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Charles Moore Reviews Yellow Dog Linux For PPC 2.2
Mac OS X is pretty cool, and OS X Jaguar, due for release in September, will be even cooler, but it is estimated that only about 1.5 million Mac users out of an installed base of roughly 25 million worldwide, are using X, and even Apple’s own rosiest projection is for 5 million by year end after Jaguar debuts. One reason for this slow adoption of OS X is simply that the legacy Mac OS is so satisfactory to many users, they don’t perceive any compelling reason to switch. However, another biggie is that if you have a Mac more than four to 4.5 years old, OS X does not support your hardware, (although a third party hack might get you X-ing with certain unsupported machines). Actually, I think the support cutoff for OS X at the 233 MHz G3 is quite sensible. The less than scintillating performance of X on my 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook does not incline me to think that I would be very happy running Apple’s new operating system on anything slower than a 233 MHz G3. The culprit is almost certainly that spectacular-looking, Aqua interface with its Quartz graphics engine. You don’t get anything for nothing, and OS X’s eye candy requires a lot of processing muscle. However, underneath Aqua in OS X beats the heart of BSD Unix, and Unix, while extremely robust, is not especially demanding of processor power. Which is why Linux, which is another branch of the Unix family tree, can offer both Unix power and stability, and decent performance, on older computers such as pre G3 Macs. What you don’t get with Linux, of course, is the Aqua interface, but you’re not stuck in command line hell with Linux either. The Linux solution is the window manager, a graphical user interface program that runs on top of the Linux core OS, which allows you to control the computer with a mouse, and to see what you’re doing represented as graphical images on the screen rather than by cryptic lines of code. Aqua of course it is a window manager too, but a much more ambitious and sophisticated one then anything yet developed for Linux, and with the highest degree of integration ever attempted with Unix and a GUI. Apple has arguably achieved the impressive feat of melding Unix power and stability with Macintosh user-friendliness. The Linux window managers, of which the most popular are KDE and Gnome, are getting more and more sophisticated all time, but are still more analogous to the way Windows 3.x was a window manager sitting atop DOS, than they are to the total GUI integration of Mac OS X. The advantage of this degree of separation is a lot less demand upon the computer’s processing power, but unfortunately substantially more demand on the user. 
But Linux will support a whole passel of older Macs that aren’t officially supported by OS X. Want to breathe new life into a PowerBook 3400 or a Power Mac 7200? Linux could be your ideal solution. With Mac on Linux, you can even run the legacy Mac OS X in emulation under Linux, similar to Classic mode in OS X. Linux is also cheap -- indeed free for the downloading, but buying a distribution package makes (a lot) more sense. Those graphical installers are well worth the tariff alone, and the distros come with hundreds -- even thousands -- of bundled applications that should nicely take care of most users’ needs without buying anything else. A very economical solution. So if you have an older Mac, or have some other reason to want to run Linux on a Mac, there are several alternatives available in Linux distributions for Power PC. One of these is Yellow Dog Linux 2.2, a PPC-only Linux distro, whose developer, Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., kindly sent me a copy to check out. 
Terra Soft describes YDL as a PowerPC Linux operating system that can be used by those of us who were never meant to be geeks. Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 is Terra Soft’s solution for the home user who desires to breathe life into old hardware, the business person who silently demands a Microsoft-free desktop, and the code developer’s or sys-admin’s dream come true. The YDL 2.2 package offers an array of highly customizable graphical environments; Internet, office, and multi-media applications; and all of the expected code development and server tools that have become the foundation for a traditional, stable, fast Linux box. Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 offers several of improvements over v2.1 with the most advanced, stable release of the 2.4 Linux kernel, improved support for the Apple ADC monitors, and accelerated video. The screen brightness and volume control buttons are now supported on NewWorld ROM Apple PowerBooks and iBook computers. And the latest releases of KDE and Gnome are included. YDL 2.2 Improvements over YDL 2.1 A few of the features are: With included Mac-On-Linux (MOL) you can: TerraSoft recommends that you have separate hard drives for YDL and the Mac OS respectively, but you can install both systems on the same hard drive by using partitions, which will require you to either erase and reformat the drive, or to use a non-destructive partitioning utility. You can use either IDE/ATA or SCSI drives, but USB and FireWire drives are currently unsupported as bootable drives by YDL. How many partitions you need depends on whether you have an Old World ROM or New World ROM Mac. With Old World ROM machines like my WallStreet PowerBook, you need at least three partitions. With New World ROM machines, you can get along with as few as two partitions. I’m a big fan of partitioning, and I already had six partitions on my WallStreet’s 10 GB drive; my 3 working Mac OS partitions, a small HFS Standard partition for the little Linux BootX bootloader utility, a Linux swap partition, and my main Linux partition on which SuSE Linux 7.3 was installed. However, the YDL installer won’t install over an existing installation, so it was first necessary for me to reformat the Linux partitions on the drive. Happily, the YDL installer has a slick little utility for doing this without erasing and reformatting the entire disk. I was able to reinitialize the Linux partitions on the drive while leaving the Mac OS HFS+ partitions untouched. But I’m a little ahead of myself here. On Old World ROM Macs, the first order of business is to install the BootX bootloader on the Mac OS partition so you can boot into Linux on the installation CD. With New World ROM units, this is unnecessary, and you can boot directly from the install CD. Once you’re booted into Linux, you need to perform some setup functions like choosing a default language, and the sort of installation protocol you intend to use. The default installer is recommended except in extraordinary