Making Mac Bootable CD

this is pretty easy with current mkisofs (the one that ships in debian

woody is fine).

here is what you do:

1: create your CD hierarchy, at say ~/cd-master

2: create a boot directory; mkdir ~/cd-master/boot

3: create a boot/ofboot.b; 

   cat /usr/share/doc/yaboot/examples/simpleboot.chrp | \

       sed -e 's/hd:2/cd:/' > ~/cd-master/boot/ofboot.b

   (note if you don't use debian this path will be

    /path/to/yabootsource/doc/examples/simpleboot.chrp)

4: copy yaboot binary; cp /usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot ~/cd-master/boot

5: create a `maps' file for mkisofs;

   cat < ~/maps

# EXTN   XLate   CREATOR   TYPE     Comment

.b              Raw     'UNIX'    'tbxi'   "bootstrap"

yaboot          Raw     'UNIX'    'boot'   "bootstrap"

linux           Raw     'UNIX'    'boot'   "kernel"

vmlinux         Raw     'UNIX'    'boot'   "kernel"

.conf           Raw     'UNIX'    'conf'   "bootstrap"

root.bin        Raw     'UNIX'    'root'   "root_image"

*               Raw     'UNIX     'UNIX'   "unix"

EOF

6: create ISO; mkisofs -hfs -part -map ~/maps -no-desktop \

                -hfs-volid "Yaboot_Boot_CD" -hfs-bless ~/cd-master/boot \

                -r -o yaboot-cd.iso ~/cd-master

7: burn .iso to CD; cdrecord -blahblah -data yaboot-cd.iso

note that step 3 is quite important, as is step 5.  the sed command

just replaces the hard coded `hd:2' device with `cd:' which is

required for CD booting.  the maps file ensures the correct HFS

type/creators are set on the right files.  the ofboot.b is required

since some models (notably blue g3) refuse to boot binaries by

default, thus the ofboot.b first stage is necessary.

the resulting ISO will be bootable on all NewWorld powermacs by simply

holding down the C key during boot, you can mount it in *nix as

regular ISO9660.

note that you *must* use a subdirectory in your CD tree, not the root of

the CD tree, mkisofs will ignore your -hfs-bless option if you attempt

to use the root of the cd mastering tree.  check the output of mkisofs

for a `Blessing cd-master/boot' message, this is the only indication

of whether it worked, if it can't find the dir or some other error

occurs it just silently ignores that option and your CD won't be

bootable (i consider this a bug).

ah right, i knew i was forgetting something, yes you need to put the

yaboot.conf in the boot directory.  it should look something like

this:

device=cd: 

image=/boot/vmlinux

with all the rest of the normal stuff, do not specify partition=

you can put kernels wherever you want on the CD, just use a full path.