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Installing YDL Linux - questions about dual booting

olliea95

olliea95

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 10, 2009
102
0
Surrey, UK
I am just about to install Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 on my spare HDD and I would like to know if I have to do some configuring to be able to dual boot.

My first idea would be if I hold down option on boot and I am presented with the usual HDD boot options. Will this work?

I also thought of another idea - that a boot loader would be needed, although I have no experience with boot loaders (or even what they are really).

To summarize - I have Mac OS X 10.4.11 install on a 128GB HDD, and I am about to install YDL 6.1 on another 50GB HDD, and I would like to know how to go about dual booting.

Thanks so much!
 
Install it on the external drive, when you hold option - it should appear. Although, I'm not sure if anything other than Intel Macs can boot from USB, so the drive might have to be FW - someone else will need to confirm.
 
No worries about the drive, it is internal.

Will let you know how if it works in a few hours, thanks for your help. Oh and yes, PowerPC cannot boot from USB, only firewire.

Thanks
 
Dear lord, not YDL.

Seriously. If it's your first foray into Linux you'll get a much, much worse impression of it then it deserves. YDL is a pretty poor distro IMO. Unless you've got a specific reason to use it I think you'd be much, much better served by Ubuntu (if you're a beginner) or Fedora (if you're an advanced beginner -> power user).
 
Ditto on the comments on YDL... just go for a community PPC build of Ubuntu, (worked very nicely in any event on an iBook G4/800).

But anyway, I think in general you should be fine booting off the second internal drive in this way -- just make sure that your Linux installer puts its bootloader on the second internal drive and not on the MacOS drive -- I think there's no real reason for having it modify the boot sector of the main drive, since the OS X bootloader (option key) works just as well.

The only one caveat that I know less about is that people seem to have lots of problems with PMG4s of this era when they try to install new OSes that are related to the firmware. You may have already dealt with this when you put Tiger on it; otherwise, I don't know if it affects Linux or not anyway. If not, I think the process of installing the firmware update is somewhat complicated (see the example in this story of upgrading a PMG4 to Leopard).
 
No, I have used linux for a long time, trying Ubuntu, Fedora, DSL and Debian. I have chose YDL only because it is almost purely based for a PowerPC computer.

Thanks for your suggestion though, it would have helped a linux newbie.

EDIT: Reason I never stuck with Ubuntu on this computer is because it has never worked side-by-side with OS X, currently can't remember the error, I think it was that it didn't boot. Although, it did work when it was the only install OS. Will give it another shot, seeing as you guys dislike YDL
 
Ok now, this post has gone completely off topic, but I hope it still gets answered.

I have just inserted my Ubuntu install CD, held option, clicked the CD then the little arrow - but all I get is this (picture attached, first two)

So then I began debuggering (oops, debugging, I mean) my computer. First thing I thought, disconnect all HDDs, but now I get the hated folder icon with a question mark. Picture attached (last one)

Now I have tried a selection of 4 CDs, all of different Linux distros, including Live CDs and Alternate Install CDs. As I have said in a previous post, Ubuntu has been install on this computer, but before I had OS X - I had OS 9.2.2, and during the install I formatted that HDD (since I only had one HDD at the time).

At this moment in time I should probably be writing this to a Linux forum, but I have not registered with one yet, plus I like you guys.

Well I hope you can help, and just let me know if I am in the wrong forum.

Thanks in advance!!

EDIT: Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures.
 

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Can anyone give me a hint? Or if not then please tell me that you can't, so that I am not forever wasting time waiting for a reply.

Thanks so much!
 
Hmm, dunno on that one. You sound more than experienced enough to have not missed any of the obvious things (using a PPC CD image, burned it correctly, etc). You might make sure that Mac will still boot from an OS X CD or DVD, just to eliminate a more general cause.

Elsewise, if you join a forum, I'd personally suggest trying Ubuntuforums -- they seem to have among the highest quality of contributing users. Plus if you figure out how to boot your Ubuntu disc, I'm sure the rest will follow. :eek:
 
Consultant said:
It's very easy to get Linux working on intel macs. Not sure about PPC.
Click to expand...

The only PPC I tried it on was an iBook G4 (and this was Ubuntu... maybe 6.04 or 5.10). On that system, the process was not really any less straightforward than it is on an Intel / Windows PC. However, I think the big difference (speculating) is that my iBook was an OS X computer from the start -- my understanding is that these things sometimes get more complicated on Macs that were sold running OS 9. I wouldn't rule that out as related to why the disc isn't booting (e.g. a firmware issue or something).
 
mkrishnan said:
You sound more than experienced enough to have not missed any of the obvious things
Click to expand...

:D thanks!

Well thank you all for the help, looks like I will have to be joining the Ubuntu forum. I have no idea why the problem still persists, I am pretty sure it is firmware though, seeing as it booted for this linux disc when OS 9 was installed but now not when OS X is.

But if it is then I have to get my hands on an OS 9 install, seeing as the firmware updater only runs on OS 9...

But thanks again!

EDIT: Oh, and yes I can boot OS X DVDs
 
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