Which PPC Distro?

Stythys · 2008-05-27 00:28:53

So I want to install linux on an old ppc box of mine...trying to decide what distro I should try first. Unfortunately, arch doesn't support ppc, so I seem to have come to either crux or gentoo as the most "arch-like" ppc distros out there, I guess. Any opinions on them? or maybe other ppc distros I might like?

vogt · 2008-05-27 00:44:41

Arch may work with a bit of effort: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=48556

lucke · 2008-05-27 00:54:07

There is a PPC Arch port.

http://www.archlinuxppc.org/

my0pic · 2008-05-27 03:37:54

lucke wrote:

There is a PPC Arch port.
http://www.archlinuxppc.org/

I think the Arch ppc port is only for newworld ppc's. If you have an oldworld ppc (ie only able to boot Apple sytem disc off cd) I think your only other options are to try yellow dog linux or debian. I resurrected an ancient Powerbook 3400C with debian and runs great for what it is.

Stythys · 2008-05-27 17:53:50

ooo cool...didn't know 'bout arch ppc. thanks

mianka · 2008-05-28 08:42:38

Some additional info: Archppc is only for 32-bit ppc-apples, G5 does not work (monoblock computer-in-screen Imacs, these are 64-bitters

vs.taras · 2008-10-26 04:30:18

my0pic wrote:

I resurrected an ancient Powerbook 3400C with debian and runs great for what it is.

Really? I have a 3400c that I don't know what to do with, how did you get debian on it? Right now I just use it for playing Marathon, lol.

molom · 2008-10-26 06:15:42

vs.taras wrote:

I have a 3400c that I don't know what to do with

Ebay?

deadrabbit · 2008-10-26 21:53:33

I ran Yellow Dog Linux on my iBook for a few months, and that works quite well, although the packages are quite old even in the latest version. It's basically Fedora, tweaked to work well with Apple hardware ought of the box. As much as I like tweaking, getting stuff like power management, trackpads, and keyboard shortcuts to work is pure tedium for me, so that was nice. If I had a desktop PPC computer sitting around, I'd probably go for Debian myself . . . I don't have the patience to wait for everything to compile with Gentoo . I've asked around about whether the Arch PPC port is up to snuff, and I haven't heard any strong endorsements.

Good luck!

mianka · 2008-10-26 22:29:51

Debian works perfectly on Macs.

Renan Birck · 2008-10-27 00:09:22

I have a friend running Gentoo on a G3 "Wallstreet" Powerbook. Works, but is slow to use as a main machine and some stuff takes ages to compile. And, being an "Old world" Mac, needs Mac OS 9 to use as a "boot loader" for Linux.

doorknob60 · 2008-10-27 05:10:56

Yellwdog works good on my PS3, didn't have to do a bunch of crap to get it to work like other distros like Debian. Yellowdog is probably the best when it comes to PPC support.

molom · 2008-10-27 08:01:33

Yep, Debian is what suits that laptop best. You choose what suits the system unlike an out of box distro. Problems might arise due to incompatibility and system requirements, so with Debian you won't face any of that and there aren't that many PowerPC distros either. You could use an outdated Ubuntu distro if you really wanted something out of the box.

Last edited by molom (2008-10-27 08:03:05)

dsr · 2008-10-27 20:26:04

This was an old thread and I'm sure Stythys long since made up his mind (woah, mianka responded quickly considering 5 months had elapsed), but I'd probably recommend CRUX, Gentoo, Debian, Fedora, and YDL in that order.

Edit: Oh yeah, throw Arch PPC at the front of the list if you can get it working. I remember I once had a problem with the installer not supporting pppoe, so I never ended up installing it. I don't know how polished Arch PPC feels, though.

Last edited by dsr (2008-10-27 20:28:03)

Gullible Jones · 2008-10-27 20:52:09

I would heavily recommend not using Gentoo on an old machine; compiling stuff is very CPU intensive, and can take much, much longer on slow CPUs.

(I would in fact recommend not using Gentoo on anything, but that's another matter... I just think Gentoo is wholly inappropriate for an old Mac.)

dsr · 2008-10-27 21:23:31

Well, do you think CRUX is any better in that regard? Both Gentoo and CRUX can use precompiled binaries for the few apps that take time to compile. Obviously, the initial install will take forever with Gentoo (assuming one installs from stage 3 or lower) on an old processor, but running "emerge -uD world" once a week during the night isn't too difficult for maintenance. I prefer the Arch/CRUX init system, but that's just personal preference.

ccosta · 2008-10-27 21:48:01

Hi Stythys, two good linux for ppc are both, Fedora and Opensuse, you can get the last release of those distros (fedora 9 and opensuse 11) with last versions of packages, with good installation wizard (including bootloader, yaboot) and desktops like gnome or KDE. Fedora and Opensuse are built with packages compiled for several architectures, ppc (or ppc64, but it's doesn't matter in 90% of the cases), x86, x86_64, and including the not so usual zSeries, for those that have a mainframe beside the bed ;-)

I'm not sure about how good arch for ppc is. I'm planning to test it soon in my lab, where I have several test machines (IBM Power machines). In the future I will recommend it too.

