Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3
How-to
| • | Partition your hard disk |
| • | Configure X windows |
| • | Configure AfterStep |
| • | Make the PowerBook sleep |
| • | Set up the modem for PPP |
| • | HotSync a Palm Pilot via IrDA |
| • | Go wireless! |
Disk Partitioning
In order to install Linux on a Mac, the hard disk must be partitioned such that there is at least one MacOS and one (non-swap) Linux partition.Partion layout
I prefer having multiple Linux partitions for core OS files (/), software (/usr), and user directories (/home) because it makes backups and repair (if needed) easier. (The / and /usr partitions change infrequently, so they don't need to be backed up often.) I partitioned my 10 GB disk as follows:
| # | Name | Size | Notes |
| 8 | MacHD | 1 GB | This is the main MacOS partition. Since I bought the PowerBook to run mostly under Linux, this partition isn't that big. If you want an even smaller MacOS partition, you can probably get by with as little as 256 MB. (Also see note 2.) |
| 9 | ZipHD | 100 MB | This is a second MacOS partition the size of a Zip disk used to transfer files between MacOS and Linux since you can mount MacOS partitions under Linux. It must be HFS and not HFS+. It's safer to have a separate partition for this purpose. If something goes funny, you won't trash your main MacOS partition. |
| 10 | bootstrap | 10 MB | This is where the boot script and yaboot get installed by ybin. It must be an HFS partition. However, it it's never mounted by either MacOS or Linux. For details, see bootstrap(8), yaboot(8), ybin(8). |
| 11 | swap | 128 MB | This is the Linux swap partition. It's placed before the other Linux partitions so it's on tracks closer to the outer edge of the disk. Data on outer tracks can be accessed faster than data on inner tracks. (Since there are more blocks on outer tracks, more pass under the head per unit time.) |
| 12 | / | 256 MB | This (the root partition) is where many critical OS files go. Since /usr is split off into its own partition, this doesn't need to be very big. (See note 3.) |
| 13 | /usr | 4 GB | This is where the bulk fo the software gets installed (most of the RPMs) so I wanted plenty of space. |
| 14 | /tmp | 2 GB | This is where temporary files go: downloading files, building software, etc. I wanted to keep it separate from / (root) to keep / fairly quiescent. (I think many people would find this excessive. But 10 GB is a lot of space, and I really didn't know what to do with it all. You're free to allocate however you please.) |
| 15 | /home | 2 GB | This is for user home directories. Since I'm the only user on the machine, this doesn't have to be very large; however, this is where I put my web server's document root for web development. |
- The partition numbers are how they appear in the Drive Setup application. The partition number later becomes the disk device. (Partitions 1-7 are used by various driver things.) For example, the root partition becomes /dev/hda12.
- Some people don't want any MacOS; however, if you ever need your machine serviced, the technician isn't going to know what to do with a Linux machine (assuming he will even service it in the first place).
- A size of 128 MB here would also be quite reasonable. I made mine 256 MB since I'll never miss that extra 128 MB on a 10 GB disk. It's always better to overestimate the size of partitions since underestimating usually means you have to repartition the entire disk.
Auto-mounting a MacOS Partition
To have the ZipHD MacOS partition created above to be automatically mounted at system boot time, do the following:
-
Create a directory to serve as the mount point, e.g.:
mkdir /mnt/ziphd
(You can create a direcrtory anywhere called anything you please; using /mnt is just conventional.) -
Add the following line to /etc/fstab:
/dev/hda9 /mnt/ziphd hfs user,rw 0 0