Linux on PPC

Usefull links:

 http://philobsd.free.fr/Debian/branden.html
 http://www.hadess.net/files/ppc/ibook/iBookDV-install.txt
 http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/inst/install
 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/fr/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml
 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml
 http://frlinux.net/?section=portables&article=151
 http://www.linux-france.org/macintosh/clavier_rpm3.html
 http://wiki.twolife.org/wiki/iBook_G4

Repartition disk

  • Boot from Mac OS X installation disk. Restart and press "C" when hearing the chimes tune to achieve this.
  • Install -> Disk utils
  • Create a GNU/Linux partition (any partition type, UNIX is fine) first, then a Mac OS X UFS+ partition at the end of the disk.

Install Mac OS/X

  • No need to reboot, just stay in Mac OS X installer
  • Unselect most software except BSD subsystem and fonts.
  • Install

Install Debian GNU/Linux

  • Boot from Debian GNU/Linux Etch CD1 for PowerPC. Restart and press "C" when hearing the chimes tune to achieve this.
  • Start installation, stop when asked for partitionning
  • Destroy de UNIX placeholder partition
  • Create 3 partitions, that is:
  1. a newworld boot partition (~10Mb is fine)
  2. a swap partition (twice as much as your RAM)
  3. an ext3 partition for /

On my system, it looked like this:

 hda1 32kb Apple
 hda2 8.9Mb HFS+ eXternal_boot
 hda3 10Mb Yaboot start
 hda4 1,5Mb SWAP
 hda6 22,6Gb Debian GNU/Linux /
 hda5 5,6Gb HFS+ Mac OS/X
  • Continue installation
  • Reboot, a boot menu is automatically installed by Debian

Keyboard

In /etc/sysctl.conf, to emulate right and middle click with fn-ctrl fn-alt, add:

 # FN + CTRL = middle click
 # FN + ALT = right click
 dev/mac_hid/mouse_button_emulation = 1
 dev/mac_hid/mouse_button2_keycode = 97
 dev/mac_hid/mouse_button3_keycode = 100
Page generated by UWiKiCMS 1.1.8 on Thu Mar 28 2024.
Copyright © 2009 Christian Mauduit. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Updated on Tue Oct 06 2009.