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Linux Software

LinuxPPC at MacWorld 29

Posted by Hemos from the good-press dept.
Ryano writes " TechWeb has a story about LinuxPPC's strong debut at MacWorld. I was interested to read the bit about Linux tapping into Mac extensions to use features it doesn't yet support itself. Additionally, there is also some stuff on the future of LinuxPPC. "
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LinuxPPC at MacWorld More

LinuxPPC at MacWorld

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  • *hehehe*
    Well, I'm trying to get LinuxPPC up and running. It's entertaining to see those dos boot screens on my trinitron :)
    Initial notes:
    Use BootX. BootX clearly rules. It's beautifully simple.
    Use Mac tools to partition the disk you want. Seriously- nothing in Linux is half as elegant as plain old Drive Setup- make a bunch of partitions (I made 5, including an HFS partition) and size them in Drive Setup, with the handy slider cursor. Then when you use fdisk (actually it's gdisk) in the Linux install, look at all the partitions, _write_ them down if you need to (there ain't no scrollback! No amenities at all. Though there's now a MacOS SIOW implementation of this which does have scrollback). Anyway, in pdisk, delete the Mac partition corresponding to the Unix partition you want to create- then make a new one with _exactly_ the same numbers for start and length. Tadah!
    The install isn't incredibly hard, though it borders on incredibly awkward. But there's amusement value in puttering DOSishly around in a Macintosh :)
    I hate to say it, but so far I haven't beat Jon Katz to running actual Linux. Why?
    kmod: failed t(obscured by dialog)
    comps file is not 0 as expected
    kernel panic- kernel access of (dead?) area pcc002c4e4
    I'm starting the whole process from scratch, on the assumption that my install folder was totally hosed because Fetch knew how to uncompress gzip files on post-processing. I worked out that I had to redownload the ramdisk, but that was _not_ the only gzip, and I have a hunch that something else needed to remain zipped up neatly. (Note: when downloading these things, try disabling _all_ post processing, then unHQXing and unstuffing Mac apps as needed, leaving all zips strictly alone)
    I look forward to relentlessly solving all this- and will be getting a beater PC to practice the installing on x86 (of a sort ;) ) as well. Nice ta join you all :)
    ...for some values of 'join'. Use BootX! BootX rules! BootX lets you dualboot with ostentatious ease, total Macish simplicity and elegance, and LinuxPPC apparently lets you access HFS volumes (cool!) Be sure to name the HFS partition something Linux can comprehend. I believe that means a little short word that's all lowercase.
    Be seeing you! :)
  • which comes on the LinuxPPC distribution CD last time I checked. You can download and install Mk/Linux (I did this when I first started out) but it's a pain in the ass; just get the CD, you'll thank yourself later. (it's only $32 and you support a bunch of great people)

    Trust me on this one. Once you get MkLinux up and running, it works pretty much like any other RPM-using Linux (from a user perspective, that is). It comes with the usual stuff -- Apache, Sendmail, etc.

  • Sleep? (Score:1)

    by questor ( 960 )
    MacOS sleeping doesn't depend on the Finder, so quitting all apps doesn't disable it. Look at the Energy Saver control panel.
  • "In the coming months, Haas said, LinuxPPC hopes to add numerous functions to make the OS more usable. These include a sleep function, as well as an emulation mode for running the Mac OS from within LinuxPPC. These changes will be contributed to the Linux development effort for possible inclusion in the next version of the Linux kernel."

    Now THAT would make me switch over completely.

  • Sorry, but LinuxPPC does not run on any Nubus machines. If you want to run Linux on you will need to use MkLinux [apple.com]. MkLinux is a modified Linux kernel running through the Mach 3.0 microkernel. it will be 20-30% slower than native PPC Linux, but from a users perspective is functionally the same as the equivalent native Linux kernel (2.0.x) and it is binary compatible with LinuxPPC.

    -diaphanous
  • My coworker and myself just got a Power Mac 7100/66 from the radiology department and were trying to figure out ways to put it to use with Linux PPC.

    A couple of questions:
    1) Can I freely download Linux PPC, or do we need to purchase a distribution?
    2) Can I pick up an adapter for an SVGA monitor to macintosh?

    Just curious, if anyone would offer any insights.
    thanks,

    Brian Seppanen
  • I think you're right on this one. Of course, the SheepShaver Website hasn't been updated in over a month; anyone know how SheepShaver/LinuxPPC is going? I'd love to be able to OF-boot LinuxPPC and run MacOS from within it; saves all the rebooting hassles.
  • 1) Can I freely download Linux PPC, or do we
    need to purchase a distribution?

    Unfortunately, LinuxPPC won't support the 7100. MkLinux does run on it, however, and despite rumors to the contrary it's very much alive. It's freely downloadable from Apple, or you can buy LinuxPPC (which includes a copy).

    2) Can I pick up an adapter for an SVGA monitor to macintosh?

    Absolutely. MacConnection would probably be your best bet for getting one of these; I've had great luck with them in the past. I use just such an adapter myself; it's great.
  • They said that work on SheepSaver/LinuxPPC would
    start in January, so I'd guess there's not too
    much progress at the moment.
  • OS X/Linux stuff: The author didn't understand what I meant about how you can have a dual-boot system pretty easily. He came by and got straightened out on a lot of things, like that. :)

    Re: using extensions: again, confused reporter. BootX uses the Mac OS's video settings, but it doesn't actually use any of the Mac OS extensions for anything. If it did, then we'd have a lot more hardware drivers. ;')
  • I run linuxPPC and macos, and I used to have problems with sleep in macos, when I left my box running the distributed.net client, I'd come back a half hour later and the damn thing would be sleeping, even after I quit all other apps (including the Finder).

    Whats more, everybody should be running the rc5 client, nobodies box should have time to sleep!
    :)
  • With open firmware in Linuxppc, I can run my big 20 inch non-multisync monitor in Linuxppc, cause it detects it on startup and sets it to the proper resolution so that the monitor syncs.
  • Note that LinuxPPC can use either native kernel video drivers or OF drivers. The former are faster, but are harder to set up. What often happens is that you use the OF drivers when you first install Linux, just to get things working quickly, and afterwards you get the native drivers running at your leisure.
  • Linux should make good competition with Mac OS X. Hopefully it will help force the price down!
  • That's Time to do some great questions.

    This will be help Linux or MacOs? In fact. This will be help us or uncle Bill? What do you Think?

    nice day for ya......

    (t+)
  • Extensions are files which extend the functionality of the MacOS. Some of these files are libraries, similar to .dll files in Windows. Others contain code which is loaded along with the OS at startup. They allow new features to be added to the system without having to modify the core OS.

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