last modified 10.29.98  
see
http://www.molsci.org/~dendy/
g3pblinux.html
for any updates to this
and for an easier to read version

NOTE 
This page details how I got LinuxPPC 
up and running on a 
G3 powerbook (233MHz, 512k lvl2 
cache, 2GB drive, 14.1' screen,
32MB ram).  

Neither a floppy or zip drive were 
required for the installation.
All you should need is a powerbook 
and an ethernet connection.
Serious thanks go to Mike Nidel 
(man146@psu.edu) for sending me
the instructions I used during my 
installation and which form the basis
of this guide.  You may want to read 
through this first before 
actually doing things.

I've tried to remember all the esoteria 
of the install procedure but
even after a couple hours things have 
faded... so you may have to 
figure out some stuff as you go along 
(i.e., this is not idiot-proof).

I started the install with my hard drive 
partitioned into a 1.2GB
MacOS partition (HFS+) and a 0.8GB 
HFS partition (this is where linux
went).  My machine is/was still 
running MacOS 8.1.  I've heard
there are some partition issues with 
MacOS 8.5 but I've not followed
up on them yet.



STEP 1 
Get the following three files in 
BINARY form from...

BootX 1.0b5 (or a more recent version)
http://calvaweb.calvacom.fr/bh40
 
vmlinux (this is the 2.1.125 kernel)
ramdisk.image.gz
ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/linux-pmac/
v2.1.125

NOTE: BootX 1.0b5 apparently 
REQUIRES using the 2.1.125 kernel

STEP 2
Put the BootX App in the control 
panels folder of your MacOS system 
folder.
Put the BootX Extension in the 
extensions folder of your (as above).
Put vmlinux and ramdisk.image.gz in 
your system folder (not in a subfolder).

STEP 3
Find a source of RedHat files (aka 
.rpm files)
I (and Mike) used the link below but 
you should find whichever link
is fast for you.

sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/linux/
linuxppc/linuxppc-R4

There are many others... try looking on 
the LinuxPPC page.

You don't need to get any of these files 
right now... the installer will
handle that for you.  Just find a source 
of files and make sure you can 
connect to it using Fetch or something.

STEP 4:  Installation
Set aside a couple hours (depending on 
the speed of your net connection).
Boot your powerbook into MacOS.
Open up the BootX App control panel
Leave the kernel argument field blank 
(for now)
Check the 'use ram disk' box
Check the 'no video driver' box (if no 
display comes up later you can 
  try entering "video=
atyfb:vmode:16,cmode:32" in the 
kernel argument field
  ONLY if your machine has ATI 
graphics hardware for example... i 
didn't have any
  luck with this.  NOTE: if you do this 
the vmode and cmode resolution 
  should agree with those you are using 
in MacOS)
Click on the Linux button 
The RedHat Installer should come up.
Follow all the easy prompts (grin).
When you get to the prompt asking 
about partitions on the disk
  use pdisk (provided in the installer) 
and create your partitions.
  use the P command to list the 
partitions, d to delete, and n to create.
  i created a 600MB /usr partition, a 
50MB swap partition, and a 150MB /
  partition (note: when inputing the 
partition names I had to put single 
  quotes around the partitions with a 
slash in their name, i.e., /usr was 
  entered as '/usr', root was entered as 
'/', and swap was entered simply 
  as swap).  
When it asks you what type of install to 
use choose FTP and enter the 
  information required (using the 
source of the RedHat files you 
  choose above).  Note: you'll also need 
to enter the TCP/IP info for your 
  machine.
The installer will ask you what 
packages you want.  Choose whatever 
you 
  desire/need.  My install ended up 
taking ~350MB of disk space.
The installer should start getting the 
files via FTP and doing the install.
  It took me ~1 hour to do this step.  I 
had to hit a 'yes' button twice 
  b/c of link troubles or missing files.
I don't remember running into 
problems at this point.  The 
installation 
  should finish up and you'll end up in 
MacOS again.  To get into Linux 
  either use the BootX App control 
panel from MacOS or reboot.  You'll 
need 
  to change the kernel argument field 
to...

ata/@0:0/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/
hda#    where # is the partition 
number of 
  your / (root) directory.

Also uncheck the 'use ramdisk' box (the 
installer will boot again otherwise)
I left the 'no video drive' box checked

Hopefully this helps and good luck.  
Feel free to contact me if you have 
 questions although I'm far from 
competent to answer them.

Attached below is the original email I 
got from Mike Nidel (thanks again 
Mike) that may prove to be of some 
use to you.

Subject: Re: pbg3 linux install 
question(s)?
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 98 14:53:40 -0000
x-sender: man146@email.psu.edu
From: mike nidel 
To: "Drew Endy" 
Mime-Version: 1.0

Don't worry about being a newbie, I'm 
not much less of one myself.
You can't use OF because, well... 
basically i don't KNOW why. but
i've never gotten it to work, even 
though linux works fine from
bootX (if you don't know what bootx is 
i'll get to that).
since i don't know how much you 
know, i'll tell you everything
i can think of for completeness' sake, 
so if it seems like i'm
being condescending, that's untrue


Basically this is what I recommend:

first: get the following files:

http://calvaweb.calvacom.fr/bh40
 get BootX 1.0b5

ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/linux-pmac/
v2.1.125
 get vmlinux and ramdisk.image.gz

make sure you get the kernel (vmlinux) 
and
ramdisk in BINARY mode (as opposed 
to TEXT).

