Knoppix on Mac

**JoDaY** · 08-06-2003, 05:00 PM

Re !

no matter about speaking french because there is no response for it at this time...

PS: I'm very sorry but i have not seen that your topics was about Knoppix on mac...

**krishna** · 08-08-2003, 12:39 AM

Try lowering the resolution - some projectors (mostly older ones) don't support higher than 640x480. Something like knoppix xserver=fbdev screen="640x480" might do.

-Krishna

Originally Posted by gill1109

Originally Posted by casterman

i tried the knoppix ppc version on my Power Mac G4733Mhz the screen is a flat screen20" . i got the lilo like prompt on which i could type knoppix or knoppix-txt . i tried both but none worked. i am not sure what happened X or something else I never got the hand back and after couple of messages the screen got all scrambled.

On an iBook I had to do knoppix xserver=fbdev. Don't know what this means but it worked... Now I'm trying to do a data-projector or beamer show using the iBook's video-out port. I was recommended by Yves Combe who does the ppc port of knopppix-mib to try adding "video=aty128fb:crt:1,lcd:0" at boot, with maybe screen="1024x768" or something like that. Well, the data projector recognised that there was something coming from the computer but it only projected a blank screen. Still, progress is being made. And knoppix-mib-ppc is really great!

**fmurray** · 08-14-2003, 02:22 AM

Hello,

is it possible to burn the .iso with toast? I try it but my cd don't seem to be bootable. And how can I start from the cd (press C at startup like the mac way?). Please help a newbie.

Thank you.

fmurray

**cselkirk** · 08-14-2003, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by fmurray

is it possible to burn the .iso with toast? I try it but my cd don't seem to be bootable. And how can I start from the cd (press C at startup like the mac way?).

You will only be able to boot the cd ("c") on a NewWorld machine. If your machine is OldWorld then you would need to set up BootX to boot from your MacOS partition into the Knoppix CD env.

Install the BootX extention, control panel, and create a folder titled "Linux Kernels" in the System Folder.

Copy the kernel from the CD into /System Folder/Linux Kernels/ (on the MiB CD the kenel is named "linux.bin"). Open the BootX control pannel, select "options", select "use initrd image", navigate to the CD/boot and select "root.bin.gz" (again, i'm using the naming convention from Knoppix-MiB alpha, it may be different on the Linuxtag ppc CD).

In the "initrd size" dialog add "10240" (this is the MiB initrd size, a size of 11000 should cover most initrd).

In the kernel args dialog add, "init=/etc/init rw lang=YOUR_PREFERD_LANG BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix" plus other cheatcodes as required. You can look at the yaboot.conf in CD/boot, the "append" section is what gets passed to the kernel as args.

You may need to add "video=ofonly" or "video=fbdev" or select the "No Video" button (in BootX) dependent on yor video card.

Now hit tab, the highlighted window should be "MacOS", now save the configuration to your preferences (the initd size is never saved btw, and so you will need to re-enter the size on reboot).

Selecting the "Linux" button should boot you into the knoppix CD env.

I have had some quite some success booting other LiveCD's on OldWorld machines (8500, 4400, Powerbook Wallstreet II) with this method, but have yet to try with either of the knoppix (ppc) CD's (all the OldWorld machines I have access to are at work and I am presently on summer break).

**cselkirk** · 08-15-2003, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

I have a Mac but it's an old world. I wonder if it will boot or not. They're really a PITA. Of course I can always just dl it and find out right?!

OldWorld machines will not be able to boot directly from the CD's, at least by the usual methods. See my post above in this regard.

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

I'd love to see this come together then I won't have to deal with this ridiculous rpm based distro nonsense!

Huh? There are numerious non-rpm based PowerPC distributions .. Debian, Gentoo, Rock Linux, Slackintosh, amoungst others.

**cselkirk** · 08-15-2003, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by gill1109

On an iBook I had to do knoppix xserver=fbdev. Don't know what this means but it worked...

By adding "xserver=fbdev" you are telling XFree86 to use the fbdev driver, which will use the kernels framebuffer (atyfb, aty128fb or radeonfb) device for graphics acceleration. It's not optimal for graphics acceleration as there are specific drivers for these cards (ati, r128 and radeon) that come with XFree86.

