The riscbased powerpc chips are found on hardware from apple, motorola, and on ibms line of. I really felt like i was using a much newer laptop. Gentoo linux 47 gentoo linux is a versatile and fast, completely free linux distribution geared towards developers and network professionals. Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for powerpc. Linux breathes new life into old mac computers also in todays open source roundup. The powerbook g3 is a series of laptop macintosh personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by apple computer, inc. So i decided that since i had one when i was a kid. Getting the revival on for your powerpc mac running linux. Jan 20, 2004 find out the current status of maconlinux. Whats the best linux distro for mac powerbook g3 lombard. I have experience installing linux on a pc, and thought it shouldnt be too difficult to install on a mac powerbook g3. Powerbook g3 wallstreet old world mac linux installation.
The only powerpc macs that can use a 64bit operating system are g5. Feb 10, 20 do you want to breathe life back into your old powerbook or powerpc machine. So where does that leave us who want to keep our powerpc machines running a modern secure operating system. This is essential a virtual machine that allows you to run mac os as well as mac os x on top of a linux host system that runs on a powerpc computer. How to install linux mint on a powerpc mac youtube. Sometimes, you can even revive an old powerpc mac running linux. Linux has never been much of a speed demon on launch, and debian on a 700 mhz g3 with a slow laptop hard drive is no exception, but if you play your. That began with the g3, which was an internal project name inside aim for the development of what would become the powerpc 750 family. Debian runs nicely on a g3 ibook, jason packer, macs in the enterprise, 2008.
Many powerpc designs are named and labeled by their apparent technology generation. The stept are applicable to any g3, g4 or g5 mac that meets the system requirements. Check the following pages for specific information about installing debian powerpc on your system. It took me a couple weeks of research, asking questions of our linux on powerpc macs group on facebook, and experimenting before i could finally boot into linux 14. The project began its life as an ubuntu remix, but starting with version 15. It also allows the use of altivec in the guest os if the cpu supports it. I also tried installing from a usb thumb drive with boot.
Linux breathes new life into old mac computers infoworld. The power macintosh g3 is named for its thirdgeneration powerpc chip, and introduced a fast and large level 2 backside cpu cache, running at half processor speed. Free macintosh emulators, free powerpc emulators, free 68k. I rescued it, because even if the internals were destroyed, its a decent case. May 17, 2014 as a general rule, booting your old world mac from a cd is a simple matter. The current range of hardware support is somewhat comparable to mklinuxppc. Some people defend their favorite os to death and theyre so passionate that its hard to talk about it without offending someone. For more information on these systems, go to the linux on ibm eserver iseries and pseries home pages. In this tutorial ill show how you can put ubuntu linux on a powerbook g4 and resurrect one of these durable old laptops from the dead. Its my most powerful powerpc mac, so i figured it would be a good way to take linux for a spin. If your powerpc mac has a numeric model number it is an old world mac.
In this video, we will take a look at installing linux mint on a powerbook g4. So far it looks like only a missing hard disk, so i will be fitting a spare one, and found a copy of osx for powerpc. That means that most friendly linuxi like ubuntumintetc still available for macs. Linux ppc has been ported to nubus power macs since june 2000. Debian, which is the upstream source for probably the majority of desktop linux distributions, officially shot its powerpc port in the head in 2017 with the release of stretch. When it comes to old hardware, its not always best to recycle it. Mac powerpc and ibmppc power5 desktop cd for apple macintosh g3, g4, and g5 computers, including ibooks and powerbooks as well as ibm openpower machines. Its the right time to make new choices, an open hardware powerpc notebook designed around gnu linux, make it happen. In stead, i have a mac powerbook g3 lombard with os 9. If youre looking for a truly modern build of linux for your g5 you dont have very many choices anymore. Complete technical specifications for every apple mac using the powerpc g3 processor are listed below for your convenience. It took me a couple weeks of research, asking questions of our linux on powerpc macs group on facebook, and experimenting before i could finally boot into linux. For a start, performance of linux on a g3 350mhz, 128mb ram, bluewhite case should exceed that of mac osx, especially for the very slow ms office and endnote applications. Open hardware release of the printed circuit board pcb design for the motherboard of the gnu linux powerpc notebook.
