A bootable iPod or FireWire drive contains a full installation of Yellow Dog
Linux which can be used as an external, bootable drive. All applications,
data, and
offering an unprecedented level of portability as users can boot G4 and G5
Apple computers from the iPod or FireWire drive, leaving internal drives
untouched.
Bill Mueller, Terra Soft software engineer states, “While the goal of this
project was to simply enable bootable FireWire, I took it one step further
and incorporated Anaconda, a patched ‘parted’, and a clever partition resize
tool. I just couldn’t put the project down. I wanted to be able to install
directly to my iPod from the Yellow Dog Install CDs
that.”
Terra Soft has created a hybrid Yellow Dog Linux v4.0.1 #1 Install CD that
incorporates the changes required to install to an iPod or FireWire drive
from the graphical installer. This hybrid is immediately available through
YDL.net Enhanced accounts at http://www.ydl.net/.
“Since the day Apple first incorporated FireWire support we have been asked to
enable Yellow Dog to install to a FireWire drive. While we would have gladly
made this happen sooner, it was in fact a substantial challenge not easily
completed. Now complete, no longer does one need to reformat an internal
drive, reinstall OSX, and then Yellow Dog. With bootable external devices or
the ability to resize an internal drive without reformat, Yellow Dog Linux
just became a far more flexible, even more powerful OS,” offers Kai Staats,
co-founder & CEO.
Now available from the Terra Soft on-line Store are iPods and LaCie brand
external FireWire drives with Yellow Dog Linux pre-installed:
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/
Staats continues, “Consider an iPod or pocket FireWire drive the most portable
Linux workstation in the world. If there are Macs at your destination, you
need only bring your drive and cable, reboot the borrowed computer, hold the
Option key, and go. It’s simple. It’s fast. And it just works.”
Terra Soft thanks Bill Fink for his original work that laid the foundation for
bootable PowerPC Linux FireWire drives, and Guillaume Knispel for the
partition resize tool which became integral in this solution.
About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
Terra Soft is a leading Integrated Solutions Provider with proven expertise in
the PowerPC architecture and Linux OS platform. As an Apple Authorized
Proprietary Solutions Provider and IBM Business Partner, Terra Soft provides
turnkey and build-to-order portables, desktop workstations, application and
network servers, and HPC clusters. Terra Soft’s Y-HPC 64-bit OS and cluster
construction suite is widely accepted as the preferred platform for Xserve
clusters.
For more information, visit www.terrasoftsolutions.com
IBM and PowerPC are registered trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation. Apple and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer. All
other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective
owners.”
Link: terrasoftsolutions.com
