Install Linux on my Performa 6400

[jamie marchant]

Hi:

I am trying to install Linux on my 6400, I got MkLinux installed on a 2 GB disk, 1 GB for Mac OS and 1 GB for Linux was not enough, so I installed a 40 GB disk but now I get a segmentation fault every time I install just after all the packages are installed. I tried LinuxPPC which was on the same CD but it halts complaing that ram-disk size is an unknown argument and then says something like "trying to create 100K of ramdisk space... failed. I can not recover from this". Anyone have an suggestions on either problem.

-Jamie

P.S. I would prefer to use LinuxPPC since it supports my USB card.

 

[TylerEss]

If you're not already a Linux expert, you really don't want to run MkLinux or or LinuxPPC. They're both 10+ years out-of-date and very different from modern Linux. The only reason I can see to run either of them would be historical interest in early Linux distributions.

Ubuntu and Debian have PowerPC Mac support in their current version. There might be an RPM-based distribution still out there, too.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads is my recommendation if you just want an introduction to PowerPC Linux. I'd be gobsmacked if it didn't support your USB card.

 

[uniserver]

Please update on your success. I'm curious how it works, I put yellow dog on my 233 iMac once it was very easy.

 

[jamie marchant]

The Ubuntu apparently only runs on new world roms, my Mac uses an old world rom . I am a Linux GURU so I don't have a problem working in older Linux distorts. . Does anyone know of a new distro that runs on old world ROMS?

 

[theos911]

By Ubuntu's definition no Linux *runs* on an Old World.

Linux runs on New Worlds via a bootstrap partition and Old Worlds via BootX. Both Debian and Ubuntu will run on Old Worlds. BootX is a program that runs from within the Mac OS and you supply the arguments for where the kernel and root are and it boots from there.

 

[TylerEss]

Is this something where running BootX instead of yaboot would do the trick? They don't seem to remove drivers or hardware support from Linux very often.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/OldWorldMacs

MkLinux is pretty interesting as a demo system -- it's Linux ported to / implemented as kernel servers under Mach. It wasn't very practical even when it was new, since it doesn't even support dynamic linking. But, it's super cool for what it is.

 

[theos911]

Yes, that pretty much covers it. That article is how I got MintPPC installed on my Wallstreet. I've been meaning to write an easier to use how-to-for-oldworlds for MintPPC for like... a year now. :I

The bootstrap partition is part of using yaboot.

How much ram do you have? If its the stock 16MB you're kinda in trouble. Assuming you were to disable GDM and X in Debian and just run the CLI core you'd need about 40MB. Make that 128MB to really do much of anything graphically. (I'd max it at 136 if I were you.)

 

[jamie marchant]

I only have 48 MB or ram . I have BootX which is what I am trying to use to boot LinuxPPC. One of the advantages of mkLinux is it runs without X by default which what you need for a low end machine. Hmm... it looks you can run Ubuntu on a old world rom machine but it's a bib more complex then I want to deal with now and problly would not run so well on an old machine anyways.

 

[theos911]

DOH! Should have looked in your sig...

Well, you can still run Debian, just not X... If you do get it installed, here is how to prevent GDM and X from autoloading.

 

[jamie marchant]

I will take a look at that, thanks.

 

[jamie marchant]

Darn I final got the Debian installer to boot but it can't run very far before running out of memory. I will either have to find a dirstor that runs on older machines or get more memory(which could be handy anyways). Preferably a lighter distro because I'm not shure were to find cheap memory for my Mac. Anyone have any suggestions.

 

[theos911]

Which installer did you try? The alternate should get through ok on 40MB.

I would do a netinstall using the mini.iso at http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/powerpc/daily/powerpc/netboot/

 

[jamie marchant]

I tried a net install but it kept trying to load install components and could not do so. I tired using BootX but now that I think about it I heard that BootX leaves parts of the Mac OS loaded, maybe I will have to try another loader.

 

[theos911]

I'm fairly certain there are no other loaders. What error message did you receive? (Pictures are worth a thousand words.)

 

[jamie marchant]

Actually I got a little further by lowing the resulation to 648 by 480 but now it can't find the CDROM.

EDIT: Cd was not inserted but loweing the res should give me more memory I will try again.

 

[jamie marchant]

I got to another error and when I googled it I found that it's common on machines wiht little memory and apparently Debian uses more memmory then it needs too so I will have to try something else.

 

[Bunsen]

I'm not shure were to find cheap memory for my Mac. Anyone have any suggestions.

eshop.macsales.com

Select "Accelerators" from the drop-down, then find your machine in the menu at right, then tick "Memory"

 

[jamie marchant]

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[TylerEss]

Sadly, OWC doesn't have the special RAM for the 6400/6500/TAM anymore.