Ideally you should be passing xserver={ati,r128,radeon} (dependent on the specific card) but the hwdata on both the MiB and Linuxtag ppc CD's lacks the ability to set up the XF86Config-4 correctly. It's a fairly simple fix to hwdata-${version}/Cards

Code:

 NAME ATI Radeon Mobility 9000
 CHIPSET R250
 DRIVER radeon
+LINE Option "UseFBDev" "true"

I have patches against hwdata-0.8 that I will send to the respective developers.

The MiB ppc CD's (didn't check on the Linuxtag CD) is also missing dri kernel modules for these cards. These are available as debs I believe, at least they were developed by Debian dev Michel Daenzer so one would expect so.

Having XFree86 use the driver specifc to the card would improve the overall responsiveness of the GUI.

Originally Posted by gill1109

Now I'm trying to do a data-projector or beamer show using the iBook's video-out port. I was recommended by Yves Combe who does the ppc port of knopppix-mib to try adding "video=aty128fb:crt:1,lcd:0" at boot, with maybe screen="1024x768" or something like that. Well, the data projector recognised that there was something coming from the computer but it only projected a blank screen. Still, progress is being made. And knoppix-mib-ppc is really great!

Do you actually have a iBook with a ATI Rage 128 card? AFAIK only the clamshells (aka. toilet seat) had this card, later models have ATI Radeon cards. If your machine has a Rage128 then (and I'm assuming this does not work with fbdev ) there is a m3mirror utility that will enable Rage128 based powerbooks to drive the external VGA connector for mirroring.

`lspci -v | grep ATI` should show you which card you have.

**cselkirk** · 08-15-2003, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by cselkirk

Do you actually have a iBook with a ATI Rage 128 card?

Forgot to mention that if you have a Radeon card then mirroring is not possible, I believe it did work with 2.4.19-x but there have been major changes in radeonfb since that point and mirroring is nolonger possible. This capability may return in future, my guess is it was removed due to re-write.

**rickenbacherus** · 08-16-2003, 02:04 AM

Originally Posted by cselkirk

Huh? There are numerious non-rpm based PowerPC distributions .. Debian, Gentoo, Rock Linux, Slackintosh, amoungst others.

Rock Linux and Slackintosh I have not heard of-thanks for those. Ever built Gentoo or Debian on a 233MHz ppc before? No thanks.

**cselkirk** · 08-16-2003, 02:32 AM

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

Rock Linux and Slackintosh I have not heard of-thanks for those. Ever built Gentoo or Debian on a 233MHz ppc before? No thanks.

No need to build Debian, it is a binary based distribution, or did you mean install? I have in the pased installed it on 33mhz 68k macs with little problem.

In the case of Gentoo, I have build on 120mhz 4400 and 100mhz 6500 PowerPC machines. There was in total 16 machines, I built on one host (using distcc on 3 other G{3.4}'s) and then dd'ed the install to the other 15 machines (this was for a wireless network, each machine doing IPSec, QoS, DHCP, etc).

I've also installed it on an Xserve and a number of TiBooks, Powerbook Wallstreet & Pismo's, iBooks, RS6000 43P-140, ANS, Yosimites, Dual 1G G4, and probably others .. :P

Hopefully that answers your question ;)

**rickenbacherus** · 08-16-2003, 04:22 AM

Originally Posted by cselkirk

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

Rock Linux and Slackintosh I have not heard of-thanks for those. Ever built Gentoo or Debian on a 233MHz ppc before? No thanks.

No need to build Debian, it is a binary based distribution, or did you mean install?

semantics

I have in the pased installed it on 33mhz 68k macs with little problem.In the case of Gentoo, I have build on 120mhz 4400 and 100mhz 6500 PowerPC machines. There was in total 16 machines, I built on one host (using distcc on 3 other G{3.4}'s) and then dd'ed the install to the other 15 machines (this was for a wireless network, each machine doing IPSec, QoS, DHCP, etc).

I've also installed it on an Xserve and a number of TiBooks, Powerbook Wallstreet & Pismo's, iBooks, RS6000 43P-140, ANS, Yosimites, Dual 1G G4, and probably others .. :P

Hopefully that answers your question

I'm not disputing the possibility but rather pointing out the unnecessary headaches and extra efforts needed for a ppc installation. The bottom line cselkirk is that it just isn't worth the trouble- not
on a piece of ppc. Not when you can buy twice the machince in an x86 flavor for half the money.

And that's a fact jack.