Run debian from a non bootable drive?
 

I have a PowerMac G5, and for fun, I want to run debian on it.

It only has SATA I, however I found this SATA III PCIe card which is compatible in the machine:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonn...s/TSATA6PROE2/

Sadly, this card is not bootable, as openfirmware (the uefi software on the mac?) apparently does not detect the card. However, after booting into OS X anyway, the card is fully recognized.

I plan on running debian on the mac, and getting this setup itself is no problem as it is very well supported on the PowerMac G5. However, I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about if its possible to get debian running off this non bootable drive, as it would be good fun to setup, and I would also benefit from the SATA 6 speeds.

Does "grub" see that drive? If so, you can chainload a grub on that drive and boot it. Via configfile. On older machines that don't support booting usb (pre-2006), that's how you can boot usb by using grub on an optical disc. Perhaps something like refind can help boot that drive. Various forums seem to suggest that only SATA II is bootable on that machine, at least directly.

Have you tried PLOP?

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/intro.html

Google 'installing linux on a powermac g5' - lots of info. :)