Linux CD won't run on Power Mac G4

[macuser1232]

Hi,

I just recently bought a Power Mac G4 and I inserted a Linux CD into the cd/dvd drive and held down "C" while it was booting up and it the only thing it did was show the finder logo and a question mark blinking. Also I don't think it is reading the hard drive I have in it. Currently, the hard drive that is in it is a blank hard drive with nothing on it.

 

[G51989]

Hi,

I just recently bought a Power Mac G4 and I inserted a Linux CD into the cd/dvd drive and held down "C" while it was booting up and it the only thing it did was show the finder logo and a question mark blinking. Also I don't think it is reading the hard drive I have in it. Currently, the hard drive that is in it is a blank hard drive with nothing on it.

You need to find a Linux Distro thats compatible with Power PC Macs.

 

[macuser1232]

You need to find a Linux Distro thats compatible with Power PC Macs.

I just inserted a PPC compatible Linux distro and it didn't work. I held down the "C" key and I still got the finder logo and question mark blinking. Maybe my cd/dvd drive doesn't work. It does have this orange light that turns on but it could be green. I don't know.

 

[TheUI]

You need to find a Linux Distro thats compatible with Power PC Macs.

Hey, thanks for clarifying this. I always like to have a Ubuntu live CD handy, because they are really effective recovery tools sometimes.

 

[Bug-Creator]

Try holding "alt" on powerup and see if the CD appears there (had that happen with various OSes allready).

 

[alexreich]

Hey, thanks for clarifying this. I always like to have a Ubuntu live CD handy, because they are really effective recovery tools sometimes.

I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04 for my PowerMac G5 the other night, haven't gotten the chance to install it though. I was just curious how it would run on the G5 and if it was faster or slower than OS X Leopard.

 

[TheUI]

I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04 for my PowerMac G5 the other night, haven't gotten the chance to install it though. I was just curious how it would run on the G5 and if it was faster or slower than OS X Leopard.

Well, my experience since Unity (11.04 Natty Narwhal) has been that it's performance varies wildly across hardware. I have an i5 Sandy, 4GB DDR3 laptop, and to be honest, Precise is clunky in some capacities. Sometimes (I know this sounds like rubbish) I find Ubuntu does better after its had a few days to "settle."

My wife has a Lap with an Intel Celeron and 2 GB of DDR2 and Precise rips on it. It feels very light, and battery life is respectable.

I have never used a PPC distro, and I don't know if any other major releases support PPC, but I hear a lot of great things about the newest release of Mint (for being lite) and also, a lot of good stuff about "Beefy Miracle," which is a Fedora release (I believe).

So, florid commentary aside, if I had to layed twenty on how your system will handle it (assuming you have sufficient RAM) I would imagine it will run quite nicely. Be aware Nvidia has until recently moved at a snails pace in supporting *nix, sonic you have one of those GPUs on your Mac, finding drivers *may* be challenging.

Edit: Ironic that "so if" autocorrected to Sonic. I'm leaving it.

 

[macuser1232]

Try holding "alt" on powerup and see if the CD appears there (had that happen with various OSes allready).

Yeah I did that

----------

Well, my experience since Unity (11.04 Natty Narwhal) has been that it's performance varies wildly across hardware. I have an i5 Sandy, 4GB DDR3 laptop, and to be honest, Precise is clunky in some capacities. Sometimes (I know this sounds like rubbish) I find Ubuntu does better after its had a few days to "settle."

My wife has a Lap with an Intel Celeron and 2 GB of DDR2 and Precise rips on it. It feels very light, and battery life is respectable.

I have never used a PPC distro, and I don't know if any other major releases support PPC, but I hear a lot of great things about the newest release of Mint (for being lite) and also, a lot of good stuff about "Beefy Miracle," which is a Fedora release (I believe).

So, florid commentary aside, if I had to layed twenty on how your system will handle it (assuming you have sufficient RAM) I would imagine it will run quite nicely. Be aware Nvidia has until recently moved at a snails pace in supporting *nix, sonic you have one of those GPUs on your Mac, finding drivers *may* be challenging.

Edit: Ironic that "so if" autocorrected to Sonic. I'm leaving it.

I believe Ubuntu is a PPC compatible distro. Even though nothing happened when I put the CD into my G4 holding down "C." I even tried holding down the option, or alt, key and it still didn't see the cd.

 

[Bug-Creator]

Yeah I did that

----------


I believe Ubuntu is a PPC compatible distro.

Only if you downloaded an PPC-ISO. A quick look on ubuntu.com only revealed "32bit" and "64bit" both quite clearing refering to x86...

Got Mint on my PowerMac G4 and that one didn't even stumble over my HD with RDB-partition-table connected to a generic PC SATA-card (yep there is no AppleOS on that one ....).

 

[macuser1232]

Only if you downloaded an PPC-ISO. A quick look on ubuntu.com only revealed "32bit" and "64bit" both quite clearing refering to x86...

Got Mint on my PowerMac G4 and that one didn't even stumble over my HD with RDB-partition-table connected to a generic PC SATA-card (yep there is no AppleOS on that one ....).

I also have a Mint cd. Are you saying that any Mint iso download will work?

 

[Lil Chillbil]

I also have a Mint cd. Are you saying that any Mint iso download will work?

only the powerpc version

 

[macuser1232]

only the powerpc version

Oh ok I'll try the PPC version.

 

[DrakkenWar]

Mint PPC

http://mintppc.org/

That is where you want to start if you want to install MintPPC on your mac. To be honest, after years of mucking around with linux on both x86 hardware and PPC's this is the best of the bunch. Granted there are some concessions with flash and what not you should know going into it. But that is neither here nor there. It is worth a try to see what you think, you can always source a universal install of Tiger for cheap or Leopard if you have a first born to barter . Make sure if you are using disk utility, when you download the .ISO file you burn it as a new image. If you burn the file as contents or whatever it says, it will not create a disk that will boot. If you use SimplyBurn, Toast etc, again, burn a new image and see what happens.

 

[macuser1232]

http://mintppc.org/

That is where you want to start if you want to install MintPPC on your mac. To be honest, after years of mucking around with linux on both x86 hardware and PPC's this is the best of the bunch. Granted there are some concessions with flash and what not you should know going into it. But that is neither here nor there. It is worth a try to see what you think, you can always source a universal install of Tiger for cheap or Leopard if you have a first born to barter . Make sure if you are using disk utility, when you download the .ISO file you burn it as a new image. If you burn the file as contents or whatever it says, it will not create a disk that will boot. If you use SimplyBurn, Toast etc, again, burn a new image and see what happens.

I'm not really sure what you are talking about with the burning thing. But, I'm pretty sure I am burning the iso right. Also, you may have heard me from the other post but when I use MintPPC it freezes when it gets to the languages page.

 

[rugbygangster]

I have successfully booted Ubuntu 12.04 PPC live CD on Powerbook G4, although I had to type: live nouveau.noaccel=1 at the boot prompt to disable 3D acceleration, which wasn't supported.

 

[macuser1232]

I have successfully booted Ubuntu 12.04 PPC live CD on Powerbook G4, although I had to type: live nouveau.noaccel=1 at the boot prompt to disable 3D acceleration, which wasn't supported.

hm. I may try that while im waiting to purchase a copy of OS X Panther or Tiger. Any idea why MintPPC is freezing on language menu?