Linux on a PowerMac 6100

First, if your PowerMac 6100 sounds a welcome tone, the hard disk spins up, and then ... nothing – check the battery. The nominal voltage of the battery is 3.6, and according to Apple it should be replaced if it falls below 3.2 volt. This is a little conservative, a 3 volt battery will work, i.e. your mac will boot, but the date may be wrong. I have made a contraption consisting of 2 AA/LR6 batteries.

The following pages includes instructions on how to install Linux on a Nubus PowerMac (including the 6100):

If you follow the instructions above, the installation should be relatively pain free. I used Mac OS 8.1 which can fit on 50 MB disk space. I have used Yellow Dog 1.2.1 which may be downloaded here or here. I also encountered a problem on the first start up after installation – the /etc/fstab file was missing, causing the root file system to be mounted as read only. After reading some man pages I was able to mount it as read/write with this command:
mount -n -o remount -w /dev/sda5 /

After which a fstab file was made:

/dev/sda5 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

I have no idea if this is correct, but it seems to work.

Norwegian keyboard? Download mac-no-ext.kmap which works in console but not with X-windows.

August or September 1956 - is this the date after boot? Then probably your battery voltage is too low. If you have a network connection, a work-around follows: Copy the lines below to /etc/rc.d/init.d/rdate and then create symbolic links to this file from /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S12rdate through /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S12rdate.

#!/bin/sh
# set system clock - battery doesn't seem to keep the clock ticking when
# the mac is switched off. If the first doesn't work, try one of the other.
# knut 17/7-02

# a very crude way of checking if the computer is connected to a network:
# if "ifconfig eth0|wc -l" returns 6, then the network is not running (it is 7
# if it is running).
if [ `ifconfig eth0|wc -l` = "6" ] then
exit 1
fi

# get date
rdate -s time.nrc.ca
#rdate -s 131.188.34.45
#rdate -s time.uconn.edu
#rdate -s time.nist.gov
#rdate -s time_b.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
exit 0

My name is Knut Backe and you may contact me via e-mail; knut.reitan.backe@ntnu.no. Last updated 6 August 2002.