linux. When you get to the BootX screen, hit your TAB key to stop the boot process. Be sure to uncheck the "Use specified RAM disk" options under "Options" and be sure to type the path to your mount point. You wrote this down during the install process, right? It should look something like this:

/dev/sda8

When you click the Linux button to boot, you will see the Linux boot process begin with one Penguin in the top left hand corner of your screen. Don't worry about SMP yet. We will get to that later. You will also prompted for a username and password. Follow the Yellow Dog Linux install directions as they try to help you through configuring your monitor settings if (when?) something goes wrong when you try to start XWindows (You did remember to choose the Command Line Login option, right? You'll need it for this step.). I didn't have much luck getting my video card and monitor to sync using the instructions. However I did find a very helpful page that describes using the kernel arguments portion of the BootX app to force the video card and monitor to a specific resolution. I found that I had to enter the following kernel argument to get one of my video cards and monitor to play well with XWindows:

video=atyfb:vmode:17,cmode:16

I also checked the "No Video Driver" checkbox. Those two things solved my video problems for one card. The YDL instructions also suggest that you change the run-level for booting into the graphical environment from 3 to 5 (see instructions). I decided to stay with the command-line login (how hard is it to type "startx"?) so I didn't make a change to my inittab file.

Getting the video settings right has been one of the more frustrating aspects of the install process. So far, I have found one video card that works fine with tweaking the settings above, another video card that works fine using the setting above but without the "No Video Driver" checkbox checked. George Herndon also passed along this tip for getting video to work: "Also, depending on your desired video settings, it's good practice to boot your Mac into the video mode you'll be running X windows under. This sets up the frame buffer for the card and makes the verbose boot screen more readable". Bottom line: try to use a supported video card and keep trying if it doesn't work the first time.

Other video cards may work just fine with the standard instructions, so be sure you try to follow the suggested video configuration instructions to the letter before you resort to the kernel argument tip mentioned above. Get to know "/usr/lib/yi/dexter.py" -- he is your friend when it comes to configuring your video card for XWindows under Yellow Dog Linux.

I also found that the default window manager (KDE) was not very stable on one machine. Switching the default window manager to GNOME seems to have solved the window manager stability problem. You can read more about changing the default window manager here. While this article talks specifically about the nVidia video cards, there is a good discussion on setting GNOME as your default window manager near the bottom of the page (steps 10-13). Basically you edit the "/etc/sysconfig/desktop" file to read DESKTOP=GNOME , save the changes, and reboot.

Now for the really exciting part: getting Linux to load using a SMP kernel.

This was one of the more tricky pieces to figure out, but it's pretty simple really. You will need to install a SMP package, then get a copy of the SMP kernel from your linux volume and copy it to the "System Folder:Linux Kernels" folder on your Mac volume. Next you will reboot, select the new Kernel in the BootX screen (remember to use the TAB key to stop the boot process) from the drop down selector, save your settings to preferences, and then click the Linux button to hopefully boot into Linux using a SMP kernel. That is the summary view; here's how to do it:

Yellow Dog Linux has a page describing a command-line method for installing a new Kernel. That is probably the safest way to go.

When I tried it, the command-line method was quick and fairly painless. Here's what my commands for installing the SMP kernel looked like:

(Log in as root or su to root)
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom [enter]
rpm -Uvh /mnt/cdrom/YellowDog/ppc/kernel-smp-2.4.18-0.8a.ppc.rpm [enter]
(Wait while the package manager installs the kernel, then:)
umount /mnt/cdrom [enter]

I have also used the graphical Package Manager application from within XWindows to install a SMP kernel without any known ill effects. To use the Package Manager, browse your YellowDogLinux CD (look in /YellowDog/ppc) for a SMP kernel package. This is the one that I found:

kernel-smp-2.4.18-0.8.ppc.rpm

Double-click the package to launch the Package Manager. Highlight the kernel in the left-hand pane, and click "Install". If you are not logged in as Root, you will be prompted for the root password. This process may take a while and there is no visible progress bar, so be patient. Eventually you will see your kernel appear in a new left-hand pane. Click it t highlight it, then click "Install Marked". When it is finished you won't be notified, but you can click the "Installed Packages" tab and then the "Reload" button to see all the packages installed on your system. Scroll down, and look for your SMP kernel. When you are finished, you can exit XWindows.

The next step was a little more difficult to figure out. You have to somehow get a copy of the new SMP Linux kernel from your Linux volume copied to your System folder on your Mac volume. Linux can't mount your Mac volume, and your Mac can't mount your Linux volume, so a disk-to-disk copy is out of the question (Update: George Herndon posted a message on his weblog that this is indeed possible. Here's a link to his post). I chose to FTP a copy of the SMP kernel from my Linux volume using the command-line FTP application to a web server where I have FTP access. From there I was able to download the kernel to my Mac volume, drag it to the System Folder and place it in the Linux Kernels folder. For help with the command-line FTP application, consult a Linux book or read the Man pages for FTP.

The next time you boot into BootX, hit your TAB key to stop the boot process. In the drop-down kernel selector, you should see your new SMP kernel. Select it, click the "Save to Preferences" button, and then click the "Linux" button to begin the Linux boot process.

You should see four Penguins at the top-left corner of your screen (if you have a quad processor machine) -- one Penguin for each processor. Now you can celebrate!

Penguins

I haven't found a really good tool like Pulse for Linux that gives you a graphical representation of what kind of load is on your processors. However, you can open a shell and type "top" to start the top application. Top shows a numerical load for each processor in real-time.

Yellow Dog Linux has a good post install page that lists the various post-install utilities for re-configuring many of the installation settings you made during the install. You'll find tools like dexter.py that lets you modify your video settings, and tools for resetting your passwords and managing your users.

That should do it. Have fun and enjoy seeing something that many people have never seen before: A tripple-boot, quad processor Mac clone in it's full symmetric multi processing glory.

Enjoy!

FYI: I posted some helpful links about the Daystar Genesis MP+ series computers from Daystar Digital here.

These instructions are intended for the Linux hobbyist without warranty, expressed or implied. Not recommended for production environments. Use at your own risk.