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| What unix for a dual 604e 200MHz in an 8600? |
Posted by: beachycove on 2008-05-07 16:12:44
The subject line says it all: what to run on a dual 604e 200 MHz in an 8600.
I had been thinking about installing BeOS, but it looks a little too limiting (though v.5 will probably go on one of the drives anyway), and MacOS, well, you know the story there. Some early versions of OSX can be installed, but XPostFacto provides no support for dual processors, and X in any form would be too slow on this hardware anyway. So, it'll have to be open source.
Any advice to an open source newcomer? I have been thinking about openSuse. Would this be a good choice?
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Posted by: QuadSix50 on 2008-05-07 17:55:28
I would recommend Debian. The only thing is that installing GNU/Linux on an "Old World" Macintosh like the 8600 take a little more elbow grease than installing on a "New World" Macintosh. You need to use the BootX bootloader and it only runs on Mac OS 9 or below (you can create a small partition for it). From there, it will boot to your GNU/Linux partition (there's an extension that brings BootX up first so you don't have to fully boot into Mac OS just to get to GNU/Linux).
BootX: http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/bootx/
To start the installation, you would have to point BootX to the kernel and initrd ramdisk that's on the disc. Once you've done that and click on the Linux button, it will boot the installation. After the installation is finished, don't reboot. You'll need to copy the freshly installed kernel and initrd ramdisk from the Debian partition over to the Mac OS partition. This can be done by first loading the modules for HFS (or HFS+ depending on how you created the Mac OS partition). The modules are "hfs" and "hfsplus". Once those are loaded, you can mount your Mac OS partition and then copy over the kernel and initrd ramdisk. Thjen you can reboot to your Mac OS partition and point BootX to the newly copied kernel and initrd ramdisk.
It sounds more complicated than it really is, trust me. It's just that I have to explain everything in detail so that you don't miss a step. 😛
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Posted by: ChristTrekker on 2008-05-07 21:23:21
NetBSD, baby.
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Posted by: SiliconValleyPirate on 2008-05-08 00:03:06
First and most invaluable piece of advice is:
Linux != UNIX
NetBSD is heavy going if you are new to Open Source OSs, there's a lot of terminal hacking and guff that sometimes is poorly explained (I have been fighting it for the last week and I'm only just winning here, but then I am using it on a more obscure platform than macppc).
There is a PowerPC distro of Ubuntu here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/8.04/release/
I recommend you try it and see if you like it. It's a LiveCD so you can safely boot and use it without harming your hard disk contents.
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Posted by: paws on 2008-05-08 03:59:10
I am using it on a more obscure platform than macppc Which, if I might ask?
Also, does Linux/macPPC do SMP? I seem to recall it not doing so on OpenBSD, which handles SMP fine on other platforms... am I wrong?
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Posted by: slomacuser on 2008-05-08 04:24:43
I tried • Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) desktop CD, on dual G5
works great! but could not use the extra GUI effects ... sure nice distribution 🙂 thx for tip SVP 😉
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Posted by: pee-air on 2008-05-08 05:22:57
There is a PowerPC distro of Ubuntu here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/8.04/release/
I recommend you try it and see if you like it. It's a LiveCD so you can safely boot and use it without harming your hard disk contents. The 8600 is an old world Mac. You can't use a LiveCD on an old world Mac. Well, you can use it. You just can't boot it.
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Posted by: pee-air on 2008-05-08 05:26:09
NetBSD, baby. Which, if I might ask?
Also, does Linux/macPPC do SMP? I seem to recall it not doing so on OpenBSD, which handles SMP fine on other platforms... am I wrong? I believe Linux does support SMP on the PowerMac. NetBSD, I don't believe does. Although I could be wrong about NetBSD; it's been years since I've tried it on an old world PowerMac. Version 2, I believe, was the last version of NetBSD I ever installed on a PPC Macintosh.
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Posted by: ChristTrekker on 2008-05-08 06:42:53
I believe Linux does support SMP on the PowerMac. NetBSD, I don't believe does. Although I could be wrong about NetBSD; it's been years since I've tried it on an old world PowerMac. Version 2, I believe, was the last version of NetBSD I ever installed on a PPC Macintosh. NetBSD has had SMP since 2.0, though they are gradually improving the locking mechanisms used.
