Hey guys, i want to dual boot my iBook G4 with Mac OS X Tiger and Yellow Dog Linux 4.1. Is there a way to patrition the drive without reformatting or a program like Bootcamp for Dual booting Linux on a mac. How would i select which os to boot from. i need as much information on this subject as possible. much help appreciated
thanks dudes

To be honest, I've never actually ran Linux as an installed operating system on a Mac. I've got a testbed at work where I have different distro's installed, so I'm not 100% sure if there is going to be a difference. With Linux you can install a program to the boot sector (like GRUB or LILO) and tell it which OS' you have installed. It simply gives you a menu to choose which distribution to boot from when you start the machine and a default if you don't make a selection within a certain period of time.

I'd be surprised if there was no option like this for Yellowdog, so I would persue it.

For some time i had ubuntu installed on my ibook (just to check it out). In my experience it's extremely difficult to repartition the disc for linux, without messing up the osx partition. I did a fresh install to make it work. (My linux abilities are near zero, i followed a guide to install it. There might be some easy way to repartition the hd, without destroying osx.)

I installed a bootloader so that i could press either "x" or "l" depending on what i wanted to boot into.

As far as i recall you could press "alt" too, and choose it among the other partitions just like any other osx install...

I think Speedtools will allow dynamic repartioning without having to erase. Not sure I trust that sort of thing though. Much better to wipe completely clean and start from scratch.

Yea, the problem is, linux needs a bootstrap partition, and a swap partition... As i said it's probably possible, just over my head . And theres something about linux have to be on the first partition, before osx (as far as i recall).

I know that Prosoft's Drive Genius will allow dynamic repartitioning. By the way, what bootloader are you using, griffer? Is it Yaboot?

For new world Macs (anything after a Beige G3) Yaboot is the boot-loader to go for, it is possible to boot OSX and multiple (if your feeling sadistic) installations of Linux using it. I don't know how well yellowdog linux guides you through set-up these days, last linux I installed was Gentoo on a PPC box and getting everything working was a challenge. Though mainly due to some rather bad choices when configuring my kernel. However Yellow Dog is generally meant to be easier and has a nice GUI for walking through the setup. Be aware that linux on PPC is generally a bit more of a challenge than on BIOS based intel machines.

JediJoker7169 - yea i used yaboot .

I tried with debian first, but i totally messed that up... Ubuntu was easier to install imo.