Debian 4.0 (etch) for m68k

Debian4.0 (etch) was released on April 8th, 2007 but m68k is not be part of the official release. However, we will try to support etch on m68k as much as possible. This page is a copy of the sarge page, some info is outdated, please send patches. The new installer should work on amiga, atari, and mac computers. We are not building 2.6 kernels for the other subarches, since we never received any feedback. If you have a reason that they should work on q40, sun3, hp, next or the VME arches, drop me a note and I will enable building again. The linux-2.6 source package, however, contains a config for those arches, that might create a linux-image. If you have patches for your favourite arch, or an updated config file, please send them to me, or better to one of the mailinglists below.
Please direct install questions to debian-68k. Kernel problems should be reported to the linux-m68k kernel list, If the installation fails at some point or the kernel dies with strange error messages, please provide the full text on your display. Even if it's uncomprehensible to you, it might give a clue for others. If possible use dmesg (Amiga users: there is an AmigaOS version on the Debian CD. Append "debug=mem" to your boot line and run dmesg under AOS after a reboot. Please read the readme file.) and send the output to the appropriate list.

Common questions

Where can I download a new kernel?
The linux-image files in this directory are for testing before they are uploaded into the archive.
Where is the Linux-m68k FAQ?
I have an old Mac, can I install Debian/m68k on it?
See http://maclinuxstatus.sourceforge.net/status/ if your machine is supported by linux/m68k (If the kernel does not run, it's hard to install Debian. Ask the linux-m68k list how you can help.).

I am trying to install Debian on my Mac, but when I start the Penguin I get:

RAMDISK : Compressed image found at block 0
VFS : Mounted root (ext2 filesystem)
VFS : Cannot open root device 00:00
Kernel panic : VFS : Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

You forgot to add

root=/dev/ram

to the kernel boot options in Penguin.

I want to use another Penguin version for my mac
Get Penguin-17, Penguin-18, or Penguin-19. If you do not have a stuffit expander, try a self extracting archive.
How do I get sound with my Quadra (name your mac here)?
Tony 'Nicoya' Mantler says:
```
Sound is not yet supported on any 68k mac model.
```
Where can I find more information/software for Macs? Guckts Du here utils, here emulator setup, here Jagshouse, and here lowendmac.

Known problems (this section needs to be updated)

The new installer fails with:
```
attempt to access beyond end of device
```
Add the boot parameter
```
ramdisk_size=13000
```
(is this still correct?)

I only get a black screen or

bogl: don't know screen type x

Try

debian-installer/framebuffer=false

(is this still correct?)

Keyboard does not work on some macs with the 2.6 kernel
The clock chip does not work on macs with the 2.6 kernel
Ethernet does not work on some macs with the 2.6 kernel
SCSI does not work on Atari (might work with the latest linux-image)
Check on the sarge page for more.

This page is maintained by Christian T. Steigies. Sending spam mail to this address will be prosecuted.

Last modified: Sun Apr 8 19:26:40 CEST 2007