The ramblings of g1powermac

So, you got yourself an old m68k Apple Macintosh and you want to install Linux or some *NIX OS on it.  But, after looking around at some of the tutorials around the web, you find to your surprise that you still need a Mac OS install to boot Linux.  This is because the only option to boot alternative operating systems on these old macs was to first boot Mac OS and then hijack the boot process with a custom Mac application that acts as the Linux boot loader.  Until now.

I did some searching for alternative boot loaders for m68k Macs and stumbled across EMILE, Early Macintosh Image LoadEr.  It’s a real boot loader that doesn’t require a Mac OS install to boot.  It takes advantage of boot blocks on the Mac’s hard drive or a floppy disk to trick the Mac ROM into thinking it’s the rest of the Mac OS.  It’s an awesome development in the Linux m68k Mac port that I hope to contribute some time to help further development.  So if you got an old Mac, check this out.

Posted by g1powermac under Computers | Comments Off