Downloads
Linux 2.6 kernels that run on Power Macintosh 7200/90
Back in 2008, I started to try installing an updated operating system on my old Power Macintosh 7200/90. This type of machines uses the PowerPC 601 processor, so the choice was to have an OS that runs Linux kernel, as BSD kernels hadn't supported it (they still haven't as I'm writing this). I didn't succeed in booting it with any recent GNU/Linux distro installer at the time, but I managed to get to installation with distros that were old even back then, which were MkLinux (booting from Mac OS Classic using the MkLinux Booter to then install from the installer CD), and Debian Woody (booting straight from the installer floppy disc).
Somehow, the MkLinux installation never got finished, it just got stuck near the end. I gave up on it, besides, MkLinux had stopped being updated already even back then. So, the only choice left, in order to have an updated OS, was to install Woody and upgrade from it release by release, until it gets to the current stable release. Well, Debian was always (and is always and always will be) a good choice anyway, it's just that I had to try every possibility ;)
OK, so I just followed the instructions here to upgrade from Woody to Sarge, and here to upgrade from Sarge to Etch, and I also upgraded the kernels accordingly from 2.2 to 2.4, which I got from Debian's distribution of Linux 2.4 kernel. Then, I followed the instructions here to upgrade from Etch to Lenny, and not forgetting this specific part here. The only problem was, none of Debian's distributions of Linux 2.6 kernels would run on this machine. I'm not sure whether it was a problem with all Old World Macintoshes or just 601-based ones, or maybe even just this type. I continued upgrading anyway with a 2.4.27 kernel. It still ran, it would just complain about udev.
Then I stopped playing with it, until recently in late 2010. I started to compile Linux 2.6 kernels myself, using my own configurations, and I finally succeeded in booting with a 2.6.15 kernel. The udev problem was solved, but it wasn't over yet, as Etch had already been outdated since early 2009. So, the next step was to upgrade to Lenny. Unfortunately, 2.6.15 wasn't good enough, as stated here (scroll down a little to section 4.1.1.1).
So I did some more compiling on a faster computer, minor version by minor version. 2.6.18 to 2.6.22 kernels would boot, but would somehow cause the booting to hang. 2.6.23 and 2.6.24 would cause some errors when compiling with GCC 4.3, which the faster computer (running Lenny) was using to compile the kernels. So I compiled 2.6.24 with the very much slower 7200/90 using GCC 4.1 on Etch. I couldn't stand waiting too long, so I turned off many features which, at the time, I thought I wouldn't need. Nevertheless, the result got that computer upgraded from Etch to Lenny. And here it is.
linux-image-2.6.24-powermac7200_3_powerpc.deb for Debian users ('3' is for my revision), or
linux-image-2.6.24-powermac7200.tar.bz2 if you want the parts separately,
or if you want to compile it yourself and just need the .config.
What next? Well, at the time of this writing, Squeeze is about to be the stable Debian 6.0 release. So I feel like I need to prepare the computer for it, and keep on upgrading the kernel (while I'm at it) up to the version Debian is using for its current stable release, which is 2.6.26. And here it is.
linux-image-2.6.26-powermac7200_3_powerpc.deb for Debian users (happens to be '3' again), or
linux-image-2.6.26-powermac7200.tar.bz2 if you want the parts separately,
or if you want to compile it yourself and just need the .config.
For the 2.6.26 kernel, I reset the configuration to be less different from Debian's configuration for that version, although there are still many settings (especially on the device drivers) that conform specifically to my situation. About the sound, the last version I had it working was 2.6.15 (I couldn't really tell on 2.6.16 and 2.6.17 because apparently they had a problem with displaying on the monitor that the only way I could use them was through remote login). I'm guessing it has something to do with the deprecation of CONFIG_DMASOUND_PMAC, but I'm not sure though. Lastly, in my case, I use BootX to boot the kernel but somehow it doesn't work with the BootX extension, so I use the BootX application (the BootX control panel) instead.