My copy of Yellow Dog Linux arrived last week so I blocked away some time over the weekend to get it installed on the family G4. I wound up doing the install three times but each time through I got a better feel for what I should and shouldn't be doing. YDL can be downloaded for free but I chose to purchase it in the Geek Edition (no manual, no support) for $25.00 plus few bucks of freight. I can only relate my particular experience, others may have varying results.

First things first, here's the scoop on our Quicksilver. It's a 2002 model 800 mhz single processor with 768mb installed ram, factory installed 40gb hardrive and a third party 80gb hardrive, also has a third party 4-port USB 2.0 card. Has three external drives: 100mb USB Zip, 30gb USB hardrive and 8gb scsi drive formatted for Linux and connected to the G4 with a scsi-to-Firewire converter. Other peripherals: Umax 1220u scanner and Epson 740 printer - both attached via USB, JBL Creature speakers for external sound. Current operating systems are OS X 10.2.6 and 9.2.2 each on separate partitions of the 40gb drive.

While waiting for YDL to arrive I explored the support section of their homepage and printed some helpful yet confusing documents to use as reference when it came time to do the install. Here's the main support page. Yikes! I just saw they have a new alert posted that says installing the 10.2.8 update will cause YDL to fail to boot! I don't know if this applies to the first version of 10.2.8 or the second or both, grrrrrr... I do know that I'll need to apply the 10.2.8 update later this week so I'll take my chances and hopefully there will be a fix posted later on, but I digress. A few links to support documents are posted below along with my experience (or lack thereof) for each.

A Companion to Installing Yellow Dog Linux 3.0
Download the printable PDF from the linked page, it is helpful but bounces back and forth between install methods for Old World and New World ROM issues/tips.

Dual-Drive Bug
Good info to have but this issue didn't cause any problems for me. I had some hang ups with the instructions during the first install, decided to let it ride and the bug didn't show up. This article provides a little more background.

That's enough background, time to install YDL!

I. Drive Preparation
I went against the instructions on this part by using the second drive in the ATA chain for installing YDL rather than the first - worked great. Using Apple's Disk Utility I partitioned the 80gb drive in two parts: 66gb as HFS+ for backing up files and folders from the 40gb drive, the second was 10.5gb formatted as Ext2 to use as the destination disk for YDL.

II. Configure YDL
Once done with the partitioning I rebooted with Install Disk 1 in the drive and set up the configuration of YDL, I used the gui installer rather than text. The first few steps are easy cake: language, mouse and keyboard.

Even though the drive was prepped in Mac OS the Linux partition has to be formatted during the config process to include Apple Boot Strap and File System Type partitions plus I needed to tell the installer where my Mac OS X (/dev/hda9) and OS 9 (/dev/hda10) partitions were located and to use Mac OS X as the default boot environment.

I chose to install the Personal Desktop package, other choices are Workstation, Server and an option for everything.

Make sure you have your internet/network settings for entering the info manually. I had mine but didn't see the edit button at the top of the screen until the third install. I used a different static IP address than what I have Mac OS using on the hope that I'll be able to telnet into YDL from MacOS for file sharing - I could be dead wrong (and probably am) but that's for another day...

Now it's time to create a root password and an account. Easy stuff :)

The last few things to configure are graphics card, monitor and screen color/resolution. YDL found the ATI Radeon 7500 and Lacie 19" Electron Blue easy enough. On the first install I opted to try a different color depth and resolution than what was recommended, bad choice - the screen was garbage and completely unusable.

III. Install YDL
Grab a drink a wait for the three install cds do their thing.

IV. First Boot
The third install cd pops out and the system reboots. When configuring the install I told it to use Mac OS X as the default boot environment which it will do after a brief pause on a text based screen where you can choose the environment to boot into by typing one letter. Again I chose a graphical log-in that requires a username and password.

l is Yellow Dog Linux
x is Mac OS X
m is Mac OS 9
c is CD Rom

Once booted into YDL it goes through a bit of a post config process, if you can turn your speakers down before this starts you won't be blasted out of your chair like I was during the sound test. Shockingly loud, yet good and fun!

V. Exploring YDL
I've only scratched the surface here: played with icon and window themes, created a directory, loaded ResEx in Mozilla. I still have to figure out where Mac On Linux is at in the hierarchy, this is an app that allows one to boot Mac OS X or OS 9 from within YDL. If you choose to play around with YDL it's not really too much to bite into as far as the install goes and you get the warm fuzzy feeling of trying something new.

Update Notes 10-14-2003
The good news is the Mac OS 10.2.8 update didn't break YDL, it did however break my Mac OS ethernet connection but that's another story...

It has became very apparent that YDL is probably a lot easier to work with if one has a multi-button mouse, I haven't been able to figure out how to pull up contextual menus with the one-button variety.

Other things I need to learn are how to open the CD tray while in YDL and how to mount my zip drive and other external drives. Haven't tried printing or scanning yet though I would imagine I need install drivers before attempting those tasks. A couple of friendly readers sent me tips for configuring Mac on Linux so that will be my next report here in the Icebox.

The best thing I could do to gain more insight is start reading the forums at YDL, that's how I cut my Mac OS teeth - cruising the forums at Apple.