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bearcatrp · Mar 20, 2007, 11:54 AM

I just removed suse 10.2 and installed yellow dog linux on my powerbook G4. Alot smoother than suse. Seems pretty spunky. Can anyone point me to some good usergroups and programs for yellow dog? Seems like a good OS so far. tnks
Randy

peeb · Mar 20, 2007, 12:47 PM

That's cool - I tried YDL on my pb but had no luck.

besson3c · Mar 20, 2007, 01:11 PM

Are you aware that Ubuntu installs on PPC Macs?

peeb · Mar 20, 2007, 03:06 PM

I know they do a distro, but I couldn't get their live disk to work with my pb 15 1.67.

Kon-El · Mar 20, 2007, 05:42 PM

Ubuntu has stopped making PPC Linux as of this year. Yellow Dog is much better anyway ever since 4.1 IMO and 5.0.1 will be out for PPC Macs any day now (5.0 is already out for Sony PlayStation3). For support and community I suggest the message board at Yellow Dog Linux :: Index and the specific mailing lists at Terra Soft -- Linux for PS3, IBM Power, Mercury Cell, and Apple PowerPC. . A third option for support is the YDL FAQ at http://www.SharpLabs.com:8668/space/start too.

For the person who could not get YDL to install they can help you get it running on any machine. Try the PB section of the forum first and then the lists.

Kon-El · Mar 20, 2007, 06:01 PM

Oh the RPM for the DST fix for YDL 4.1 and instructions can be found at Yellow Dog Linux :: View topic - Yellow Dog Linux 3.x and 4.x DST Updates and the extras RPM depositories for YUM can be found at, I believe, Index of /pub/freshrpms/yellowdog and possibly Index of /pub/fedora/linux/extras/5/ppc since YDL 4.1 is build on Fedora Core 5 but improved greatly over Fedora.

If you become a member of YDL.net you can also get extra software early too.

bearcatrp · Mar 21, 2007, 09:28 AM

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out those forums. So far, it seems to run pretty smooth. Hope v5 comes out soon. I wish I could get the wireless to work.
Randy

Kon-El · Mar 21, 2007, 11:05 AM

Do you need Airport Extreme to work? If so here is where you get those directions: Terra Soft -- Linux for PS3, IBM Power, Mercury Cell, and Apple PowerPC. For other wireless options like NetGear see Terra Soft -- Linux for PS3, IBM Power, Mercury Cell, and Apple PowerPC.

bearcatrp · Mar 28, 2007, 01:42 PM

followed the link for the driver but the first one doesn't work. There is a way to get it from the mac os but forgot my su password. Don't really care to reinstall to set it again. Any one on a powerbook care to dig the driver out and send it to me?
thanks

Aron Peterson · Mar 28, 2007, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by bearcatrp

followed the link for the driver but the first one doesn't work. There is a way to get it from the mac os but forgot my su password. Don't really care to reinstall to set it again. Any one on a powerbook care to dig the driver out and send it to me?
thanks

ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/yellowdog

There's something in the beta folder. Read the docs and help files first.

mfbernstein · Mar 28, 2007, 03:11 PM

bearcatrp: You can change your password without reinstalling. Boot off your system CD and in one of the menus there's an option to reset your password. Firmware here too.

bearcatrp · Mar 29, 2007, 08:27 AM

thanks guys.

L'enfanTerrible · Apr 1, 2007, 09:27 PM

From an outsiders point of view, what would be some advantages to running Linux, say on my G5 iMac? Is there a lot of open-source software that's not available for OS X? Is it a lot faster?

Chuckit · Apr 2, 2007, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by L'enfanTerrible

From an outsiders point of view, what would be some advantages to running Linux, say on my G5 iMac? Is there a lot of open-source software that's not available for OS X? Is it a lot faster?

Honestly, if you have to ask, the odds are there is no compelling reason for you to run Linux.

mfbernstein · Apr 2, 2007, 09:11 AM

To be fair, it is a lot faster, at certain things. Compiling free software typically Just Works (tm) out of the box there, whereas on OS X, you need fink or DarwinPorts. It can be pared down much more than OS X for small or older systems. It offers an incredible array of choice, if you like to just play around with things.

That said, it is rarely polished, frequently suffers from a lack of hardware support, etc. If you have an older machine in danger of going to the dust heap, a particular piece of software that runs under Linux, or an insatiable desire to experiment, Linux is a good fit. Otherwise, it's not so exciting.

One of the great advantages of Intel Macs is that virtualization allows fast and relatively painless virtual Linux installs. Ironically, Linux support of actual Intel Mac hardware is sketchy in the extreme.

peeb · Apr 2, 2007, 01:20 PM

Yeah - as above - if you don't know why you want it - you most likely don't want it!

Don Pickett · Apr 4, 2007, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by Kon-El

Ubuntu has stopped making PPC Linux as of this year.

They didn't stop making it, they simple moved it from an official to a community-supported distro, which isn't a big deal. I'm currently running 6.06 on my Powerbook, and it's guaranteed support through 2009.