HOW-TO INSTALL: How to install Ubuntu on your Mac

[Evangelion]

Most drivers aren't supported. Most Linux distro's on support basics of any device - e.g. CDROM's, you may have a burner that it doens't recognize, but it recognizes CD's if you put them into it. Same with DVD drives.

Most drives ARE supported. I don't think the drives in Macs are somehow magical and wont work in Linux. I have yet to come across a driver that wouldn't work in Linux. That includes several CD-ROM drives (in desktops and laptops), DVD-drivers and my DVD+/-RW drive. Combo-drive on my Mac Mini also works.

 

[Evangelion]

wow, that makes windows 98 look beautiful...

Yep, that screenshot has been hit by an ugly-stick. By default, Ubuntu doesn't look like that.

 

[Flying Llama]

Most drives ARE supported. I don't think the drives in Macs are somehow magical and wont work in Linux. I have yet to come across a driver that wouldn't work in Linux. That includes several CD-ROM drives (in desktops and laptops), DVD-drivers and my DVD+/-RW drive. Combo-drive on my Mac Mini also works.

I agree, I this is why I was so suprised to find that the standard drive in the Rev. A iMac G5 is not found. It's not like this is a super-new cutting edge system, it's been out for over a year now...
I hope this is something else (something fixable).

llama

 

[dubbz]

I've been having a lot of LiveCD problems on my PC and it turned out to be because DMA wasn't enabled for my DVD-burner.

Knoppix whouldn't get past the first screen, and had some errors when detecting the device.
Ubuntu didn't want to start because of a failed MD5 check.

Enabling DMA allowed both of them to boot normally.

Linux shouldn't need drivers for every individual drives out there, so it's quite possible that it's somehow related to this (though I'm certainly won't guarantee anything )

I don't know for sure how you enable DMA on Ubuntu on the first boot prompt, if it's even possible. Perhaps 'live dma' or something similar?

I booted into expert mode myself and did a little fiddeling in another console, but it whould be strange if it wasn't a easier way. In Knoppix I simply typed 'knoppix dma'.

 

[Flying Llama]

I've been having a lot of LiveCD problems on my PC and it turned out to be because DMA wasn't enabled for my DVD-burner.

Knoppix whouldn't get past the first screen, and had some errors when detecting the device.
Ubuntu didn't want to start because of a failed MD5 check.

Enabling DMA allowed both of them to boot normally.

Linux shouldn't need drivers for every individual drives out there, so it's quite possible that it's somehow related to this (though I'm certainly won't guarantee anything )

I don't know for sure how you enable DMA on Ubuntu on the first boot prompt, if it's even possible. Perhaps 'live dma' or something similar?

I booted into expert mode myself and did a little fiddeling in another console, but it whould be strange if it wasn't a easier way. In Knoppix I simply typed 'knoppix dma'.

So what exactly is DMA? Do any apple-supplied drives have it? Maybe this could fix my problem!

llama

 

[slooksterPSV]

Most drives ARE supported. I don't think the drives in Macs are somehow magical and wont work in Linux. I have yet to come across a driver that wouldn't work in Linux. That includes several CD-ROM drives (in desktops and laptops), DVD-drivers and my DVD+/-RW drive. Combo-drive on my Mac Mini also works.

Ok maybe I overstated there. But I've found a lot of my drivers don't work for like my PC and that. I guess it's luck of the draw - but its true a lot of stuff is supported like external mediums, whether its a USB stick or a firewire drive. Some, few basically, are not supported so you have to program them in yourself - as for the exact same functionallity? You won't get that unless the vendor made a specific Linux driver - which you have to agree with me on for the most part. You may get all the basics and everything else working on it and that, but for it to work perfectly like it does in another OS is somewhat different - for the most part right? Example: My DVD+RW drive supports buffer underrun protection. I tried to burn a DVD of stuff in Linux - it dropped cause it didn't support the buffer underrun feature for my drive. That's just one example I have. I'm editing the post now.

 

[joecool85]

Ok, I can't get the live cd to boot properly. It gets to the part where you type live and hit enter, loads and then wants me to type mac-boot then enter but it won't let me type anything there!

 

[Flying Llama]

Ok, I can't get the live cd to boot properly. It gets to the part where you type live and hit enter, loads and then wants me to type mac-boot then enter but it won't let me type anything there!

