I own a PowerMac Quad G5 now for about 2 weeks. So its time to have a Linux
running on it. And its also time to test YellowDogLinux 4.1. Hence I did test on my new PowerMac.

I own a PowerMac Quad G5 now for about 2 weeks. So its time to have a Linux
running on it. And its also time to test YellowDogLinux 4.1. Hence I did test on my new PowerMac.

Preparations

Since I like to have the ability to test various Linux distribution on this machine (apart from my favorite one),
Therefore I created the following partition table once I got the machine:

YDL should run as "secondary" Linux on the box. Hence it should occupy partition number 6, 10 and 11. The swap partition will be shared by all Linux system.
The home partition will be created later. Since I already set up my partition table I didn't test DiskDruids abilities to created
and resize partitions.

One remark in the beginning. I am a SuSE friend. For that reason the recent SuSE system I use (in particular an OpenSuSE 10.0 on a Mac mini, and SuSE 9.2 to 10.0 on Pentium and Athlon PCs) are the benchmark for in this test.

Installation and first booting

The installation itself was surprisingly easy. No problems with assigning partition in DiskDruid, though other members of ppcnux have problems here on their systems.
IIRC it had problems here with YDL 4.0 on my Mac mini, either.
The package manager could be better, but I will come to that later in more detail.
Installation continues with setting up network and the root password (don't blame me on the correct order here).
Finally one is asked to created a user. Unfortunately you can't setup any uid or gid for this user (or I didn't found it).
This is a pity for small networks which do not run any service like NIS or LDAP for the user account but like to use
the uid and gid all over the network. One other if you have NIS or similar running you you can enabled YDL to use it instead of create a user.

I nice surprise was that KDE is the default desktop (BTW it is KDE 3.4). At least if you choose custom in the package manager.
Sadly YDL is kind of inconsistent here. No basic Gnome package is selected, but all basic KDE packages are selected.
But if it comes to more special packages for graphics, sound or games Gnome is preferred.
Another example is that evolution will be installed by default, but not kontact (aka kdepim).

I found some more unfortunate decisions on the default package selection:

• fdisk is installed by default, but not pdisk. On Mac pdisk make more sense, since fdisk do not understand the Macs partition table
• In the Editors group in the package manager you find joe, vim-enhanced, vim-x11 and (gnu)-emacs, but not xemacs, though it is on the CD 4. Why it is not listed?
  And why almost all distributions prefer (gnu-) emacs over xemacs (for years now).
• The default MTA is sendmail. However postfix is also available. But if I have postfix why should I prefer sendmail with its cryptic configuration. sendmail might make sense on existing system or if you have a lot of experience with it. But to me that does not qualify sendmail as default MTA.

After all packages were put to the disk, it was time to reboot the machine. And thats what the installer started to do.
However, The reboot got stuck at the very end. Fortunately all disk were synced at that time and I could manually reset the machine with no risk.
This was the only time a reboot or shutdown freezes.

YDL's installer didn't change the OpenFirmware setting. Therefore the Mac boots into MacOS X unless you press the 'ALT'-Key on start up.
IMHO this is the correct why of doing it. Making a Linux system (or any other system) default should by done once the installation is complete and tested, not before.

To my (little) disappointment YDL could not distract from some bad but modern tastes.
On booting you see a graphic display giving you a rough idea on whats going on. However, its easy to get boot messages but clicking on show details.
But I like to be able to make this a permanent setting.

The same applies to the login screen. I prefer the "old" SGI-like window based structure with a user list and two entries (for user name an password)
over the "modern" screen filling single entry style. But this most distribution (see OpenSuSE) follow this line I fear I have to live with it.
BTW YDL uses gdm as login manager.

I did not test whether DVI-TFT monitor problem I found with my Mac mini half year ago is still present. Right now the PowerMac is connected via VGA to the TFT.
If I look at the number of post in our forum about similar problems I supposes it is more a X.org problem rather than a YDL specific one.

Likewise I can't blame YDL for the sound that is not working and for MacOnLinux not running. Both is stated on YDL web paged. However, I like to see this running on my Quad G5.

The same applies for the control of the fans which is not working. So the fans are running at full speed (staring about 2 minutes after booting).
Since the full speed running fan are everything but silent, it makes YDL on this box quite unusable, yet.

First Impression

Default-Desktop in 1600x1200

After login into my account it hit me by surprise. This is a KDE desktop?
It looks more like Gnome to me (or at least like what I saw of Gnome desktops on my neighbors screens).
Icons are quite browny grayish with low contrast in color. To me it make it hard to distinguish icons from each other. And it looks less fresh and friendly
than the desktops I am used to see on SuSE systems.
However, you can switch from YDL default icon set wonderland to Crystal-SVG (which is KDE default IIRC).
Crystal-SVG offers much brighter color and better contrast. Unfortunately some icons in the menus are missing with Crystal-SVG.

