Written by Tom G. Christensen <tgc at jupiterrise dot com>
Available from: http://jupiterrise.com/comp/performa-install.html
Last updated: October 9, 2004
This document describes one possible way to install Linux on a Macintosh Performa machine.
I chose to install Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 since I know Redhat Linux very well.
If you prefer Debian the basic procedure is the same.
For this we need the disktools bootdisk.
You can get a suitable disk from http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/bootdisks.html
I used the Disk Tools 2 (System 7.5.3) disk.
The file is a Disk Copy image ready to be written to a floppydisk.
For this you need a Mac with a working MacOS installation and Disk Copy.
Boot from the disktools floppy and start Drive Setup Lite.
Initialize the harddrive with one HFS partition of about 100Mb.
The rest will be left as free space which we will partition later.
For this I used a Linux machine and hfsutils.
Install the drive from the Mac in your Linux machine.
Then use xhfs to mount the MacOS system partition (usually partition #5).
I transferred this onto the disk:
System 7.5.3 diskimages
System 7.5.5 update diskimages
OpenTransport 1.1.2 diskimages
StuffIt Expander 5.5 installer
Fetch 4.0.3 FTP client
pdisk
Apple MkLinux booter
MachKernel-YDL30-030623.gz
MachKernel-2.4.23-pre5.gz
When done close the diskwindow with the MacOS drive.
Move the drive back to the Mac.
Boot the Mac from the disktools floppy again and start the 7.5.3 install from the harddrive.
Unless you know what you're doing just choose easy install.
Reboot when finished.
Boot up from the harddrive.
Install StuffIt expander
At this point you can choose to install the 7.5.5 update and OpenTransport
or go directly to step 5.
To install System 7.5.5 use Disk Copy to transfer the diskimages to floppies.
Run the installer from the first floppy and follow the instructions.
Reboot when finished.
To install OpenTransport run the installer from the first floppy.
Reboot when finished.
Unpack the Apple MkLinux booter with StuffIt.
Follow the instructions inside the Apple MkLinux Booter folder.
To install YDL 3.0 unpack the MachKernel-YDL30-030623.gz kernel with StuffIt and transfer
the unpacked file to your Extensions folder under the name Mach Kernel
Find lilo.conf in your Preferences folder and change these settings:
rootdev=/dev/ram
mach_options= ramdisk=16384 keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1 nofirewire nousb text
This is the point where I partitioned the drive for Linux, presumably this can also be done during the installation.
To partition the drive now, start pdisk.
Choose your drive with 'e /dev/hda'
In the freespace partition you can now create the needed Linux partitions with the 'c' command.
Read the builtin help carefully, there are several shortcuts that make the partitioning much easier.
You need atleast 2 partitions, one for swap and one for /.
For a simple installation start by creating a 128Mb swap partition (partition #6) and
a / partition out of the rest (partition #7).
When done use 'w' to write back the partition table then 'q' to exit pdisk.
Reboot.
When the MkLinux booter window pops up choose MkLinux.
The YDL 3.0 installer should now boot.
Boot into MacOS.
Unpack the MachKernel-2.4.27-040811.gz kernel and transfer it to your Extensions folder
under the name Mach Kernel.
Change these settings in your lilo.conf file:
rootdev=/dev/hda7
mach_options= keyboard_sends_linux_keycodes=1 video=valkyriefb:font:Acorn8x8,vmode:10,cmode:16
The video=... argument will choose an 800x600 resolution. If your monitor is unable to support this it can be omitted.
Reboot and choose MkLinux.
To get 800x600 resolution in X you can use the mode given here (courtesy of a post by John Dalbec to the linuxppc-nubus list):
Mode "800x600"
# D: 40.000 MHz, H: 37.879 kHz, V: 60.317 Hz
DotClock 40.001
HTimings 800 856 984 1056
VTimings 600 601 605 628
Flags "+HSync" "+VSync"
EndMode
You must add it to the Monitor Section of XF86Config.
Up to 15bpp is supported.
Much of the information presented here where taken from existing ressources.
These are the ressources that I found particularly useful:
The Linux/PPC for Nubus Power Macs project. Without them Linux on Nubus based Power Macs would have died with MkLinux.
The Linux/PPC Nubus maillinglist
NetBSD/macppc Partitioning HOW-TO
Google - the invaluable entry point to finding much of the information I needed to write this HOWTO.
October 9, 2004 - Second revision - Links checked and updated.
November 29, 2003 - First public version