[waffffffle]

I spent more than a weekend trying to get YDL 2.1 running on my 6400. I have decided now, after getting it up and running that it really blows in comparison to both OS 9 and X. Performance is atrocious. It takes for ever for things to happen, forever to boot. Mp3s skip like crazy. OS 9 is definitely faster on this machine, and I was installing linux in hopes of getting some speed. Is it KDE that's slow?

Plus nothing works. Mac on Linux freezes my computer (yes FREEZES, I must restart). I have no idea how to see my HFS partition, and I'm pissed that I had to make it HFS and not HFS+.

Should I try a different distro? LinuxPPC? Mandrake? Debian? I know my machine is slow to begin with, but I was under the assumption that linux would be faster than 9. I wanted the machine to act as a file server and cd burner (I should have checked that there were graphical burning programs!) Maybe it takes forever to boot because I installed EVERYTHING (I wanted to do everything).

I think I might go back to OS 9, or try BeOS. I've come across a copy of version 4 (I think) which I might try to get some more life out of my precious 6400. I guess the only thing that I really like about having linux is remote ssh and ftp sessions. That's a really nice thing to have, but I guess that will have to go. . .

[waffffffle]

One more thing, the sound server often overloads. However one thing that I've found fun, now that I've got remote X sessions to work, I find myself playing a lot of Jezzball. I wish OS X came with all these little games. It's wierd though, having the sound come from another machine. At least linux is good for something.

[MacGorilla]

I can't help you with everything but I can offer some tips:

KDE uses ALOT of RAM. You thought Mac OS X was bad, just try KDE. If you don't have alot of RAM (128 megs) then KDE will go slow and will freeze. One solution to this is simply to switch window managers: xfce and WindowMaker are excellent light weight desktops.

For hfs versus hfs+ I hate to say this but it states clearly in the documentation that Linux on the PPc can only be installed on hfs drives. Every distro works this way.

If you installed everything, yes it will take forever to boot!

[waffffffle]

Thanks. I think I might try Mandrake. First though, I want to try BeOS. I've come across version 4 (I think) and I want to see what all the fuss is about, even though the OS is dead. If all this doesn't work I think I'll go to Mac OS 8.6, or maybe 8.0. I have 8.0, and 9.0, but nothing in between. I also have the original system 7.5.? disks that came with the machine. Apple doesn't give away anything newer than that. I would really like the thing to work as an mp3 player that can be operated remotely, but that needs iTunes, and I believe remote scripting needs OS 9. Oh well. So much for speed, but at least the hard drive reformatting will solve things. I guess the 6400 was never meant to fly.

[bluedog]

I have some suggestions if you are trying to use this machine as a file and webserver. Don't use the XWindows system! That in and of itself will take your RAM and processor to market and back.

ANY admin running Linux on a server will tell you to leave XWindows OUT of the install or at least don't have it be the default in logging in.

You can always start it up when you want with the 'startx' command from the command line.

Also, your graphic card may not be getting accellerated video. If you're using the built-in video its likely that its supported for accelleration in the default install, but I have never worked on a 6400 and don't know its specs well. Look into it. It may be you have the power, but its not fully enabled and utilitized.

RAM is significant and important for servers. A simple router could get by on 16MB or less of RAM with nothing extra loaded in the kernel and such. Linux can be lean and mean when properly configured. If you want XWindows 128MB would be a start, buy RAM if you have less it is dirt cheap now. $30-50 can buy you a LOT of RAM compared with a year or two ago. This alone could make a big difference.

The HFS vs. HFS+ for the MacOS9 partition is a drag, yeah. But it also provides a way for you to access and move files to and from both environments. So far, there are no utilities to transfer files from the HFS+ partitions into the linux filesystems. Mac-On-Linux is really a triumph. I've used it on an 8500 with YDL 1.2 I believe. It was fast and stable, surprisingly so. I imagine there may some configuration that would help you with it some more.

If you were dissappointed with Linux, BeOS will be even more dissappointing. There is no longer support for it as I understand and it has even more limited applications available to it. You would have to compile many apps from source.

If you need a GUI, stick with OS9 or 8.6 if you are short of RAM. And enjoy the machine for what it *can* do.

[ 12-19-2001: Message edited by: bluedog ]

[waffffffle]

I have 80 megs of RAM. I have a feeling that the computer doesn't have real video acceleration. I know that I have almost no vram because it can't support thousands of colors at any resolution higher than 640x480. When using the Mac OS the screen often takes a long time to redraw when switching between apps. It's sometimes painfully slow. That could be the problem. However I'm not looking to put any money into the machine anymore. I'm in the process of trying to find a free or almost-free 10/100 enet card for it, and that's about it. If I can find a cheap video card I's also be pretty happy.