Linux recovery CD or Virtual machine for old Macs.

[wicknix]

I created a custom Slax Linux iso for the sole purpose of using it in VirtualBox on Snow Leopard for that occasional website that requires "Chrome" to work properly. Currently posting this from my 1.83ghz mac mini running this live cd. Would also make for a great recovery OS, or if you frequent shady websites, you can without much risk. I included pianobar for pandora radio, audacious for music needs, mpv for video needs, hexchat for irc needs, putty for ssh needs, hosts file to block ads, and a bunch of other stuff not found in the stock live disk.

If you follow the slax documentation, you can also turn this in to a persistent storage bootable USB stick. I personally installed it in VirtualBox to a small 8gb vbox.vdi so it would remember my settings, bookmarks, etc. It works quite well. Anyway, just thought i'd share in case somebody was interested in it.

Download here (fits on a CD)

Edit: Updated Chromium to 87, Firefox 78esr, added a new default theme and added backlight controls for macbooks and imacs.

 

[Imixmuan]

Where does the genius and helpfulness of wicknix end? Edit: Working well, need to install virtual box guest additions to get seamless mode, but other than that, very happy. Thanks wicknix! Edit: Working well as a live CD as well. Any way to easily install it to disk? I don't see an installer......sorry if there is a simple Linux command that I've forgotten. Edit: Never mind, read all about how to install it to USB or HDD on the Slax website.

 

[wicknix]

Just in case, here are a bit clearer instructions: https://www.how2shout.com/linux/install-slax-linux-distro-usb-drive-best-portable-linux-os/

I'd recommend installing to usb. It's the easiest. A HD install requires the 1st partition iirc. To install in virtualbox, apt install gparted, format your vbox hdd to ext4, then copy the slax folder to it, and then run the install script found in the /slax/boot directory.

Cheers

 

[wicknix]

I'll be uploading a new build in the next day or 2. Adding brightness control for laptops, and a few extra goodies.

Cheers

 

[wicknix]

v2 is uploaded and considered 'final'. Same link and same name as listed in original post. Cleaned it up, added backlight control for laptops with Intel graphics cards (like macbooks), added a battery/power applet, fixed fstab for faster boot times, and added some extra console audio software (sidplay, madplay, mikmod, etc). Open the file manager and check the README.txt for extra info.

Cheers

Edit: I uploaded the wrong v2.iso. If you grabbed it, download again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[wicknix]

Heh. I ended up liking it too much. Wiped my mini and installed it. It's quite zippy compared to full blown distros on this machine. Full install is less than 1gb. I've since added much more since i have 290gb to play with.



Cheers

 

[wicknix]

Updated OP with a new photo and link. Created one last release. Changed default theme. Added 2 brightness control options as it seems macbooks and imacs have a slightly different way of doing things. Fixed a few small quirks i overlooked previously. Given 1.5gb or more of ram in VirtualBox it will boot to desktop in under 1 minute. I also preset firefox to 90% zoom so it'll view websites without needing to side scroll in a 1024x768 VBox window. Also on smaller screens like early macbooks, select the "scaling" option in VBox to resize your VM display to fit, or choose the full screen option to avoid vertical scrolling.

Cheers

 

[mortlocli]

wicknix - sounds a great setup.
Im stumped at the 'clearer instructions' stage.
did you set up the usb stick in terminal..?

I tried that but ran into permission issues - even when logged in as the administrator. Tried on a low level linux netbook but was also blocked by permission factors.. even as root.

Not expecting a solution to my permissions prob - But can this be installed on to a usb stick using 'disk utilities' as usual on a early intel mac? Or does it need to go thru the script file processes?

 

[mortlocli]

wicknix - sounds a great setup.
Im stumped at the 'clearer instructions' stage.
did you set up the usb stick in terminal..?

I tried that but ran into permission issues - even when logged in as the administrator. Tried on a low level linux netbook but was also blocked by permission factors.. even as root.

Not expecting a solution to my permissions prob - But can this be installed on to a usb stick using 'disk utilities' as usual on a early intel mac? Or does it need to go thru the script file processes?

oops oops.. on a re-read just realised all this is meant to be done within virtual box..!!!

 

[wicknix]

Yeah, the main goal was to have "Chrome" on snow leopard in a lightweight package for VirtualBox. However, i did install it to an old mac mini, and that works great as well. I had to wipe the drive so Slax would be on the first partition for the custom bootloader to work however. I also made a usb stick as well, but it wont boot on my Macs. It boots fine on my old Asus EeePC and P3 desktop though.

Cheers

 

[mortlocli]

I must look into this more.. I use snow leopard on my 17 inch intel iMac ..mainly for running eyetv and Ive been thinking of using linux for going going online.

