The other day, I got an old Mac Mini PowerPC from 2005. And I decided to install Linux on it instead of using an old version of Mac OSX. Fun, ins’t it?

The first thing I did was to download the ISO image of the last version of Ubuntu and burn it on CD. But unfortunately, I discovered that the CD player wasn’t working anymore.
I then tried to put Ubuntu on a USB key and boot on it. But it didn’t work either… This machine didn’t seem to be able to boot from a USB stick.

So how am I going to install Linux without a CD player and USB?
FireWire? Maybe, but I don’t have anything on FireWire.
The answer is netboot! Indeed, my last chance was to install it via netboot.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Install tftp on another Linux machine in your local network
2. Configure tftp. Please find below the configuration file I used:
   view source

   print?

   01

   #

   02	# ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/software/network/tftp/

   03

   #

   04	service tftp

   05

   {

   06	flags            = REUSE

   07	socket_type      = dgram

   08	protocol         = udp

   09	instances        = 30

   10	wait             = yes

   11	user             = root

   12	server           = /opt/sbin/in.tftpd

   13	server_args      = -s /mnt/tftpboot

   14	cps              = 100 2

   15	log_on_success   = HOST PID

   16	log_on_failure   = HOST

   17	disable          = no

   18

   }

3. Put the Ubuntu files in the folder /mnt/tftpboot (in my case). I copied the files of the last version of Ubuntu “Quantal”: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/quantal/main/installer-powerpc/current/images/powerpc/netboot/
4. Reboot the Mac Mini and enter the Open Firmware by holding “Option”+”Command”+”o”+”f”
5. Type the following command to start the install:

   boot enet:192.168.2.100,yaboot

   With 192.168.2.100 the IP address of the machine where tftp is installed.

6. Follow the Ubuntu installation steps and enjoy!