PPC version of Knoppix

[AmigaGuy]

I found Knoppix at my local Linux user's group meeting in Davis, CA, USA. Runs perfectly on my PC.

A quick search of the forums here has indicated some interest in a PPC version of Knoppix. New Amiga computers have just been released (December, 2002) that are now PPC-based (G3 and G4) and use standard AGP and PCI hardware on the mainboard. Eyetech in the UK are responsible for the boards and Hyperion Entertainment is writing the new OS 4 for the machines. A competing board is also being made by Thendic Electronics, also PPC-based (G3 and G4), running Morph OS.

My point is this: there are at least two other platforms in addition to Mac that run PPC processors. And they're new.:) These customers might be very interested in PPC Knoppix and have a world-wide base that is very loyal.

Hopefully a new PPC Knoppix will be forthcoming that will enable these machines to run on it. BTW, the Eyetech board is currently running most forms of PPC Linux already, including Debian, SuSE and Yellow Dog using a standard Linux kernel. Install problems would be obviated by the Knoppix install model. Memory capacities are 1-2 gigabytes, so that isn't a limit either. Hardware detection should be similar to the current Knoppix.

Just some ideas I hope will be interesting in the forum.

[aay]

You might want to try this:

http://www.gentoo.org/news/20030603-ppclivecd.xml

[rickenbacherus]

I'd love to see a ppc Knoppix too. One that runs on old-world Macs not just the expensive new ones like the Gentoo disc. ;-)

They say that people who use Macs are more educated and make more money. I'd say that's because more educated people make more money and you have to make ALOT of money to buy a Mac. My boss just spent $2000 for a 14" mac notebook. It's a teeny tiny little thing- hardly justifiable. You could have the baddest x86 Barton in the world for 2G's!

Macos is just as awful if not worse than M$ IMO. This old ppc I have is almost worthless running macos 8.1. It's slow, has to be rebooted every time you change anything and it is completely unconfigurable. They only give you cute little icons to click on and hope they actually do something.

Isn't it interesting that Mac also switched to NIX? That fact alone speaks volumes.

It was only recently that I heard that Amigas were still being made. I thought they were dead long ago. Is the Amiga a mac clone or is Mac actually making them? I have also heard that you can buy a Mac w/ Linux preinstalled.

[fleny68]

You can try the port of knoppix-MiB for PPC here (alpha release):

ftp://ftp.crihan.fr/mirrors/knoppix-mib.org/

Read carefully the README-PPC.txt

The knoppix-Mib is presented here:
https://www.bouissou.net/knoppix-mib/doc-html/Knoppix-Mib.html

there is screenshots here:
http://fynl.free.fr/K-MiB-PPC/

it runs on some powermac, ibook, imac CRT. No tests on powerbooks yet. No success on Imac TFT or eMac yet

for NewWorld machine.

kernel-2.4.21-ben1
QTParted/parted with hfs/hfs+ resize
swapfile on hfs/hfs+ partition
OpenOffice.org 1.0.3
XF 4.3
encrypted swap (AES 128)
encrypted persistent home (AES 128)
autodetection of the usb persistent home

this a test release.

[fleny68]

:roll:
It could maybe run on some oldworld if you use bootx. No tests yet.

[Rono64]

This is a great version of Knoppix, it's only in alpha stage but ran fine on an iMac 233 bondi and even better on a G4 cube, it recognized all the firewire and usb hardware no problem, the only difference from the PC version I found was it was slower in booting applications, this may be solved with a HD install. when I have made the 100% switch with my macs I will do a HD install and let everyone know how it goes.

[AmigaGuy]

The Amiga bears absolutely no "clone" or other relationship to the Mac. They are so completely different that any comparison between them fails.

The impression that the Amiga has "died" was fostered by the bankruptcy of the parent company in 1994 or 1995. Since then, several companies have owned the Amiga IP. Now, Amiga is a consortium of three companies: Amiga Inc., Hyperion Entertainment, and Eyetech.

Amiga runs a completely proprietary OS that has been in use since 1986. Nine OS versions have appeared in that time, with the tenth (OS 4) due out soon. More information appears on these sites, if you're interested:

www.amiga.com
http://amiga.org
www.amigaworld.net
http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet. This is a software archive site.

The new boards are running PPC processors with architectures that bear no relationship at all to Macs except for the presence of the PPC processor. More info on the boards (generically) can be gained from www.mai.com. We, obviously, think that they run better than anything else.

