Linux on old PowerPC Macs (Performa 6115CD)

[mbbrutman]

I have touched a Macintosh a few times in my life, but not enough to claim any real knowledge. So here is the situation ...

I have my hands on a Performa 6115CD (1994ish) which is based on the PowerPC 601. It is a 60Mhz machine with 16MB of RAM, 340MB hard drive, and a CD-ROM. I would like to get a relatively recent Linux on it - anything from the past 5 years would count. It really is a beautifully designed machine for the time - it resembles a 'pizza box' Unix workstation.

How do I even get started? I wouldn't know how to put an OS on a Mac unless it started talking me through the steps by itself. ;-0

Is there any hope for doing this without having to go to the ends of the earth? I don't have access to any other Mac hardware, although I do have plenty of access to modern PPC hardware so I can cross compile a kernel if needed.


Thanks,
Mike

 

[kb2syd]

Start here:
http://penguinppc.org/mac/
or here:
http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/

I think it is as simple as grab an image, burn a CD, boot and go through the install.

Well, maybe not that easy. How about NetBSD?
http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/

They at least list Perfoma, but not that model. Actually, the 61xx models as listed as NOT SUPPORTED. Sheesh, this is harder than I thought. I just set up my first A/UX box last night after weeks of trying different hardware configurations.

 

[Unknown_K]

I don't think the Nubus based PPC models were supported by Linux well or at all, the PCI models (7500 and up) were.

 

[barythrin]

I'm not sure about supported versions but the only one I used was Yellowdog on the PPC Mac but as Unknown_K said, this was on a PowerMAC system. There's bound to be some documents around on doing this though. I think I had to install a boot loader first from another download, after that I was able to dual-boot the system and boot off the CD to install linux. This looks suitable, ..ugh.. I'll take the high road today but you can insert your getting a woody joke here _______.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

MkLinux is the only Linux that supports the NuBus-based Power Macs. Works great on my Power Macintosh 6100, which is the same hardware as the Performa 6115CD. (I even have the original book!)

MkLinux is a Linux on top of the Mach Microkernel (similar to OS X, which is BSD on top of the Mach Microkernel!) and was sponsored directly by Apple in the mid '90s before transitioning to a community-run effort. It isn't very well maintained, but it's perfectly usable.

 

[mark66j]

I don't think any recent mainstream distro will run on 16MB of RAM "out of the box", even if it supported PPC/NuBus. Aside from MkLinux (which is probably the best choice to start with) there are some distros specifically targeting low-memory environments. But most of those are targeted at more narrow environments, mostly Intel and ARM I think. Interest in PPC as a target for Linux seems to have waned a great deal in the last few years.

Aside from security fixes (which could probably be back-ported), I'm not sure there's much reason to use a newer distro; most of the apps like Firefox won't run on 16MB.

I tried recently to get a live CD of xbuntu, which targets slower machines, to boot on a G3 clamshell, and I couldn't really even get the desktop to completely load. And this machine runs OS X 10.3 fairly well.