now, assuming you have ethernet and 
you HAVEN'T already
downloaded the packages for Redhat. 
(if either of those is
not true, stop here and email me back):

first you'll need to get a path for the 
RedHat directory on
one of the ftp.linuxppc.org mirror 
sites. you can use the
main site itself but it's insufferably 
slow in my experience.
I used sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/
linux/linuxppc/linuxppc-R4
i think. even though it's in switzerland 
it was much faster than
linuxppc.org. best way to get one is 
find the linuxppc mirror of your
choice, ftp anonymously to it, and find 
the directory path which
CONTAINS the RedHat directory. 
write this down (mine may be wrong,
if you want to use it, check it in MacOS 
before you try to install).

put the BootX App in the control 
panels folder and the Bootx
Extension in the extensions folder. 
(both of these are optional;
you can run the bootX app from 
anywhere you want and you don't
need the extension unless you want to 
be able to get into linux
without booting all your MacOS 
extensions first)
In addition, put vmlinux and 
ramdisk.image.gz in your system
folder (not extensions or control 
panels).

When you're ready to install 
everything, set aside about 2 hours
(depending on the speed of your 
connection). Open up the bootX
App (from apple menu->control 
panels if you put it there). leave
the kernel arguments blank and check 
"use ram disk". You probably
should also check "no video driver". If 
you don't get any video
display, try rebooting, running bootX, 
and putting
"video=atyfb:vmode:16,cmode:32"
this corresponds to 1024X768 and 
millions of colors in macOS. if
you are NOT using those settings or 
can't get 1024X768 in MacOS,
try using "video=
atyfb:vmode:10,cmode:16"
(cmode:16 corresponds to 16-bit or 
thousands of colors; use 8
or 32 if you are in 256 or millions of 
colors mode, respectively)

NOW: if nothing works and you can't 
get video from bootx, boot
into MacOS and email me (there 
shouldn't be any disk problems with
rebooting since you are working from 
a ramdisk)

assuming everything is OK:

you will get the RedHat installer. 
follow all the easy prompts,
make sure to change your designated 
linux partitions from HFS
to AUX using pdisk: you'll get a 
prompt for this from the installer,
tell it you want to edit the partition 
table. it's pretty easy,
just use "P" to list partitions, "d" to 
delete the MacOS partitions you
want to move to linux, and use "n" to 
make a new partition in place
of the old one. if you screw it up, use 
"q" to quit without saving.
take note of the partition number of 
the partition you'll be using
for the root directory.

when it asks what type of install (CD, 
hard disk, FTP, or one other
that i forget) you want, choose FTP. 
this will only work if you have
ethernet from what i understand.

at some point it will ask you for the 
packages you wish to install.
i don't have any recommendations, it's 
pretty much up to you, but
if you decide to pick and choose all the 
components by hand, be
careful, it's tedious. the installer will 
take care of any
dependencies by prompting you if you 
try to install something without
also installing something else it needs.

now it will prompt you for the server 
and path to use for the download.
use the one you found above, or the 
one i gave you if it worked.
it may give you an error if you don't 
give it the valid path to the
RedHat directory. Eventually, it 
should start getting all the files.
Once this is done, you are "ready."

take note of your hard disk partition 
designations. they should be
hdXY for atapi or sdXY for scsi, where 
X is a letter (beginning with
'a') designating the device ordering 
and Y is a number specifying the
partition of the device.

so for example, the PB G3 uses an 
atapi hard disk, so if you install
on the internal you will use hdaY. use 
the partition number for the
root partition you got in pdisk for Y.

the machine should reboot into 
macOS.
if you want to try out linux right away, 
open bootX.
uncheck "use ramdisk". you only want 
this to run the installer.
also uncheck "no video driver"

now use the kernel argument:
ata/@0:0/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/
hdaY video=atyfb:vmode:V,cmode:C

where Y is the partition number of the 
root partition, V is the
vmode from above (16 for 1024X768, 
probably 10 or 12 otherwise),
and C is the bit depth from above.

this assumes that you have an ATI 
graphics accelerator ("atyfb")
if not, you should probably find out 
what kind you DO have or
just use "no video driver".
it seems to be the only setting that 
works for me now, whereas
before i could only get video WITH the 
video driver set. if you
still don't get any video, try logging in 
blindly as root (use
your imagination) and type the 
command reboot -n
if that doesn't work, try /sbin/reboot -
n (i know that's a lot
to type when you can't see what you're 
typing...)
this should result in a beep followed by 
a shutdown (and sometimes
a reboot) about fifteen seconds later or 
so. (the power system
seems buggy; it doesn't always reboot 
when you tell it to, sometimes
it just shuts down instead. if this 
happens, use ctrl-apple-power
to reboot once the screen goes REALLY 
black, or use shift-fn-ctrl-power
to turn it off for real. linux never really 
shuts down your powerbook
either.)
if you get no video but you CAN reboot 
from the blind console, then
your install obviously worked... email 
me and we'll work out the
video bugs.

make sure and save to prefs in bootX 
when you get a setup that works so
you don't have to retype it.

what else...?
i don't know. i'll let you try this and see 
if you have some luck.

i know the sheer volume of this 
message may brand me in your mind 
as
a guru. i suggest you divest yourself of 
this notion at once. i only
know all this stuff because i screwed it 
up so much before getting
it right.

good luck.

mike nidel


"Even though there might never have 
been a sincere friend, still pure 
sincerity in friendship is nonetheless 
required of every man..."

Immanuel Kant