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Linux Distributions for Powerbooks?
sol2k asks: "I just got myself a G4 Powerbook 12' and I am still amazed at the thing. Mac OS X is beatiful and sometimes even too intuitive for someone crossing from the Windows world. I had some nice experiences with Linux on Intel machines but would love to try out a Linux on the Powerbook and make use of the great hardware. Here's a simple question: What are my options? I know about Yellow Dog (old and doesn't seemt to be updated often), Debian/PPC (a bit too much time to set up than what I have available) and Mandrake (9.1 - that's really old). What Linux adventures have you had on your Mac?"
:-) Well, I've installed Gentoo on a G3 - and it works fairly well. Only problem I ever had was the Firewire card. Everything else worked. (Including the sound card). Mac-On-Linux (MOL) is also really fun - run MacOSX INSIDE of Linux.
I've used Debian and YellowDog on my G3 laptop. I've avoided gentoo because I don't like the thought of compiling everything on a 231MHz processor. I have used Gentoo on x86, and it is my distro of choice. The support is excellent, so I would give it a try.
Yellow Dog!,
although the distributions do not seem to be updated that often. There are always updates available via apt-get and rpm.
I dont see a huge point in going for a source distro unless you have something really new like a G5; Yellow dog is pretty well optimised for the more standardised (than pc) Mac/PPC architecture. In my experience it feel's rock-solid, fast and seems very stable than most x86 distro's i have tried. Terrasoft have also been doing PPC distro's for much longer than most vendors and as such I wouldnt dismiss it too quickly.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Any idea what the schedule is for the next Yellow Dog release? The current version is ages old by now.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Unfortunately due to the use of the NVidia GoForce 5 chipset in the PB 12", we will not see any linux support in the near future. This is because NVidia refuses to even release the specifications on how to wake the chip up from sleep. This means that on the PB 12", you cannot adjust the screen brightness nor can you sleep the laptop, which makes it pretty much useless as a linux laptop. This is really a shame, though, as the 12" would make a wonderful linux machine if we could get support.
In the meantime, you can always run linux on top of OS X using a virtual machine like Qemu. I have compiled all of my tools (including the full Gnome 2.4 and Mono and Monodevelop) with fink, so I don't really need linux on it.
Yellow dog is pretty nice (well the logo is) but your stuck with rpm hell,
i had my gentoo system finished (base2 to X) in under a day , but i dont use gnome nor kde bloat so that will account for a lot.
My personal top3:
And ofcourse; if you're thinking bout alternative OS's on powerpc MorphOS should be mentioned
Its a fallacy that Terrasoft dont have regular updates. Sure the distro's maybe dont have quite the same release cycle as x86 counterparts but There are always apt-get's and rpm's available regularly. YDL is updated regularly even if the distros come out less often, but they are usually very stable and mature.
... Most Distro's both PPC and x86 come in binary form; source code is usually supplied on a different CD. Im not entirely sure what point you are making in your final comment. But to reiterate my comment in a different a way.
..just yet .... (last time i did an rsync KDE 3.3 Beta wasnt in the tree).
;)
...
I was referring to a binary distribution, btw
The main point of compiling from source ala gentoo (as i do on my athlon dualie) in most cases is to benefit for the kinds of performance tweaks that are specific to a certain type of architecture. (Different optimisations for Intel, AMD and so forth) PPC however generally speaking is made by one manufacturer and in most cases on similar motherboards made by Apple. Point being, that a Binary distro ala Yellow Dog can be optimised to a higher degree than a typical generic x86 one; Id also trust Terrasoft who have been doing linux for PPC longer than most to have a much better idea about making a stable, optimised distro than a vendor that typically concentrates on x86 arch.
Of course if you insist on having bleeding edge then that is another case then gentoo is the way to go but hey Gentoo isnt really bleeding edge
It sound more like to me that you have never tried Yellow Dog, and are basing your comments on something that you have read somewhere or been told by someone. I'd suggest giving it a go because you will probably bite your lip and be surprised
Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Well I decided to give Gentoo a try on my PB. It works except for a few very nagging caveats:
1. Sleep does not work. This makes it next to useless for a laptop OS.
2. There's only 2D support for the Radeon 9600 Mobility. ATI, to my knowledge, doesn't have an accelerated driver for Mac Linux.
3. The Airport Extreme card (Broadcom rebranded) is completely unsupported. This means you'd have to use a PC-Card or USB wireless adapter if you want wireless.
Those are my big three complaints. Its neat to fiddle with, but until those are addressed, I won't be using it regularly.
But I did try out Mac-On-Linux. Its really cool. But again no hardware accelerated video so can't play games, and iTunes won't recognize my iPod within MOL.