[TriLUG] Debian on PowerMac G4

[Brian Weaver]

It seems that hardware failures are sort of forcing me to pull out
some old hardware that I've never tried to install Linux onto. I have
an old 686 box that's been running well for a long time with Debian
Etch, and other versions before Etch. However in the last few months
I've experience 3 hard drive failures on the solo software RAID that I
use for the main user data storage. I'm lazy and don't tend to do
backup but about once per month on average so the RAID has saved my
bacon quite a few times already. I don't know why the system has been
eating drives up recently; one drive was brand new and only lasted 2
months.

Even though I have the system hooked up to a UPS, I'm thinking it
might be a power supply problem. I guess I could just be having a run
of really bad luck; I wish I could get frequent flyer miles for
Murphy's trips to my house. Because the hardware is fairly ancient and
I'm beginning to have my doubts about the hardware I thought I would
"upgrade" to the last remaining spare piece of hardware in my house, a
PowerMac G4. I'm hoping this will be a short term migration until I
can figure out what new hardware I should get as a replacement.
However given the current economic times it may become a long term
replacement despite my best intentions.

Has anyone had any luck installing Debian on a G4 or similar hardware?
I'd like to know what type of pitfalls I'm likely to run into so I can
get the new system up and running as quickly as possible. I guess I'm
going with Debian to ease the migration from the existing server, it
helps that I'm really familiar with the management since that's what
the old server runs. Also, I use a ubuntu desktop on my work laptop
which is almost the same to administer.

Thanks

-- Weave

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