LinuxPPC-Live

You've heard me chat about LinuxPPC in the past, and maybe you were interested, but didn't want to go through the hassle of partitioning your drive to check it out. The wait is over thanks to LinuxPPC-Live, a version of Linux that boots right off of your Mac's HFS drive.

The mini-system comes with the KDE desktop manager, Netscape and GIMP pre-installed (Gimp is a great Photoshop quality image program). There's also support for a dial-up PPP connection through the Kppp control panel.

The biggest drawback to LinuxPPC-Live is that many of the settings preferences do not survive across restarts! Because of this, I wouldn't recommend LinuxPPC-Live for any long term useage, but if you want an easy way to play with Linux, see what a window manager looks like, and then decide if you want to partition your drive and do a complete install, LinuxPPC-Live is perfect.

LinuxPPC-Live is not an application or emulator like SoftWindows and Virtual PC. When run, the Linux operation system completely replaces the MacOS. While I can't comprehend the magic that the LinuxPPC group used to get LinuxPPC-Live to work, it appears that the main system elements load into a ram disk, then the Live Filesystem is mounted. This ram disk is what keeps some preferences from being permanently saved.

What do I need to install LinuxPPC-Live? You need an HFS drive. None of the current versions of LinuxPPC can recognize an HFX+ drive. It doesn't make a difference if you start the MacOS from an HFS+ partition, but all the LinuxPPC-Live files need to be on an HFS partition, or drive. Soory, but this won't fit on a regular ZIP cartridge.

Using your favorite FTP program, download everything from the LinuxPPC-Lite directory into a folder in the top level of your HFS drive.

Using Stuffit Expander, uncompress live.filesystem.gz and rename it live.filesystem. Do not decompress ramdisk.image.gz.

When finished, the Mac folder should look similar to the one on the right. To launch Linux, open the Boot LinuxPPC control panel and select Linux!

As Linux loads, white text whips by on a black screen. After that, you will have a grey desktop pattern and the cursor will turn into an X. Finally, after a little more disk activity, the produce desktop pattern appears, and KDE finishes loading.

The first thing you'll want to do select the forth icon from the left in the bottom left corner and speed the mouse up!

"KDE Settings" is like the Appearance Control panel on steroids! The number of options will quickly have Mac users drooling. Unfortunately, these are some oif the settings that won't survive across a restart. (If anyone finds a way to link these so they'll stay, please let me know.)

If you're truly adventurous, use the Kppp control panel to dial into the internet. You'll need a copy of all the ISP information stored in the Mac's TCP/IP and Remote Access control panels.

Linux prefers a three-button mouse, Steve Jobs likes his mice to have a single button. This means that the two other buttons are emulated with keystrokes under LinuxPPC.

Option-2 is mouse button 2 (not used to often)
Option-3 is mouse button 3 (used all the time)

If you enjoy playing around with Linux, and like me, think it may give you a head start on understanding MacOS X, then I would recommend ordering the LinuxPPC R4 CD ROM (or preorder the R5), repartition your hard disk, and perform a full install.

In my previous report, LinuxPPC on a Powerbook, there are more desktop pictures and links for more information on LinuxPPC.