Linux for (classic) Amigas
 

What distributions of Linux for classic Amigas (m68k) are there ?
Which are still being developed / updated ?

From where could I download ISO-files etc. of the install disks ?

Debian/GNU Linux has a disto for 68020 or greater CPU's. Also FreeBSD. But for CPU's less than a 68020 you will have to use Minix.

Debian/GNU Linux had a disto for 68020 or greater CPU's.

4.0 is not there, maybe there is an unofficial one. iirc gcc problems.

I don't think so.

There is Netbsd: http://www.netbsd.org/ports/amiga/

I've found that NetBSD works better than linux. Seems faster...

Performance pretty much depends on your gear. An 060 is ok, but X is not usable unless you have a good gfx card. Even then though, performance is limited on Cirrus based cards (Picasso's II/IV + only 8bit color and no support for the onboard blitter). I've heard cybervisions are better, but havent used one myself.

I'd say it's a nice geek toy, and a place to learn about unix. They do run stable though, I had a PHP+SQL+Apache server running on an A1200/030 24/7 without a single crash (it was way slooooow, though).

I remember using a version of Debian some years back. I still got the distribution CD somewhere... there:
http://images23.fotosik.pl/8/49c62771127cc8e6.png

Debian/m68k 2.1

There was a newer version I believe. Still you're better of with NetBSD as it's still kept up to date.

Also there was an unofficial version of RedHat (Red Tower?) and another one I can't remember the name of.

Is there any site from where Linux ISOs for classic Amiga could be
directly downloaded ?

Thanks for direct NetBSD link, mtb !

Debian 3.1 sarge ( that still gets security updates for an year or so ):

http://www.us.debian.org/releases/sa...ian-installer/

Info about 4.0

http://people.debian.org/~cts/debian-m68k/etch/

http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/...ts-new.en.html

Debian 3.0 (woody) seems to be the last one. Here's a link to the miniCD m68k distro.

Nice find mtb! So I guess Sarge is the last official one?

Does netbsd need mmu?. I mean it could be installed on an 68ec030 for example?

No, it requires an MMU, and an FPU although it is stated in the manual that it doesnt (at least the 3.0 version I tried).

Yes.

Post us some photo of the installation process ;) ( debian or netbsd, whatever you want ).

I'd really say don't bother with Linux on Amiga..

It's really agonizingly slow.. Even with 060 + gfx board. If you have a PPC board, it is usable (Linux/APUS).

@Jope

I guessed it ! That it's slow.

However, I think it's worth trying out some day ?!

It's slow if you plan to use it with a gui. If a shell in a console is enough for you then it will work quite good.

Of course, in terms of pure performances, it's not comparable to a linux installation on a modern pc...

As Jope said it's not exactly a zippy system on a classic set-up.

But do remember enjoying myself on a pretty basic config (A1240/40/32Megs) running the text console in two colours. The scrolling was reasonably fast even in laced modes. I mean there are plenty of nice and useful utils that just need a dumb terminal or ncurses.

Now I can only imagine installing linux for kicks (if you're into that sort of thing) since most of the Linux programs I would find myself running have AmigaOS ports or are part of GeekGadgets anyway.

Perhaps, but otoh all the software you can run on it will run faster on AmigaOS. The main reason I'd have wanted Linux on my Amiga was a proper SSH client and a proper browser, but .. well .. I got so disappointed in the FB-console that I couldn't even bother configuring the installation properly.

The console might actually be faster in a custom chip mode, rather than with an RTG board.

@ppill
Thanks for the link.

However, I'm having problems when trying to download the miniCD ISO file.
I've tried already three times, and the downloading always starts correctly,
but always fails after about 20-30 Mb.

@macce2

Weird, I've downloaded it without problems (all 195 megabytes) using Opera.

@ppill

That's strange, I'm using Opera, too ?! :-)