Thanks to the others in this topic who have posted their information as well. I will attempt to run these PPC linux versions, even though they are still alpha software, and report the results I have to the forum.

Thanks for writing back and for your interest, one and all.

[fleny68]

The question is: will your amiga run a debian ppc linux, with the linux ppc kernel?

if the answer is yes, you can try. But:
The CD is bootable only in NewWorld Mac. I have absolutely no idea about how to make a amiga bootable CD.

If you find an amiga bootloader for linux, the kernel is /boot/linux.bin and the initrd image is /boot/root.bin.gz; root=/dev/rd/0; this can help you maybe.

Good Luck

[reub2000]

I'd also love a GameCube version of Knoppix, which also uses PPC. GameCube has no hard drive, so a live god version of linux would be needed.

[gill1109]

I'd love to see a ppc Knoppix too. One that runs on old-world Macs not just the expensive new ones like the Gentoo disc. ;-)

They say that people who use Macs are more educated and make more money. I'd say that's because more educated people make more money and you have to make ALOT of money to buy a Mac. My boss just spent $2000 for a 14" mac notebook. It's a teeny tiny little thing- hardly justifiable. You could have the baddest x86 Barton in the world for 2G's!

Macos is just as awful if not worse than M$ IMO. This old ppc I have is almost worthless running macos 8.1. It's slow, has to be rebooted every time you change anything and it is completely unconfigurable. They only give you cute little icons to click on and hope they actually do something.

Isn't it interesting that Mac also switched to NIX? That fact alone speaks volumes.

I have to object to many of the comments here! The MacOS has always been perfectly tuned to the state of the art, which means that the newest OS is always too big and too slow on 10 year old Macs, and insanely fantastic on the newest ones. As opposed to M$ where things work the other way round: the OS is designed around yesterday's hardware, not tomorrow's.

I am educated and make some money, so I work with macs and play with linux. I would really have fun with a live knoppix cd on my iBook, and show it to all my mac friends, use it to give talks at conferences...

[Rono64]

I wouldn't go so far to call OS X insanely fantastic.
It has a lot of problems and it seems to be getting worse not better.
Try finding an external USB cd drive that works, and I don't mean one Apple tells you that works, because they don't. Try getting 3rd party drivers for such peripherals, you can't ALL that manufacturers say OS X supplies the drivers, well the microkernal theory just does not hold up.
I was a rabid mac fanatic, I was on board to beta test OS X, and frankly the high Unix learning curve taught me the power of the command line, BUT if I can't use my Mac with "supported" drives which in reality are NOT supported, and I have had this happen not once but 5 times, each time I consulted Apple technichians and they swore the drives would work, and when proven wrong they just said, "oh guess it doesn't." Gee thanks Apple.
Apple seesm more intent on making gadgets and selling music than supporting their original customer base.
I mean do we really need honking big operating systems that take up gigs JUST for the OS? and offer less functionallity?
Apple plays fast and loose with the term "open source" also.
My next computer will be one I build myself, and will run a customized version of Knoppix, which will replace about 3000 dollars of software.
Anyone who wants to pull their hair out can try to get an unsupported peripheral to work in OS X, but if you have to use X11 or a Linux program, then why use OS X?

[rickenbacherus]

I have to object to many of the comments here! The MacOS has always been perfectly tuned to the state of the art, which means that the newest OS is always too big and too slow on 10 year old Macs, and insanely fantastic on the newest ones. As opposed to M$ where things work the other way round: the OS is designed around yesterday's hardware, not tomorrow's.

The UMAX s900 runs Macos 9.1 with no diffculties and it is possible (but not easy) to put OSX on it as well. I dislike Macos because you have no control over your hardware. As far as I can tell "control" in Macos is changing your keyboard layout and mouse settings. ;)

With Macos you just pay for your closed source apps and click the installer- and hope it works. That's exactly like windows. Linux works on hardware from any time period. You can have as much or as little of an OS as you like. It's all about choice, it's all about options not about bending to the will of moneybags Steve.


I am educated and make some money, so I work with macs and play with linux. I would really have fun with a live knoppix cd on my iBook, and show it to all my mac friends, use it to give talks at conferences...

I'm uneducated and make some money and still can't see any reason to spend the ridiculous amount they are asking for Macs. x86's are so much more reasonably priced and it doesn't take alot of effort to get Linux to run on most any of them. For $500 I could build a Linux x86 that would kick the crap out of my bosses $2000 laptop. I was very suprised that the G4 w/ a G of RAM was so slow. Apps take 4-5 seconds to launch, it certainly didn't boot very fast and the screen is entirely too small.

