[plug] linux on an imac

[Gavin Chester]

I know there are some mac fiends ;-) on this list, so I thought I'd
ask ...

I know nothing about imacs but was just given one with a dead hard drive
to play with.  I was surprised to find that the drive in this imac is a
standard 6GB IDE, so I popped an identical drive in and tried to get an
install happening. 

I have found howtos on installing linux on imacs, such as these:

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/powerpc/

I also found this guide useful and directly relevant:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~fgalli/imac-linux-7.0+7.3.html
"Installing Linux on a iMac (SuSE 7.0)"

        and this one:
http://www.lowendmac.com/stotler/06/0731.html
"The Ins and Outs of Booting Linux on the Mac"
""New World" Macs started with the colored iMacs and include all the
Power Macs since the Blue & White G3s and the Lombard PowerBooks. These
machines are able to boot a Linux install CD directly and are able to
boot directly into Linux. They don't have to have the Mac OS installed."

Even though the last guide above suggests that a blank hard drive should
be okay, I seem to be getting nowhere.  The install CD is just not seen
by the imac even when I try the trick of using the key combo of 'apple
+alt+o+f' to supposedly access the 'open firmware' (mac bios).  That
does nothing for my imac - I just get a small mac icon in the middle of
the screen flashing alternately with a question mark :-(.  

Anyone been successful with _any_ flavour of linux on a 1998-vintage
imac with NO mac software available?  Could you please point me to a
howto?  Thanks.  

Gavin.