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355Chapter 12Running Yellow Dog Linuxthe effects are lessened with the PowerPC platform because all hardware is generallycreated to Apple s exacting standards. Terra Soft Solutions focus on Apple hardwareand generally fewer variations in hardware add up to support being much faster forthe PowerPC platform. One of the great things about Yellow Dog Linux is that as you dig into it (no punintended), you discover that some of the hardware compatibility issues faced bythe X86 Linux crowd (such as with Winmodems, the plethora of hardware configu- ration options, and so forth) are minimized or eliminated. With Terra Soft Solutions, a fully authorized Apple Value Added Reseller, you are assured that the hardwareyou are using will be supported. There are some notable hardware support differ- ences with the release of YDL 4.0, but the fully capable 3.0.1 version covers anygaps of the 4.0 product. In addition to being able to install Yellow Dog Linux on your own Apple hardware, you can purchase Apple hardware from Terra Soft Solutions with Yellow Dog Linuxpreinstalled. Terra Soft Solutions has developed official lists of hardware configurations that havebeen specifically tested with Yellow Dog Linux (http://yellowdoglinux.com/ support/hardware/breakdown/index.php). The Yellow Dog 4.0 list includes: .Power Mac G3 (Yosemite Blue and White 300 450 MHz G3) .Power Mac G4 (Power Mac G4 PCI 350 400 MHz G4 and above) .Power Mac G5 (1.6 GHz G5 and above) .iMac (Rev A,B 233 MHz G3) .PowerBook (Lombard 333 400 MHz G3, Pismo 400 500 MHz FW G3, Titanium400 MHz 1 GHz G4, Powerbook 12″ 867 MHz 1.33 GHz, and Powerbook 15 17″ 1.0 1.5 GHz G4) .iBook (300 366 MHz G3 800 MHz 1.2 GHz G4) .HPC (Xserver Cluster Node 1.33 MHz G4, Single/Dual 1.33 GHz G4, ClusterNode 2.0 GHz G5, and Single/Dual 2.0 GHz G5) Most notably missing from Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 supported hardware is Old WorldROM or beige G3 and below hardware such as 8500s, 7200s, and Performa PowerPCs. YDL 3.0.1 supports this hardware and most of the hardware currently supported byYellow Dog Linux 4.0. The hardware supported and tested for Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1includes: .Power Mac 4400 9600 .Power Mac beige G3 models and blue-and-white G3 models .Most hardware supported by Yellow Dog Linux 4.019_

354Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionInstalling Yellow Dog LinuxBefore you can install Yellow Dog Linux, you need to get a copy of it from some ofthe many resources available. The first and most recommended avenue is to pur- chase it from the vendor. This has the dual effect of your acquiring the distributionfrom the source as well as supporting the company that creates Yellow Dog Linuxso it can continue development for the PowerPC platform. To purchase Yellow Dog Linux from Terra Soft Solutions, visit the Terra Soft SolutionsWeb store at http://terrasoftsolutions.com/store/. When purchasing fromTerra Soft Solutions, you receive the following in a box set: .Four install CDs and four source CDs. .Getting Started with Yellow Dog Linux,a book that covers all the information abeginning Linux user would need to know to get a fully operational Yellow DogLinux system running. .Optional 60 days of installation support (you can purchase the box set with orwithout support, depending on your needs and skill level with Linux). .Other goodies (sticker, flexible flier depending on package purchased). .The knowledge that you are supporting the company that created the product, allowing further development. Alternatives to purchasing the Yellow Dog Linux box set include: .Purchasing a subscription to YDL.net.This is Terra Soft Solutions onlineresource for Yellow Dog Linux users. You can get e-mail accounts and Webspace as well as prerelease access to the latest version of Yellow Dog Linuxbefore it is available for general release. The costs vary depending on whichversion you choose. More information is available at http://www.ydl.net/. .Downloading and creating your ownISO.You can download the distributionfrom one of the many Linux mirrors as identified at http://yellowdoglinux. com/resources/ftp_mirrors.shtmland burn your own ISO. .Purchasing online.If you have a slow Internet connection and want to tryYellow Dog, you can purchase burned CDs from various Linux stores on theInternet. Use your favorite search engine to locate one near you. Hardware SupportHardware support with the Linux operating system was a major issue in the past, but as Linux s popularity has grown, many device makers have provided access totheir hardware drivers or in some cases have created hardware drives for Linux. While this is still an issue with hardware that is brand new in the X86 community,

