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[MigMac]

I've recently acquired another external Firewire HD and I would like to experiment a bit and try a linux PPC install on a volume.

I've read that installing on an external HD is not always possible, depending on the distrib you choose

I'm thinking about Ubuntu, Debian or Yellow Dog and I'm looking for easy-to-read guides (aimed at macusers not linux specialists) for a possible easy install.

Recommendations? Thx in advance

[Bolkonskij]

And if I may append a question - is the performance of Linux PPC distros still so bad ? I had Ubuntu running on an iBook G4 some 15+ years ago and the performance was rather abymal on its 1.3 Ghz G4. I wouldn't want to think about running this on a G3 ...

Any lightweight PPC distros out there something akin Lubuntu etc.?

[Mat]

Around 2012 I had a - back than - recent Debian with LXDE running at an original iMac 233MHz, 64MB, and just 2MB VRam without any issues, ... so I am wondering what happened to your setup Bolkonskij.

ATM it depends on the hardware.

MiNTPPC (the new one) is for sure the first adress if you have a faster MacOS 9 machine like a G4. But I am not sure if everything is again working correctly in 2024. https://www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/

Debian 11 is rock solid and from 2022: https://www.penguinppc.org/

Ubuntu/Lubuntu etc. had PPC (32 Bit) Support until 16.04 if I remember correctly. You could grab one of these as well.

[laulandn]

@MigMac, Unless you are pretty familiar with Linux, I would strongly suggest first trying it on your internal harddrive.  I started trying this once, and decided it just wasn't worth the trouble, especially on older hardware.  (And my day job is linux).

I've heard it is possible, but tricky, and highly dependent on your hardware and OpenFirmware version.  It is very unlikely the installer will work, as is.  It may partition, and set up a good filesystem, but, chances are, get the boot loader wrong.  So you'd probably end up doing quite a bit by hand.  If the kernel doesn't have firewire supoort built in, and loads it from a module, there's a chicken-and-egg situation too.

Let me know if you look further into this, and I can try it with you.

----

As far as performance, any distro with a "modern" desktop (that expect GPU acceleration, which can be iffy on PPC) WILL be abysmal.  But that's just as true on PC's of the same generation as PPC Macs.  I wouldn't be caught dead trying to run Gnome 3 on a G4, so alternate desktops, such as LXDE, are key.  They can be installed "after the fact", of course.  Even Gnome 2 can be a slog.

[MigMac]

Thanks for your reply. I've tried various distribs (LinuxPPC, MintLinux, Lubuntu, Gentoo...) and burned CDs for nothing. Either they didn't boot or the sequence froze at some point...I got better luck with one Ubuntu distrib but it was text only (problem with the ATI card for graphics it seems)

The only distrib that seems to work is Yellow Dog: loads fine, handy GUI for install but no FW recognition and as I don't have good memories of YD (had it installed years ago) I gave up, I don't want it on my internal HD.