new

Just one (1) question...

On my iMac (G4 1GHz, 1Gb Leo 10.5.7)  I want to use a Linux version...
Therefor I downloaded Ubuntu 8 (and 9 and 7). By Disk Utility I made a  
bootable partition on an external FireWire drive... Changed my startup  
disk to this partition, and rebooted...
Did not work... although the startup disk appears... (By holding down  
Alt-key during rebooting)

Diggin' around on the 'net, learned me in a some way I needed a boot- 
program, this is the reason why I'm writing this e-mail...

My aim is to boot from a partition of my FW-drive and install a Linux  
version on another partition on that FW-drive...

And now the question: is there an unambiguous manual for this newbie  
that will guide me through this?

thanks in advance,

Hubert