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Dennis the Phantom Menace · Oct 18, 2004, 03:13 AM

I was just wondering if anybody has tried any Linux distros on VPC 7 yet. I'm eager to get VPC 7, but running Linux is one of my prequisites for purchase.

bmhome1 · Oct 19, 2004, 12:57 AM

VPC7 will run Linux, but as with all past VPC versions, it will run very slow and none of the Additions features function (drag and drop, shared folders, etc). Also, installing Linux in VPC can be extremely frustrating, getting video working in particular. I have an archived thread discussion for Linux VPC video install success available here:

http://homepage.mac.com/brucemillerphoto

yodacai · Oct 19, 2004, 02:20 AM

Why not just install a PPC version of linux such as Yellow Dog ? It would run much more smoothly.

[APi]TheMan · 09:46 PM

Originally posted by Dennis the Phantom Menace:
I was just wondering if anybody has tried any Linux distros on VPC 7 yet. I'm eager to get VPC 7, but running Linux is one of my prequisites for purchase.

Just play with the Terminal in OS X, then you can at least still use iTunes to rock out and Safari or Firefox to look up help on your Unix/Linux commands.

Originally posted by yodacai:
Why not just install a PPC version of linux such as Yellow Dog ? It would run much more smoothly.

(...he already runs Mac OS X on his mac) I'm sure you'd agree, but it's pretty much a waste of money to buy current Apple hardware and run Linux on it. Maybe back in the OS 9 days when there was something better than the Mac OS, but this day in age if you want to run *nix it's just easier to use Mac OS X. Also, at the price it costs to buy VPC (I assume it's somewhere around $150) you could get half of a decent PC together:

Just go to Newegg or Tigerdirect and buy a barebones kit, a processor, some RAM, and throw a cheap harddrive in there. Badda bing badda boom, cheap, fast Linux box right there.

yodacai · Oct 20, 2004, 04:09 AM

I was thinking he could run both OS X and Linux. just create a seperate partition for Linux and Os X each and dual boot. Just a thought. I would say this is much better than running linux in VPC.

Dennis the Phantom Menace · Oct 20, 2004, 05:24 AM

Actually I'm planning on using VPC 7 as a testbed for the various Linux distros. Yellow Dog won't do because the target machine is an actual PC.
In the past I've used VPC 6 to test out the various RedHat/Fedora, SuSe, & Mandrake releases before commiting to one on my machines at work. It was a nice system and I was hoping to keep it up with VPC 7 & my G5 at home.

yodacai · Oct 20, 2004, 11:09 PM

AAHHH... OK. Good Luck!

geekwagon · Oct 21, 2004, 04:10 AM

It's been my experience that VPC 7 works OK with Linux on G4s but is pretty crashy on G5s. Even the WIn2k image I have been using on my Powerbook crashes VPC a lot on my G5. WinXP is relatively stable but also relatively slow. The linux testing I did was all with SuSE Enterprise 9, so kernel 2.6 might have had something to do with it, dunno.

C.J. Moof · Oct 21, 2004, 01:32 PM

Originally posted by Dennis the Phantom Menace:
Actually I'm planning on using VPC 7 as a testbed for the various Linux distros. Yellow Dog won't do because the target machine is an actual PC.
In the past I've used VPC 6 to test out the various RedHat/Fedora, SuSe, & Mandrake releases before commiting to one on my machines at work. It was a nice system and I was hoping to keep it up with VPC 7 & my G5 at home.

If this is for work, shouldn't your employer be willing to cough up a couple hundred bucks for a basic PC to dump linux onto? Mine would.....

Dennis the Phantom Menace · Oct 21, 2004, 04:17 PM

I work for a federal research facility and our budget is strapped.

The Oracle · Oct 21, 2004, 09:48 PM

You can't accurately evaluate Linux if it is hobbled by running it in VPC.

That's like testing a race car for top speed while towing 3 tons.

ryarber · Oct 21, 2004, 10:03 PM

Originally posted by The Oracle:
You can't accurately evaluate Linux if it is hobbled by running it in VPC.

That's like testing a race car for top speed while towing 3 tons.

Is there not a way to run Linux and OS X simultaneously without having to reboot? It would be great to have this capability.

Unseelie · Oct 22, 2004, 05:18 PM

My experience with VPC 7.0 has been positive thus far. Runs quite well on my old dual G4 867 and my 1.6ghz G5 (I have less than 2gb of ram). I've loaded SUSE, Mandrake, and Red Hat thus far and it works. I'd not recommend it if you wanted to get any serious work done, but if all you want to do is look at some of the different distros, it might do the job.

However, from past experience, not all distros will work out of the box with VPC, so testing them with VPC may not be all that valid. Six of one...

bmhome1 · Oct 22, 2004, 09:01 PM

I've run both Red Hat 9.0 in VPC6 and have now running Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 (PPC porting of RH9). VPC is incredibly slow for Linux, at the least install the smallest drive image possible for usable speed. KDE desktop works well enough, forget the newer GUI's.

YDL runs VERY fast on even my Powerbook G3 900mz (YDL only sees 550), but one has to wipe the hard drive and partition free space for the EXT FS. Linux in VPC is a very simple, easy way to explore Linux and go from there if desired.