PowerPC Installation Guide -- Power Macintosh
---------------------------------------------
Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org>
v1.1, 10 April 2000
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Abstract
--------
This document describes the installation of Debian GNU/Linux on
PowerPC Power Macintosh systems.
Copyright Notice
----------------
This document may be distributed and modified under the terms of the
GNU General Public License.
(C) Copyright 2000, Daniel Jacobowitz
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Contents
--------
1. Installation on Power Macintosh Systems
1.1. Introduction
1.2. The Nubus Systems
1.3. The OldWorld PCI Systems
1.4. The NewWorld Systems
1.5. How to Contact
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1. Installation on Power Macintosh Systems
------------------------------------------
1.1. Introduction
-----------------
Apple (and briefly a few other manufacturers - Power Computing, for
example) makes a series of Macintosh computers based on the PowerPC
processor. They divide into several categories: Nubus, old world PCI,
and new world.
1.2. The Nubus Systems
----------------------
Nubus systems are not currently supported by debian/powerpc. The
monolithic (LinuxPPC) kernel architecture does not have support for
these machines; instead, one must use the MkLinux Mach microkernel,
for which Debian does not yet contain support.
These include the 6100/7100/8100 line of Power Macintoshes.
1.3. The OldWorld PCI Systems
-----------------------------
This category contains most Power Macintoshes with a floppy drive and
a PCI bus. They use an older, buggier revision of the Open Firmware
than the new world machines, but can boot Linux either directly from
Open Firmware (via Quik), directly from the MacOS ROM (via miBoot), or
from within MacOS (via BootX). Of these, only the BootX method
flexibly supports dual-booting.
This includes most 603, 603e, 604, and 604e based Power Macintoshes,
including the 7200, 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, and 9600.
1.4. The NewWorld Systems
-------------------------
This category contains the Power Macintosh systems from mid-1998
onwards. They use a more complete Open Firmware bootloader, which
supports booting from a network or an ISO9660 CD-ROM, or an ext2fs
partition, as well as ELF binary loading.
These machines can boot GNU/Linux directly from Open Firmware (via
yaboot). BootX is far less reliable on the newer systems, and not
supported. Yaboot, the most flexible of all currently supported
bootloaders, is highly recommended. Yaboot supports loading a kernel
and ramdisk directly from an ext2 partition. Dual-booting with MacOS
and other Operating Systems is supported when yaboot is installed by
ybin, and installation without modifying Open Firmware's settings is
possible.
NewWorld Power Macintosh systems require an 800K Type: Apple_Bootstrap
partition in order to be made bootable directly from the hard disk.
These machines include Blue G3 systems, the iMacs, and G4 systems.
1.5. How to Contact
-------------------
Please send any additions or suggestions for this documentation to:
Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org>
Any suggestions/complaints/problems with the installation itself
should be directed to the Debian mailing lists:
<debian-boot@lists.debian.org> for general problems with the initial
installation.
<debian-powerpc@lists.debian.org> for PowerPC-specific problems.
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PowerPC Installation Guide -- Power Macintosh
Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org>
v1.1, 10 April 2000