On Sep 24, 2010, at 4:30 PM, Mark Knecht wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 10:04 PM, Joseph Jezak <josejx@g.o>  
> wrote:
>>  My responses are inline this time. It's easier when there's so much
>> going on!
>>
>> On 09/23/10 16:41, Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> Two pictures posted:
>>>
>>> Top half of boot screen:
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/29328985@N03/5018717650/
>>>
>>> Bottom half of boot screen
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/29328985@N03/5018718202/
>>>
>>
>> Okay, these look exactly as expected. You've booted into the shell  
>> fine
>> and the kernel does detect the hard drive fine. It appears that the  
>> disk
>> was not cleanly unmounted, which is what the messages in the bottom
>> picture indicate. Once you get USB working so we can type into the
>> console, we'll take a look at what's actually going on.
>>
>>> Full USB HID support is built as modular. I don't seem to be able to
>>> change it to built in. make menuconfig is only giving me modular or
>>> not set.  (Kernel config USB info this is set is at the end)
>> If you use menuconfig and you go to the "Help" option, it will tell  
>> you
>> what dependencies need to be set in order to build the module. Most
>> likely, you did not set the USB subsystem itself to be built in.
>>> lspci says the controller is an Apple controller and the driver is
>>> 'macio' which seems sensible. I see it in the boot screen I think.
>>> That driver is built in, but the PATA_MACIO driver is not:
>>>
>>> (chroot) livecd linux # cat .config | grep MACIO
>>> # CONFIG_PATA_MACIO is not set
>>> CONFIG_ADB_MACIO=y
>>> (chroot) livecd linux #
>>>
>>> Maybe I've mistakenly left the right disk driver out of the kernel
>>> thinking the hardware was SATA based? Does the PATA_MACIO option  
>>> need
>>> to be set for the Mac Mini? I don't understand how this kernel  
>>> config
>>> would have ever worked befor unless I'm confusing where it came  
>>> from.
>>>
>>
>> You're using the old style driver which results in devices named  
>> hdX#.
>> It's called IDE_PMAC. The new driver which uses the sdX# naming
>> convention (and uses libpata), is called PATA_MACIO.
>>
>>> Does the append="init=/bin/bash" command allow the kernel to load
>>> drivers or do I need to build USBHID into the kernel to get the
>>> keyboard to work at this level of boot?
>>
>> I would built it in for now, it'll be easier since there's no good  
>> way
>> to get into the system to tell it to load the drivers.
>>
>> -Joe
>>
>>
>
> Hi Joe,
>   OK - I got USB working and with the append="init=/bin/bash" in I
> can at least do cd and ls commands.
>
>   All the devices you asked about exist - /dev/hda1 through 20,
> /dev/hdb1 through 20, /dev/null and /dev/zero - all exist.
>
>   Doing know if it's a clue but in this  append="init=/bin/bash"
> state I was unable to do a reboot or a shutdown as it complained about
> missing initctl I think?
>
>   Being that I made a number of changes to the kernel config to get
> USB working I remove the append line from yaboot.conf and tried
> booting into Gentoo proper but it's still stopping at the same place
> with the same message about no mtab file.
>
>   I'll put the append back in and wait for further ideas.
>
>   Thanks for sticking with me!
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
Assuming you are still stopping near:
fsck.ext3...

Can you confirm that /sbin/fsck.ext3 exists?
If not, then emerge e2fsprogs.

Barry