BK notes on Linux Live CD's for PPC


I tried 3 and at this moment, only the Gentoo version works. It is not nearly as autoconfiguring as Knoppix is on the PC.

First, I found this site which is a compilation of most of the Linux Live distributions around:
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
Then, by sorting on the right most column and scrolling down to PowerPC I found 3 PPC Live distributions:

A. Knoppix PPC
http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/powerPC/
B. Knoppix-MiB
http://www.bouissou.net/knoppix-mib/doc-html/Knoppix-Mib.html
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/k-mib-ppc/ - somewhat active mail archives for MiB
C. Gentoo LiveCD
http://www.gentoo.org
http://www.metadistribution.org/gentoo/experimental/2004.0/32bit/livecd/kde-gnome/ - location of the ISO I used
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=132301 - the discussion that told me where to get it and good tips on getting it working
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewforum.php?f=24 - the full Gentoo PPC forum
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml - good Gentoo PPC FAQ's

A. Knoppix PPC - Nothing much seems to be going on with 'A'.

B. Knoppix-MiB - I had previously tried 'B' and while it worked ok on my iMac, I was looking for something for my iBook that I could bring to Linux meetings. At one time this version also worked on my iBook, but it no longer does - I don't know why. Apple has had several software releases since I last used it including one major one which made patches to Open Firmware. Others have also reported problems with the alpha 2e Knoppix full version - particularly on iBooks. Knoppix MiB has not released any further full versions but have released some Xtest versions designed to resolve these issues and get their autoconfiguration process tested. I tested the latest of these (pre10) and they are on the right track as my iBook gets further along in the process and no longer crashes and shuts off. Update 3/11 - their latest Xtest version is now pre12 which I am downloading today.

C. Gentoo LiveCD - The problem with Gentoo in the past was that it really never worked very well as a GUI Live CD before - was primarily an installer. Now, however, they do have an experimental version which is apparently designed to be a more full blown GUI Live CD ala Knoppix. It is not yet very autoconfiguring for the GUI and this is what was giving me some problems until I saw some helpful comments at a Gentoo PPC forum. Following are the details that finally got the GUI going.

1. Download the G3G4 ISO :
http://www.metadistribution.org/gentoo/experimental/2004.0/32bit/livecd/kde-gnome/g3g4.iso dated 11-Feb-2004 (664M)
2. Boot the CD by holding down the 'c' key while restarting.
3. When asked use 'root' as the user with no password
4. Once the kernel is up, type ' Xeasyconf ' - note upper case 'X'
-Let Xeasyconf attempt to figure out your settings
-My iBook has an ATI RageM3 video but the ATI Rage choice did not work for the iBook - it almost did, had problems with Horizontal sync.
-Use the Framebuffer choice for the iBook. Use the autoconfigured settings for everything else.
5. At this point typing startx brings up a black screen with 3 working Xwindows terminal windows and Xclock
6. Instead of doing step 5, type ' nano /etc/rc.conf ' . This allows you to change environment variables - For Gnome, edit out the comment symbol (#) in 2 places and use 'gdm' and 'Gnome'
- If you prefer KDE, edit out the comment symbol (#) in 2 places and use 'kdm' and 'kde-3.2.0'
- Save the changes
7. - To get a LAN working assuming a dhcp network
- for ethernet - type 'dhcpcd eth0'
- for airport - type 'dhcpcd eth1'
8. Type ' startx '
9. To end and restart in OSX type 'shutdown -r now'

The Gentoo environment is very Mac like and smooth looking. The kde environment has more tools. Some apps work, some dont (many games and OpenOffice) but kdeoffice works . It is clearly still a work in progress but well on its way.

Hardware things that I can't get to work:
- emulation for right mouse button
- sound
- external video
- man pages
- can't see Mac hard drive
- can't see thumb drive
- would like to make changes so that I can autostart with my settings but don't know how

Notes-
- Some have suggested typing 'boot hda=1,1,1' or 'boot hda=16383,16,64' at the yaboot prompt but this didn't work for me (course I have no linux formatted partitions)
- cdrom is mounted at /mnt/cdrom
- Sound related suggestions I have seen but none work for me
-modprobe dmasound_pmac or dmsound_pmac
-turn on OSS option ( huh?)
-Other commands some have mentioned for (?) - 'setup' and 'Xautoconfig'
- Other useful commands
-ifconfig -a
- while in kde - 'kdf' ( does a kdiskfree )


Posted: Mon - March 8, 2004 at 04:18 PM        

©