Linux on PPC
Lance Ball
I've been using Linux on Intel for several years now and have settled
on RedHat for both home and work and am relatively happy with it. Now
it seems that I have a PPC Mac Clone (Power Computing Power Tower Pro)
which has a couple of disks on it. I'd like to try out a version of
linux built for the PPC on it.
Anyone here have experience using a Linux PPC distro. I know of a few
(Yellow dog, MK Linux, LinuxPPC). I would love to hear of first hand
experiences with any of them. As well, a pointer to a thorough
discussion of pros and cons of the systems would be great. My understanding
is that there are pretty fundamental differences when you move into the
MK Linux realm (Mach kernel?).
My real needs for the machine are things like print and file services
along with some simple firewalling.
Thanks,
Lance
--
Lance Ball | l...@panix.com | NYC, PLaza 7-2364
"Too hot, too hot!" -- The Winter's Tale, Act 1, Scene 2
Jim Kingdon
> you move into the MK Linux realm (Mach kernel?).
I'm not sure, but if so, they may or may not have much to do with the
kernel differences. MkLinux is binary compatible with the monolithic
kernels (LinuxPPC). So user programs can be the same between them.
> I would love to hear of first hand experiences with any of them.
Anyone else? I don't have any first hand (or even a *lot* of second
hand) knowledge.
I would guess that any of them would do fine for you (assuming they
work with your hardware).
At the risk of stating the obvious:
http://www.mklinux.org/
http://www.linuxppc.org/
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/
Matt McLeod
that Jim Kingdon did write:
>> My understanding is that there are pretty fundamental differences when
>> you move into the MK Linux realm (Mach kernel?).
>
>I'm not sure, but if so, they may or may not have much to do with the
>kernel differences. MkLinux is binary compatible with the monolithic
>kernels (LinuxPPC). So user programs can be the same between them.
From memory, there are differences in the install and boot
procedures, and some question about whether stuff like Mac-On-Linux
will work on mkLinux.
>> I would love to hear of first hand experiences with any of them.
>
>Anyone else? I don't have any first hand (or even a *lot* of second
>hand) knowledge.
Last time I used LinuxPPC was over a year ago, and the installer
was somewhat broken. My understanding is that this is still the
case for the text-based installer (which is a hacked version of
the Red Hat installer). You can get it to install, but it's a
little messy and you have to do things in exactly the right way.
>I would guess that any of them would do fine for you (assuming they
>work with your hardware).
That's the biggie. I'm not sure about support for the Power
Computing boxes as I've only ever used Apple kit.
Another option may be NetBSD, which has been ported to the
PPC Mac.
--
"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem."
-- Ashleigh Brilliant
christian mock
Lance Ball <l...@panix.com> wrote:
> Anyone here have experience using a Linux PPC distro. I know of a few
I'm running debian on a motorola powerstack (it's a PReP machine, not
a mac or mac-clone) and I'm quite happy with it; since about two
months, there's even a working installer. debian/ppc is supposed to
run on macs, too, but I got no experience with this.
I'm running a news server and a couple of small web servers on the
box, and it's extremely stable.
HTH,
cm.
--
christian mock in vienna, austria -- http://www.tahina.priv.at/~cm/
VIBE!AT http://www.vibe.at/ ** wir sind nicht zum spass hier.
Georg Bauer
c...@tahina.priv.at (christian mock) writes:
> months, there's even a working installer. debian/ppc is supposed to
> run on macs, too, but I got no experience with this.
It does. That's what I am using. I do the usual workstation-stuff on it
- hacking, newsreading, mailwriting, browsing - you name it. It's mostly
up to par with the other debian systems, at least as long as the
packages go nicely with the autocompiler for new packages. Some things
are a bit different on PPC, as there is not much use in using a 2.0.x
kernel on PowerMac's and there are still some problems kernel-wise with
newer Mac's (as there are always). But all-in-all it is quite useable
(beware if you have a 6500, though - there is a nasty bug in that
machine's hardware that makes networking a real PITA, at least without
the right patches).
bye, Georg
Bill Cole
> I've been using Linux on Intel for several years now and have settled
> on RedHat for both home and work and am relatively happy with it. Now
> it seems that I have a PPC Mac Clone (Power Computing Power Tower Pro)
> which has a couple of disks on it. I'd like to try out a version of
> linux built for the PPC on it.
>
> Anyone here have experience using a Linux PPC distro. I know of a few
> (Yellow dog, MK Linux, LinuxPPC). I would love to hear of first hand
> experiences with any of them. As well, a pointer to a thorough
> discussion of pros and cons of the systems would be great. My understanding
> is that there are pretty fundamental differences when you move into the
> MK Linux realm (Mach kernel?).
>
> My real needs for the machine are things like print and file services
> along with some simple firewalling.
I've used MKLinux/PPC and been pretty happy with it. I don't believe it
will support multiple interfaces, so any firewalling would have to be done
with ipmasq as well to get the inside addresses divorced from the outside
world. Other than that, file and print are not significantly different
than doing the same on any Linux.
Note that MKLinux and LinuxPPC are different. The former uses the OSF/MK
(Mach 3, ish) microkernel while LinuxPPC does not. The only really good
reason for using MKLinux in a production setting would be to utilize an
x100 series Mac, because it supports them where LinuxPPC only supports
PCI-based systems. If I was going to toss Linux on a Power Computing
system, I'd certainly go with the monolithic LinuxPPC.