Ok. What I have:
-Debian 7.5.xx for PowerPC architecture
-IBM P5 eServer (9131-52A)
-IBM 146GB 10K RPM Ultra320 SCSI hard drive (x4)
-Very little patience left
I have seen seen several threads here and elsewhere with instructions on installing the PowerPC version of Debian. All of the instructions seem to be geared toward installing the PowerPC version on Macs of one kind or another and usually proceed from the stance of dual booting Debian with the original Mac OS. I have not found any threads here or elsewhere on how to install on a "blank slate."

The first partition on /dev/sda is an Apple partition table
The second partition on that drive is the 800KB Apple_Bootstrap partition that is needed for Yaboot to install to.
The third partition is the Power PReP boot partition, I'm assuming for GRUB to install to.

Do I need both the Apple_Bootstrap and the Power PReP partitions? Do yaboot and GRUB both need to be installed to boot off the first hard drive? I used mac-fdisk from a shell prompt to create the Apple_Bootstrap partition, but yaboot still won't install. It claims no hard disk has a partition of type "Apple_Bootstrap" and that I need to create one manually (which I've done, several times over.)

There currently is no OS installed on this server and the only command shell I have to work with is the limited one in the debian installer. The server is headless so the installation is happening over a console cable connection from my laptop. The IBM website haS provided a great deal of information (along with LQ):

IBM Knowledge Base

At this point I just want to get debian installed. The server came second hand with no disks so I don't have AIX or the VIOS that were made for this hardware. I am familiar with Debian, but not the architecture. Any help that will lead to a successful install would be so very greatly appreciated.

Have you seen http://www.rootvg.net/content/view/560/88/ ?

Steps 1-6 are just booting it from CD, I assume you have been able to do that? That page seems to say you just need to run the expert installer but take all the defaults until you're asked about the initrd. I'm assuming you don't care about what's on the disk already?

How are you managing the system out of band? I assume you don't have an HMC; do you have IVM set up?

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AlucardZero,

Thank you for the reply. No, I had not seen that site before. Thanks for the link.

I guess I should be more clear. Yes I can boot off the Debian install DVD and get into the installer and even complete all steps up to a certain point. The point at which it fails is one of the last few steps, installing yaboot in the Apple_Bootstrap partition. The installer does not recognize the existence of that partition and will not let me continue without installing yaboot. Installing GRUB is the next step, but I can't get that far because of this problem.

As I said in the first post "The server came second hand with no disks so I don't have AIX or the VIOS that were made for this hardware." The information at the link you provided is for installing Debian in the VIOS environment. This server has 4 blank, freshly partitioned SCSI hard drives to install an operating system onto. Ideally I want the boot information on the first drive and then a couple RAID5 or RAID6 (software) arrays spread over all 4 drives for the root and a seperate /home partitions. But first I need to know how to get an OS loaded and booting before I can start playing with that.

[EDIT] And no, I am not using a HMC either[/EDIT]

What happens when you let the installer just do whatever it wants with partitioning? Ie overwrite whatever you've done with partitioning already.
I've never installed Debian on Power, but I have a few RHEL, SLES, and Ubuntus on Power.

If I just let the installer partition how it sees fit, it does not create the Apple_Bootstrap partition, but does tell me that yaboot needs one. If I create that partition, but then let the installer auto-partition the rest of the free space it still does not see the Apple_Bootstrap partition and yaboot still doesn't install. If I could either get yaboot to install or figure out how to just skip it, I would be happy. As it sits right now, I have been unable to do either. If I try to skip the install of yaboot, the installer tells me that a critical step did not complete (install yaboot) and the install cannot continue.

Still need help with this. Anybody?

I can hardly believe this, but I solved it myself. Here's how (not that I understand why this worked, but I got tired of waiting for an answer.):
-pulled all hard drives out of system
-re-installed just the first hard drive
-started the installer off the CD and went with the defaults
-chose "Guided - Use entire disk" in partman
-yaboot installed to the Power PReP boot partition without complaint (/dev/sda1)

This issue is now resolved, but I have a new one. I'll start a new thread for that error though.

Thanks for your help, AlucardZero.

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