Small panel with Wonderland-Icons

small panel with Crystal-Icons

What I like is to have the panel at the top rather than at the bottom. But the icons grow very small if you switch to panel size small. If this happens or not
depend on the icon set and the order of changing icon set and panel size. See the images for two examples.
Again, I think this is more likely a KDE bug than YDL specific.

I have mixed feeling on the window decoration as well. On the one hand they are unobtrusive and functional. On the other hand the shading button is missing
and the sticky button is just pixel garbage. (see picture)

Window decorations with rearranged buttons and damaged sticky button.

It is also a pity that YDL used Windows like button arrangement rather than something reminiscent to either MacOS X, classic MacOS or CDE/Motif.
Again, this is done but most if not all distribution. However, I hoped for something better since YDL addresses users with MacOS or AIX/CDE background.
Same applies to the keyboard layout. AS a long time Mac user I would expect to find the X11-Alt on Apples Command-Key rather than on Apple "Option"-Key.
This is more consistent either with the meaning of Apple's command key and the standard PC-keyboard layout.

Another surprise was to that Firefox and not konqueror is the default web browser, though KDE is the desktop of choice. But it is easy to interchange them.

More important are some missing features it got used to for quite some time on SuSE system:

1. There is no automatic mount mechanism for removable media like CDs oder DVDs. SuSE offers this for at least 1.5 years (first using submount, now using hald).
   Though SuSE is somehow to strict with hald or submount I liked to see something comparable on a modern Linux system. On YDL you have to mount CD and DVDs manually.
2. Apple was to introduced it first (at least to my knowledge), KDE followed soon and you find it on SuSE system at least starting with SuSE 9.2 (October 2004):
   Fast User Switching. However, I could not find it on this YDL system.

System- and Package management

The YDL-System-Menu

The system management on YDL is far from being well integrated as it is with SuSE. It is more a collection programs (some good, some less good) than a consistent
system administration system. You find all system administration tools in two submenues of the K-menu (see picture). This menu is far not as complete
as the SuSE's administration tool Yast is.
I am missing programs for hardware integration (e.g.scanners, bluetooth, ...),
programs for configuration of server clients like nfs, nis, ntp ,...
programs for configuration of the boot loader (O.K. this one is also missing on SuSE ppc, but not on SUSE x86).
Likewise the options this the Display program are limited, e.g. you can not shift the image on your monitor if you have multiple machine sharing one
monitor (e.g. via a KVM switch). In the end the system management on YDL looks less consistent and clear to me.

The network configuration

However, the Network program Modul is one of the good administration tools. I is pretty Apple like and allows for different profiles.
I prefer this approach over SuSEs profile manager which more flexible but also more complicated.
Somehow hidden in this program is the setup for dialup connected via Modem or DSL. You have to created in new devices in the devices tab.
This new device might be a DSL or Modem connection.

The package manager

Selecting packages from a group

The package manager is less to my liking. You get in touch with in on the Installer very it is acceptable.
But for later package management the program is far to simple.

1. There is only half a line description on every package. For many case this is to little.
   If you want to decide if you need this or like to test a package you need more information.
   And the information is there in the description field of the rpm file of this package.
   To be fair, I know only one distribution that is doing a better job here. Guess which.
   
   
2. There is no to search for programs in the list of available packages. There is neither an option to search for keywords in the provide, requires or
   description field of the rpm. Hence, if you are look for a particlar package you have to click through many if not all package groups.
3. There is no option to reinstall a package (e.g. after you damaged a file of the package accidentally).
4. As already mentioned only parts of the software packages are selectable here, e.g. the xemacs is on CD 4 but not listed in the package manager.
5. Unsurprisingly, You can not select a different source for your installation (e.g. a copy of the CDs on your local disk, a copy on a network share, ...)

What I do not understand is the following. The package management of SuSEs yast (either yast1 or yast2) is around for at least almost a decade.
Why was no other distribution able to develop a comparable tool?

A a kind of compensation, YDL offers yum, a well made command line tools for updating your system.
Updating your system is easy done with yum. I prefer yum over SuSEs you on the command line.

You can use yum also to installed additional software. However, instead of look onto locally available package, all packages are
downloaded from some server on the internet. I tested this on a couple of packages. For people with slow connections it slows down the installation process
without any need.

Conclusion

I am not totally sure if I not missed on or another feature of YDL which would render some of my criticism wrong or less important.
Nevertheless, what you read explains my first impression on YDL. This first impression is mixed.
It is better than what I saw with YDL 4.0 on my Mac mini.
And if the fan would be quiet I would use it at least until there is a SuSE Linux available for this machine.
However it is to load.