 

[wicknix]

Then i'd suggest the VirtualBox option, or boot from the live cd. Once loaded the system is pretty responsive.

Cheers

 

[mortlocli]

Yeah, the main goal was to have "Chrome" on snow leopard in a lightweight package for VirtualBox. However, i did install it to an old mac mini, and that works great as well. I had to wipe the drive so Slax would be on the first partition for the custom bootloader to work however. I also made a usb stick as well, but it wont boot on my Macs. It boots fine on my old Asus EeePC and P3 desktop though.

Cheers

wicknix re '..made a usb stick as well, but it wont boot on my Macs.'
I have the same issue..more so now my dvd drive is failing..randomly.
Thought Id relook at this issue as I hadn't for some time, and came across a discussion initiated by a guy with an Imac 5,1 like mine re bootup issues.

There was something mentioned Id not seen before : Plop linux - a bootup manager.

I haven't tried it yet..looks exciting:

Plop Linux - Live - Bootable USB drive

www.plop.at

 

[mortlocli]

wicknix re '..made a usb stick as well, but it wont boot on my Macs.'
I have the same issue..more so now my dvd drive is failing..randomly.
Thought Id relook at this issue as I hadn't for some time, and came across a discussion initiated by a guy with an Imac 5,1 like mine re bootup issues.

There was something mentioned Id not seen before : Plop linux - a bootup manager.

I haven't tried it yet..looks exciting:

Plop Linux - Live - Bootable USB drive

www.plop.at

oh and the discussion reads:
'
I have iMac 5,2 late 2006 with 64 bit Lubuntu 14.04 LTS. Solved with plop boot manager.
Get plop boot manager at www.plop.at and burn the ISO. Boot from plop CD, and select boot from USB in plop menu. The Mac will boot by default after time out. Mouse and KB then work for install.'

source:

imac 5.1 late 2006 ubuntu installation

I have an iMac 5,1 (late 2006 model 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS lion). I've installed refind and I am trying to install ubuntu linux 14.04.3 LTS (32bit version) from my USB. This is the me...

askubuntu.com

 

[Imixmuan]

Another VERY viable option for modern web browsers/software on old Macs is the lightweight Puppy Linux. I recently download focalfossa (ubuntu 20.04 "based") 64 bit and created a Live USB using dd in MX Linux, then booted off it on the macbook. I've had all kinds of problems in the past with this macbook recognizing or booting Linux created USB's but not this one. While in the past in Bionic, Xenial or Tahrpups I usually had to fiddle around with wifi, sound or video drivers in Focal I'm happy to report everything worked sweetly out of the box, except right click, still haven't figured that out. And sweet Mary with 6 GB of RAM I'm not exaggerating when I say it feels like I'm on a core i5 at least!

Default browser is Palemoon, but I installed Chromium (83) from Quickpet and after installing ublock and h264ify I was happily watching 720p youtube in the browser using 35% CPU. Firefox, Vivaldi, Dissenter and Opera are all available in Quickpet. Abiword and Gnumeric launched in less than two seconds.

Puppy is kinda weird, not at all like other Linux distros and sometimes the most recent software is not in the repos but can be only found in the forum. But for sheer unadulterated speed on old hardware its hard to beat. You can save the sfs file (ie persistence), but sometimes its also nice to just make all your browsing history, even your browser and settings go "poof" when you shut down.

 

[Amethyst1]

Puppy is kinda weird,

It sure is in some ways, and the "run everything as root" philosophy isn't everyone's cup of tea.

 

[mortlocli]

Another VERY viable option for modern web browsers/software on old Macs is the lightweight Puppy Linux. I recently download focalfossa (ubuntu 20.04 "based") 64 bit and created a Live USB using dd in MX Linux, then booted off it on the macbook. I've had all kinds of problems in the past with this macbook recognizing or booting Linux created USB's but not this one. While in the past in Bionic, Xenial or Tahrpups I usually had to fiddle around with wifi, sound or video drivers in Focal I'm happy to report everything worked sweetly out of the box, except right click, still haven't figured that out. And sweet Mary with 6 GB of RAM I'm not exaggerating when I say it feels like I'm on a core i5 at least!

Default browser is Palemoon, but I installed Chromium (83) from Quickpet and after installing ublock and h264ify I was happily watching 720p youtube in the browser using 35% CPU. Firefox, Vivaldi, Dissenter and Opera are all available in Quickpet. Abiword and Gnumeric launched in less than two seconds.