cases. You must also select a keyboard type. You then proceed to the disk partitioning and formatting stage described previously, creating a Linux swap partition of 64-256 MB, and a Linux root partition in whatever space is left available. You also need a tiny and 10 MB partition for the bootloader. Next you select a software package to install from several available options. For most users, the Home/Office package is recommended, and it includes a bunch of productivity applications, the Gnome and KDE graphical interface window managers, and the XWindows GUI system, browsers, Mac on Linux, utilities, and games, etc.. The other packages are for users who have no need of reading this article. Once your package is selected, commence the install process and find something else to do for a while. The package install (Home/Office) took more than half an hour on my 233 MHz WallStreet PowerBook with its 20 X CD-ROM drive. Once the software is installed, there are a few more configurations to execute -- network setup if you are on one; time zone setting from a pull down menu; an account creation, selecting a password for your root user account at least one other user account and password. Next are monitor settings. You select the monitor that most closely approximates your hardware from a list; then resolutions and depth. Now, choose whether you prefer a text or graphical login, and you’re done with the installer. To boot into Linux, press the power button as usual. You will, after a few seconds, be presented with the BootX or yboot loader dialog, where you can select whether you want to boot into Linux or the Mac OS. After the system loads, you will be presented with the new login prompt where you enter the appropriate login name and password. If you have chosen a text login, as I did, you must also type a startx command to start up the KDE or Gnome window manager, which, if all goes well, will present you with a graphical user interface that you can navigate and control using mouse clicks. And here is where I ran into my first problem. Linux refused to start up a graphical user interface. Apparently it was unable to deal with the monitor settings I had chosen. I had specified PowerBooks G3 pre-1999, 800 x 600 resolution, and 16 bit color in the installer configuration dialog, but obviously that was not working. The YDL installer guide pamphlet advises that if the startx command fails, to revisit the monitor set up configuration tool by typing /usr/lib/yi/dexter.py and selecting a different monitor setting. This I did, nearly a dozen times, typing every possible combination of settings that remotely pertain to my 12.1 in., 800 x 600 display, but no joy. The installer pamphlet then advises that if repeated attempts to select a specific configuration fail, to return to the configuration tool and select “Fail Safe” mode. I finally resorted to this, and at least the KDE windows environment finally appeared, albeit in a very ugly 640 x 480 window occupying the left upper three-quarters or so of my 800 X 600 monitor. KDE functions fine in this mode, although the screen real-estate is scrunched, and it would be unsatisfactory for regular use. At this writing, the problem remains unresolved. Since I had the same difficulty with SuSE Linux, it appears that there may be a support incompatibility with the 12.1 in. monitor on the WallStreet, which is a somewhat oddball hardware configuration. I presume that this is not a problematical issue in most installations. I also tried to boot into Mac on Linux, and I persuaded it to accept a 70 Hz 800 x 600 setting, but it then kept coming up with failure messages complaining that there was no new world ROM on the machine. I gave up. If I had the time to continue experimenting and troubleshooting and hanging out on tech support message boards and email lists, it’s possible that the workaround could be found to these problems, and if you’re determined to run Linux, and encounter such difficulties, that’s what I recommend. Links on the YDL Website. Personally, I have limited spare time, and my hands are full getting up to speed with OS X. As for YDL vs SuSE, in terms of package content, SuSE a Linux 7.3 for PPC at $79.95 is lavish distribution, coming in a glossy and attractive shrink wrap box with eight CDs full of some 2000 model applications, and two substantial bound print manuals of the sort we rarely see these days with software. The standard release of YDL, on the other hand, comes in a modest plastic case containing just two CDs (with an advertised 1000 or so bundled software titles), and only a small, 14 page, stapled paper installer guide pamphlet for documentation. However, an $80 YDL package with an Installation Guide and a copy of the “Getting Started with Yellow Dog Linux” book is also available. 
I would have to rate the YDL installer as more intuitive and user-friendly, and while the standard documentation is very scanty, it is well-written and to the point, and told me everything I needed to know about how to get it YDL installed, and is backed up with online resources. However, I was able to get SuSE installed without much difficulty there. I would say that the choice between the two really boils down to the mind-boggling selection of software that comes with SuSE Linux. For most users, the basic Home/Office software package in either distribution will be more than adequate, and some people never bother with manuals anyway. Which brings into another point. For someone who has absolutely no experience with command line applications, such as presumably a large percentage of potential buyers of Linux distributions for the Macintosh, the documentation provided is hopeless. Even the 661 pages of manuals that come with SuSE Linux. The bundled documentation does a reasonably good job in both cases of helping you to install Linux, but it does virtually nothing to help you out in proceeding further than that. What is sorely needed is a simple, elementary, plain-English, and dumbed down user manual to inform newbie users on how to actually do some work in Linux. Perhaps that “Getting Started with Yellow Dog Linux” book fills the bill, but I haven’t seen it. I should also mention that TerraSoft also will sell you a 30GB or larger ATA 100 IDE drive with YDL preinstalled (see Appendix) I’m giving Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 an Applelinks 3-A rating out of 5.
However, if your Mac will support Mac OS X, and you don't have any specialized needs that require Linux support, I find it difficult to make a strong case for Linux as a desktop system. Apple’s implementation is so much more user-friendly and, again, elegant. For more information, visit: Appendix - YDL Bundled Software, Prices, and Configuration Packages
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