linux on an old Mac Clone


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Thread: linux on an old Mac Clone

  1. #1
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    linux on an old Mac Clone

    I have a friend that is selling these computers:
    http://www.everymac.com/systems/powe...erbase240.html

    I'm almost certain I could put some form of linux on it, but which one? do the red hat/mandrake/debian/slack CDs that I have contain a Mac version? or do I have to download something else?

    this one is a toss up between the which distro room and this one....
    one by one, the penguins steal my sanity...

    Registered Linux User#: 340703

  2. #2
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    The 3.x (3.0 or 3.1) ver. of Yellowdog linux should work w/ that out of the box or w/ a little work. not sure about gentoo or any of the others (should) though you'll need OS 9 and bootx to start linux
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  3. #3
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    Originally posted by StarKnight83
    The 3.x (3.0 or 3.1) ver. of Yellowdog linux should work w/ that out of the box or w/ a little work. not sure about gentoo or any of the others (should) though you'll need OS 9 and bootx to start linux
    I heard that debian-ppc worked quite well with a light window manager and minimal processes on a box like that, I tried it once with an oldworld PPC that was (IIRC) 75Mhz and had 8 or 12 MB of ram... worked out quite well actually.

    But the other tech at the school at the time decided it was a bad idea to optomize the mac and installed the old mac os after I left that day
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  4. #4
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    Debian or Slackware PPC would be the best pick, I think that you could squeeze some juice from that old thing.
    Registered Linux User #365191

  5. #5
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    am I going to have to download debian or slack PPC? or is it already on the cd's that I have with the x86 versions?
    one by one, the penguins steal my sanity...

    Registered Linux User#: 340703

  6. #6
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    You will have to download the PPC versions. Btw, the PPC version of Slackware a.k.a. Slackintosh is no longer maintained (unless there is another version I don't know about) so is probably not a good choice as you can't rely on there being updates.

  7. #7
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    Originally posted by retsaw
    You will have to download the PPC versions. Btw, the PPC version of Slackware a.k.a. Slackintosh is no longer maintained (unless there is another version I don't know about) so is probably not a good choice as you can't rely on there being updates.
    This is true, but with that processor, I'm not sure that any updated PPC software will run properly anyway (?). I would suggest DebianPPC to start. And since it is an Old World Mac, you will have to use the StartX bootloader (which I always found easier to use anyhow). Just follow the instructions, to make sure that the startup files are in the right folders (in MacOS 8, that is) and you should be good to go. The first run of StartX will install LinuxPPC for you IIRC.
    solo~ST

  8. #8
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    I've found that Yellowdog Linux 2.3 runs well on Oldworld Macs. The bootloader program is called bootx and has to be installed on the Mac OS system in order to boot linux. The default will start the install.

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