Gentoo on PowerBook G4 Not Working

[vashatako]

Hi, I'm a bit new to Linux and forums in general; but here's my predicament.

I have a 15" G4 Powerbook, 1.33 GHz, standard issue, and I've been trying to put Gentoo on it. Whenever I pop in either the PPC Minimal CD or the PPC Universal CD, I hit return to boot the kernel, and the same error comes up:

Invalid memory access at SRR0: 014072e0 SRR1: 00803030

Then the computer boots up the Apple Firmware in terminal form. The PowerBook is essentially clean, nothing on it except Apple apps and a few pictures and documents. I was wondering if anyone of this forum had any idea of what's going on. Thank you.

[ursusca]

Hi,

I think this is a hardware error.
This is most likely either bad memory in your Powerbook, or a bad Logic Board.

[imran1008]

It's not a hardware issue. By default, a 64-bit kernel is chosen when you hit enter. When you are presented with the boot: prompt, hit Tab to see a list of kernels. The kernel for G5 processor will be the first one. I don't quite remember but I think the second or third is for a G4 processor. Just type the kernel name and then hit enter.

[CRinWP]

Hello everyone, this may be late in the show but I wanted to add my experience with this error.

I was trying to boot to a Gentoo Linux LiveCD and received the ubiquitous "Invalid memory access at SRR0: xxxxxxxxx SRR1: xxxxxxxxxx"

After booting the LiveCD by pressing the "C" key at startup, the first prompt I got ended in boot:

The Gentoo manual says to hit "Enter" at the boot: prompt. That ONLY works with G5 or newer models because, as I think imran1008 said previously, the 64-bit (G5) kernel loads by default. If I hit the "Tab" instead of enter, I only received one kernel in the list, which was the G5 kernel.

So, I restarted and typed ppc32 at the boot: prompt and the LiveCD loaded as it should and worked great!