Do you have a G5? (iMac/PMac) If so then you must use live-power4. Otherwise try live-powerpc. If none of those work, just try pushing enter, it will try to automatically choose the right one.

llama

 

[micvog]

I agree, I this is why I was so suprised to find that the standard drive in the Rev. A iMac G5 is not found. It's not like this is a super-new cutting edge system, it's been out for over a year now...
I hope this is something else (something fixable).

llama

Based on my research, it appears the problem is with the iMac G5's IDE/SATA bus and not the SuperDrive itself. It appears to still be an issue in 5.10 as well.

 

[Evangelion]

Some, few basically, are not supported so you have to program them in yourself - as for the exact same functionallity? You won't get that unless the vendor made a specific Linux driver - which you have to agree with me on for the most part.

Are we talking about optical-media here? because if we are, then I think you are quite mistaken. But if we are talking about other hardware, you are right and wrong. Out of the box, Linux mops the floor with Windows as far as hardware-support is concerned. And most other hardware IS supported. There are some stuff that is not supported, due to manufacturers not releasing the specs for them.

I have yet to come across a piece of hardware that did not work with Linux. I know that they do exist, but I haven't bumbed in to them. And no, I haven't had to "program anything in" .

You may get all the basics and everything else working on it and that, but for it to work perfectly like it does in another OS is somewhat different - for the most part right? Example: My DVD+RW drive supports buffer underrun protection. I tried to burn a DVD of stuff in Linux - it dropped cause it didn't support the buffer underrun feature for my drive. That's just one example I have. I'm editing the post now.

I use k3b in Linux for my DVD-burning needs, and it supports wide variety of buffer-underrun proctection-schemes. But no, Linux doesn't support EVERYTHING under the sun. Neither do Macs . But for the most part, hardware-support in Linux is just fine. And out of the box, it's order of magnitude better than on Windows.

 

[Flying Llama]

Based on my research, it appears the problem is with the iMac G5's IDE/SATA bus and not the SuperDrive itself. It appears to still be an issue in 5.10 as well.

Ah, thanks. That's too bad, guess I'll just have to wait...

llama

 

[joecool85]

Do you have a G5? (iMac/PMac) If so then you must use live-power4. Otherwise try live-powerpc. If none of those work, just try pushing enter, it will try to automatically choose the right one.

llama

Tried all those just now, and no good. Still does the thing where it wants me to type "mac-boot". I noticed that my mouse shut off, so I think when it loads me into open firmware it is shutting off my USB support.

 

[Palad1]

Not much of a Linux guy, so I'm gonna ask a newbie question.

All different iterations of Linux are pretty much the same, right? I mean, all the same commands should be usable no matter which Linux you choose. So why is one Linux better than another? Is it just differences in UI?

Mostly differences in administration methods and packages repositories, and minor system-wide tweaks (conf.files, doc locations (I love debian!!!), and so on).

that's why they are often referred to as 'Flavors'.

Cheers!

 

[Flying Llama]

Not much of a Linux guy, so I'm gonna ask a newbie question.

All different iterations of Linux are pretty much the same, right? I mean, all the same commands should be usable no matter which Linux you choose. So why is one Linux better than another? Is it just differences in UI?

Think of it as cheese: there are many different variations, some are closer than others, and some are based off of others. Yet all (or most) cheese is based on milk...

All linux distros are based off the linux kernel (the most low-level part, the part that actually talks and controls your hardware), created by Linus Torvalis in the early 90s. But a kernel by itself is useless. You need programs (or at least a shell), for the computer to be any useful.

Suse and Yellowdog, for instance, are based off RedHat. (So they all have some similar points). They use the same package management system as RedHat. I personally don't like RPM.
Ubuntu, for one, is based off of Debian, which uses apt-get and .deb for package management. Fink and Darwinports on OS X also use the debian system, which is apt-get and .deb. I personally would choose Debian/Ubuntu solely for this reason. (You can go to wikipedia for a more in-depth comparison of .rpm and .deb)

Yet all Distros must use a window manager, or desktop environment. Mac OS X uses aqua, and you can't change that. Debian and Ubuntu use, by default, Gnome, which is often chosen for it's simplicity and elegance. RedHat, SuSe and many others use KDE as their desktop, which is often criticised as being extremely similar to windows, with eye-popping plastic icons and eye-candy. You can get some screenshots of pretty much every distro here.

So no, the GUI and UI is mostly determined by what window manager and desktop environment you use. Even though Ubuntu comes with Gnome, you can download and install KDE. Vice-versa for others such as SuSe.

The difference between distros is what programs it comes installed with, what package management system it uses, and just basically what is was made to do. RedHat is more for your server, Ubuntu is for home and simplicity. Don't choose a distro on it's UI, for that is changeable. Choose it by everything else.

