Linux for old Mac?

gollum84

gollum84

goonies never say die
I need to know which Linux distro would be best for my old PowerMac 7300?

It has OS 8.5.1 on it now with 288MB RAM, PowerPC 604e 200MHz processor and a 2GB hard drive.
 
I would give Yellow Dog a shot, it seems to have the best PPC support with older hardware.
 
You'll need to get a hold of an older Yellow Dog release, since the newest release requires a "New World ROM" Macintosh to boot the install CD/DVD, which the older beige machines are not. There are hacks to get around this, but they're a little cumbersome.

YellowDog 3.0.1 was the last release to support old-world ROM Macintosh machines, I believe.
 
So I should get Yellowdog 3.0.1 and burn the .iso to a cd. Do I need to erase the hard drive first, or just put in the cd, reboot and hold down the "c key" to boot from the Yellowdog disc.
 
You can simply boot from the install CD (yep, burn the .iso to a CD) and you'll have the option of reformatting the drive from there to a partition map more suitable for Linux.
 
Where can I pick up a larger hard drive for the 7300? It has a SCSI bus so I can't use an IDE drive. I partitioned the drive but there wasn't enough space for Yellow Dog to install.
 
eBay is pretty much your best bet for the 50-pin SCSI drives that the 7300 uses. They come in 1, 2, 4, 9 and 18GB sizes -- be wary of "adapted" drives, though as I've had trouble with them in the past... try to get a true 50-pin drive, and not a 68-pin drive that's been "adapted" to 50-pins.
 
or you could get an ide pci card and put any new ide drive on it. thats what i did for my 7500, so that i could install os x on it. just make sure that the card is mac compatible.
 
Thanks for the advice. I just bought a 50-pin drive on eBay. Hopefully I'll have the old Mac up and running later this week.
 
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