Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iBook G4 with UBUNTU 11.10?

M

macdatadrive

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 25, 2011
126
0
The city of Macintosh :)
So, here's the deal.
So far I can't update any programs because my iBook G4 1.13ghz with 256 mb ram will only run panther.
YES I KNOW it can run tiger but it is extremely slow.
Will the latest version of ubuntu run on this iBook fast or will it be slow?
Any of you with similar experience?
 
If you get yourself a 1gb stick it'll run Tiger,or even Leopard absolutely great. Ubuntu was really, really dreadfully slow on my 867mhz PowerBook with 640mb RAM. Tiger however runs like a dream.
 
Thanks Goftrey!
It's good when other users have the experience so you can relate.
Where would be the cheapest place to get some? Ebay? Amazon? OWC?
Sorry, I'm not an expert on where to buy RAM.:)
 
It seems odd that tiger is running slower than panther. You have a faster g4 than my 1ghz pb and I run tiger fine. Max out the ram and try again. I have mostly heard that tiger is faster than panther on machines that support it. Can anyone actually verify that?
 
With the right desktop environment, Linux will always be faster than OS X. Openbox and LXDE are good choices and will even run well on 256 MB of RAM.
 
crewkid89 said:
It seems odd that tiger is running slower than panther. You have a faster g4 than my 1ghz pb and I run tiger fine. Max out the ram and try again. I have mostly heard that tiger is faster than panther on machines that support it. Can anyone actually verify that?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I have no idea.
I didn't install Panther from the Retail disk, I used the restore disks that came with it.
Tiger is probably one of the best OSes for PPC Macs out there, but I lost my disk, so I would buy one off eBay. I hate tormenting things. I'd be too scared to get caught.
How much ram do you have? Mine only has the 256 soldered to the logic board, so I'm not exactly sure.
Thanks for your help though.

----------
MacinDan said:
With the right desktop environment, Linux will always be faster than OS X. Openbox and LXDE are good choices and will even run well on 256 MB of RAM.
Click to expand...

I heard Ubuntu desktop can run with an absolute minimum of 64mb.
What do you think? It's doesn't matter if it doesn't work, this is only for testing.
 
[/COLOR]

I heard Ubuntu desktop can run with an absolute minimum of 64mb.
What do you think? It's doesn't matter if it doesn't work, this is only for testing.[/QUOTE]

With the server install, or the netboot iso? Yes. 64mb is completely sufficient. However you will be command line only in that respect. While my linux experience with macs is a bit limited. I can honestly say with the hardware you have, LXDE or XFCE will be your best shot if you want a windows manager that will seem at least some what familiar.
If you want things to run with any sort of speed with 256mbs to play with? Shoot for Fluxbox, FVWM, WindowMaker, JWM, IceWindows or even Enlightnement.
Keep in mind the first four are not for the faint of heart, as there is a lot of text coding needed from the command line to make them work the way you want, but once you do? They are a DREAM. Fast, clean, efficent and just plain nice. ;) IceWindows is really akin to Windows98-ish, with a bit more user-friendliness built in. While Enlightenment is just fun.

http://fluxbox.org/
http://www.fvwm.org/
http://windowmaker.org/
http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/
http://www.enlightenment.org/

All are available in the repo's for easy download and initial configuration. If you have problems from there, feel free to PM or drop me an email.

http://xwinman.org/ <- Is also a wonderful place to poke around and look at all the project that are up and running to some extent or another.

Happy hunting, I have loved my linux boxes for almost as long as I have loved my macs!

~Drake
 
just get yourself a 512 or 1 gig stick!

i have a 12" ibook MHz800 640 ram...runs tiger just fine

i have tryed Ubuntu on a another ibook i used to own...was slower then tiger (even using fvwm)...and i could never get wifi to work...
 
macdatadrive said:
To be honest, I have no idea.
I didn't install Panther from the Retail disk, I used the restore disks that came with it.
Tiger is probably one of the best OSes for PPC Macs out there, but I lost my disk, so I would buy one off eBay. I hate tormenting things. I'd be too scared to get caught.
How much ram do you have? Mine only has the 256 soldered to the logic board, so I'm not exactly sure.
Thanks for your help though.


----------



I heard Ubuntu desktop can run with an absolute minimum of 64mb.
What do you think? It's doesn't matter if it doesn't work, this is only for testing.
Click to expand...

Mine also has 256mb soldered in and then I added a 1gb stick for a total of 1.25gb probably the same as yours. www.macsales.com will tell you and offer the right chip for your laptop.

You can run a command line install with 64mb of ram but not much else. The least amount of ram I have installed a graphic desktop with as 256mb on a pentium 3 laptop. It ran lubuntu pretty well. The only problem was the new Linux kernel seems to lose support for my old ati rage card. I also ran fluxbox on a wii running Linux (700mhz ppc with 88mb of ram). Pretty much the most useless thing you can do with it.

----------
tom vilsack said:
just get yourself a 512 or 1 gig stick!

i have a 12" ibook MHz800 640 ram...runs tiger just fine

i have tryed Ubuntu on a another ibook i used to own...was slower then tiger (even using fvwm)...and i could never get wifi to work...
Click to expand...

I know the feeling. One person saying there's runs like a bat out of hell doesn't help you when yours won't. I have found the best way to do these installs is to start from the command line install, add xorg, and then only install exactly what you need one package at a time. This includes finding wifi drivers for your card. wifi integration has gotten pretty good in the recent kernel versions but you can also use a USB dongle.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back