Running Multiple OSes on Macs? 31
raist_online asks: "My boss has just received a new iBook and asked me to sort out a multi-OS install. I'll admit to being a PC hardware person primarily. If it was a PC-based machine I'd install Linux as a base system, then put Executor on for Mac emulation and VMWare for other PC hosted OS's, but I'm sure there must be a better way to handle the Linux / Mac thing with OSX around (I'm just not sure what that is) and I know that VMWare only runs on PC processors (Intel and Athlons). So, what do you suggest? Yellow Dog or Mandrake Linux? OSX or Executor or what? Is there a virtual PC I can use? For our research, the more operating systems we can get onto this one machine, the better!"
Virtual PC (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Virtual PC (Score:1)
Re:Virtual PC (Score:3, Informative)
YDL (Score:1)
It depends, but you have options (Score:5, Informative)
OSX on one, OS9 on the other, Linux on the rest is one way to go.
A lot of Linux/UNIX can run in OSX, including Xwindows.
Virtual PC is a reasonable option if you need Windows compaibility. Go with YellowDog Linux (or Mandrake, Debian, FreeBSD, etc) if you don't.
Some HD space would be nice, but not absolutely essential.
I currently have OSX/OS9/YDL 2.1(2.4.10 kernel) running native and Win95/98/XP running via Virtual PC5 (connectix). Works fine.
Re:It depends, but you have options (Score:2, Informative)
"... XFree86 was available for the Macintosh platform long before the release of Mac OS X. Various flavors existed for MkLinux, LinuxPPC, and FreeBSD for the Macintosh. Although the underlying core architecture of Mac OS X, the Darwin kernel, is FreeBSD based, no X Window server was provided.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2001/07/17/
Have you Googled today? (Score:4, Informative)
Debian + Mac OS (9, X, or both) install guide (Score:5, Informative)
Multiple OS Options (Score:1, Informative)
It might be a bit tricky to install. Pay close
attention to the instructions.
Look at MOL (Mac-On-Linux) and some
other options.
For multiple boot, "YABootLoader" is pretty
cool. Similar to LILO on WinTel boxes, you'll
get an OS menu and their respective keystrokes. I think it was something like:
M for MacOS 9.x
X for MacOS X.x
L for Linux
Think long and hard about your partition scheme before you get started.
I recommend this:
1) Boot from a MacOS 9.2.x CD and wipe
the drive with drive setup.
2) When partitioning the drive, do it like this:
(in this order on a 20 GB drive)
10 MB for Boot Loader (double check instr)
256 MB for MacOS 9
6 GB for MacOS X
(check min. requirement)
Whatever's left or min requirement) for
Linux install (use pdisk during install
to partition for
3) Install MacOS 9 first
4) Install Mac OS X
5) Boot into OS 9, install YDL
6) Double check instructions for YABootloader.
There's VPC for Windows stuff.
It works pretty well once you get it going.
It's kind of a pain in the ass to install it
if you don't read the READMEs.
RTFM is the rule.
Re:Multiple OS Options (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Multiple OS Options (Score:1)
Re:Multiple OS Options (Score:2)
Wired story on Virtual PC (Score:2, Interesting)
Has some really useful features, such as disk-safe undo that isn't available on windows.
I especially like the tagline:
With the advent of this new version, PC users have no problem crossing over to the Mac. It's one thing to tell PC users that a Mac is better, but to show them that even a PC is better when it runs on a Mac really drives the point home.
More options (Score:4, Informative)
If installing Linux, I suggest Debian [debian.org] GNU/Linux. I've had better luck with their distro on PPC Macs than other distributions. (Maybe I'm just more used to apt than RPM.)
You might also want to check out MacOnLinux [maconlinux.org], which lets you run MacOS on top of Linux.
Finally, there's always Darwin and X Windows!
Might one ask why? (Score:5, Informative)
With multiple partitions, she/he could boot into any OS. The advantage is that each OS would run at full power, the disadvantage is that all Windows and many Unix flavors would be unavailable.
With VirtualPC, they could run pretty much any OS. And they could have a multitude of OSes running in different windows at the same time. Last VPC I used was version 2, which was good. Version 5 is supposed to be phenomenal.
But there could be different options which would be more appropriate depending on what he/she is trying to accomplish. Is this just a power trip, or is there a serious reason for this?
yellow dog is nice (Score:2, Informative)
YDL or SuSe (Score:1)
I would also check out SuSe for PPC. I've recently installed SuSe 7.3 on my Vaio laptop and really like it much better than RH. If you purchase the SuSe distro, you get some pretty good docs/manuals that your boss might find handy. I think these are better than what I've seen so far from YDL. Providing him with some resources may mean that you'll have less support/hand-holding to do.
will wine work on ydl? (Score:1)
Re:will wine work on ydl? (Score:2)
Re:will wine work on ydl? (Score:1)
Hold on there... WinNT DOES exist for the PPC architecture (granted, rs6k's not macs) but windowsPPC does exist - a WINE port would not be trivial, either. Is this perhaps what your boss wants to work on?
VMWare (Score:2, Informative)
don't mod me down yet (Score:1)
1) does it run directXapps (halflife)
2)how many frames per second will I be seeing if it does work?
Re:don't mod me down yet (Score:1, Informative)
vpc 1 or 2 iirc used 3DFX cards to speed up the rendering, but hardware accelerattion was removed in 3 or 4.
but if thats all thats holding you back from getting a TiBook, get it anyway. they're excellent machines and OSX is sweet.