Other operating systems that tout support for the imac,1 include netbsd, openbsd, and a shrinking number of linux. I know there are linux distros compiled for ppc but most articlesthreads on that are very old and i was wondering if there was any fairly recent. The reason i say a distribution is because i wanted to know if any particular distribution not necessarily fedora core was better for my mac powerbook g3. Jun 10, 2009 i have installed linux on a mac before. Sep 21, 2016 when you install ubuntu onto a newworld apple macintosh powerpc g3, g4 or g5 computer you can choose to boot between two or more operating systems.
Were using adelie linux, a relatively new distro that has powerpc 32 bit as a first. I wanted to use a powerpc release of linux but i have no optical disk drives in the house that i can use to burn a disk with. The procedure should be the same for all new wold machines, ranging from a g3 imac, to a g5 powermac. Interview with casey cullen, the creator of fienix, a powerpc. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the linux kernel, libc, gcc, etc. This is my 400mhz g3 grape imac slotloader with a fresh install of mintppc 11 playing a youtube vid at 360p using the midori browser. There also were powerpc compatible versions of suse and mandrake that readers reported worked well with the imac g3. Ppc removing 32bit powerpc architecture from future ubuntu releases. Booting a linux cd on your old world powerpc mac quadras. Users of 32bit cpus apple g3 g4 must use the 32bit powerpc platform, users of 64bit cpus that support 32bit operating systems apple g5 have a choice, and users of 64bit cpus that do not must use powerpc64. The power macintosh g3 also sold with additional software as the macintosh server g3 is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by apple computer, inc. The ubuntu community is already considering dropping powerpc for lubuntu and ubuntumate. Gnulinux open hardware powerpc notebook an open hardware. Ive experimented with linux and bsd macs going back to the mac iici era.
Installing debian gnu linux on a p630 lpar 70286c4 english and german florian m. Yellowdog linux very old and the company has no interest in mac linux any more hence why so old and not updated. Use sudo aptget distupgrade if you want to upgrade all packages. Jul 28, 2015 how to upgrade your power mac g3 blue and white. Ports to other powerpc architectures, such as the bebox and mbx architecture, are underway but not yet supported by debian. Jun 12, 2000 a popular port of the linux operating system is the powerpc version of linux. Debian gnu linux does not officially support nubus powerpc machines, such as the 6100, 7100, 8100 and most of the performa series. Dec 18, 2015 ever considered linux as an alternative to your aging os x version. Besides powerpc, opensource, and linux, i enjoy video games and i think. The riscbased powerpc chips are found on hardware from apple, motorola, and on ibms line of midrange servers.
A key resource for powerpc linux development is penguinppc, which also includes a hardware compatibility list. Most people dont realize there are linux ports for ppc. Dec 27, 2010 watch as i try out ubuntu linux on an ibook g4. Users of 32bit cpus apple g3g4 must use the 32bit powerpc platform, users of 64bit. There are some differences between the powerpc version of ubuntu and the versions of ubuntu for officially supported architectures.
When you install ubuntu or any gnu linux onto your newworld apple macintosh powerpc g3. Revive your old mac g3, g4, or g5 with linux ghacks tech. Ubuntu is one of the easiest linux distros to install. Old world macs are typically all macs that preceded the beige g3 line. There are, and they will make that old machine seem like its younger and snappier than it.
How to install modern linux on a 1999 imac g3 adelie. It will however work on newer intel based apple computers such as the macbook, mac pro and imac 2006 and later. How can i configure and compile my own kernel under powerpc linux. Its not particularly easy to create a bootable usb flash drive so you can try running linux on a powerpc mac. I test various features, dvd, wireless, bluetooth, networking, printing, etc. As a general rule, booting your old world mac from a cd is a simple matter. No offense to the other guys, but sometimes i wonder if some of the other distros can spell ppc, let alone run on it. Installing linux on a new world powerpc mac youtube. The machine booted up just fine for me right out of the chute and presented me with a login screen. A lot had been said lately about running linux on powerpc and it reminds me a lot about the argument of pcs vs mac. When you install ubuntu onto a newworld apple macintosh powerpc g3, g4 or g5 computer you can choose to boot between two or more operating systems. If you want to watch the hangout meeting where this is discussed you can see it here. When you install ubuntu or any gnu linux onto your newworld apple macintosh powerpc g3, g4 or.
