[K12OSN] PowerMac G3 All in Ones

[Jim Kronebusch]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:18:22 -0400, Shane Sammons wrote
> Has anyone used the older PowerMac G3's that are encased in an all in one
> unit as Thin Clients? I searched the Wiki to no avail. I believe it can
> network boot. However, I had no luck in doing so. I have only been able to
> get GX1's booting from my test server.
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to push this project
> forward to make a Library free of OS X systems we could use elsewhere to
> make an entire second lab.
> 
> Thanks for any help
> --Shane

I was able to boot some 5500's via instructions I received from Chuck Liebow a few years
back.  I wasn't happy enough with the performance from them.  I think the same stuff
could be used with G3 all-in-one's but if I remember right there was trouble getting a
NIC that would work.  The built in NIC is 10MB which isn't really sufficient, and there
was only one or two add in NIC's that would work.  Here is a website that describes
configuring the nubus macs to work (ie 5500's)
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/solutions/champion_server/LTSP/
I really don't remember the particulars but I think the problem was definitely the NIC.  

What may be an easier solution is to find an old version of Yellow Dog Linux that would
load on these machines with a minimal install and configure to do an X -query
192.168.1.254 or something on startup.  This might be the easiest way to get all of the
hardware recognized (along with a 100MB add-in nic which would be crucial for good
performance) yet still be able to connect to the ltsp server.  With a 100MB nic those
machines should be great clients as they are the same specs as a Bondi iMac.  

If you can't get this to work, if you have any Bondi Blue iMacs (they actually look like
a crappy green) laying around these would be your best option as they have a new enough
firmware to support network booting and you can hardcode the firmware to boot right to
ltsp without any user interaction or local software.

Good luck.


-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by the Cotter Technology 
Department, and is believed to be clean.