# Making Debian/FreeBSD dual boot system on PPC Mac mini



## aurora (Oct 15, 2012)

Hello

I want to install 2 OS'es on PowerPC Mac mini (with one harddisk)

I've seen this tutorial post which shows how to install both Debian and FreeBSD on PPC Macs:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=60681

I've applied every instruction on that tutorial except installing FreeBSD further than the minimal install i.e. I haven't applied the section which starts with "mkdir cdrom....cd && sh install.sh && cd .. and ends with "cd /home/$USER && umount cdrom"

The basic process is:

Install Debian
Install FreeBSD 
Install Debian

I have successfully done the first 2 (with the exception of FreeBSD I talked about) but got stuck on the final section: When trying to install Debian again, it looked like I was overwriting the disk space/partitions where FreeBSD was installed. 

On tutorial it is said that "All partitons dedicated to FreeBSD must be marked as do not use." In my case, all partitions were already dedicated to FreeBSD, leaving no space/partition for Debian to use.

There are some ambiguities in the tutorial. It says "you must have 40GB harddisk" but it doesn't explain why. Is it 20Gb for Debian and 20GB for FreeBSD?  

The it says:


```
You will do a manual partition. Delete all entries.
Create a map with the following:
1024K New World Boot block
3G ext3 mounted as /
512M swap
1G /var
2G /tmp
12G /usr
The rest of the disk dedicated to /home.
```

and I do use a 40GB harddisk and if I apply this scheme  of partitioning, then it means I have 18,5GB reserved for / SWAP VAR TMP USR and 21,5GB for HOME.

Then it says:
	
	



```
Be sure that you have /(root file system without var or tmp) at a minimum of 3G.
```

Why it should have 3GB goes unexplained. Should be as big as 3GB because it will be shared by Debian and FreeBSD?


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## sossego (Oct 21, 2012)

Okay.

1. The tutorial was done on an iMac.
2. You may want to contact the mailing list for those who do have a mac-mini.

Using the Debian partitioner, you will need to erase all partitions except for the apm scheme. You can redo that if you want.

You should have a set up of APM, Apple boot block, about 18GB for ext3, about 512M swap, 1024k for Apple boot block, 2GB to 3GB for FreeBSD /(root), 512MB for FreeBSD swap, other space in whatever order you want. If you want to have dedicated space for /tmp, or /var then do so. The 3GB was an example in the event you wanted a small database on your machine. The exact sizes should be dependent upon what the machine is used for.

Again, the exercise was done on an iMac. 

You do not need to have a 40GB disk, that was a suggestion. Unfortunately, due to politics, I cannot access that account nor change any post. 

Whenever I am able to set up Debian and FreeBSD on my current PPC laptop, I will try to update the tutorial on another forum.


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## aurora (Jan 25, 2013)

Hello

Thank you for the reply and sorry for my very late post. 

For the last several days, I have again started (to attempt) to install FreeBSD and Linux (Debian or Ubuntu) on Mac mini G4 (PowerPC, of course)

During my attempts, I noticed the very basic problem (which is not well covered or documented in anywhere) seems to be Linux's inability to detect the partitions of a HDD which is partitioned by Apple Partition Map (APM) .  

I have tried 2 different ways:

1- I have made the HDD APM and formed multiple partitions using gpart in FreeBSD (Live CD) Afterwards, when I booted using Debian or Ubuntu's Live Boot CD, the HDD is recognized merely as a Primary Disk Drive, i.e. no partitions are displayed, nothing.

2- I have made the HDD APM and formed multiple partitions using Debian's Live CD (which is AKA Business Card ISO, I think) here's how it looks. Note that I have formed as many partitions as necessary for a quadruple-boot system here, the first 6 after the 1M bootcode partition are for FreeBSD (/, FreeBSD SWAP, /tmp, /var, /usr, /home), the following 2 are for Linux (/ , SWAP), the following one for MorphOS and the last big one is for Mac OS X






At that moment I haven't installed Debian (because in my prior attempts, I have already tried that w.o. any results) but rebooted with FreeBSD Live CD and formatted the partitions I have assigned to FreeBSD as FreeBSD-UFS and FreeBSD SWAP using gpart:





and went on installing FreeBSD on its respective partitions. FreeBSD installs fine and after inserting the bootcode into its respective (first partition) boots fine.

However, after this the Debian (or Ubuntu) Live CD cannot see any partitions on the HDD which makes it seemingly impossible to install Debian (or Ubuntu) on the partitions I have formed at the first place.

As far as I think, gpart makes or modifies something on the HDD which renders Debian unable. One more interesting point about gpart is that it sees the partitions HDD I formatted in Debian as Ext3, as Apple-UFS, though I have never selected anything like Apple-UFS in Debian (because there's no Apple-UFS option in Debian anyway)


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## aurora (Jan 25, 2013)

Here is the current look of HDD in FreeBSD. The partitions I have formed for Linux and other OS'es are there (seen as type apple-ufs)




The only problem is Linux cannot detect those partitions. 

Note: I managed to install Mac OS X next to FreeBSD and I guess MorphOS can be installed as well because MorphOS is reported to run on HFS filesystem.


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