If I were a Mac user I would be completely pissed at Steve for making me out to be an incompetent moron. Surely you've seen the commercial that conveys the idea that Macusers aren't smart enough to plug in more than one cable!

My 550K7 w 256M RAM boots to a desktop environment in under 60 seconds running SourceMage Linux.

I too would like to see a live bootable disc for ppc (not like the Gentoo disc) with a desktop environment.

[gill1109]

So it seems there are equally strong feeling about friend Steve as about Bill, I did not realise that! I think that results are important. I go to maths/physics conferences and see loads of laptop and beamer presentations. I kept some statistics at the last one I went to. Consistently: the ibook and powerbook presentations were perfect (technically and aesthetically speaking). Linux close second. Windoze usually all kinds of things went wrong, and people lost five minutes of their time because they needed to reboot when they plugged in the video adapter... Incidentally there were about equal numbers of the three contestants. People with apples were all in love with their machine. People with linux were spending more time than they felt they ought to tuning it, but otherwise content. People with windoze were "grinning and bearing it". The mac and the linux guys felt sorry for them.

[rickenbacherus]

So it seems there are equally strong feeling about friend Steve as about Bill, I did not realise that! I think that results are important. I go to maths/physics conferences and see loads of laptop and beamer presentations. I kept some statistics at the last one I went to. Consistently: the ibook and powerbook presentations were perfect (technically and aesthetically speaking). Linux close second.

Glad to hear that! Linux getting voted #2 is alright by me. (for now anyway.....) :wink:


Windoze usually all kinds of things went wrong, and people lost five minutes of their time because they needed to reboot when they plugged in the video adapter...

Now why doesn't that suprise me.


Incidentally there were about equal numbers of the three contestants. People with apples were all in love with their machine. People with linux were spending more time than they felt they ought to tuning it, but otherwise content.

OK it's true- my machine is never perfect. There's always another nano second to be saved somewhere right?


People with windoze were "grinning and bearing it". The mac and the linux guys felt sorry for them.

To my understanding this conversation inevitibly leads to the conclusion that each machine and OS is better in its own specific area. Mac is an excellent all-around graphics/media machine. All of those users can't be wrong.

Linux- well I think you know my opinions there as I may have voiced them once or twice somewhere before. :P

And our friend windows....well let's just say that at my office it's nice to know that when the pressure is on (and it does get a little tense) we have my Linux laptop to rely on.

[gill1109]

To my understanding this conversation inevitibly leads to the conclusion that each machine and OS is better in its own specific area. Mac is an excellent all-around graphics/media machine. All of those users can't be wrong.

Linux- well I think you know my opinions there as I may have voiced them once or twice somewhere before. :P

And our friend windows....well let's just say that at my office it's nice to know that when the pressure is on (and it does get a little tense) we have my Linux laptop to rely on.

We reached perfect understanding, I agree entirely! Though... I would add "science" to the "graphics/media" of the Mac all-round excellence. I come from acadaemia (physics and maths) and the huge proportion of mac users there is not just because we are intensively into graphics and hate M$, or because we are all so rich and need to ostentatiously display it (we aren't).

And now... thanks to Klaus Knopper and Michel Boissou I have a splendid working linux on my iBook, knoppix-MiB-PPC-alpha-2e, which will keep me happy till I figure out how to do a nondestructive repartition of the Mac extended file system hard disk, and put in some linux partitions!

[zorbas]

Hi All... :lol:
On My iBook 500 (Dual USB) its runnig : "knoppix-MiB-PPC-alpha-2e" very well .
I didnt find any problems at all.
At boot :

knoppix xserver=XFree86 module=fbdev lang=us

I hope We can see in the near future the final release.

Regards

Paolo
:D

[gill1109]

I didnt find any problems at all.

I have one problem and that is that when I try to give a presentation from my ibook sending vga through the video-out port of the ibook to a data-projector or beamer or whatever it is called, knoppix-ppc does not recognise the situation and the beamer gets an empty signal.



I hope We can see in the near future the final release.

I hope we will never see the final release but many many many new releases (linux is never to be finished!)

[zorbas]

Sorry.....but 4 "Final" I intend "Not Alpha"..... (Stable) !!!!

I cant help You with the "VGA" (Video-Out) problem.

Regards

Paolo
:D

[rjoseph_beg]

Im confused. is there a knoppix for macs or isnt there? I've seen alot of tech talk that is a little beyond me and the usual arguments about windows vs mac but I want a clear cut answer and link here please.