-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 You should watch out for the fact that Ubuntu stopped creating a ppc(powerpc) release with 6.10. So you can't install the latest 3 releases of Ubuntu on ppc. I'd suggest that you install Debian, because it has a ton of ppc packages and has supported ppc for quite a long time and its up to date and current.
What is "old mac hardware"? One major difference in the ppc install is the bootloader. There is no grub, you have yaboot instead. The next is partitioning is quite different..look below: Model: SAMSUNG HM160HC (ide) Disk /dev/hda: 160GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: mac Number Start End Size File system Name Flags ~ 1 512B 32.8kB 32.3kB Apple ~ 2 32.8kB 61.4kB 28.7kB Macintosh ~ 3 61.4kB 90.1kB 28.7kB Macintosh ~ 4 90.1kB 119kB 28.7kB Macintosh ~ 5 119kB 147kB 28.7kB Macintosh ~ 6 147kB 410kB 262kB Macintosh ~ 7 410kB 672kB 262kB Macintosh ~ 8 672kB 934kB 262kB Patch Partition ~ 9 934kB 538MB 537MB hfs hfsboot 10 538MB 591MB 53.7MB hfs+ applehardwaretest 11 591MB 10.3GB 9664MB hfs+ OS9 12 10.3GB 10.3GB 8389kB hfs+ MOSX_OF3_Booter boot 13 10.3GB 10.3GB 524kB SecondaryLoader 14 10.3GB 31.7GB 21.5GB sun-ufs OSX 15 31.7GB 32.2GB 470MB linux-swap swap swap 16 32.2GB 37.2GB 5000MB Debian0 17 37.2GB 42.2GB 5000MB reiserfs Debian1 18 42.2GB 52.2GB 10.0GB Home0 19 52.2GB 62.2GB 10.0GB Home1 20 62.2GB 72.2GB 10.0GB Home2 21 72.2GB 82.2GB 10.0GB Home3 22 82.2GB 87.2GB 5000MB YDL0 23 87.2GB 92.2GB 5000MB YDL1 24 92.2GB 97.2GB 5000MB FC0 25 97.2GB 102GB 5000MB FC1 26 102GB 119GB 16.8GB sun-ufs OpenBSD 27 119GB 120GB 500MB ext2 /boot Yes there are 27 partitions on this disk and over 6 operating systems. The powerpc macs(non intel) have a partition table (apple partition map)that support unlimited partitions. MSDOS partitioning allows only 4 primary as we all know. With apm...even the partition table is stored on the disk as a partition! So what does this mean for you...you might want to allow the Debian installer to do a guided partition setup and then modify that if you wish. If not then you have to understand that the system needs an Apple bootstrap partition to even get off the ground, beyond that everything else is the same. If you want to multiboot, several systems then things can get tricky...only 2 is very easy. openfirmware is another issue...its the bios on macs, but its command line only. You might not have to fool around inside of it, because yaboot(ppc style grub) does a lot of the work for you. Last thing, wireless works fine, but airport cards have some issue with monitor mode/injection. It depends on your kernel and your cards firmware. The newer kernels(2.6.28 and up) require for you to have the firmware in /lib/firmware/. Firmware can be extracted from the card or downloaded online. The wireless works like a champ, scans networks with kismet, but you need to patch a module or two for injection. I have an powerpc ibook g3 and I rarely use OSX, but boot Debian and OpenBSD most often. Bryan Jeremy Leonard wrote: | One of my friends has some old Mac hardware that he is wanting to try | Linux on. I told him that I could probably install Ubuntu for him, | but my experience is primarily with picking up hardware by the piece | and creating my own system. Is there anything I should watch out for | when installing on a Mac system? | | Thanks. | | | - -- A healthy diet includes Linux, Linux and more Linux. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkoqe3gACgkQh+MLjl5SKYTt+gCfU+XNpF2q02L00YX+pn+CDtNL 28cAnA4GAU4lvlsuCzWcm+JSs7QdvL1J =ZH/b -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
