Want to run Linux on your PCI-based PowerMac today?
Paul Mackerras
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Are you keen to see Linux running on your PCI-based PowerMac?
If so, you can now go to ftp://cap.anu.edu.au/pub/linux-pmac and get
everything you need to install a native Linux kernel on your PowerMac!
This is currently code under development, so if you're keen to
participate and not afraid of encountering the odd bug, give it a go.
Note: this is not MkLinux, it is a native Linux kernel running
directly on the machine, without a Mach kernel in between.
The kernel itself has been available for a while, but it could only be
net-booted from another machine. Now I have a two-stage disk
bootstrap working, with bootblock installation programs running under
MacOS and Linux.
The kernel currently runs on 7500s, and on 7200s (with some minor
problems). I'm working on getting it going on 604-based machines, but
progress is slow without a 604-based machine of my own to test it on.
If you have a 604-based machine and you want to join in the
development, install it and let me know how it goes!
We are currently using the user-land from the MkLinux DR2 release, so
you will need that. In addition, you will need the following files
from the ftp://cap.anu.edu.au/pub/linux-pmac/ area:
Milo-MacOS.sit.bin Contains the MacOS version of the MILO
bootblock installation program. Also contains
the Boot Variables control panel app.
STATUS Describes the current state of the port.
Xpmac.tar.gz Contains an X server binary which works under
native Linux (Xmklinux uses Mach syscalls)
milo-0.03a.tar.gz Contains the Linux version of the MILO
bootblock installation program.
nvsetenv.tar.gz Contains the nvsetenv program, used for
examining and changing Open Firmware
environment variables under Linux.
ppc-howto Describes how to install and boot Linux.
vmlinux The Linux kernel binary.
The ppc-howto file contains detailed instructions to take you from
there on. The README files that come with MkLinux DR2 are also very
useful, as long as you ignore anything Mach-specific.
I'd like to thank the Apple MkLinux team for producing and releasing
the MkLinux DR2 user-land.
Have fun!
Paul Mackerras <Paul.Ma...@cs.anu.edu.au>
Dept. of Computer Science
Australian National University.
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