Distributions for the PowerPC

November 3, 2004

This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar

Judging from the number of inquiries and search requests for "ppc" or "powerpc" we get at DistroWatch.com, deploying Linux (or *BSD) on this powerful platform is not nearly as rare as some would like us to believe. Whether it is the attraction of elegantly designed and innovative Apple computers, or the sheer power behind the high-end pSeries servers, Linux on PowerPC is alive and well. Here is the list of current distributions that develop PowerPC editions of their products.

CRUX PPC. The PowerPC port of the CRUX Linux distribution is a contributed project by Giulivo Navigante. The original i686 edition of CRUX is designed to be a very light-weight operating system without GNOME or KDE (it uses WindowMaker instead) and the PowerPC port doesn't depart from this philosophy. The included software works best on G3 and G4 processors; it supports Pegasos II, dual CPUs, and also has some special features, such as CPU frequency scaling for laptops. One of the strength of the project is comprehensive documentation and active user forums available on the CRUX PPC web site.
Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu Linux. The Debian project has been providing a PowerPC port of their distribution since 1997. The latest stable version, Debian 3.0 "Woody" is well supported on Power Macintosh and PowerBook up to G4, Apus, CHRP and PReP machines, although installation on some of the newer iBooks and PowerBooks need additional, but well-documented steps to complete. Additionally, those who wish to dual boot Debian with Mac OS X will also need and an updated version of the yaboot boot loader, not available in Woody. The upcoming release of Debian 3.1 "Sarge", as well as the new Ubuntu Linux 4.10, have support for the Pegasos II boards and PowerMacs G5 (32-bit mode).
Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Although the Fedora project does not provide official releases for the PowerPC architecture, their development tree contains a complete set of binary packages for the ppc and ppc64 architectures. This is, presumably, maintained as a base for Red Hat's enterprise offering which does include full support for IBM eServer iSeries and pSeries. The Fedora web site has no documentation about installing and running the distribution on a PowerPC, but contributed step-by-step instructions, mailing lists, and even an up-to-date repository of third-party Fedora RPM packages for PowerPC do exist.
Gentoo Linux, Source Mage GNU/Linux and ROCK Linux. These are all source-based distributions with PowerPC ports of their x86 releases. Gentoo Linux is probably the most interesting among them, for several reasons: it has an enormous amount of excellent PowerPC-related documentation on its web site, it provides a fully-functional bootable live CD, and it is actively developing 64-bit support for the ppc64 architecture. In fact, the Gentoo/ppc64 sub-project has its own development page with installation instructions, stage tarballs and even beta live CDs for PowerMac G5 and pSeries systems.
Mandrakelinux. Mandrakelinux has been developing consumer-oriented PowerPC editions since 2001 (version 8.0). The upcoming Mandrakelinux 10.1 is currently in beta testing and should be available within the next few weeks. It includes kernel 2.6.8.1 and is designed to run on Power Macintosh G3 and iBook G4 machines. The iBooks are particularly well supported, with the only exception being the Airport Extreme wireless networking kit for which there are no Linux drivers due to unavailability of specifications.
NetBSD and OpenBSD. The PowerPC port, or "macppc" as they prefer to call it, has been an integral part of both NetBSD and OpenBSD for several years - in NetBSD since version 1.4 released in 1999 and in OpenBSD since version 2.8 released in 2000. The projects claim support for all PPC Macs built after 1995, with the exception of the very latest PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 systems.
SUSE LINUX. SUSE's foray into the world of consumer PowerPC hardware in 2001 was short-lived and discontinued after version 7.3. Nowadays, only the SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server family continues to support the architecture, especially the IBM pSeries systems (Power4 and Power5).
Yellow Dog Linux. The Fedora-based Yellow Dog Linux by Terra Soft Solutions is probably the best-known Linux distribution for the PowerPC. In development since 1998, the company has created a useful product with many user-friendly enhancements. The recently released version 4.0 has support for PowerBook G4 and PowerMac G5 processors (32-bit only, although a full 64-bit edition is currently under development), the Mac-on-Linux emulator for running Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X from within Linux, auto-partitioning and auto-yaboot configuration, as well as support for most hardware found in the above-mentioned machines. However, unlike the distribution's previous versions which were always made available for free download, Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 can only be had from the company's online store or through its newly introduced subscription service at YDL.net.
Other projects. To complete the list, here are a few less well-known projects that also develop for the PowerPC platform. Poland's PLD Linux Distribution maintains a repository of RPM packages in its ppc directory tree, but unfortunately, the distribution's web site lacks any information about its current PowerPC activities. The Slackintosh projects compiles PowerPC packages from Slackware's source files. Those interested in live CDs will be pleased to know that, besides Gentoo, the SystemRescueCd project has also built a live CD for PowerPC (not yet stable). Finally, there are two active PowerPC development efforts going on in Japan - one of them is Happy MacLinux designed for m68k Macintosh computers, while the other is the more popular and up-to-date Vine Linux.

Index entries for this article
GuestArticles	Bodnar, Ladislav

Yellow Dog 4.0 ISOs

Posted Nov 4, 2004 5:12 UTC (Thu) by ladislav (guest, #247) [Link]

I stand corrected on the Yellow Dog ISO issue - I just received an email from Terra Soft saying that the ISOs will be publicly available in "roughly two weeks".

Distributions for the PowerPC

Posted Nov 4, 2004 11:52 UTC (Thu) by dwmw2 (subscriber, #2063) [Link]

The mailing list for Fedora on PPC is no longer the one you specify; it's now fedora-ppc@lists.infradead.org. There's also an IRC channel -- #fedora-ppc on Freenode.

Distributions for the PowerPC

Posted Nov 4, 2004 15:30 UTC (Thu) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

"Finally, there are two active PowerPC development efforts going on in
Japan - one of them is Happy MacLinux designed for m68k Macintosh
computers,"

What does that mean ? m68k are not PowerPC!

yellow dog bombs

Posted Nov 4, 2004 22:32 UTC (Thu) by jebba (guest, #4439) [Link]

For those of you looking for a PPC distro and also happen to loathe the U.S. military, stay clear of yellowdog (Terra Soft Solutions). They have been happily supplying the military with all sorts of kit & applications. A snippet from a recent press release:

Loveland, Colorado -- 1 November 2004 -- Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions has delivered 17 dual-head Apple Power Mac G5s to Ellsworth and Dyess Airforce bases to serve as flight simulators for the Boeing B1 bombers.

Kai: Are you simulating the dead too?

-Jeff (disclaimer: I used to work for & own a chunk of TSS, but I desparately want out)