Convert Microsoft to LINUX: Yellow Dog Linux for the G4/5 MAC Power PC Install


This section is for old G4/G5 MAC Power PC (PPC chip) that you may find at a garage sale from 2005 on. You can not get a MAC OS for this anymore. Even if you did, it would not work with all the new devices out there. First go get the install guide . From this same site you can download the latest Yellow Dog 6.2 from July 2009. It is an .iso file of approximately 4 Gig. Burn it on a DVD and put it in your Powerbook (Power PC). I picked the one from Universitaet Wien Austria at the very bottom 6.2. Note, if you just boot and hold down the c as it boots it will boot off the CD. It wants to go into graphical mode, but that will cause a huge problem. That is it will go into permanent vert hold bars. What you need to do, is at the boot prompt type
install-txt
You will be prompted the standard Linux way. That is using the space bar to select, that is asterisk an entry and the arrow and tab keys to move around. You mights as well pick the option to remove all previous data from the MAC , after you have backed it up to a DVD . Everything will come up fine with a little bit of tweaking.

  1. When you start up select Gnome as your desktop . It defaults to enlightenment, which is awful.
  2. Make sure you are connected on the network, then go to settings | administration and force the NTP service to detect proper date and time.
  3. Note, it even automatically found my Brother printer and printed great.
  4. The wireless is really difficult to do and a huge security risk, so skip it. Those old broadcom chip drivers were very flaky. Just put the ethernet cable in the slot it belongs in and you are done!
Enjoy !