Re: Linux on a PowerPC

[Pulsar <pulsar@springnet1.com>]

>charles@lunargraphics.net wrote:
>> 
>> Okay, does anyone out there have any experience with installing Linux on 
>> a Macintosh? I have been trying to gather as much information that I can 
>> on the subject, but I can't for the life of me actually find someone who 
>> has gone through with it.
>
>My roommate would prolly be willing to offer his poor experiences up, as he's
>tried a few times.  I'm forwarding this to him, as he doesn't follow the luci
>stuff - pulsar@springnet1.com.  But, I'll tell you what I've heard too. :)
>
>> My main questions are: which version is better, LinuxPPC or MKLinux?, 
>> does RedHat have some kind of "inthe works" PPC port? can anyone send me 
>> a cdrom of one of these ports to try it out. I am just not up to buying a
>> copy before I know which port is the one for me.
>
>Linux PPC was your best bet, assuming you're running a Power-PC based mac. 
>Since Development appears to have stopped on MKlinux (I'm sure I read that
>somewhere recently), LinuxPPC might also be your only bet...  Supposedly the
>newest release of PPC is pretty good.  As far as the redhat thing, I've not
>personaly heard anything about that, but PPC is RPM-based - which could
>potentialy be what you were thinking. :)

The kernels for LinuxPPC and MkLinux can be swapped (BTW, rumors of 
MkLinux's demise are probably exaggerated). The only real issue is 
picking the least broken distribution. LinuxPPC release 4 is okay when 
you can get it to install. I tried half a dozen times before giving up. 
The installer kept crapping out (it was a signal 11 followed by a system 
halt IIRC). Someone where I work was able to install it after the 8 or 
9th time only by luck. It seems stable enough after it's installed, but 
there's something wrong with the install process (and probably that build 
of the kernel). This happened on two completely different Macs. Release 
4's installer is kinda flaky.

If you'd like to try it, I would advise going for release 5 of LinuxPPC. 
The official announcement should happen next week (for MacWorld Expo SF). 
There are pre-release versions available now. Its distribution should 
more or less mirror RedHat 5. The 2.2.0pre-1 kernel is already available 
for it. The physical CD media might not be available for a couple weeks 
after the announcement, but it can be downloaded and burned onto a CD 
probably. 

There is apparently another PPC Linux development effort starting up, but 
I forget off hand what that is. I'll look it up. 

I have a release 4 CD if anybody wants it. It wouldn't install on my 
PowerMac 8500 with a 340MHz PPC 750 upgrade card nor would it install 
with a plain old PPC 604 processor card. It installed on a PowerMac 4400 
by sheer luck. Other machines may work better or not. 

Ryan Tokarek
<pulsar@springnet1.com>
<http://www.cloudmaster.ml.org/pulsar/>

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