I installed LinuxPPC 2000 on my work machine a couple of days
ago. Although the installation instructions by Nelson Abramson
were quite horrifying (check out at
http://www.linuxppc.org/docs/sawtooth-install.shtml ), the process
turned out to be painless. The instructions on linuxppc.org are out-
dated: most of the problems mentioned on the page have been
solved during this spring. Nelson's instructions were dated on
January...
There were only a couple of major problems:
1) Sound.
..........
After booting to Linux the second time (the first time
it worked just fine), the machine freezed on the
sound module loading (or something like that.
pardon me, if I use wrong terminology every
now and then: all this is new to me). The
problem was easilly fixed by the instructions
found here:
http://www.linuxppc.com/support/updates/product/?category=2000&;
subject=sound_hangs_machine
Note that this advice is totally opposite
to the Nelson Abramson's instructions!
2) GNOME was in Japanese
...........
This is a known bug and "will be fixed
in the future releases of LinuxPPC". The
instructions, how to solve the problem,
were here:
http://www.linuxppc.com/support/updates/product/?category=2000&;
subject=jp-language
3) SSHd was not installed
...........
Instructions to solve the problem are
here:
http://www.linuxppc.com/support/updates/product/?category=2000&;
subject=sshd
4) Mac-on-Linux doesn't work
............
Mac-on-Linux is a runtime environment to
run Mac OS 9 in protected memory
environment inside Linux. This doesn't
work, because the kernel doesn't have
correct module, or something like that.
I haven't solved this problem yet.
5) Getting to internet is... difficult
............
Well, this is basically _my_ problem...
but anyhow... I never knew that
there were so much _more_
to set up than in Windows or Mac.
....
If you want to try LinuxPPC 2000 on your G4, I recommend that
you partition your hard drive in four parts: Linux system, Linux
swap, Mac OS system and Mac OS files. Linux can share the
"Mac OS files" partition with Mac OS, so you don't have to give
Linux enormous amounts of hard drive space. 1 GB should do very
well. Mac OS system partition can be in HFS+ format, but the
shared files partition must be in the old HFS format: Linux doesn't
understand the extended HFS.
Unfortunately my machine got sick immediately after installing
Linux (nothing to do with that, though), so I can't yet tell you any
experiences. But I'll be back to this subject as soon as I've got
back my G4.
LinuxPPC doesn't cost anything. If you have fast internet
connection, you can download the whole installation cd here:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/ftp.linuxppc.org/linuxppc-2000/
You can support the development by buying it, though.
LinuxPPC official site: http://www.linuxppc.com
LinuxPPC unofficial site: http://www.linuxppc.org
---> jab
