Apple Mac : what model for Ubuntu ?

[Eric Dunbar]

Here's the wiki for installing on an OldWorld Mac:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/InstallOnOldWorldMacs

Since you're contemplating a server install, I'd suggest you also
check out YellowDogLinux 3.0.1 if Ubuntu doesn't work for you. It's
easy to install on "Old World" machines and relatively mature (I did
it with a minimum of effort and that was my first taste of Linux).

FYI OldWorld vs NewWorld PPC Macs are defined by the version of
FirmWare they use. If the Mac has in-built USB (1998 or newer; iMac,
iBook, PowerBook G3 "Lombard" and "Pismo", Blue and White G3, all
G4s), it's a NewWorld Mac, otherwise it's an OldWorld Mac. On NewWorld
Macs Linux boots using the yaboot (yet-another-bootloader) bootloader,
on OldWorld Macs _usually_ you use xboot, but sometimes miboot.

xboot requires Mac OS 7, 8 or 9 to get it started (OS 7.5.5 is a free
download from Apple and works on the 8600 but is not licence "free"
(as in BSD or GNU licence)). (xboot may actually originally be OSS
released by Apple to boot early experiments with Unix on Macs but I
can't remember)

miboot is entirely OSS _but_ it is not the easiest of things in the
world to get working. OldWorld Firmware was notoriously flakey and
could require a lot of mucking about (the first versions of Open
Firmware weren't inteded to be used for anything other than low-level
hardware trouble-shooting).

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 19:27:04 +0100, Vincent Trouilliez
<vincent.trouilliez at wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> Hi Eric,
> 
> Thanks a lot for the comprehensive e-mail, that's exactly the kind of
> info I was looking for...

Glad I could be of help (pat myself on back :)

Eric.