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Boot Linux from G3

R

RavenTK

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 24, 2010
10
0
Hi all.

I'm trying to install Damn Small Linux on iMac G3,64MB ram and 333Mhz processor.
The problem is that i'm not able to boot the cd.
Under windows machine...it boot normally,but if i put it on G3 and hold 'C',it doesn't boot (but i think it try to read the cd becouse i see a small icon with "face"/"?" on the screen).

Any ideas on why it doesn't boot?

Thanks.
 
mrkramer said:
Is that distribution actually compiled for PPC, you may just have a version that is only for intel
Click to expand...

Oh,yes,i've just burn the intel x86 image :(
Wich version (number) of Damn Small Linux or Xubuntu can i install on this machine?


Thanks.
 
RavenTK said:
Oh,yes,i've just burn the intel x86 image :(
Wich version (number) of Damn Small Linux or Xubuntu can i install on this machine?


Thanks.
Click to expand...

I believe that Damn Small Linux is only for x86 I think Xubuntu has a PowerPC version, but I don't know enough about it to be able to tell you how well it works on your machine.
 
I believe ubuntu still offers PPC based linux, check them out.
 
Thanks to all.

I've just finish install Xubuntu and it works pretty well on the G3 (333Mhz,64MB ram,4GB HD).
Now,for other people who have the same problem (and don't want to burn 3 cd's becouse no os want boot..):

-The version of Xubuntu i've used is 6.06.1 - Alternate (PowerPC Version).

Don't use 6.06 becouse it have a bug inside that block the boot on a certain point (it's a very common bug so it's better to avoid and use *.1 directly).
The installation will take a lot of time.
But it finally will work ;)
Firefox take 10-15 seconds to open,but when it's open works fine and it open all sites,also one with aspx that IE5 in Mac 8.5 won't open.

Thanks again to all.
 
All of the ports of Ubuntu and it's offspring to PPC are community supported, not officially supported. This means software support is still pretty lacking, even if you can get the system running on your machine.

Debian Lenny (5) works really well, and is a current, updated PPC distro. Debian is basically Ubuntu without the eye candy (Ubuntu uses Debian as it's base). You would need to start it in console mode and install your desktop of choice to use it on a system with so little memory however. XFCE is a good environment for that.

That said, a full GNOME boot on Debian PPC uses about 123Mb of RAM. By modern standards that's pretty light.
 
disconap said:
If you want a G3 iMac to fly, I suggest installing Debian with Blackbox and Iceweasel.

Here's a guide that's pretty thorough:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=20481
Click to expand...

I wanted to try Yellow Dog but i see that there's more support for Xubuntu

I always liked debian,but ,considering that i have 64Mb ram,4GB hd and 333Mhz processor,could it be faster that Xubuntu?
Does this version of Debian support Xubuntu 6 program?


Thanks.
 
RavenTK said:
I wanted to try Yellow Dog but i see that there's more support for Xubuntu

I always liked debian,but ,considering that i have 64Mb ram,4GB hd and 333Mhz processor,could it be faster that Xubuntu?
Does this version of Debian support Xubuntu 6 program?


Thanks.
Click to expand...

To reiterate, Xubuntu for PPC is a community supported project. This isn't a bad thing, it just means that development of the PPC version of Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu is not officially supported.

Debian is the same base as Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu, and thus will run just as well, and it does have official PPC support as of version 5 (Lenny).

Your speed and requirements depend on your windowing environment., not the underlying system. Xubuntu uses XFCE as the window manager, which you can also install on Debian. Blackbox is also very lightweight. You can even load the same window manager that Ubuntu uses, GNOME, but it will use more resources and be slower than XFCE. The main difference is that Debian gives you a choice during install of which windowing system you want to use; Xubuntu just uses XFCE, although once installed you can add others.

For the most part, Ubuntu/Xubuntu packages are compatible with Debian, but not always. 90% of the code out there is written for X86, so even if it could install on Debian, it won't run on your Mac. You'll run into that same problem regardless of distro, which is the reason I stuck with OS X Tiger for now.
 
Thanks for explaniation.
I've look for the BlackBox interface.
The problem is that the iMac is of my uncle (that don't use pc well)
so i prefer to give them a graphic interface like Xubuntu ones becouse it's more easy to use.

Thanks to all. ;)
 
RavenTK said:
Thanks for explaniation.
I've look for the BlackBox interface.
The problem is that the iMac is of my uncle (that don't use pc well)
so i prefer to give them a graphic interface like Xubuntu ones becouse it's more easy to use.

Thanks to all. ;)
Click to expand...

Ah, good point. BlackBox is a little austere. You either love it or hate it. I love the GNOME interface, to be honest, especially what they've done to it in Ubuntu 10.04. I had no luck getting that running on my iMac for experimentation purposes, however.
 
Yeah, agreed. I'm a huge fan of blackbox for what it it, but it takes a bit of getting used to. I also love e17, but I don't think there is PPC support for it...

Anyway, yeah, xubuntu is a good call as well if you just need something that is well rounded and easy to use but lightweight.
 
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