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EnVoy · Feb 26, 2003, 01:28 PM

I have an old 7500ppc that has a Sonnet G3 233mhz processor upgrade in it. Can I run Mandrake on it? If not, what other distro of Linux can I use, or can I use something like FreeBSD?

I checked out the Mandrake info, it says it can be run on most "OldWorld" PPC's, I want to know for sure before I wipe the drive and find out I can't install it. Thanks...

DrakkenKorin · Feb 26, 2003, 02:25 PM

Double check here.

If you think you want it, let me know and I'll sell you my copy cheaper than you'll get it from them. I thought I could use it for my Systems Programming class, but I'd rather just ssh from terminal to the unix machines in school.

You can email me.

warpmoon · Feb 26, 2003, 02:46 PM

I'm not sure about how the cpu update affects a linux system, but aside from that, these distros should work on your box:

Yellow Dog Linux
Debian
Gentoo

I think you can run Mandrake on it, but I didn't find anything that explicitly stated that much on their site. (which was somewhat hard to navigate on)

You cannot run FreeBSD on it since, according to their website, only "New World" macs can.

If you have time, (especially in Gentoo's case) why don't you try them all?

Personally, I would recommend Debian, since that's what I use.

But it might not be a good choice if you're just starting out with Linux (same with Gentoo).

kvm_mkdb · Feb 26, 2003, 02:56 PM

Originally posted by EnVoy:
I have an old 7500ppc that has a Sonnet G3 233mhz processor upgrade in it. Can I run Mandrake on it? If not, what other distro of Linux can I use, or can I use something like FreeBSD?

NetBSD will work fine.

http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/

EnVoy · Feb 28, 2003, 02:53 PM

Well, I can see this is going to be an ongoing saga! I tried Mandrake, and no go. I could get through to the BootX, untill the point where it switches over to a command lins style screen. It then panics and says something about "can't load ..... on 8...." (can't remember it all right now). So, I guess Mandrake doesn't work.

So, next I will try Yellow Dog, see how that goes. I downloaded the ppc iso, and am going to burn a disc of it today at work.

In the mean time, though, my G4 crapped out on me! I have to shutdown and switch over the monitor to my 7500 when I want to use it, so maybe all the turning off/turning on tweeked it. It takes several minutes to start up, and won't log in. The disk util says the Volume Bit Map needs to be repaired.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the Linux install if anyone is interested....

crazyjohnson · Feb 28, 2003, 04:58 PM

The Yellow Dog install is very easy and smooth. That should def. work for you.

Originally posted by EnVoy:
So, next I will try Yellow Dog, see how that goes. I downloaded the ppc iso, and am going to burn a disc of it today at work.

EnVoy · Mar 2, 2003, 02:50 AM

Well, I have been trying YDL 2.3 with no luck so far. Bootx works, and I get about half way through the installation process. Then it stalls, or says "Fatal Error" for some reason or another.

I took a look at NetBSD, and read the installation guide, the install seems a bit much for now, especially when the guide says "To sit back, relax, and expect the worst"! Maybe later on that one. Guess I'll try YDL 2.2, and maybe Debian next.

PS, got the G4 back up and running, I think Intego's Virus Barrior became incompatable with the new 10.2.4, FYI...

EnVoy · Mar 5, 2003, 02:29 PM

Well, incase anyone is interested, I'm pretty much giving up!

I have tried most all the distros listed in this thread, still nada. I still am going to try NetBSD, but the way things are going, I'm not holding my breath.....

Arkham_c · Mar 5, 2003, 04:35 PM

Originally posted by EnVoy:
Well, incase anyone is interested, I'm pretty much giving up! I have tried most all the distros listed in this thread, still nada. I still am going to try NetBSD, but the way things are going, I'm not holding my breath.....

It's likely the cache on the upgrade card that is causing your problems. Get one of the utilites to disable it before running BootX and you should be good to go.

EnVoy · Mar 5, 2003, 06:49 PM

Bootx doesn't seem to be the problem, it boots into the install process fine (YDL). It's the actual install process that craps out. I'm trying NetBSD next, but I suspect I will have the Open Firmware problems, and it won't work. I might just have to buy a used PC to get this to happen

EnVoy · Mar 6, 2003, 11:58 AM

SUCCESS!

YDL 2.3 finally installed. I had to set the boot loader partition to 100mb instead of the recomended 10mb. Don't ask me why, I saw the workaround on a YDL support mailing list, so I tried it.

YDL seems to work ok, kinda slow, but that is probably due to the old machine.

The upgrade card requires a plugin to work properly under MacOS. It will still work if you don't have it, but much slower. Does anyone know if I need, or can have, this plugin under YDL?

absmiths · Mar 13, 2003, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by EnVoy:
SUCCESS!

YDL 2.3 finally installed. I had to set the boot loader partition to 100mb instead of the recomended 10mb. Don't ask me why, I saw the workaround on a YDL support mailing list, so I tried it.

YDL seems to work ok, kinda slow, but that is probably due to the old machine.

The upgrade card requires a plugin to work properly under MacOS. It will still work if you don't have it, but much slower. Does anyone know if I need, or can have, this plugin under YDL?

I used to run MkLinux on an old 6100/60 and it worked just fine. As I recall it even included the RedHat Package Manager.

el_humpo · Mar 13, 2003, 06:53 PM

AFAIK, all the sonnet extension does is enable the G3 cache. If you make it load before the BootX extension (put a bunch of spaces before the name), it should activate the cache before Linux loads.