Fedora Core on your Macintosh (Fedora PPC)

Why Fedora?

Your Macintosh

Things that will not work on your Mac however include: Airport Extreme, and sleep on the newer iBook/Powerbook laptops. (Update: sleep works in the Rawhide kernel and will work in FC4. There are also FC3 kernels available with sleep support -- see below.)

Macintosh G5

The G5 is a 64-bit CPU, and not supported by the standard 32-bit kernel. However, the kernel which is intended for IBM pSeries machines is also suitable for use on the G5. You just need to persuade it to boot, which can be a problem because the image in images/pseries/boot.iso isn't appropriately 'blessed' in the way that Mac boot images need to be. We're working on getting a G5 boot image built as part of Rawhide, and may produce an image for FC3 too. In the meantime, you need to boot yaboot, which is on the 32-bit boot.iso, and somehow persuade it to load and run the 64-bit vmlinuz and ramdisk.image.gz from the ppc/chrp/ directory of the install tree.

However, there was a bug in the PPC64 kernel at the time FC3 was released, which prevents its kernel from booting on the G5. The current FC3 erratum kernel does work again, but that makes it a little more complicated to get a boot.iso for it, because we have to regenerate the rest of the install tree to match. If you have a G5, you may be better off installing rawhide.

Update: This is no longer true. The tree at ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/fedora-ppc/fc3-ppc/ should work on the G5, as it is based on Fedora Core 3 including all the updates up to February 2005, and has a 64-bit boot.iso in its images/mac64/ directory.

Using Fedora Core 3

Keep in mind that the current tree is known not to have a boot.iso for the G5s. The tree is available at http://fedoraproject.org/fedorappc/FC-3/ and you need the items in the isos/ directory - the first four are binaries, while the remaining are SRPMS (sources). The os/ directory contains a full FedoraPPC tree as well. Installation works thru several methods:

• Since the CD isn't blessed, you can burn the boot.iso from os/images as well as CD1, then use linux askmethod. When it comes to choosing the install medium, you can choose Local CDROM, and insert Disc 1.
• You can also just mirror all the ISOs (first four), and export it via NFS, as per the method below. You do not need to mirror the tree, just get the 4 ISOs and follow Daniel Owen's guide on Installing Fedora using NFS.

Remember to test the tree well, and report any bugs to Bugzilla, under the powerpc platform. We do have a tracker bug: #121179, so add a bug as a blocker if you wish.

What you need to do

1. If you're actively tracking Rawhide (which is the development tree of Fedora), and are a developer or a wanting tester, there's no point getting the bootable ISOs that are currentlyreleased. However, if installing directly from Rawhide, it is worthy to note that mirroring the entire PPC tree to a local disk might be preferred during the install - if Rawhide does a push, it and you're syncing then, it might break your install! http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/development/ppc/ is where you go to - mirror this locally (you can skip the debug and SRPMS, for instance).
   A common command to rsync a tree would be: rsync -avP --delete --exclude=debug --exclude=SRPMS rsync://my.rsync.mirror .
2. Burn the boot.iso file from images/mac (or images/mac64 depending on your machine.)
3. If you want to dual-boot with OS X, make sure OS X is installed first, and you've left some free space for your install of Fedora. When you are installing OS X, click the Installer menu item, and go to the Disk Utility. I just split my 40GB disk into two, equally.
   
4. Setting up an NFS share on the machine where you mirrored the Fedora development RPMs are what you need to do next. This is done fairly simply, and a useful guide is one by Daniel Owen, titled Howto install Fedora Core over NFS.
5. Place the CDROM containing boot.iso into your Mac, then hold down the C key (so you boot from the CDROM drive).
   
6. Type linux, as it's the only yaboot option, then the Fedora Core install starts. If the graphical install fails to start the X server, you might need to restart and type linux text at this stage instead. There are known problem with the graphical setup on iMac DVs and some other machines which cause this.
7. You now need to find a driver for your NIC if the installer did not pick it up automatically - using the "sungem or BMAC" drivers generally work for eth0 (the wired Ethernet card), and then allow DHCP to provide network information (or provide it manually). To get the Airport working on machines that support it (like the iBook G3 or the older PowerBooks), you can use the "airport" modules (which load hermes and orinoco). Anaconda (the installer) has support for the input of an ESSID and a WEP key now as well.
8. NFS Setup screen pops up, and you need the NFS server name and the Fedora Core directory - fill those in appropriately.
9. Now, the Fedora Core installation actually starts - I choose a Workstation installation. This choice is up to you, of course.
10. When it comes to disk partitioning, make sure you use Disk Druid - the autopartitioning doesn't add the Apple Bootstrap partition (but it works otherwise). I created about 18GB for /, using an ext3 filesystem, and a 512MB partition for swap. The Apple Bootstrap partition is of size 1MB only - make sure its the first partition, even before your OS X partition(s). The types marked "Foreign" are OS X partitions (in my case, Apple HFS+). If you're using FC3, take careful note to which partition / is, and which is the bootstrap -- you'll be needing this information later for yaboot.
    
