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:

   #
   # ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/software/network/tftp/
   #
   service tftp
   {
          flags            = REUSE
          socket_type      = dgram
          protocol         = udp
          instances        = 30
          wait             = yes
          user             = root
          server           = /opt/sbin/in.tftpd
          server_args      = -s /mnt/tftpboot
          cps              = 100 2
          log_on_success   = HOST PID
          log_on_failure   = HOST
          disable          = no
   }
   

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! 🙂