Installing Linux on a Power PC (Apple)


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Thread: Installing Linux on a Power PC (Apple)

  1. #1
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    Installing Linux on a Power PC (Apple)

    Hello,
    I'll be grateful if somebody tells me if it is possible to install Linux, in dual boot with its native OS, on an Apple Mac Mini with the previous G4 processor (not Intel).
    Best Regards

  2. #2
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    Debian PPC I believe Gentoo and Ubuntu will as well.
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  3. #3
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    don't forget about YellowDog Linux. They are basically Fedora compiled for PPC.
    Please use your spare cpu cycles to help a good cause (its free!!1)... http://folding.stanford.edu

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  4. #4
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    I have a Debian PPC machine, runs very well. It's a WindTunnel PowerMac - but it would run just as well on the G4 Mac Mini.

  5. #5
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    All of the above sound pretty good distro wise. I only have a Blue G3 PowerPC which is nice w/OS 9.2.2 (even though it's a little slow). I've never had luck with Linux on it, though. I forget exactly why it was I had trouble now, but I did at any rate. I think the newer G4's are better to work with, so I don't want to discourage you from trying. Just as fair warning, you may run into a few quirks. I think you should be able to do it, though. I know many others have here.
    The Swain

    dswain

  6. #6
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    Actually, the only problem I'm having setting up Debian Sarge on my G3 Laptop ("Wallstreet"?) is finding a X.org configuration file/specs for it. There are no GUI lightweight PPC distros out there AFAIK. With either Gnome or KDE it just crawls and Gentoo is painful (for obvious reasons) and I couldn't get cross-building going. Tried OpenBSD and NetBSD but still ahd the same problems trying to get X to work.

    I mean, there should be sites or something for those eh?
    Last edited by CaptainPinko; 04-23-2006 at 04:03 AM.
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaptainPinko
    Actually, the only problem I'm having setting up Debian Sarge on my G3 Laptop ("Wallstreet"?) is finding a X.org configuration file/specs for it. There are no GUI lightweight PPC distros out there AFAIK. With either Gnome or KDE it just crawls and Gentoo is painful (for obvious reasons) and I couldn't get cross-building going. Tried OpenBSD and NetBSD but still ahd the same problems trying to get X to work.

    I mean, there should be sites or something for those eh?
    You would think so right haha. Maybe there is, I never looked very hard. At any rate, I remember my problem being related to hard disk problems and such. I probably just didn't have it set up appropriatly and I was too lazy to check it =P since I added a second drive to use instead of my Mac one. I forget if X ever worked on mine.

    Are there really no lightweight wm for PPC machines? I would imagine something like fluxbox being able to run fairly well.
    The Swain

    dswain

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by DSwain
    Are there really no lightweight wm for PPC machines? I would imagine something like fluxbox being able to run fairly well.
    There are but there are no Distros that are built around them for PPC so if you want to set them you end up having to set X.Org yourself and get to my previous problem.

    Seriously, setting up X is one of the things *nix could really improve on.
    Please use your spare cpu cycles to help a good cause (its free!!1)... http://folding.stanford.edu

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  9. #9
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    Thumbs up

    'tis true... i haven't found any gui light-weight distros

    but i have noticed that my old imac, g3, 233mhz, 128mb ram machine does work pretty nice with modified hdparm settings; fedora core 5; and xfce desktop environment.

    maybe you might wanna give it a try if you're afraid of performance with *nixes
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  10. #10
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    Ive always found Yellowdog to install w/o too many hastles and just install a lighter gui if need be (kde runs ok on my ibook se which has a 466mhz g3 in it) though my preference is Windowmaker which runs very nicely along w/ any programs i run
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