about to install Linux on iBook, any last min advice?

[TrenchMouth]

I am currently migrating from the internal drive of my iBook to my externeal FW drive, which is a good move to begin with because it is faster. After that i am going to format and partition the internal drive and install a stripped down Panther on one and YellowDog Linux on the other. Anyone have any last minute advice that I might find useful?

I am on a 500Mhz G3 iBook, with 640MB and a 10Gig drive. I decided that I would throw Linux on here really just to get an idea about how to use it and whatnot. I do not plan on using it as my primary OS. I have little knowledge of how to actually use it so this will pretty much be a learning from the beginning sort of thing. should be cool i think.

Thanks in advance for any advice. How about a link to places where there are programs for linux on Mac...as i am not sure what to even search for, i would imagine that any program writen for an x86 version of linux would have to be recompiled for PPC. again, this is all new to me.

 

[TrenchMouth]

btw

the reason i didnt put this in either the hardware or software sections is because i think it is a nice mix, and does not go either way too much. if you have info about how to better set up the hardware i would love to hear that too.

 

[varmit]

I would use OS X to partition, and install OS X on the first partition first, then install linux on the next partition second and have it write the mbr so you can dual boot. Then everything else should be fine, I did the same thing you are doing with my iBook. Then use the firewire drive for storage so you can share the info between OS X and Linux.

 

[TrenchMouth]

I would use OS X to partition, and install OS X on the first partition first, then install linux on the next partition second and have it write the mbr so you can dual boot. Then everything else should be fine, I did the same thing you are doing with my iBook. Then use the firewire drive for storage so you can share the info between OS X and Linux.

excellent. thanks. i just finished the migration a min ago, and as soon as i am done typing this i will be partitioning and installing OS X. i agree that the dual boot seems to be the way to go. i am still going to use the external as my primary OS X start up disk. is there a way for me to choose that disk as my start up disk after i have started up in linux on the laptop? does YDL recognize external firewire drives that have already been formated and whatnot? i dont feel like plugging it in and having it erase my external for unknown reasons.

 

[AdamR01]

If you want to use linux, stay away from YellowDog. I used it on my iBook and its buggy as hell. Ubuntu works a lot better. You arent going to learn linux if you dual boot though, you'll get frustrated and just go back to OS X. If you want to just learn basix unix/linux commands just use the Terminal in OS X. Also don't plan on gaming in linux as there arent any 3D card drivers.

 

[TrenchMouth]

If you want to use linux, stay away from YellowDog. I used it on my iBook and its buggy as hell. Ubuntu works a lot better. You arent going to learn linux if you dual boot though, you'll get frustrated and just go back to OS X. If you want to just learn basix unix/linux commands just use the Terminal in OS X. Also don't plan on gaming in linux as there arent any 3D card drivers.

thanks for the heads up, i will look into ubuntu. as it stands i am using linux right now on my iBook. so far so good. i know i wont be using it as my primary OS, i just thought it would be nice to get an idea about what it is like. i am actually kind of suprised how easy it is. and yeah, i do see myself sticking with OS X in the future, still, nice to try out.

 

[AdamR01]

I don't know if you have a PC, but if you start using linux, you won't want to use Windows ever again. The package manager in Ubuntu has a great interface. Also there is only 1 install cd to download. I also like it because it does not install 20 programs that all do basically the same thing. Who needs 20 different picture viewers? lol And then to add insult to that injury the default window manager is KDE (not that theres anything wrong with that, I just prefer Gnome). So I unchecked the install for it. My first login, what started? Oh, thats right it was KDE. So then I was frustrated so I put my laptop down and closed the lid. When I came back it wouldn't wake up. After a little bit of messing around and just getting pissed off I decided to try another distro so you might just want to keep trying different ones to find the one you like (assuming you have the time and blank CDs ). If you have any questions about it just let me know and I will try to answer them.

 

[TrenchMouth]

so far so good. i am running X off a FW drive that has everything i have on it and i put a clean copy of x on a partition on the ibook and YDL on the other partition.

the external, therefore, is pretty much useless while in linux, but i dont need much space anyway. for the most part i have just been screwing around with preferences and getting to know the interface a bit. i have had a few hitches when it doesnt properly activate the ethernet card or airport card depending on which one i am using, but they have been pretty easy fixes so far. i had a color problem that was fixed easlily just by switching terminals and such.

nice to know that if the world went to hell and the mac os dissapeared that there would be something to fall back on other than windows. my roommate is building a new computer on the cheap and i recommended ubuntu to him. dl'ed the iso today and in it will go when the machine is complete. so thanks for that advice as well.