Getting Ubuntu Linux Up and Running on a PowerPC Mac. In last week’s column, I outlined the requirements for setting up a useful and fast PowerPC (PPC) Linux desktop, and I’m going to start with what I consider the best of the bunch. Ubuntu Linux has done some of the best work in the open source community at making Linux palatable for the average end user. Indeed, their slogan is “Linux for human beings”, and I don’t think I’ve ever come across a Linux distribution that’s as easy to set up, maintain, and use for daily tasks as this one. The front page of Ubuntu’s website contains a declaration of principles that they call their “public commitment”.
First and foremost, in my mind, is their credo that everyone with a computer should have access to free, usable software no matter what platform they use. This means they have put considerable effort into making their PPC version on par with its x86 counterpart. [Editor's note: Canonical has discontinued PPC updates since Ubuntu version 7.04. Hardware Installation Getting Started Installing Software.
Apple airport card help... "Ubuntu Linux, Yellowdog Linux and Mac OS X, all on one PowerBook?" from The Intuitive Life Business Blog. In a bit of a break from business analysis, I thought it would be fun to post one of my more technical articles to re-establish my “geek cred”, if you will. This article details the trials and tribulations of turning a perfectly good Apple PowerBook into a tri-boot system with Mac OS X, Yellow Dog Linux and Ubuntu Linux. Mac OS X is built of two components, Darwin, the BSD-based Unix underpinnings, and Aqua, the beautiful graphical user interface we Mac heads have all grown to love.
However, there are other operating systems and other work environments that can be installed on an Apple system, based on popular open source Linux applications. If youre looking for Intel-based versions of Linux, there are dozens and dozens, but the PowerPC chip cuts those options down quite a bit. Unlike Microsofts VirtualPC application, these operating systems cant be installed within Mac OS X, but rather have to be installed adjacent to, or instead of Mac OS X. What does “Ubuntu” mean? rEFIt - Documentation - Installing rEFIt. Trail: Home > Documentation > Burning a CD If you just want to try out rEFIt without affecting your computer, you can burn rEFIt to a (or ) and boot from that. The distributed .dmg and .cdr disk images are ready to burn. See the burning instructions for details. Automatic Installation with the Installer Package Both disk image distributions (.dmg and .cdr) also contain the new installer package.
The steps to install rEFIt this way are as follows: Download and mount the rEFIt-0.14.dmg disk image.Double-click on the “rEFIt.mpkg” package.Follow the instructions and select your Mac OS X installation volume as the destination volume for the install. If everything went well, you’ll see the rEFIt boot menu on the next restart. Manual Installation on the Mac OS X volume If you don’t want to use the installer package, you can do a manual install instead. Here are the steps for a manual install: Download the “Mac disk image” or any of the other two binary distributions from the home page.
"How do I dual boot Ubuntu Linux & Mac OS X?" from the Ask Dave Taylor! Tech Support Blog.