I hope that this might have cleared some things up.

llama

 

[slooksterPSV]

If you guys want to see another HowTO, but on HOW-TO Install SuSE 10.0 on a Macintosh, just PM me or post here. Right now I'm downloading only Disk1 of 10.0 Release Candidate (RC) for PPC (Power PC). I'll let you guys know what I think of it after I install it. Otherwise you won't hear from me for days cause I'll be trying to get OS X back on.

I could also do Fedora if I don't like SuSE. Just lemme know what Linux you want to see on my iBook

 

[dubbz]

Suse and Yellowdog, for instance, are based off RedHat.

Just a little nitpickin'...

Even though it makes use of RPMs, SUSE isn't based on Red Hat, but on Slackware or SLS (I don't remember for sure which one).

I'm also no fan of RPMs. apt-get/deb and emerge/Portage (as used in Gentoo) are soooo much better.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Just a little nitpickin'...

Even though it makes use of RPMs, SUSE isn't based on Red Hat, but on Slackware or SLS (I don't remember for sure which one).

I'm also no fan of RPMs. apt-get/deb and emerge/Portage (as used in Gentoo) are soooo much better.

That was a god-send for me with Ubuntu - apt-get - the ease of using that + it supported my proxy I used to have:
set http_proxy=http://myipaddress:portnumber
sudo apt-get install kde


What is it in SuSE though do you know?

 

[dubbz]

What is it in SuSE though do you know?

Don't use any proxy, so I'm afraid I don't know. I'm guessing you could probably do it somehow using YaST.

There's also apt-get for SUSE (although I've never tried it there), so it's quite possible that you could use the same trick.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Don't use any proxy, so I'm afraid I don't know. I'm guessing you could probably do it somehow using YaST.

There's also apt-get for SUSE (although I've never tried it there), so it's quite possible that you could use the same trick.

I think I'd rather have apt-get I like it a lot better. only 15 min before my dl is done.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Here I go with SuSE 10.0 RC PPC install.

 

[Flying Llama]

Here I go with SuSE 10.0 RC PPC install.

Good luck!
When I tried it on my iMac (hoping this one would work), I got weird colors like my graphics card blew up (imagine inverted 24 colors), still tried, though it fussed in the partitioner and said I had a corrupt cd.
So I downloaded and burned it again, same problems...

My iMac was just never ment for Linux!

llama

 

[Flying Llama]

Just a little nitpickin'...

Even though it makes use of RPMs, SUSE isn't based on Red Hat, but on Slackware or SLS (I don't remember for sure which one).

I'm also no fan of RPMs. apt-get/deb and emerge/Portage (as used in Gentoo) are soooo much better.

Right.

llama

EDIT: Just checked my post count for the first time in 3 months... 476! Almost there....

 

[slooksterPSV]

You guys it didn't work. It wouldn't even partition my iBook's hard drive. I just barely got OS X installed. I tried installing SuSE 10.0 RC 10 times, no kidding. I'm going to start downloading Fedora here soon. I have Ubuntu installing on my iMac, so I'll at least have one computer useable as Linux for me. Fedora should work. It's part of RedHat, and a lot of others are running it. I would like to try and install X11, Fink, XFree86, and get KDE running on top of Mac OS X under X11. If I get that running I'll let you know.

 

[Flying Llama]

You guys it didn't work. It wouldn't even partition my iBook's hard drive. I just barely got OS X installed. I tried installing SuSE 10.0 RC 10 times, no kidding. I'm going to start downloading Fedora here soon. I have Ubuntu installing on my iMac, so I'll at least have one computer useable as Linux for me. Fedora should work. It's part of RedHat, and a lot of others are running it. I would like to try and install X11, Fink, XFree86, and get KDE running on top of Mac OS X under X11. If I get that running I'll let you know.

Well atleast I'm not the only one!
Well, I got KDE running thanks to this tutorial, pretty easy to do.
What iMac do you have? Not G5 I suppose...
Also, what exactly are the advantages of Fedora? RPM kinda sucks...

llama

 

[slooksterPSV]

Well atleast I'm not the only one!
Well, I got KDE running thanks to this tutorial, pretty easy to do.
What iMac do you have? Not G5 I suppose...
Also, what exactly are the advantages of Fedora? RPM kinda sucks...

llama

The iMac in my siggy. Right now I'm installing all sorts of packages using apt-get for through Terminal. I guess I need the apple developer stuff to get the KDE working. I know, I know. I'm going to go download it right after gnome installs lol. That's the only thing I'm missing is the Apple Developer tools. I'll post later - as for Fedora, I dunno. I kinda want linux on my iBook, but if I can get KDE and Gnome to run on my iBook, I'll be set.