Linux on an IMac


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I am trying to get linux to work on an IMac PPC 333 tray loading cd. I tried Gentoo and yellowdog. both install fine. But will not boot. I spent all day will Gentoo followed the HOW-TO for yaboot and nothing reoot and it just locks up with a white screen. Does anyone know how to get Open Firmware to boot linux. Any help is wellcome. I use Gentoo on my PC and love it. Would love to see it on the IMac to.

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I don't think YABOOT will work on those Macs, I think you have to use something like BootX (could be wrong, can't remember what the YellowDog installation said for "older" Macs.)

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From what I have read this is a NewWorld Mac. When did the Blue & White G3's. From the BootX web site it say's "Owners of Blue & White G3's and later MUST use yaboot, BootX is incompatible with NewWorlds." As I under standit the IMac 333 is a NewWorld am I wrong? I have not used Mac's before so I am kinda lost. Got Mac OS 9.22 working ok I would just like to use Linux instead.

Just found this on the Yaboot HOW-TO "The NewWorld PowerMacs, for which yaboot is designed, are any PowerMacs in translucent colored plastic cases. That includes all iMacs, iBooks, G4 systems, blue colored G3 systems, and most PowerBooks manufactured in and after 1999." So I just need to figure out how to get yaboot to work correctly. I am sure it is something I am doing or not doing just can't figure out what.

Edited by bryonhowley
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Just as I thought I had confgured gentoo wrong. It is indeed a NewWorld Mac and WILL NOT work with BootX. Just an update since no one on Neowin seems to have known that. I had POWER3 set for the cpu in the kernel config. Thought that meant PPC G3. Anyway works great now.

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I'm using Yellow Dog dual-boot on my Pismo PowerBook, and the best option I've found is to hit "option" when booting to get the boot manager and then select the Linux partition.

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Ye the problem I was have was not yaboot config I had the wrong CPU set in the Kernel Config. Silly my thought POWER3 ment PPC G3. Well I have atleast learned a little bit more about Macs. It works good now. Just waitting for my 600mhz CPU upgrade card to be shipped.

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