Need help installing on Old World Mac

mikemcquaid

I have an OldWorld PowerMac that is just a bit of a toy, and want to run Linux on it. There is nothing valuable on the system, and I've decided I don't want to take the BootX route, as I want to use the whole disk.
I can't boot from the CDROM due to it being an OldWorld Mac. Is it possible to:

boot from BootX and wipe the disk

boot from a GRUB floppy which then loads the CDROM

boot from a Zip Disc

or some other method?

Thanks!

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

You really should keep BootX/MacOS around since it's hard to recover without it if you make a mistake. The Quik guide in the handbook will let you use Quik if you'd like, which lets you boot without MacOS, but it can be a bit of a pain to setup.

You might be able to fit a minimal OS9 install on a Zip disk and boot from that, but I've never tried that.
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Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml

mikemcquaid · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 1:25 am Post subject:

Cool, I think I'll take the Quik route. Any ideas on the booting from a floppy using GRUB idea?

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

No, grub1 doesn't work on ppc and grub2 only works with New World machines. You *can* create old world boot disks with miboot, but there are still a few issues with that. (Working 2.6 kernels are a little tough to fit on one floppy). It's something I've been planning on working on, but I haven't had time. Debian does provide boot floppies though, you could try that if you really need a boot floppy.
_________________
Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml