Fedora 5 {test,development} on G5?

[Chasecreek Systemhouse]

On 2/1/06, Peter Seebach <seebs at plethora.net> wrote:
> Hi!  I have been told that I must make a very fast PPC system run Linux, as
> soon as possible.

Speed?  As in a fast build or "fast/quick" operation?  I built my iMac
350MHz system in 3 hours - but once installed it performs quite well.

> The obvious candidate would be Fedora 5 test releases, since the quad G5
> doesn't work with much older stuff.

FC5Test2 is very nice once it is installed.

> With FC5 test2, I had no joy even booting all the way.
>
> With FC5 "development", I got a bootable CD (yay!), then spent a day
> downloading RPMs.  At the end of this, I tried to run the install.  I
> pointed the installer at the Fedora/ppc64 (I am a ppc64, yes?) directory

Actually, the G5 processor is 128-bits but ... The Linux "G5" can run
the PPC32 branch at the very least -- it probably should run PPC64 but
why choose 64 bits?  The G5 will perform under PPC32 quite well for a
production system -- 64 bits (while others may argue otherwise) is
mainly for very high end database applications.


> on the machine I did the downloads on, and it said it was fetching
> "Fedora/base/stage2.img".  Then it announced that these files did not match
> my boot media.

The Rescue CD is PPC64 -- try starting the installer off that.

> 1.  Am I even barking up the right tree?  Do quad G5's run Linux?  Do they
> run Fedora in particular?  Are test/development releases the way to go?
> 2.  Assuming it might be productive for me to install a test release, is
> there some obvious pilot error in trying to boot from the boot.iso image
> and load the files from .../development/ppc64?

Don't know per se; why not try the PPC32 Rawhide branch
Historically the PPC64 is for the PPC9xx series of (AIX-related)
PowerPC processors (but I could be wrong about that so YMMV.)

Personally, I would try the FC5T2 PPC32 branch before surrendering.

Lastly, if Apple is listening -- I have not had the honor of sitting
in front of a Quad G5 (if Apple is listening I do have the time to
test such a beast -- hint hint  ;)

--
WC -Sx- Jones | http://ccsh.us/ | Open Source Consulting