Hi,

My cousin has an iBook G4 and I’m planning to install linux on it, but I have a number of problems.

1. HDD is broken, so I have to replace it with a new one.
2. CD Drive does not seem to work.
3. I don’t know which distro to use.

My question is, what distro can I use that can be installed via another laptop (HP dv4000), or by using a HDD enclosure for the new 2.5HDD to work as a usb mass storage device, to partition it and transfer the files needed to run linux on the iBook. Doesn’t really matter if it’s a KDE or GNOME distro, but I do have OpenSUSE live CD for x86 and a gentoo CD for PPC.

Oh and by the way, it’s my first time to use an iBook G4 so I’m not familiar with the shortcuts.

Here are the specs:

iBook G4

1GHz
256MB RAM
Faulty HDD, DVD Drives

HP DV4030us
1.6GHz
1.3GB Ram
DVD RW/Dual layer
100GB HDD
WinXP pro sp2
OpenSUSE LiveCD

Thanks!

You are not going to be able to install a PPC distro from an x86 machine, so that is out.

Can't the G4 boot to USB? Seems like the easiest thing is to put the new drive in it, boot to USB, and then install via the network.

thanks MS3FGX.

Is it possible to copy the contents of a LIVE CD distro for PPC to the new HDD/USB flash drive and just modify some parameters?

I might try the following steps:

1. Extract the Gentoo(or a distro that you recommend running on an iBook G4) LIVE CD for PPC to a USB Flash Drive.

2. Boot openSUSE LIVE CD on my HP laptop

3A. Connect the USB flash disk and modify some files to be able to boot off the USB flash disk.

OR

3B. Connect USB flash disk and new 2.5 HDD using a USB enclosure, partition and copy the contents of the flash disk to the HDD?

I found this "PPCRCD - PLD Linux Distribution based RescueCD for PowerPC computers" from http://ppcrcd.pld-linux.org/
Apparently it lets you boot the PPC and fix repair or install Linux. I'll try it out later when I get home.