This page lists all of the Howtos and Guides on TuxPPC. Howtos are short, concise info on setting up a variety of different things in Linux.
Guides are more in-depth, they contain more information, and are for users who have some experience with Linux or other UNIX-like Operating Systems.
Booting
Guide: Setting up Quik - The quik boot loader is used on Oldworld (Beige) Macs to start Linux from OpenFirmware.
Guide: Setting up Yaboot - The yaboot bootloader is used on Newworld (Colorful) Macs to start Linux from OpenFirmware.
Guide: Booting NewWorld machines with yaboot/ybin - This guide explains how to setup yaboot and create a boot menu between Mac OS and Linux. This guide assumes you have Linux already installed, and want to install yaboot.
Guide: A guide to Open Firmware - The Apple BIOS - Open Firmware is pretty easy to access and navigate once you know how, this guide walks you through the basics, so you can get to know your system a little better.
Console/X11
Howto: Using fbset - fbset is an extremely useful tool, for changing console and X Server resolution, screen position, and more. It also replaces the old vmode program.
Howto: Installing Xpmac - Xpmac is an older X Server, based on Xsun that is easy to setup, and works well even without Frame-buffer Acceleration. This howto explains howto set it up, along with a set of scripts, that allow for flexible configuration.
Guide: Compile & Setup XFree86 4.0.1 - This Guide deals with the steps required to getting XFree86 4.0.1 running on both Power Macs with Rage128 and Mach64 video cards.
Guide: Dealing with X11 Fonts - Does the fonts in X11 look ugly, and distorted? This Guide gives suggestions into fixing blocky fonts, and installing ones from Mac OS or Windows.
Guide: XFree86 on the iBook SE - This guide deals with setting up XFree86 4.02 on the iBook SE.
Development/Compiling
Howto: Compiling Software - Learn Howto Build Software from Source Code under PowerPC Linux, using GNU Automake.
Howto: Compiler Flags to Speedup Programs - By simple modifications of a Makefile, you can force gcc to create faster running programs.
Disks
Howto: Burning CDs in Linux - This Howto deals with burning CDs with KDE's kreatecd program.
Guide: Learning devfs - devfs or "Device Filesystem" provides a dynamic, organized method of accessing devices under Linux 2.4. This guide explains howto add new devices, create symlinks to existing devices, and ensure a safe upgrade to devfs from a non-devfs system.
Howto: Editing fstab - fstab is the "File System Table", which is a text file, which lists what file systems to mount at boot, and related settings.
Guide: Convert a Ext2 Partition to HFS - Linux isn't for everyone. Or maybe you created an extra partition you aren't using, and want to make it accessible to Mac OS again. This howto explains howto convert an Ext2 partition back to a Mac OS usable HFS or HFS+ partition.
Guide: Recycling Swap for a Mac OS Temporary Disk - When you are running Mac OS, your Linux swap partition is useless. This Howto, explains how to create scripts to convert your swap partition back to an HFS partition upon every reboot, so you can use the swap partition as a place to put your Virtual Memory or other temporary files (like web browser cache or Microsoft Word Temporary Files) to.
Howto: ReiserFS on PowerPC Linux - ReiserFS is an alternative FS to ext2fs, which offers journaling, speed and other improvements. This Howto shows how to set it up.
Howto: EXT3 on PowerPC Linux - EXT3 is an improved version of the standard ext2 linux file system, which offers (like ReiserFS) journaling, speed and other improvements, while staying compatible to ext2. This Howto shows how to set it up.
Howto: USB ZIP - This howto shows how to get a Iomega Zip 100MB USB drive to work.
Howto: USB CDRW - This howto shows how to get a USB CDRW drive to work.
Expansion Devices
Howto: iProRaidTV SCSI - This howto explains howto use this Internal SCSI/Video card, that is avalible for iMacs, revisions A and B, to hook up an external SCSI devices.