I've only used NetBSD on m68k.
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Posted by: pee-air on 2008-05-08 07:25:15
I guess NetBSD does support SMP then. I know that Linux does. You should get two Tux (penguin) images on the top of your screen when you boot.
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Posted by: QuadSix50 on 2008-05-08 10:16:59
Linux/ppc has been in development for a while so yes, there is SMP support in the kernel.
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Posted by: SiliconValleyPirate on 2008-05-08 13:25:46
The 8600 is an old world Mac. You can't use a LiveCD on an old world Mac. Well, you can use it. You just can't boot it. Surely you can drop into the OpenFirmware and boot it using manual 'boot ' prompt...?
EDIT: It appears not, because the OpenFirmware is broken. That's kinda stupid...
I believe Linux does support SMP on the PowerMac. NetBSD, I don't believe does. Although I could be wrong about NetBSD; it's been years since I've tried it on an old world PowerMac. Version 2, I believe, was the last version of NetBSD I ever installed on a PPC Macintosh. NetBSD doesn't *yet*, it will do with 5.0 apparently, which is due later this year.
I think most popular PPC Linux distros support SMP, but I'm not sure if that applies to a 8/9600 or not.
Which, if I might ask? NetBSD/cobalt-mipsel (for my Cobalt Qube2)
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Posted by: QuadSix50 on 2008-05-08 18:23:30
The 8600 is an old world Mac. You can't use a LiveCD on an old world Mac. Well, you can use it. You just can't boot it. Surely you can drop into the OpenFirmware and boot it using manual 'boot ' prompt...?
EDIT: It appears not, because the OpenFirmware is broken. That's kinda stupid...
I believe Linux does support SMP on the PowerMac. NetBSD, I don't believe does. Although I could be wrong about NetBSD; it's been years since I've tried it on an old world PowerMac. Version 2, I believe, was the last version of NetBSD I ever installed on a PPC Macintosh. NetBSD doesn't *yet*, it will do with 5.0 apparently, which is due later this year.
I think most popular PPC Linux distros support SMP, but I'm not sure if that applies to a 8/9600 or not.
Which, if I might ask? NetBSD/cobalt-mipsel (for my Cobalt Qube2)
You have to use BootX in order to start an installation from the installation disc. You're required to have a Mac OS partition for it, but it doesn't have to be large and there's an extension that allows you to boot to GNU/Linux before even loading the entire Mac OS. You can use quik if you don't want a Mac OS partition on an Old World Mac, but it's safer to use BootX. And yes, OF on the Old World Macs was extremely buggy and you can only view it through a terminal connection through the serial port.
I've installed Ubuntu 5.04 on a StarMax 4000 even though it said it didn't support Old World Macs. Debian will most certainly work as well. But again, your best bet is to use BootX.
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Posted by: Bunsen on 2008-05-09 11:10:59
Any votes for YellowDog?
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Posted by: QuadSix50 on 2008-05-09 11:33:58
Any votes for YellowDog? Not from me since I last used it at version 3.x
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Posted by: ChristTrekker on 2008-05-09 14:25:18
Any votes for YellowDog? I've been happy with YDL, the only Linux I've used on PPC for any length of time. I just think I like NetBSD better.
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Posted by: SiliconValleyPirate on 2008-05-09 16:33:44
A friend of mine tried YellowDog once an concluded 'there's a good reason why it has 'Dog' in the name!' I suspect he was using an older version though, and it wasn't on a Mac.
If Linux from a modern distribution like Ubuntu, Debian, SuSE, Fedora et al is no feasible (or at least easy) on a 8600 then you are pretty much stuck with YDL or NetBSD, and anything else that explicitly supports Old World machines.
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Posted by: TylerEss on 2008-05-10 13:57:07
YDL is OK if you're OK with a redhat-based distro; I used it for a while on a PowerBook 5300.
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Posted by: Bunsen on 2008-05-10 15:38:47
Oh, so it works on Nubus machines? That's good to know.
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