353Chapter 12Running Yellow Dog LinuxDigging into Yellow DogYellow Dog Linux offers a Fedora Core 2, RPM-based distribution that is highly compatible with most available open source software. By basing the Yellow Dog distribution on a widely deployed and used X86 distribution such as Red Hat sFedora Core, Terra Soft Solutions has been able to quickly deploy a very uniform, user-friendly experience for its user base. This section takes a look at some of thehighlights of the Yellow Dog distribution. Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 offers four full CDs of software with some of the followingapplications: .2.6.7 Linux Kernel .X.org 6.6 .KDE 3.3 desktop (unified with GNOME to provide easy access to other desk- top environments programs) .GNOME 2.6.0 desktop (unified with KDE to provide easy access to other desk- top environments programs) .OpenOffice 1.1.1 (suite of productivity tools including a spreadsheet program, drawing program, presentation software, and a full-featured, Microsoft Word- compatible word processor) .More than 1,300 other application packages from programming tools to Webbrowsers. The wide range of applications included on the Yellow Dog CDs is enough to keepeven the most computer-savvy person happy, but many more choices are availableon the Internet, so you should be able to find an application that fits your needs. Fedora Core is the community-supported version of what was previously the ubiq- uitous Red Hat Linux distribution. As a derivative of Fedora Core, Yellow Dog Linuxcan offer the advantages of Fedora features on a MAC platform, including: .Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) software.Starting with software packagesfrom the Fedora project helps Yellow Dog Linux avoid compatibility problemssuffered by some Linux distributions. Users can also rely on well-known RPMpackaging tools for adding, removing, and managing software. .Anaconda installer.Yellow Dog takes advantage of the well-tested Anacondainstaller for easy installation. .Kudzu hardware detection.By starting with the Fedora Core kudzu facilityfor detecting and configuring hardware, Yellow Dog has a stable foundationfor probing equipment that has been extended to work with Mac hardware. Refer to Chapter 8 for more information on the Fedora Core project and some ofthe specifics regarding its implementation. Cross- Reference19_

352Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionWhile some of the more popular open source programs are available for Mac OS X, they may require a port of the software, as opposed to a recompile. Porting appli- cations is a more complicated process and can be very frustrating for many users. Porting is outside the sphere of this book. .Extended hardware life Linux is well known for its low operation require- ments. You can use Yellow Dog Linux on machines that aren t necessarily supported by the latest Mac OS X version and still run the latest Linux applications. .Uniformity Linux is widely deployed, especially for back-office functions. By using Yellow Dog Linux (often referred to as YDL), you can mix PowerPChardware with Intel hardware in the same production environment, with appli- cation and operating system uniformity, reducing costs associated with thesupport of two different operating systems. Because Linux is open source andwidely available, you also reduce your dependence on one entity for youroperating systems. .Security Yellow Dog Linux has the support of thousands of programmerswho constantly develop patches and updates for software, as opposed todepending on a commercial entity to release patches. .Ease of administration/use Linux (and particularly Fedora Core, on whichYellow Dog Linux is based) is so widely deployed, with more installations occur- ring every day, that it s understood and managed by a large user/administratorgroup. Using a standard interface, it s often easier for system administratorsand users to complete tasks on a familiar system. .Mac-on-Linux Mac-on-Linux software enables you to run Mac OS X(10.1-10.3.3), Mac OS 7.5.2-9.2.2, or another instance of Linux within youractive Yellow Dog Linux session, so you get the best of both worlds. A few different versions of Yellow Dog Linux are available that cover a wide spec- trum of current and legacy PowerPC hardware: .Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 Terra Soft Solutions has released version 4.0, whichisaimed at the desktop users who have hardware starting from G3 Blue andWhite (300 450 MHz) all the way to the dual G5 Power Mac Towers. This is the32-bit version of its distribution. .Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 The prior version (October 1, 2004, and before) ofYellow Dog, which supports the beige G3 hardware (66 MHz) and below productline (Old World ROM) as well as most of the same hardware that Yellow DogLinux 4.0 supports. .Y-HPC A planned variation of Yellow Dog based on the 64-bit Fedora Coreversion of Linux. This version is for high-performance computing and promisesto offer high-performance support for Xserve G5s or cluster nodes. This iscurrently not available as a standalone product, but Terra Soft Solutions willpreload it on hardware purchased through the company. Note19_