Howto: iProRaidTV Video - This howto explains howto use this Internal SCSI/Video card, to view video on your iMac.
Howto: SanDisk CDDR-31 ImageMate USB Compact Flash Adapter 1.0 - This howto explains howto use this USB device with Linux.
Howto: FireWire - This howto explains howto use FireWire devices with Linux.
Howto: Using a Pencam on PPC Linux - Pencam cameras include a lot of small sized cameras which can be both used as a digital snapshot type camera and as a webcam.
Installation
Guide: Installing on the PowerMac Dual G4 - This Guide deals with Installing LinuxPPC on the PowerMac Dual G4.Guide: Installing Linux on an Apple iMac - Full install guide on how to install YDL on an Apple iMac by Michael Cherry.
Howto: Linux ISO Images - Tricks and Tips to Get Mac OS to mount those pesky ISO images.
Guide: Installing SuSE Linux 7.0 PowerPC Edition - This guide explains howto install SuSE Linux 7.0 on the PowerMac Cube (and other similar models).
Guide: Installing SuSE Linux 6.4 PowerPC Edition - This guide explains howto install SuSE Linux on the PowerPC.
Howto: PowerBook G4 FAQ - The PowerBook G4 has many differences from previous PowerBooks, so it gets it's own howto.
Howto: Installing Linux without using MacOS - This will guide you through the process of installing Linux without having MacOS installed.
Howto: Installing Linux on a PowerMac 7200 - The title says it all :)
Input Devices
Howto: PowerMac Mice and Right Click - This howto explains how you can emulate right and middle click using your keyboard.
Howto: Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - It is very easy to setup a USB wireless keyboard and mouse.
Kernel
Guide: Creating a Stable Linux Kernel via. Kernel Sources - This howto covers creating a Linux Kernel (vmlinux) from the Source Code, in a kernel-source*.rpm.
Guide: Creating a Stable Linux Kernel via. rsync - This howto covers creating a Linux Kernel (vmlinux) from the latest pmac-stable source, downloaded using the rsync tool.
Guide: Building Linux for Nubus PowerMacs - This howto is for those who have older Nubus x100 PowerMacs, that require a modified version of Monolithic Linux to be built to work on them.
Multimedia
Howto: Learning Gnapster - This howto deals with installing, setting up and using gnapster. Designed mainly for those who are new to Linux and/or Napster.
Howto: DMA Sound Backport - This howto deals with installing the DMA Sound Backport, that allows for Sound Input on Linux 2.2.
Howto: CD Audio for Digital-only CD Drives - This howto deals with the newest Macs who only have digital CD drive output, such as the iMac DV, etc. The plugin described is XMMS-CDRead, which reads audio directly from the CD-ROM inside of XMMS.
Howto: iBook2 Sound - This howto deals with getting sound working on your iBook 2/IceBook.
Howto: Installing RealPlayer - This howto deals with installing RealPlayer on PowerPC Linux.
Howto: Using GNapster - This howto deals with using gnapster to get Mp3 files.
Howto: D-Link DSB-R100 USB Radio - This guide walks you through getting the D-Link DSB-R100 USB Radio working.
Howto: Java with Konqueror and Mozilla on PPC - Using Java with your PPC Linux browser (Mozilla or Konqueror) is not very difficult, yet one has to know how to do it.
Howto: Using Ogg Vorbis - This howto will try to introduce you to the world of Ogg Vorbis, by explaining how to install it and how to make use of it to store and play your audio data.
Guide: XMMS - This guide will show you a bit through the possibilities of XMMS and why it has become the "standard" Linux music player.
Guide: Sound TroubleShooting - This guide will help you fix your various sound related problems.
Networking
Howto: Connecting to the Internet Using KPPP - This howto explains step by step, how to use the KPPP Internet Dialer to get online on your iMac, iBook, PowerMac, Cube or PowerBook.