Nice little computer ive never played with a mac before so this is a new experience for me. Ubuntu does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the linux kernel and the gnu toolsets. Today were installing a modern linux on a 1999 imac g3 revision d, the fastest version of the original imac. Powerpc with the backronym performance optimization with enhanced risc performance computing, sometimes abbreviated as ppc is a reduced instruction set computer risc. Linux has never been much of a speed demon on launch, and debian on a 700 mhz g3 with a slow laptop hard drive is no exception, but if you play your cards right, that may not be such a problem more later.
Normally id only recommend linux on powerpc to those who like to dabble with systems as theres no real performance gain, however, as i detailed in my first post, my current. A popular port of the linux operating system is the powerpc version of linux. The initial 2,703 euro of donations of this campaign arrive. Powered by, a division of drivehq, the leading cloud it and cloud. We reported how to run upcoming lubuntu desktop lxqt in xenial xerus on a raspberry pi 2 and now, thanks to tester herminio hernandez, jr. I cant think of one user group thats about linux powerpc. A key resource for powerpc linux development is penguinppc, which also. If you have a dvd drive, you can simply burn the iso image of lubuntu 16. In this article, ill show you how you can revive a powerpc mac running linux, like im doing on the powerbook g4 im using to write this article. Linux mint does not have a powerpc port, therefore it will not run on a powermac, powerbook, ibook or imac g3 g4g5.
Yabootconfigurationformacintoshpowerpcsdualboot community. So far it looks like only a missing hard disk, so i will be fitting a spare one, and found a copy of osx for powerpc to burn to dvd or cd, and plan to try to get it working. One of my first computers was a power mac, and i remember thinking the little. Powerpc macs are losing support, so make sure the app you want has a universal binary i. For my particular install, ill be dualbooting debian and mac os 9 on an ibook g3 with 640 mb of ram. Daniel devotos installing debian wheezytesting on an ibook g3. Ibm s iseries and pseries servers can run linux on top of their power processors. For other processors, please refer to the main by processor page also see.
The powerpc version of ubuntu, which is communitysupported rather than officially supported, should run on your mac that has a g4 processor. Apple popularized the term g3 when they introduced power mac g3 and powerbook g3 at an event at. As promised, heres the story of how i eventually got ubuntu linux 5. What you need to get started depends on what type of optical drive you have in your g4 or g5based powerbook or mac.
For other processors, please refer to the main by processor page. Apple g3 imac playing youtube video with linux mintppc 11. The imac g3 models are compatible with all mac software that runs on a powerpc g3 processor. Im getting a mac mini g4 soon and will try open bsd on it. Ubuntu installs by default a boot loader called yaboot yet another bootloader and this allows you to start linux or select which other os youd like to boot. Some ibook2 hardware, especially on recently introduced models. If you want to dual boot os x, the same basically applies, and although this guide will be laptopcentric, most of the steps here apply to desktops, too.
Mar 22, 2006 as promised, heres the story of how i eventually got ubuntu linux 5. Weps, link to archived copies in daniel devotos installing debian wheezytesting on an ibook g3. Unsure how to install linux on powerpc imac with broken. Subsequent versions of yellowdog linux are not supported on the imac g3. With linux on the machine it felt much more powerful than it should have. The game has changed, now gnu linux is everywhere running on every cpu architectures and devices. Supported host cpus include the powerpc 603, 604, g3 and g4. The guys at terrasoft have done a lot of work in taking out much of the pain of getting linux running on a mac. That means that most friendly linuxi like ubuntumintetc still available for macs are old versions that arent going to be supported much longer. Revive a powerpc mac running linux the mac observer. Revive your old mac g3, g4, or g5 with linux ghacks tech news. Does software that requires an adbbased dongle work with the imac g3.
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