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View Full Version : Power PC and G3 port of Knoppix



cascadefx
04-01-2003, 12:28 AM
I think there should be a knoppix version for the PPC architecture. What a great trick to be able to run this awesome bootable OS on the PPC as well as the Intel architecture.

How realistic is this?

Does anybody see a reason why this couldn't be done?

Yellow Dog Linux http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/, is a great way to revive older Mac hardware. And Knoppix is a great way for Windows users to experience Linux without having to worry about installing the software first. Wouldn't it be great to offer this same functionality to old-time Mac users? It could keep there relatively young hardware from being useless and could save a few bucks. If they like it, they could always install Knoppix to the HD or download and install Yellow Dog. Yellow Dog is also proported to be faster on the same hardware due to the RISC nature of the PPC architecture. Perhaps Knoppix would be faster as well.

I think Knoppix has a lot to offer in this area. Besides Knoppix is built off of Debian (http://www.debian.org) which has been ported to the Power PC (http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/). While I can't do it, it shouldn't be THAT difficult to make a Knoppix PPC port. What pitfalls am I not seeing.

I am interested in thoughts and insights. Let 'em rip.

god
04-01-2003, 03:37 AM
a task like that would take a total rework of knoppix, from what i know. All the hardware detection would need to be rewritten and all... it would be almost as much work as it was to first make knoppix.....

cascadefx
04-01-2003, 05:43 PM
All the hardware detection would need to be rewritten and all... it would be almost as much work as it was to first make knoppix.....

Mac hardware has standardized a lot over the years. I don't think hardware detection would be that big of an issue. Heck the new G3's use PCI and pretty standard memory. With USB rounding out the mix, I can't see this as too difficult.

Any PPC Linux users out there up for the challenge? I wonder what Klaus has to say on the topic.