Puppy is kinda weird, not at all like other Linux distros and sometimes the most recent software is not in the repos but can be only found in the forum. But for sheer unadulterated speed on old hardware its hard to beat. You can save the sfs file (ie persistence), but sometimes its also nice to just make all your browsing history, even your browser and settings go "poof" when you shut down.

you could take a look at Slitaz...development has gone a little quiet but they do put out a regular weekly rolling version.
It comes with a light weight browser but there are several that can be installed. ..and it has Duke Nuken available for download...wot could be better than that??? Oops - the demo version, I mean.
Ive used Slitaz on a iMac 10,1 without having any probs... oh as a live distro.
slitaz.org

 

[Imixmuan]

Another VERY viable option for modern web browsers/software on old Macs is the lightweight Puppy Linux. I recently download focalfossa (ubuntu 20.04 "based") 64 bit and created a Live USB using dd in MX Linux, then booted off it on the macbook. I've had all kinds of problems in the past with this macbook recognizing or booting Linux created USB's but not this one. While in the past in Bionic, Xenial or Tahrpups I usually had to fiddle around with wifi, sound or video drivers in Focal I'm happy to report everything worked sweetly out of the box, except right click, still haven't figured that out. And sweet Mary with 6 GB of RAM I'm not exaggerating when I say it feels like I'm on a core i5 at least!

Default browser is Palemoon, but I installed Chromium (83) from Quickpet and after installing ublock and h264ify I was happily watching 720p youtube in the browser using 35% CPU. Firefox, Vivaldi, Dissenter and Opera are all available in Quickpet. Abiword and Gnumeric launched in less than two seconds.

Puppy is kinda weird, not at all like other Linux distros and sometimes the most recent software is not in the repos but can be only found in the forum. But for sheer unadulterated speed on old hardware its hard to beat. You can

you could take a look at Slitaz...development has gone a little quiet but they do put out a regular weekly rolling version.
It comes with a light weight browser but there are several that can be installed. ..and it has Duke Nuken available for download...wot could be better than that??? Oops - the demo version, I mean.
Ive used Slitaz on a iMac 10,1 without having any probs... oh as a live distro.
slitaz.org

Ahhhhh Slitaz. I once had Slitaz running on a 300 mhz Dell laptop from 1998 or 99...and it was actually very usable! I could surf the internet for the most part in Firefox, do some email, watch .avi movies in fullscreen with xvid. Basically do most normal day to day 2006 computing tasks. Just goes to show how far we have (not) come.

 

[Imixmuan]

It sure is in some ways, and the "run everything as root" philosophy isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I know, running everything as root is, umm, an interesting choice. You can run your internet apps in Spot which I do. Barry Kauler the original developer is off doing EasyOS now, and the Puppy definitely has become more splintered. As Puppy appeals to an older computing crowd I've also noticed some are dying off (literally in the case of John Murga) or retiring from active development. There still is a lot of creative stuff going on in the Puppy community though like using chroots to keep browsers current in ancient pups like Wary and Racy. I am glad I can finally access puppylinux.com again, someone set up the puppy main website so badly that when I whenever I tried to go there for about six months I got a 403 bad gateway error.

 

[Amethyst1]

Or Tiny Core. That's a marvel of minimalism.

Tiny Core Linux, Micro Core Linux, 12MB Linux GUI Desktop, Live, Frugal, Extendable

Welcome - Tiny Core Linux

www.tinycorelinux.net

 

[cpepper2]

I have tried out Slax Linux and somehow got it onto the virtual hard disk. It runs smooth in Virtual Box 4.3.40, keyboard layout is remembered (once set with right mouse click on desktop), but screen resolution was not permanent. I added a line on top in /root/.xinitrc : xrandr --output VGA-1 --mode 1280x960 and now I am very happy. Of course, I still prefer sites that work with InterWeb, ArcticFox or SpiderWeb.

 

[rampancy]

This sounds like a great distro to use as a boot install on a Core Duo MacBook - does the ISO come with an installer like Calamares?

 

[wicknix]

It has a very crude and simple installer. Basically it just copies the live disk to hdd and installs a bootloader. I believe in my original post i linked the instructions to do so.

Cheers

 

[Amethyst1]

It has a very crude and simple installer. Basically it just copies the live disk to hdd and installs a bootloader.

Point-n-click Installer == bloat.

 

[MacFoxG4]

I put Snow Leopard back on my 2006 MBP recently, so I decided to try out your Slax Linux ISO in VirtualBox. With 1 GB of RAM alloted to the VM, I found it to be quite useable. I tested out the browser functionality by logging into the browser version of Discord using Chromium and I found it perfectly useable, if a bit slower than Chromium Legacy on my Mavericks partition. Thanks to this image I can now log into Discord while having Snow Leopard as my host OS.