05-14-2005, 02:16 PM

im not sure where to put this so if a mod could move this to the correct forum thanks.
I would like to emulate a ppc linux on my powerbook i do not want to dual boot. I need something like this but in reverse, running on mac os x and emulating linux. It will be a ppc linux so there is no accual hardware emulation needed just something that will run it.

thanks
--Ben

05-14-2005, 06:46 PM

Assuming you're running OS X, you already have linux. Just download Fink and install KDE or Gnome. Make sure you install X11 first (it's on your X install cd's) and Xcode.

05-14-2005, 06:47 PM

cool will that run in a window?

05-14-2005, 07:12 PM

is there any thing else i can do what crandom said was a little complicated and i didnt work for me?

05-14-2005, 08:46 PM

While there might be a way to host a Linux system inside OS X I do not know of any practical way to do it. Dual booting is your best option IMHO.

Fink is not Linux. It is a set of tools to allow you to run ported apps. It is in the ball park I suppose but it is still running on top of Darwin. It is also probably the simplest of the possible solutions that does not involve dual booting.

You might be able to run an x86 Linux inside VPC. I think this should work but I have never tried.

And finally, for the sake of being silly, there is one other solution I can think of that is amusing but not practical. Run Windows XP in VPC, run VMWare on XP, Run Linux on VMWare. If I ever find anyone who does this I will fly to their location to smack them.

05-14-2005, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

If I ever find anyone who does this I will fly to their location to smack them.

lol .

05-14-2005, 10:03 PM

or you could run a Live CD distro of linux such as the Ubuntu live cd here

Just download, burn to CD and boot from CD. Linux on CD. How novel.

05-14-2005, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by embries

or you could run a Live CD distro of linux such as the Ubuntu live cd here

Just download, burn to CD and boot from CD. Linux on CD. How novel.

ive done that but i dont like how it doesnt save ur setting and you cant write to the hard drive.

05-15-2005, 01:55 AM

I wasn't implying Fink was linux. OS X is based on BSD linux so in effect you already are running linux. If you want the look and feel of linux he can use Fink to install KDE or some other window manager to run on X11.

Personally, I think that's easier than dual booting or trying to get an emulator to run. Here is a site which might better explain X11 and Fink and how to work it:

http://homepage.mac.com/sao1/fink/index.html

This guy knows what he's talking about. He's helped me a lot.

05-15-2005, 09:00 AM

Cradom, I realized what you meant and figured you were aware of the difference. I just wanted to clarify the details.

BSD and Linux are very different in implementation at the kernel level. When you are using BSD or Darwin you are not using Linux and vice versa. They both provide a more or less standard POSIX environment (with the addition of GNU tools) so software is pretty portable between the two though. That is the reason Fink works even though the mach kernel is different from stock BSD and the X11 implementation provided by Apple is customized to take advantage of quartz.

Technically Linux is just the kernel. Everything else is an OS built/assembled by someone else (Redhat, Patrick V., Mandrake, etc..) It is common to refer to the amalgam of Linux plus OS as Linux, but it introduces a level of ambiguity that can make it misleading. If you consider "Linux" to be the applications that sit on top of X11 and bash then we are not really talking about Linux at all but the portable layer that Linux, and BSD use (as well as to a lesser extent AIX, Solaris, etc...). There are some Linux specific apps on these layers, but they would not work in Fink.

Sorry for the off topic remarks. Fink is the best bet for what I think you are trying to accomplish. It is just not Linux for the reasons I described above.