Installing OpenBSD on a PPC Mac Mini « Building a static universal Postgresql. Setting up a Captive Portal Site with Web Filtering » I recently attempted to Install OpenBSD 4.8 on an old 1.42 GHz PPC mac mini we had left over at work. The OpenBSD distribution disks come with a PPC build, so I was expecting the install to be fairly. FreeBSD offers two primary methods of downloading applications and system tools. *Skip this section if you plan on using packages to install the Desktop.
![Install Bsd Powerpc Install Bsd Powerpc](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125447073/915970602.png)
Merge Tux and that old, tattered PowerPC Mac, and create something beautiful (Image Credit: ) The Trouble With Old Hardware The main challenge you’ll run into with older hardware is that Apple considers it obsolete and stops supporting it. When that happens, you might think you’re out of luck and need to retire what used to be an excellent machine.
However, I’m here to tell you that even a 2005 PowerBook G4 can still run modern operating systems, with some TLC and tinkering. I was able to revive that PowerPC Mac running Linux. My current build is running, a lightweight flavor of Ubuntu. The beauty here is that PowerPC is still alive, well, and fairly well supported. What Can You Do With Older Hardware? Curious what you might be able to accomplish with a PowerPC-based laptop? Here’s what I’ve been able to accomplish so far, since I revived my PowerBook G4 and brought it up-to-date with a Lubuntu installation.
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![Powerpc Powerpc](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125447073/776261933.jpg)
Surf the web. Handle email tasks. Create web pages. Much, much more Getting the Revival on for Your PowerPC Mac Running Linux What you need to get started depends on what type of optical drive you have in your G4- or G5-based PowerBook or Mac. If you have a DVD drive, you can simply burn the to a disk and start that way. My PowerBook G4 has a CD-R/W drive, though. Because of this, I had to create USB install media.
Assuming you’re fortunate enough to be able to boot from a DVD, it’s really simple. Just burn the ISO to a blank DVD, insert it into your PowerBook or other PowerPC-based Mac, and press the “C” key while the computer boots up. My DVD Drive Doesn’t Work, Though If you are comfortable with Terminal on your newer Mac, this is still pretty simple. Heck, even if you aren’t comfortable, the job can be done. Here are the steps you need to take. Take note of what the filename is for your ISO image of Lubuntu 16.04.
Insert your USB Flash Drive. In Terminal, find out the device ID for your USB Flash drive. Type this command into Terminal: diskutil list. Look for the name of the USB flash drive, and remember what it’s called. It should be something like /dev/disk2s3. Now, we’re going to unmount the USB flash drive so we can work directly with it in Terminal. Do this by typing this command in Terminal, replacing disk2s3 with the device identifier for your USB flash drive: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2s3.
Once that step completes, it will be time to create the USB flash drive installer you need to start installing Linux. Creating a USB Installer for Lubuntu You’ve got your USB flash drive prepped, and you know what to call it. Go ahead and issue this command in Terminal to create the USB installer drive. Change “lubuntu.iso” to the proper filename, and be sure to use your disk identifier in the of= parameter.
Dd if='/Users/username/Downloads/lubuntu.iso' of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m It’ll take a few moments (or longer) to complete. Once done, you’ll be ready to insert the USB installer into your PowerPC-based computer and boot from the stick.
This part isn’t so easy. Using OpenFirmware to Find Your USB Installer Many PowerBooks and other PowerPC-based Macs use OpenFirmware, allowing you to boot from devices that don’t show up otherwise. This is how you might do a net boot, for instance, or boot from a USB drive. Note that not all PowerPC-based Macs support this, but most do. To get into OpenFirmware, you’ll need to reboot your PowerPC-based Mac.
When you hear the startup chime, make sure you’re pressing and holding Command-Option-O-F. Keep holding those four keys down until you see the OpenFirmware prompt. Now, find out if your USB disk has shown up. Type this at the prompt: dev / ls Look through the list of devices for an entry like usb0, usb@1b,1, etc. Hopefully, one of them will have disk@1 beneath it. If not, type this at the prompt: probe-usb Now you should see the right USB device.
Take note of what it’s called, then type this: devalias This gives you a list of aliases for the devices. Find the one matching your USB device (usb0, usb@1b,1, etc). Booting Your PowerPC Mac Into the USB Linux Installation Finally, type this to boot from that device. Replace usb0 with the actual device alias you found previously.
Boot usb0/disk:3,yaboot Once it boots up, which could take some time, simply follow the instructions to get your PowerPC Mac up and running using Linux. I won’t go into the finer details of partitioning the disk, since the assumption here is that your installed version of OS X is too dated for you to want to keep it. If that doesn’t work out, you might consider a netinstall of Linux.
In a future article, I’ll outline how you can go about doing that. If you want to see first-hand the PowerBook G4 running Linux and you’re attending, find me.
I’ll be happy to show off my Frankenstein’s monster of technology. As useful and well-written as this article is, it has an incorrect assumption: namely, that support for old Macs will continue in Linux. In fact, 32-bit PowerPC support is going away in most flavors of Linux, especially ones that are based on upstream Debian (see ). This affects Ubuntu and all of its various flavors, for starters, as well as Mint. I believe that the only Linux distro with 32-bit support that will be left is Gentoo; while well-documented, Gentoo is not for the faint of heart. PowerPC support still exists in NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. Whatever happened to the Black Lab and Yellow Lab Linux that ran on these when the PowerPC was still new?
Linux has always been the best way to revive ‘obsolete’ hardware. I was running it on 386s when everyone else had started buying Pentiums. I still run a full install of the bleeding-edge “current” release of Slackware Linux on my old Asus EeePC 2G Surf (from back when netbooks were new) ever since the Knoppix Linux it came with stopped working right. Added a fast, fat SD card and I have all the room I need. The 256M of RAM Read more ».