Trying to install Linux on PPC (B&W G3)
 

Hello PowerPC Linux users,

I have an old 400MHz G3 Blue & White (Yosemite) on which I already installed Mac OS 10.3 Panther. The Mac OS is running all right and, according to the System Profiler, the CPU type is a PowerPC 750 (82.1), the boot ROM version is f4 (PowerMac1,1 1.1f4), and OpenFirmware is 3.1.1. It also has an original 16MB ATi rage 128 GL (AMC ver. 2.0 PN 109-57400-00) PCI video card, and I am now using a borrowed 17" Apple Studio Display.

Now, my trouble... I am really willing to install Linux on my B&W G3. :)

So far, I didn't succeed booting any of my Linux installation CDs. I tried my original "Ubuntu 5.10 'The Breezy Badger' for Mac" Installation and Live CDs. I also have downloaded and tried YDL 4.0.1, Debian 3.1 r1, and Gentoo 2005.1, all for PPC. In order to burn the ISO images onto CDs, I followed the instructions on the YDL website.

None of Linux CDs are displayed as boot options in the (System Preferences) Startup Disk utility application, although they are shown on my Desktop and I can browse them. In the other hand, my Mac OS Installation CD is displayed so I can select it. If insert a Linux CD, and I try to restart and boot holding [alt] or [C] keys it ends up starting the Mac OS... and again, if I try the Mac OS Installation CD, it will boot from the CD.

I am using an Apple ADB keyboard on my G3, but I tried an Apple USB keyboard from my Mac mini too. I also tested the Ubuntu Live CD on my mini and it is selectable if I hold the [alt] key, i.e. the CD is OK. Instead of the original CD-ROM, my G3 has an original Apple DVD-ROM from a G4 Graphite, but it is working fine since I can play CDs or DVDs with it. Then, it looks like my CDs are not "bootable" on my G3 only.

Any ideas on why I can't boot my CDs? Any suggestions?

I will greatly appreciate any help.

Andre W.

Looks like you burned the disks as data. You should not be able to browse them, rather, you should only see 1 iso file.

Reburn the disks as an ISO image, not data.

Good news!
 

My B&W G3 is running Linux ! ! !

bulliver, thanks for your suggestion... I appreciated! I researched and studied lots of installation info and I learned a lot about my G3 and Linux installation features.

What I did to successfully install Linux on my G3 was a bit... odd. Instead of my B&W G3, I used another one of the exactly same model! So, my brother, who gave me the original B&W, had an additional B&W with everything original except for upgraded memory and hard drive. Knowing about my case, and since his other G3 was being used for experiments only, we agreed to exchange the G3s and give it a try. Well, we guessed right. Now I have a B&W (the new one) running Linux and my brother has one (the old one) running Mac OS 10.3.

About my "new" B&W: So far, for testing purposes I did provisory installations of Ubuntu 5.10 and YDL 3.0.1 (version 4.0.1 didn't boot). Later I will decide for a better installation. Just for the record. I also tried my Sonata SD video card but unfortunately it didn't work under Linux, so I put the original ATi rage video card back.

About my "old" B&W: I tried all the tips I was recommended... none worked. I tried holding [C] or [alt] keys, I tried 'boot cd:,\\:tbxi' and 'boot cd:\\yaboot' too but nothing I expected happened... I did many other tricks, but to make a long story short, I could boot from my Mac OS X Installation CDs, but not from any of my Linux Installation CDs. I wonder what was wrong... maybe my DVD-ROM... perhaps my plain picky G3.

Final considerations: I was initially hesitant of zapping (resetting) the PRAM, but now I know it is an ordinary-almost-required procedure. And, on the YDL 3.0.1 case, I also burnt a CD as ISO (not as data as I was doing), but the ISO CD didn't work, instead I used the data CD to install the YDL.

Thanks once more for your interest on helping me.

Best regards,

Andre W.

Hey, good work.

I had it backwards anyway. I think your disks were fine (sorry about that...). If you saw only 1 iso file then it was burned wrong, but if it mounted and you saw all the files then it was burned properly. So I guess I owe you a cdr ;)

In any event, glad to see you got it going...