PowerPC Problem

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03-11-2011
Nightspirit322

PowerPC Problem

I just reccently came across a Macintosh G3 powerPC. It's just the box, no monitor or keyboard, and that's where the problem comes in. I'm trying to load linux onto the machine (specifically Finnix), and whenever it comes to the point of loading device drivers, it can't load /dev/tty[1,2,3,4] and refuses to go further. I've done some research, and I'm thinking that this is because I don't have an ADB keyboard. Is there an easy way to get past not having the macintosh keyboard and still install finnix? Or is there another distro that I could use that would ignore the fact that I don't have a special keyboard?
03-12-2011
Rubberman

Never heard of Fenix, but Debian will boot/run on these machines. You should be able to plug in a standard PC style keyboard and mouse - people do that with Mac Minis all the time.
03-15-2011
Nightspirit322

Another problem

Another problem with the same power PC. I managed to find an OS that will sucessfully install, but whenever I try to start it up, i get the following error.

audit(3873805217.176:0): initialized
Starting Ubuntu...
pivot_root: No such file or directory
/sbin/init: 429: cannot open dev/console: No such file
Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!

It's Ubuntu Warty Warthog (4.10) Power PC. Any suggestions?
03-15-2011
Rubberman

That's a very old (7 years) Ubuntu distribution. It may not have adequate support for that hardware. I take it you tried newer ones? Anyway, if this is an older NuBus PPC Mac, then the following may be of interest - remember that Ubuntu is a Debian derivative, so these notes will still be relevant.

Quote:

Debian GNU/Linux does not officially support NuBus PowerPC machines, such as the 6100, 7100, 8100 and most of the Performa series. However, an MkLinux-based kernel is available, which can be launched from a MacOS boot loader. A Debian system can be installed using this kernel, which is available at Linux/PPC for NuBus Power Macs. There is a Spanish-language explanation of the Debian installation using this kernel.

I went to the nubus-pmac web page on sourceforge and if this is the type of system you are running, then this would be where you should go to get a supported kernel and can then install debian.
03-16-2011
MASONTX

Go to distrowatch.com and search for older computers, power pc architecture, etc and it will bring up possible distro's for you to try. Macpup is one that springs to mind off the top of my head.