Howto: Connecting the Internet Using Chatscripts and PPP - This howto explains connecting to the Internet using standard chatscripts.
Howto: Setting up PPP in Debian - This howto explains setting up an Internet Connection in pppconfig.
Howto: Cable Modems / DHCP - This howto explains setting up an Internet Connection using DHCP over a cable modem
Guide: Squid for PPP Connections - This Guide explains setting up Squid as a fast web cache, to speed up webbrowsing over a modem link. It also speeds up DNS lookups in Netscape (in my experience).
Guide: Setting up Junkbuster - This guide explains setting up Junkbuster on PowerPC Linux, the ad blocking proxy.
Guide: Firewalling on a laptop - This guide explains how to set up a simple firewall on your Linux/PPC machine.
Howto: Netbooting iMacs - This howto explains how to netboot your iMac, so you can use it as a diskless client or many other uses.
Howto: Using Kmail - This howto explains how to setup and get using the KDE Mail Program to read your Emails.
Howto: Using SSH RSA authentication - SSH supports RSA based authentication, which allows to login without giving a password. (While still authenticating)
Guide: Quick Start Guide for iproute2 - This is a quick start guide for people who want to use iproute2 tools.
Guide: Setting up a virtual FTP server - This guide shows you how to set up a virtual FTP server.
Obsolete
Below are Howtos and Guides that cover software, that has been replaced or updated and you can probably skip over. We keep them for those who are running older Linux distros, or those who have not bothered to upgrade.
Howto: USB Backport - The USB Backport enables support for USB Hard Drives, Scanners, Printers, etc. with Linux 2.2.17 and earlier. Linux 2.2.18 pmac-stable and later has this built in,so you shouldn't need this Howto anymore.
Packages
Guide: Learning apt-get on the PowerPC - apt-get is Debian's tool for installing software. If you plan on installing Debian or are already using Debian, you should read this guide.
Guide: Learning yup on the PowerPC - yup is Yellow Dog Linux's tool for installing software updates over the Internet.
Guide: Learning RPM on the PowerPC - This guide deals with using the RPM tool on any RPM-based PowerPC Linux distro.
Guide: Building RPMs - This guide deals with the process of creating your own RedHat packages.
HowTo: How To Build an RPM in Under 5 Seconds... - This tutorial will show you how to build *.ppc.rpms from SRPMs in three easy steps.
Printing
Guide: Apple Stylewriters - A couple of years ago, Apple sold Cannon and HP Serial Ink Jet printers under it's own brand name. This Guide explains how to get them working under Linux.
Guide: Epson Serial Inkjets - Epson has released several Mac-compatible Serial InkJet Printers over the years. This Howtos covers getting both the older Stylus 1 & 2, and the more troublesome Stylus Color 600 & 800 printers working.
Howto: Lexmark Optra E310 - This howto explains how to setup an Lexmark Optra E310 USB Laser Printer under PowerPC Linux.
Saving Energy
Guide: Sleep Shutdown and Auto Power On/Off - This guide explains setting up monitor sleep, spinning down disks, and using Auto Power On/Off. This should work on Desktop and Portables Macs.
Howto: Sleep on iBooks and PowerBooks - This howto deals with setting up pmud to sleep PowerBooks and iBooks.
Window Managers
Howto: Installing KDE 2.1 on LPPC/YDL - This howto deals with installing KDE 2.x on LinuxPPC or Yellow Dog Linux.
Howto: Adding Applications to KDE 2 - This howto explains how to add new applications to your kicker application menu in KDE 2.0.
Howto: Installing Ximian GNOME on YDL - This howto explains using the Ximian installer to install GNOME on Yellow Dog Linux 2.0.
Howto: Using dcop to Script KDE 2 Apps - This howto gives you some pratical examples of how to use the dcop command line program to make your KDE apps do many different things from the command line.
Guide: Kio-mac introduction - Kio-mac is a kioslave for reading MacOS HFS+ partitions.