I am trying to start yaboot from a cd on a powerbook g4 titanium. i downloaded the files: yaboot, yaboot.conf, images-1.44/root.bin, linux.bin and then burned them onto a cd using a different computer.

in Open Firmware on the powerbook i put the command:

boot cd:,\yaboot

and i get the response:

load size=767 adler32=767001
Unrecognized Client Program Format

why is it unrecognized? what should i do?

Hello, late answer but may help you ....

I just installed the Ubuntu PPC on my powerbook and worked fine for me.
I also read some howto describing to copy the yaboot to the root of the system boot I found it to hard to install with modern distro so I decided to give a try the install CD.

I downloaded and burned the Ubuntu install CD (ppc). My HD had 2 HFS+ partitions.
- Mac OS X
- Data

When booting the powerbook, hold the 'c' key until yaboot menu appear. The default option is 'install'.
During the install process, you have the opportunity to modify the partition table.

I created a little 1Mb 'bootstrap' partition (=> where yaboot will be installed) at the begin of the disk. There is a 128Mb free space before the HFS+ partitions, it's a Apple 'features' ?

I create a little /boot partition on the 127Mb.

I deleted the second HFS+ partition and created a swap and a / partition.

After install process, everything is working fine.

At boot the yaboot menu appear and I'm able to boot Linux or Mac OS.
--
free_ouyo