by LughClyde » 2009-12-26 23:34
Update!
I tried Fedora 12 PPC and couldn't even get the install CD to fully run. It froze without any messages. (It looks like others have similar problems that no one is addressing in their forums.) Then I tried Gentoo and couldn't get it to boot successfully either. Next was Ubuntu 9.10 PPC. I got it to run and install. Even the networking worked on it. Alas, it seemed to be stuck with a very ugly 16 color mode with lots of dithering. I couldn't seem to get around that.
Then I tried FreeBSD. It would mostly install. It would go through all the motions and confuse itself at some point during the installation. I tried the net install version of it and couldn't get a complete download of anything. I gave up and tried NetBSD. It booted as well as Fedora. <sigh>
I thought I would try the net install version of Debian Squeeze. It booted, until some error got it running in a loop. Sorry, I didn't write it down.
Finally, I went back to Lenny and tried it's net install. It worked great! It booted fine, flawlessly went through the whole installation, AND everything works perfectly after the installation. One of the keys may be that the net install isn't using the same Network Manager. It also bothered to ask me which network interface I wanted to use: eth0 or firewire. I picked eth0 and it stuck with it. BTW, it set itself up through DHCP just fine too.
Yes, I still had to <Control><Option><F1> to bust out of the failed X11 startup and go edit my xorg.conf file. Once I did that, it ran fine. I'm not sure why this glaring screw up has never been fixed.
I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it seems like the best way to install Lenny on G3 PPC boxes is with the net install. I would recommend trying it anyway; it worked for me.
Thanks,
Clyde