So what do you need to get a port started. The first item is hardware. I had most of this (a 5Mbyte MacII cast off from the office as too slow for anything). Initially I felt safe in helping work out the directions for the Linux port as this system lacked an MMU and was therefore unable to run any proposed Linux port.
Rob Pelkey started on some very basic Linux work for the Macintosh but needed a boot loader to load the Linux OS and kick it off. On #linux on the LinuxNet IRC network Jes Sorensen, the keeper of Linux68K, I and several other random people got into a few discussions about the port and what would be required. After a lot of digging we managed to establish some basic information on the Macintosh68K and then fill further areas in by investigating the excellent detective work the OpenBSD/Mac team had done in getting BSD limping along on the Macintosh machines. Further information came to light from the Linux on OSF Mach port that Apple sponsored when we realised that Apple continued to use the same 8bit microcontrollers or emulations of them, and that Apple had not redesigned the systems materially for the new processor.
Everything seemed completely happy. I had a Macintosh box to laugh at (and we used it occasionally to fail to duplicate problems Macintosh users had with CymruNet), we could kick ideas around, and I had no MMU in my Macintosh so I couldn't possible help to write any code.
By this time Rob's effort had stalled badly as he lacked the time to write the boot loader needed to run Linux and was working on passing classes and other sundry items. No worry, someone would eventually take over the project or he would finish his classes. And then Frank Neuman sent me an MMU for the MacII and someone else donated a pair of ethernet cards. Whoops, sudden shortage of excuses.