[SOLVED] Mac Pro?

[brenth]

Has anyone gotten a Mac Pro yet and installed any form of linux on it? So far the install how-tos for MBPs aren't working.
Brent

[stmiller]

The dual-core powermacs (not dual CPU; dual core) just recently got support in the Linux kernel. This past year. They didn't work before that.
So it will take probably a few months for Linux to run out-of-the-box on this new Mac Pro. Unless you are a kernel hacker...

[n00bWillingToLearn]

I really have no expertise in this at all but have you tried the 64 bit version of Ubuntu? Does the liveCD boot OK? Also be VERY sure that you have thermal management. If you don't have the fans and temperature sensors working then you may just melt your nice new Mac Pro. I would love to hear more about how this goes as I will probably never be able to afford a mac pro. Keep us posted

[Jeroen Vernooij]

>"So far the install how-tos for MBPs aren't working."
Where do you get stuck?
Since the Mac Pro's are just x86 Xeons (Quad ) it should just install like on a non-Mac system. Just make sure you can boot off the CD-ROM.

[brenth]

Hey all, thanks for the responses. So far I have tried a few different distros, and seem to get the similar issues on all. I am trying to boot from the liveCD and it gets to the boot screen, I hit enter, and it starts to boot, but then I get alot of errors and a kernel panic.

It stops at: " Looking for CD-ROM at /newroot/dev/hda..."

and then waits a bit, then gives a bunch of these errors;
" hda: cd-rom_PC_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01)"

then a bunch more errors ( can type them out if necessary), then;
" Kernal panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init~"

As I say, I get similar issues from other distros ( fedora 5 for example).

Thanks for any help everyone. I gotta say, this is one fast box, OSX boots in like 3 seconds flat, it's unreal!

Thanks,
Brent

btw, I am xposting this to the mactel-linux-users list, sorry for the duplicate if your on that list

[simmons]

Brent,

As far as I can tell from Googling around, you may be the first person to attempt to install Linux on a Mac Pro! Please post back with news if you have any further success or failure with this endeavor. The Mac Pro sounds like an incredible machine, even for its price tag, and I'd almost be tempted to pick one up if I could run Linux on it. (My work requires Linux.)

It sounds like Linux is having trouble with the IDE hardware (or possibly the CD-ROM). The tasks that occur before your problem (loading the boot menu and loading the kernel into memory) are no doubt performed using the machine's firmware for accessing the CD-ROM. The first time Linux tries to access the CD-ROM on its own, it fails. This will probably be solved eventually by some kernel hacker writing a driver for whatever special IDE hardware exists in the Mac Pro.

David

[gwhanson]

I recieved my Mac Pro wednesday of last week. played with OSX for 2 days then decided to install ubuntu. I followed the directionns at bin-false http://bin-false.org/?p=17

The only problem that I recall was that with the new bootcamp, refit can't find some file or other to start ubuntu (after it has been installed), but I can use bootcamp (hold down the option key and coose the "windows" drive at startup)

I am currently upgrading to edgy with this machine.

[simmons]

I, too, recently bought a Mac Pro and successfully installed Ubuntu on it following the bin-false.org instructions. I'm not sure why the original poster is running into boot-time troubles that we aren't seeing. Perhaps the MacOS updates I installed also updated the firmware?

My only problem installing Ubuntu was that I couldn't seem to get it set up to boot from a second drive. I bet that would be easy when using the entirely legacy-free boot stack (i.e. elilo), but I hear that the proprietary Nvidia driver doesn't work unless you boot using the BIOS compatibility mode.

David

[Peter Hartley]

I, too, recently bought a Mac Pro and successfully installed Ubuntu on it following the bin-false.org instructions. I'm not sure why the original poster is running into boot-time troubles that we aren't seeing.

I too have a Mac Pro and when I try to install Ubuntu (eft knot 2) I'm getting the same "The drive appears confused (ireason=0x01)" error as described above -- even if I boot with irqpoll, which the message suggests I do. Self-compiled kernels have the same problem. All this is 64-bit (amd64), though -- have the people who've got it to work been using 32-bit (i386)?

Peter

[simmons]

All this is 64-bit (amd64), though -- have the people who've got it to work been using 32-bit (i386)?

I installed the 32-bit version of Dapper without any problems. I did not try installing a 64-bit version.