Linux On Macs, Experiences? Options

[lepetitmartien]

I've got a G5 and a BW G3, does someone has tried linux installs on one of them, I'd be interested to give it a go later this year. I'm not very up to date on the mac distro available so any input is welcome. (and I'm too busy to surf like a mad on the subject)

[lepetitmartien]

As a spammer just upped the thread, I'm having a go for some months with a Linux flavor Fedora on the macbook as a double boot. Once installed it works.Though I'm still trying to understand the exact twist to force the mac to understand that it can boot on the linux partition.

Why fedora? Well, it's maintained over all the macs I have. And the how-to to install are understandable, the ones for Ubuntu are confusing IMHO.

Right now I'm trying to install Fedora 13, but it doesn't want to boot and I'm still investigating, it may be something really stupid like the size of the /boot partition… It'd be way easier with a single partition, but as I'm playing with it and doing my geek, I want to understand

I'll get back once it works, there's a few things to tune I've never seen elsewhere, and it'd be good to see them online.

[lepetitmartien]

Fedora 13 works, it was the /boot still not big enough (600 MB now erh)

This time, the start up in fedora came in smoothly after a single restart in OS X (with before the relevant "y" in the rFEIt partition utility).

KDE is way smoother (thought different, it's sexy in some ways, I keep liking the way Gnome is organized more practical, I may be old fashioned ,The WI-Fi doesn't work, it may be an error on my side, so got to check back protection/code. That's all where I am now.

[lepetitmartien]

Some hints:
(I'm speaking in general and on a Mactel, on older computers, on a PC, it may be different, especially for the memory/disk handling)

- Dual boot OS X/linux is not difficult to make, as long as you use rEFIt (I have not tried on one of my PPC mac)
- Don't try a triple boot (OS X and 2 linux flavour) at first, it's not as smooth, I'm still working on this one.
- there's plenty of How-to for triple boot OS X/Windows/linux, read them.
- back up ! I have never had an issue playing around between linux and OS X. but it can happen. It's playing with partition maps, bootloaders and the like.

Choosing a Linux :
- there's a lot of distributions around, some are heavier, lighter, simpler… I've only tried Fedora (under GNOME and KDE) and Ubuntu Studio. Fedora because it's elegant (especially for install) and it works perfectly with the CCRMA packages. Ubuntu Studio as it is dedicated to creation though the installation is more "east german", you should RTFM a little before trying to install Ubuntu IMHO.

On the partitions for linux :
- Your disk for OS X to boot has 2 partitions you'll see in partitioning tools under linux. DON'T TOUCH THEM (or resize the main OS X partition with the boot camp utility, nothing else, and back up beforehand).
- Whatever linux flavour you'll try, it can go on one partition, but a better practice is to separate a few things just in case.
- the minimum partitions you should make are :
- /boot (the bootloading zone) The size depends of the distribution. Fedora needs 500 MB or more, which is a lot.
- / (where the system and apps will be installed, you can pile some GB, 10 is a minimum (you can use less but it stupid to lack estate…)
- /home (where are the users, it makes switching of "flavor", reinstallling linux way easier, pile some GB)
- swap (well, for virtual memory, it's very efficient so you don't need a lot of GB that usually you won't use, but to save RAM to disk you must have at least the size of the your RAM… If you don't need this feature, you can be less generous.

There's over repertories that can be "separated" into partitions, but it needs special uses (like at least 2 linux flavours around, or that you know exactly the estate you need for the software only).

During Installation :
- For the keyboard, select your country, and a layout, don't waste your time searching as the mac layouts are not available (during the install)
- once it's over, you'll be able to switch to Apple/laptop (my case) or the relevant for you.
- Hence, keep to Latin1 or Latin9 for installation, and don't try to use exotic types, keep to basic letters and punctuation.
- Have some ethernet connection to the Net, you'll need it.

Once done with the installation, eject the CD or DVD (it should do so by itself). When rEFIt shows up on start up, select the partition utility and say "yes", and start up in OX S. Once booted in OS X, shut down, and choose your linux this time, it'll boot.

Right after :
- update !

More to come

[lepetitmartien]

Note that I'm running into issues one after another, so if I can give one counsel : on the mac, install Fedora but not Ubuntu Studio at this point. There's something fishy with GRUB2 (the bootloader) used by Ubuntu and Fedora (using GRUB legacy) has not this issue.

For the adventurous, use the Ubuntu live CD and not the DVD of Ubuntu Studio, the install will be way easier. You'll be able to load the studio packages later in 2 clicks.

[lepetitmartien]

After another day of trials, I give up the multiboot. If you want to have a go at Fedora or Ubuntu it's fine, but not both, seemingly there something nasty between them and the GRUB versions ending in deadlock ends. I've tried multiple trick to cure the issue in the shell to no avail.

[lepetitmartien]

Update:

- don't try 64 Studio (there are issues in some packages, I'll try again later) or Musix (not recognizing the macbook), it won't work.

- GRUB is a nasty business… really.

- Distributions that install fine alone : Fedora (12 or 13), Ubuntu 10.04 (Live CD version), Pardus.