Thanks!

mianka · 2008-10-27 22:05:41

Leave Arch alone for a while as there are serious problems with the install disc.
See: http://bugs.archlinuxppc.org/

molom · 2008-10-27 22:09:27

ouch... Didn't notice it was old... my bad

my0pic · 2008-10-28 02:27:13

vs.taras wrote:

my0pic wrote:
I resurrected an ancient Powerbook 3400C with debian and runs great for what it is.
Really? I have a 3400c that I don't know what to do with, how did you get debian on it? Right now I just use it for playing Marathon, lol.

These Powerbooks can only boot from a Mac cd (no floppy on mine) so the installation has to be bootstrapped from the Mac os using a program called BootX. The kernel and initrd ramdisk are on the mac partition and BootX uses these to handle the boot process. The hurdle for me was in finding a kernel and initrd that my Powerbooks meagre 32MB of ram could handle. I had success with Debian Sarge 3.1.R5 so I used that to install the basic system. I found this guide to be very useful as was Debians own guide which is very good.

molom wrote:

vs.taras wrote:
I have a 3400c that I don't know what to do with
Ebay?:D

More practical uses:
doorstop
boat anchor
digital picture frame...details here
ohh and the list could go on and on...:lol:

ccosta · 2008-10-28 08:16:58

oh no!!! this powerbook doesn't support boot from a normal CD/DVD... this is the reason why I'll never buy an Apple computer, I love to be free

Anyway, you should use Fedora/Opensuse to network boot to an installation and installing software over a network using FTP or HTTP protocols or from an NFS-mounted hard drive. I don't know if this powerbook supports network boot, but if yes, then its so simple to setup a network installation using dhcpd/tftp/bootp and to serve the ISO using FTP/HTTP/NFS.

Remember to select just a group of minimal packages, there is a chance of you get in trouble to boot into a desktop like KDE/gnome in your powerbook.

Thanks!

Last edited by ccosta (2008-10-28 08:17:24)

enrique · 2008-10-28 09:43:03

my0pic wrote:

lucke wrote:
There is a PPC Arch port.
http://www.archlinuxppc.org/
I think the Arch ppc port is only for newworld ppc's. If you have an oldworld ppc (ie only able to boot Apple sytem disc off cd) I think your only other options are to try yellow dog linux or debian. I resurrected an ancient Powerbook 3400C with debian and runs great for what it is.

You should be able to boot any PPC based Linux via BootX. I have a small Mac OS 7.5.x partition on my 3400C that just starts BootX and boots into Gentoo. I have also managed to get Quik installed (Firmware boot loader for oldworld machines).

Here is an old guide I made: http://rockhopper.dk/old/linux/software … -quik.html

And som guides to installing YDL and Gentoo:
http://rockhopper.dk/old/linux/software … stall.html
http://rockhopper.dk/old/linux/software … stall.html

dsr · 2008-10-28 22:28:53

ccosta wrote:

oh no!!! this powerbook doesn't support boot from a normal CD/DVD... this is the reason why I'll never buy an Apple computer, I love to be free

The PowerBook 3400c is eleven years old. I bet my0pic bought it before you ever heard of free software...

3400c_guy · 2010-08-16 16:44:53

my0pic wrote:

lucke wrote:
There is a PPC Arch port.
http://www.archlinuxppc.org/
I think the Arch ppc port is only for newworld ppc's. If you have an oldworld ppc (ie only able to boot Apple sytem disc off cd) I think your only other options are to try yellow dog linux or debian. I resurrected an ancient Powerbook 3400C with debian and runs great for what it is.

So is the general consensus that it's impossible to install Arch Linux on an Old World Mac?

I also have a PowerBook 3400c, and works decently with Ubuntu 9.10. I'd like Arch, but it seems like there's no ramdisk image to help BootX out in the initial install/boot process.

Inxsible · 2010-08-16 16:46:21

3400c_guy, this thread is almost 2 years old. Information in this thread might have become irrelevant/inapplicable. Please start a new thread for any issues/queries that you may have.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … Bumping.27

closing....

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-27 00:28:53

Which PPC Distro?

#2 2008-05-27 00:44:41

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#3 2008-05-27 00:54:07

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#4 2008-05-27 03:37:54

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#5 2008-05-27 17:53:50

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#6 2008-05-28 08:42:38

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#7 2008-10-26 04:30:18

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#8 2008-10-26 06:15:42

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#9 2008-10-26 21:53:33

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#10 2008-10-26 22:29:51

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#11 2008-10-27 00:09:22

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#12 2008-10-27 05:10:56

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#13 2008-10-27 08:01:33

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#14 2008-10-27 20:26:04

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#15 2008-10-27 20:52:09

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#16 2008-10-27 21:23:31

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#17 2008-10-27 21:48:01

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#18 2008-10-27 22:05:41

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#19 2008-10-27 22:09:27

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#20 2008-10-28 02:27:13

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#21 2008-10-28 08:16:58

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#22 2008-10-28 09:43:03

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#23 2008-10-28 22:28:53

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#24 2010-08-16 16:44:53

Re: Which PPC Distro?

#25 2010-08-16 16:46:21

Re: Which PPC Distro?

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