Linux for PPC question

[starwarsdad]

I have a G4 here at the house that is just sitting. I realized that Mandrake has a version that will run on the PPC platform.

My first question (of many to come I'm sure) is : If I burn the ISOs to disk on a PC, will they work on the Mac?

Thanks!

 

[Nothinman]

ISOs are filesystem images that are independent of the OS or arch. It doesn't matter where you burn it so long as the target machine has a cdrom drive and supports the ISO9660 filesystem (other filesystems are possible, but not likely).

I personally would choose Debian, but that's just me =)

 

[starwarsdad]

Debian for a newbie????

This may be dumb, but once the system is up, do I need special rpm's, etc. to run on the PPC or will regular packages that are supported by Mandrake work?

Thanks for the answer Nothinman. Good to still see you around.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: starwarsdad
Debian for a newbie????

Why not?

This may be dumb, but once the system is up, do I need special rpm's, etc. to run on the PPC

Yes

or will regular packages that are supported by Mandrake work?

Kinda.

If you use binary roms you will need one for your architecture. romfind.net should have plenty for Mandrake on PPC.

Why not use Mac OS X?

 

[starwarsdad]

Why not?

I am chicken, I guess. I don't want to run OS10 because I don't care for the "Mac" interface and I'm not ready for command line Linux (UNIX, BSD, etc.) yet. I may need a GUI and am familliar with Mandrake's. I probably should run OS 10 since I get Adobe stuff for free (through work) though.

Thanks for the help NOCMonkey. Can you tell us which NOC you are in? Never hurts for and ASP/ISP guy to know people in the NOC

 

[oniq]

I run mandrake on my iMac, I have run Debian in the past but it was way too outdated for my tastes. I burned the ISO images using Nero Burning Rom and it worked fine, boot right off on the iMac (holding down C I believe on bootup). You can compile everything that doesn't rely on x86 instructions for PPC. There are many RPMs for PPC outthere (www.rpmfind.net is a good source). I personally compile all my stuff, so I don't have to go out and find the RPM. I tinkered with MacOSX for a while, but did not like the slow responsive interface. I only have a G3 400mhz w/128mb ram, and the Linux (I run KDE) interface is so much quicker to respond than MacOS X's.

 

[starwarsdad]

Sounds comparable. This is a G4 400 with 384MB of RAM.

 

[oniq]

Yeah, I've heard that Mac OS X will run a lot better with more ram, but I haven't gotten any yet. When I was contemplating buying it it was very cheap, now the prices sky rocketed again. It runs fine for Linux though, I use it as a webserver/development workstation. I run apache/php4.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

I don't care for the "Mac" interface and I'm not ready for command line Linux

Regardless of the *nix distro you choose, you WILL be banging away at the command line..Some just less than others. I personally have never gotten an ISO burned on a PC to work on my Mac. But, that is just me...Maybe I missed something

 

[Nothinman]

No matter which distro you choose you'll end up on the CLI eventually. In the long run I think it's better to start off with a "harder" distro like Debian or Slackware so you're forced to get comfortable with it early on, otherwise you'll just end up stranded the first time something breaks in Mandrake.

I run Debian woody on x86, Sparc64 and Alpha, the packages are new enough enough for me and there's so many prepackaged and installable via 'apt-get or dselect' that I can cound the number of programs I've had to install by hand on one hand. And maintaining a Debian box is a dream once you get the handle on how things are done.

 

[oniq]

In Nero Burning ROM to burn a Mac Image you goto File -> Burn Image, then select the ISO file. You'll get a display that says 'Foreign image settings', at this display you want to put HFS for Image type. If you get a window after you hit OK that says 'The entered block size does not correspond to the image length...' you want to go back (hit Correct) and try Data Mode 1 with Raw data checked. I believe the first way should work fine, but I haven't burned a mac image in a while so I'm not sure.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: starwarsdad
Why not?

I am chicken, I guess. I don't want to run OS10 because I don't care for the "Mac" interface and I'm not ready for command line Linux (UNIX, BSD, etc.) yet. I may need a GUI and am familliar with Mandrake's. I probably should run OS 10 since I get Adobe stuff for free (through work) though.

Mac OS X is one of the few Unix-like systems where you wont *have* to tough the cli. I wasnt bashing Mandrake or anything, just curious why you arent using Mac OS X

Thanks for the help NOCMonkey. Can you tell us which NOC you are in? Never hurts for and ASP/ISP guy to know people in the NOC

Its a small company, we dont offer ISP type services. I just watch