Running YellowDog LinuxYellow Dog Linux is the premier Linux distribution forthePowerPC platform. Offered by Terra Soft Solutions(www.terrasoftsolutions.com), Yellow Dog Linux providesunparalleled concentration on the needs of the PowerPC users. Because most Linux distributions focus on the Intel/AMD (x86) platform, it s sometimes startling to realize that there s a majorLinux distribution, with a passionate community of its own, providing a strong presence in the world of PowerPCs. Yellow Dog Linux is not included on the Linux Bible DVDthat comes with this book. You can purchase it from TerraSoft Solutions (www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store) or download the four-CD installation set from a Yellow DogLinux mirror site (for a list of mirror sites, see: http:// yellowdoglinux.com/resources/ftp_mirrors. shtml). See Appendix A for information on burning CDs. Terra Soft Solutions has focused its efforts on making YellowDog Linux work for a wide range of Apple products, resultingin less chance of hardware incompatibilities. This is one of thedistribution s strengths. Another heartening note is that TerraSoft Solutions is an Apple Authorized OEM Value Added Resellerwith permission from Apple to install Linux on Apple hard- ware, retaining any hardware warranties provided by Apple. Mac OS X, in the form of Aqua, is considered one of the mostadvanced graphical user interfaces on the market today. Witha sophisticated interface available on the Apple platform, auser might question putting Linux on Apple hardware, butthere are many valid reasons to install Linux on the PowerPCarchitecture, including: .Cost of applications Commercial applications usuallyhave a higher price of ownership than their open sourcecounterparts for similar functionality. For instance, thelatest word processor on the Mac OS X platform can costhundreds of dollars, whereas the open source alternativesare generally free. The free software available for Linuxfar exceeds that available for the Mac OS X platform. On theDVD-ROM1212CHAPTER …In This ChapterDigging into YellowDog LinuxInstalling YellowDogLinuxRunning Mac-on-Linux …

349Chapter 11Running KNOPPIX4.At the boot prompt, type one of the following command lines, which are differ- ent ways to load your configuration files: boot: knoppix floppyconfigboot: knoppix myconf=/dev/hda1boot: knoppix myconf=/dev/sda1boot: knoppix myconf=scanThese KNOPPIX boot commands, respectively, get configuration informationfrom the floppy disk, look for that information on the first IDE drive partition(/dev/hda1), look for it on the first SCSI drive partition (/dev/sda1), or scanall available drives to find the information. To boot to a persistent desktop(assuming you set one up earlier), you could instead type: boot: knoppix home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.imgboot: knoppix home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.imgboot: knoppix home=scanThe previous boot commands, respectively, assign the KNOPPIX home direc- tory (/home/knoppix) to the /dev/hda1/knoppix.imgfile, to the /dev/sda1/ knoppix.imgfile, or to the image file found by scanning all available directo- ries for that file. You could also combine one from each of the two precedingcommand sets to both read your configuration files and assign a persistentdesktop, as follows: boot: knoppix floppyconfig home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.imgNow you are ready to continue your KNOPPIX session where you left off last time, with the same configuration and data files available. SummaryKNOPPIX offers what many feel is the best bootable Linux today. It gives you afullyconfigured Linux desktop system available virtually anywhere you can findabootable PC. Besides its desktop features, KNOPPIX contains software needed to use manyserver, programming, and troubleshooting features of Linux as well. Despite thefactthat KNOPPIX runs as a bootable system in RAM, by default, there are waystoconfigure it to save data and configuration information across multiple boot sessions. KNOPPIX is particularly valuable as a tool for accessing a damaged computer sothat you can troubleshoot it. With a KNOPPIX disk booted on a computer that wasinstalled to use Microsoft Windows or other operating system, you can use KNOPPIXto access and work with data on that computer s hard disk. …

348Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionKeeping Your KNOPPIX ConfigurationAfter you have gone through all the work to configure your desktop, printer, network, disks, and other preferences for your KNOPPIX setup, it s a shame to lose all that onyour next reboot. Well, KNOPPIX offers a way that you can save your configurationinformation and reuse if for your next session. That saved information can be storedon a floppy disk or any other medium that is accessible (such as your hard disk) the next time you reboot KNOPPIX. Here s how: 1.From the squished penguin icon on the panel, click Configure.Save KNOPPIXconfiguration. 2.Choose the configuration files to save. You can choose to save your personalconfiguration (from /home/knoppix.kdeand .mozilladirectories), files onthe desktop, your network configuration, X configuration, and other systemconfiguration files (from /etc). 3.Choose to save your configuration files to your floppy disk or to any availabledisk partition that is writable. Choosing floppy can make the configurationportable, whereas using the hard disk makes the configuration easily reusableon the same machine. 4.If you are saving to floppy, insert the floppy and click OK. The data will besaved to floppy disk. The results from this action are that the knoppix.shand configs.tbzfiles arecreated on floppy disk. The configs.tbzfile contains all the saved configurationfiles from your /homeand /etcdirectories. The knoppix.shfile is a script thattells KNOPPIX how to install those files when KNOPPIX boots up. The next time youstart KNOPPIX, you can use the configuration files, as described in the next section. Those who create their own customized KNOPPIX boot disks can simply add theirknoppix.shand config.tbzfiles to the top-level directory of the CD, so KNOPPIXwill just boot to their personalized configuration without worrying about an extrafloppy or other medium. Restarting KNOPPIXYou can start KNOPPIX anytime by just inserting your KNOPPIX CD or DVD andrestarting your computer. However, if you want to take advantage of the persistentdesktop you set up or the saved configuration information, you need to add someoptions to the KNOPPIX boot prompt. Here s how: 1.Insert your KNOPPIX CD or DVD into the computer and reboot. You shouldsee the KNOPPIX boot prompt. 2.Press F3 (before KNOPPIX boots) to see if there are any additional bootoptions that are required. 3.If you have a configuration floppy boot disk (or other removable media cre- ated in an earlier procedure), insert that disk now. Note18_

347Chapter 11Running KNOPPIXNow you should be able to access the NTFS partition from the /mnt/captive- LABEL_Cdirectory. Creating a Persistent Home DirectoryIf you are going to use the computer more than once with KNOPPIX (or if you justwant more storage space for files than your computer has available in RAM) youcan assign your KNOPPIX home directory (/home/knoppix) to use some of theavailable space on your hard drive. That can be done by either: .Assigning an entire partition to be used for your home directory. .Assigning a part of that partition for your home directory, in the form of animage file. You can also put your persistent home directory on rewritable, removable media, such as a memory stick. Once you create that area to use as your home directory, you can tell KNOPPIX to use it every time you restart KNOPPIX. Here s what you do: 1.Click the squished penguin in the panel, and then select Configure.Create aPersistent KNOPPIX Home Directory. A window appears, asking if you areready to create a persistent home directory. 2.Click Yes to continue. You are asked which partition you want to use for yourpersistent home directory. 3.Select the partition you want from the list and click OK. You are asked if youwant to use the entire partition and format it as a Linux file system or just create an image. 4.Don t click Yes unless you are prepared to erase an entire partition! Click No(the safer route) to just add an image file on a directory where you have space. If you are creating the image file, you are asked how big to make it. 5.Type the number of megabytes to assign to your home directory. Be sure thatthat much space is available on the partition. (When the partition is mountedlater, you can type df -hto see how much space is available on it.) You areasked if you want to save the home directory in an encrypted format. 6.Select No, to not have the directory selected as encrypted (if you chooseYes,you ll have to specify a long password that you will need to access thepersistent home directory at boot time). The partition or image file should becreated now. When I ran this procedure to create a 100MB image on the hda5 partition, it createdthe file /mnt/hda5/knoppix.img, which had 97MB of available space. To see howto use that directory, see the Restarting KNOPPIX section later in this chapter.

346Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionAt this point you can open the folder to the partition (hda2 in our example) or opena shell and write to that directory (/mnt/hda2and any subdirectories). To make thatchange permanent (in the KNOPPIX sense), you need to change the /etc/fstabtoadd rwto the entry for the partition so it is mounted read/write by default. Again, with the example of /dev/hda2, an entry in /etc/fstabto mount that partitionread/write could look as follows: /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2 ext3 noauto,users,exec,rw 0 0With that change, simply typing mount /dev/hda2mounts the directory withread/write permissions. You can save that change permanently, as described inthe Keeping Your KNOPPIX Configuration section later in this chapter. Mounting Windows Partitions for WritingGetting your Windows partitions mounted for writing is a bit tougher. Althoughusing FAT and VFAT file systems works pretty much the same as described for Linuxpartitions (provided they are properly detected and configured in /etc/fstab), thedrivers for using NTFS file systems (the current default for Windows) are unreliablefor writing. If you have legal Windows drivers on your hard disk (which you should if you arebooting KNOPPIX from an otherwise-Windows machine), KNOPPIX provides a reli- able way to set up your NTFS partitions to be read/write accessible from KNOPPIX. Here s how: You must make sure that you have the legal right to use Microsoft NTFS-relateddrivers to use this procedure. 1.Click the squished penguin logo in the panel, and then select Utilities. Captive NTFS. The Captive Microsoft Windows Drivers Acquire windowappears. 2.Click Forward. The Local Disks Drivers Scan window appears, ready to lookfor the drivers KNOPPIX needs to access the NTFS partitions for writing. 3.Click Forward to look for the drivers. If the drivers are found, you can con- tinue. If not, it asks for a location on the network where it can get the drivers. If that is not available, it offers the opportunity to get the Microsoft WindowsXP Service Pack, if you are legally allowed to get that. 4.Once the necessary drivers are installed, you can mount the NTFS partitionusing the mountcommand with the captive-ntfs file system type. For example, if your NTFS partition is on hda1, you could type the following (as root user): # umount /dev/hda1# mkdir /mnt/captive-LABEL_C# mount -t captive-ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/captive-Label_CCaution18_

345Chapter 11Running KNOPPIXThe following sections give you some ideas about how to save what you do in yourKNOPPIX session to use in future sessions. Writing to Hard DiskAlthough hard disk partitions are mounted read-only by default, you can make themread/write if you like. Then you can store any data you want to save on those parti- tions. (You can simply drag and drop files to those partitions.) If your hard disk partitions are Linux partitions, it s pretty easy to do this. Witholder Windows systems that use VFAT partitions, it s not too hard either. With NTFSpartitions, things get a bit trickier: Up to this point, there s not much risk of damaging any data on your hard disk. Onceyou make your disks writable, you have the potential for deleting or changing thatdata. Keep that in mind if the computer doesn t belong to you of if you are not usedto using Linux. Regardless of which user you are logged in as, KNOPPIX does notprevent you from changing any file in a writable hard disk partition. Mounting Linux Partitions for WritingKNOPPIX usually identifies all hard disk partitions and adds entries for each one inyour /etc/fstabfile. If you click the icon representing that partition, the partitionis automatically mounted and a folder opens to the root of that directory. The name of each partition (hda1, hda2, and so forth for IDE partitions; sda1, sda2, and so on for SCSI disk partitions) is shown on the desktop icon. With that informa- tion, here is how you can make any of those partitions writable: 1.Click the hard disk partition you want to write to on the KNOPPIX desktop. Afolder opens, displaying the top directory in that partition. 2.When you know which partition you want to write to, close all folders or shellsthat have that partition open. (With the partition open, you can t remount it.) 3.Open a Terminal from the panel and become root user by typing$ cd$ su - # 4.Make sure that the partition you want to mount as writable is unmounted. Forexample, to unmount the second IDE hard disk partition (hda2), type# umount /dev/hda2If the command completes quietly or if it says not mounted, you are fine. If itsays device is busy, there is still a shell or folder window that is holding thatpartition open. Before you can continue, you must close whatever is holdingthe partition open and make sure the umount completes. 5.Next, you need to mount the partition so it is writable. Here s how: # mount -orw /dev/hda2Caution18_