Mr.+Westcott's+Linux+Chronicle

As an ICT teacher and a long term geek, I have always been fascinated with Linux. Here is a write of a resent install.

The Linux Box Finding a machine to use for this project may be the most difficult part of the project for some. If you have a working computer to use, it will more than likely to be a slow retired computer that is collecting dust somewhere while your fast new computer gets all the attention. Well, it is time for that old computer to shine again. For me, it is a PowerBook G4 I bought in 2003 that was replaced in 2007 by an iMac G5 20".
 * First**

Computer Background - (In OS X, selected the Apple Icon in the Finder and selected - "About This Mac"-->"More Info..." button): Under Hardware: Model: PowerBook G4 15" CPU: 1 GHz PowerPC G4 1 MB L3 cache Machine Model: PowerBook3,5 CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3) CPU Speed: 1 GHz L2 Cache: 256 KB L3 Cache: 1 MB Memory: 1 GB Bus Speed: 133 MHz Boot ROM Version: 4.5.3f2 Serial Number: Ummm... no need for anyone but me to have this info. Under ATA (Hard Drive and Superdrive): Fujitsu MHS2060AT MATSHITADVD-R UJ-815

Goals What am I trying to do, and what do I want to accomplish. I wanted to do more than install Linux on this old Apple box. I also wanted to be able to boot into Mac OS X or into Linux at my choosing, this is called "Dual Boot". So, I need to do some research on how to do this.
 * Second**

Initial Research This goes back a little, and I think important to mention. I first liked the glitter of many distributions I saw on Youtube, and I decided I wanted a Ubuntu distribution. I tried Ubuntu 7.10 PPC Live CD and couldn't get it to work at all booting directly from the CD I created. Maybe there was a problem with the CD, but I tried to burn a second copy and still, no good. So I gave up on Ubuntu and decided to find a distribution that worked best on my specific computer, and if I wanted later, I would find a way to get Ubuntu to work after I accomplished my goals.
 * Three**

I eventually found some people who tried the dual boot method and the best post I found about it was [|here]. So, I decided I would try a [|Fedora distribution]. I choose the full Fedora 9 PPC DVD distribution because I had a DVD burner on my iMac G5 and a good BitTorrent Client to download such a large disk image (.iso), and software to burn images to DVD (Toast). A side note, there is a live version (a version you can boot off a CD to test it out before installing in on the computer) for Fedora 8, but none for Fedora 9. I had in the past done this with Fedora 8 and it worked great on the my PowerBook G4, more support for this distribution.

Gather what is needed. What is needed besides the computer:
 * Four**
 * Mac OS X Install DVD - Fortunately, I bought a full copy of Mac OS X Tiger when it came out to upgrade from Panther which was on the computer when I bought it.
 * Linux Distribution that works on PPC architecture. (I choose Fedora 9 (Sulphur) PPC install DVD)
 * BitTorrent Client to download the Linux distribution. Research the best client for yourself online, there are many free clients. Because of the size of the data, it is important to use a BitTorrent Client to handle the download so that error checking is done. Nothing is as bad as a bad download, besides a burned disk with a bad downloaded distribution.
 * Disk Writing Software, I use Toast
 * A DVD-R disk for the Mac G5 to burn.

Actual Install. I again referred to the notes I found in my research and then took all the data off that computer I didn't want to lose. Everything on the computer will be wiped away because the hard drive needs to be repartitioned (divided into more than one drive) and when you do this, the drive looses track of all the data on the computer and starts with a new system for each drive allocated. I inserted the Tiger OS X Install DVD and went straight to Disk Utilities. I partitioned the first drive as free space, no OS 9 drivers as well, and then partitioned the second drive with the standard MacOS Extended Journaled file system. I portioned the hard drive and then installed Mac OS X Tiger on the Mac OS partition. It is recommended that all the updates are done at this time, but that would take too long (see if this bites me latter).
 * Five**

After the OS X install, I inserted the Fedora 9 DVD and rebooted. It didn't work when I held down the C key (boot from disk). It timed out or something, so I tried to reboot again and held down shift-ctrl-option-delete (boot from something other than the hard drive), this worked. I guess it gave it more time to find the DVD.

I got to the install part and changed the drop down menu to say,"Install on Largest Free Space on the Drive Selected" or something like that, and let it rip. It took awhile, but after it finished, I rebooted and held down the option key (choose and OS off the hard drive), and sure enough, I could choose a box that represented Linux OS or MacOS X. Just a note, once it got to this screen, I had to wait about 30 seconds for a little old MacOS 9 hourglass watch to go away, before I could chose and OS. After that I could choose and boot into the choosen OS. I went into Mac OS X fine. I rebooted and went into Linux fine.

Fine Tuning
 * Six**

Wireless Problem: In linux, there tends to be some tweaks that have to be done to get your specific computer's hardware to work. This one is no exception. I could not log into my wireless router. I did a lot of research and tried many suggestions with No luck. So I tried a few things myself. And the one thing that work, was I changed my Apple Wireless Router Password from a 128bit WEP Hexadecimal Password to a 40bit WEP password. For some reason, that allowed my computer to use the wireless card to conect to it.

Root Password: I realized I later while I ran an online update of the software that I could not log into the root directory for some reason. When the updates were ready to be installed, it called for /root directory access, and my set up password wasn't working. I did a search, and read a few posts. It seems that the Caps Lock bit is turned on during the Fedora 9 - PPC distribution install. So, my password I typed was typed with the Caps Lock on. So I tried that, and sure enough, that worked. I could get the up dates.

Sound: I didn't have sound... I did some research on this and found that since Fedora 6 this has been an issue, and just needed to edit the rc.local file in the /etc folder of the system files. I needed to insert "modprobe snd-powermac" as line in the file. I saved the file with this new line in it, and the sound works! I got this tip from the following [|post]. I edited the file by opening it from the Terminal (command line editing). I had to log into the /root directory. Used the command "su -" which prompts you for the root password. Entered the password, with Caps Lock on of course, and got in. I then used the command, gedit /etc/rc.local to edit the file. Then hit save. Rebooted and the sound is all good.

Seven Saying WOW!! So far everything seems to be working fine now that I fine tuned my install. On top of that, Fedora 9 DVD distribution comes with all the open source applications I need to open all my Microsoft documents using OpenOffice, GIMP for photo editing, a PDF reader, an Email application, Firefox for web browsing, and other bells and whistles that need to be tried.... WOW!