11. Network configuration is next, I've set it to use DHCP - this is also where you can add a hostname if required.
12. Firewall setup comes next, then language support, and the timezone selection. Choose a root password, and let the install continue! (this entails a bit of waiting till the packages are all installed)
13. If you're installing rawhide and you didn't have to boot with 'linux text' then your installation is complete. The installer will ask you to press the button to reboot -- do so, and your Mac should reboot into Fedora.
14. If you had to use text mode, or if you're installing the FC3 tree, then you have a little bit more to do. First break out into a shell -- this can be done via Ctrl+Alt+Fn+F2. Then run 'chroot /mnt/sysimage'
15. If you had to use a text install, then the X server will not be working after you reboot. Prevent the system from trying to start it by editing the file /etc/inittab file and changing the default runlevel to 3. You can do this by running 'nano /etc/inittab', and changing the line which reads 'id:5:initdefault' to read 'id:3:initdefault' instead. Alternatively, you might be able to install and use Xautoconfig (see below) or manually configure your X server -- but just turning it off for now is the easiest option, so you can play with configuring it properly on a live system.
16. If you're installing the rawhide tree, you're done. Switch back (Alt-F1 or Alt-F7) to the screen which is asking you if it's OK to reboot, and say OK. Or just reboot.
17. The FC3 installer doesn't know how to make the system bootable on Mac, so you need to do that for yourself. At this stage, you need to know which partition is your root file system, and which is the Apple Bootstrap partition. You can find the boot partition by using the parted utility; for example by running 'parted /dev/hda print'. Note the minor number of the partition with the boot flag set. You can also see which partition is the root file system by typing 'mount'.

Using /dev/hda (parted) print Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-28615.781 megabytes Disk label type: mac Minor Start End Filesystem Name Flags 1 0.000 0.031 Apple 2 0.031 0.058 Macintosh 3 0.059 0.085 Macintosh 4 0.086 0.113 Macintosh 5 0.113 0.140 Macintosh 6 0.141 0.390 Macintosh 7 0.391 0.640 Macintosh 8 0.641 0.890 Patch Partition 12 0.891 1.890 hfs untitled boot 10 128.891 9270.792 hfs Apple_HFS_Untitled_2 9 9270.793 27847.781 ext3 untitled 11 27847.781 28615.781 linux-swap swap swap Table 1: An example of the output from parted.

18. Then, run 'yabootconfig -r /dev/hda9 -b /dev/hda12 --kernel /boot/vmlinuz-* --initrd /boot/initrd-*', where -r is the root device, and -b is the boot device ON YOUR SYSTEM. The example in the table above would be /dev/hda9 and /dev/hda12 as shown here, but yours will probably be different.
19. Thats it. Exit, and reboot! You should now be able to boot into Fedora Core.

Fiddling with yaboot

1. You can now edit your /etc/yaboot.conf to add a few more "interesting" options:
• add macosx=/dev/hda3 (replace with your specific partition) so that Mac OS X can be booted
• add enablecdboot so that at the yaboot prompt, you can have booting from CDs as an option
2. Don't forget to run ybin when you've made your changes!

Getting X to work

Adding more interesting yum repositories

David Woodhouse provides the Fedora Core Updates, so a relatively useful yum.conf should look like:

[FC3]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - Release Tree
baseurl=http://fedoraproject.org/fedorappc/FC-3/os/Fedora/RPMS/

[fc3-updates-ppc]
name=FC3 PPC Updates
baseurl=ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/people/dwmw2/fc3-updates-ppc/

Keep in mind that the updates [fc3-updates-ppc] mean that you don't need to track Rawhide, if you've done the installation from the Fedoraproject site. This can provide a lot more stabler system for you, especially if you use your Mac often.

If you do wish to track Rawhide, something like this in your /etc/yum.conf will look about right (find your own local mirror though):

[development]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - Development Tree
baseurl=http://mirror.linux.duke.edu/fedora/pub/fedora/linux/core/development/$basearch/

There are also builds of Fedora Extras for PPC. The current status can be seen at http://peach.infradead.org/extras/, and build logs of failed packages are visible in case you feel like lending a hand. The binary packages are in another yum repository on ftp.uk.linux.org, but the noarch packages are not included -- you can get those from elsewhere. To include Fedora Extras, add something like this to your yum.conf:

[extras-ppc]
name=Fedora Extras PPC Tree
baseurl=ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/people/dwmw2/fc3-extras-ppc/

[extras-noarch]
name=Fedora Extras noarch packages
baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/3/i386/

For Free World items (ala http://rpm.livna.org/), there are builds at:

[livna-stable]
name=Livna.org Fedora Compatible Packages (stable)
baseurl=ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/fedora-ppc/fc3-livna/RPMS.stable

[livna-unstable]
name=Livna.org Fedora Compatible Packages (unstable)
baseurl=ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/fedora-ppc/fc3-livna/RPMS.unstable

[livna-testing]
name=Livna.org Fedora Compatible Packages (testing)
baseurl=ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/fedora-ppc/fc3-livna/RPMS.testing

Mouse

Modem

Sleep for the G4s

[dwmw2-kernels]
name=Fedora kernels for sleep
baseurl=ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/people/dwmw2/fc3-kernel-ppc/

Resources

• Fedora Core 2 on your Mac - The old guide, not much has changed, except thats now for FC-2, and this guide is current for Rawhide/FC-3.
• A known good working tree: http://fedoraproject.org/fedorappc/ (you could probably sync the latest Rawhide tree, but if somethings broken, you might not have a good impression :P)
• HOWTO-Booting with Yaboot on PowerPC
• fedora-ppc mailing list