Installfest - Mac Requirements

Due to how quickly things change, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of this document.

This document was created with the help of LUGOD's Linux-on-Mac expert, Henry House.

CPU

• Newer Macs, with the PowerPC style CPUs and a PIC bus are supported by most Macintosh Linux distributions. (See: http://www.linuxppc.com/about/hardware/)
• Older Macs, with Motorola 68000-series CPUs, and newer Macs with NuBus are supported by MkLinux

RAM

• Most distributions for PowerPC have graphical installers that require at least 48MB of RAM.
• Debian/PPC works with as little as 8mb.

Hard Disk Space

• At a very minimum, some Linux distributions can fit in as little as 20MB.
• The smallest space we recommend trying to fit Linux into is 500MB
• For a more usable system, at least 2GB is useful
• The more, the better!

Input/Output Devices

• All Apple mice, keyboards, trackpads are supported, including USB devices.
• Most third-party mice and keyboards work as well.

Video

• Video works on all supported Mac models and hardware acceleration is usually supported.

Audio

• Apple Macintosh sound hardware is supported.

Network Peripherals

• Built-in Ethernet is supported.
• LocalTalk (serial) networking is NOT supported.
• AppleTalk and Mac File Sharing protocols are supported over Ethernet.

Other...

• Built-in SCSI (Apple or Adaptec) is supported.

For more, see LinuxPPC Compatible Hardware and the Linux Hardware HOWTO...