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Lubuntu 16.04 Remix (updated)

dpfenninger said:
Dumb Linux newbie question, but what is the advantage of the 16.04 over the 12.04? Are there still supported browsers and other software that will run in the 12.04?
Click to expand...

Wicknix has created/ported Arctic Fox (Palemoon derivative), Spiderweb (UXP browser) and Interweb (Basilisk/Firefox port) web browsers for both OS X and PPC Linux. If you have a G5, he suggests 16.04. If you have a G3/G4 he suggests 12.04, as it is more "period correct". He reports on his Mac Mini G4 12.04 "flies".
 
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Imixmuan said:
Wicknix has created/ported Arctic Fox (Palemoon derivative), Spiderweb (UXP browser) and Interweb (Basilisk/Firefox port) web browsers for both OS X and PPC Linux. If you have a G5, he suggests 16.04. If you have a G3/G4 he suggests 12.04, as it is more "period correct". He reports on his Mac Mini G4 12.04 "flies".
Click to expand...
And he's not wrong about the performance on a G4, I've tried 12.04 on my dual 1.25GHz G4 MDD, and It seemed improbably fast. The main issue for me was that the installer seems to break when it tried to set up yast, it appeared to get confused by my Mac OS partitions, and I have no idea what that's about.

But at least it didn't crash on my Radeon 9000 Pro like 16.04 does.
 
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@repairedCheese : Yeah that's odd. One of my G5's just got a new HD and i installed 10.4, then 10.5, then 12 remix. No issue with yaboot or crashing installer. Maybe it just doesn't like os9?

@dpfenninger : 16.04 is newer, with newer software versions and is still receiving security updates until april 2021. 12.04's last official updates ended in 2017. Now with that said i rebuilt a ton of software on 12.04 to bring a lot stuff up to date. I personally run 12.04 on all my G4's as its lighter and faster than 16.04, Debian 10/Sid, and Void. Sure, it's a little out of date, but the 3.x kernel allows for working suspend/resume on ibooks/powerbooks, and pbbuttonsd works properly (keyboard backlight / media keys). I also built 3 modern-ish web browsers for 12.04 so it's just as useable on the web as "current" Linux distros.

Cheers
 
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wicknix said:
@repairedCheese : Yeah that's odd. One of my G5's just got a new HD and i installed 10.4, then 10.5, then 12 remix. No issue with yaboot or crashing installer. Maybe it just doesn't like os9?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do much more than figure out that it was yaboot that was complaining about a version of the Mac OS. And that's weird because 16.04 never had trouble, even when I managed to get one of your older builds installed on my eMac. It seems like an issue with 12, and you might be right, I've never tried it on other hardware that runs OS 9, but there doesn't seem to be a way to recover on the error, which is an absolute shame.
 
@repairedCheese I have a wild idea. It may work, it may not. The live dvds (12/16 remix) run with an overlay filesystem giving you about 1gb of virtual free space. I wonder if changing apts sources.list to use 14.04 or 16.04's repos to pull in the updated yaboot on the live system would work. Then revert back to 12.04 repos and try installing again. Obviously only try this if you want to possibly fix/repair os9 again.
 
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Ok, so I tried out the 12.04 Remix, and installation went WAY more smoothly and seamlessly, with no boot parameters even needed. After installation, it kind of hosed some of my existing Mac OS partitions (OS 9 would no longer boot, and oddly enough my 10.1 partition wouldn't get to the desktop), but that was fixed by booting from an OS 9 CD and updating the disk driver on the internal drive and also just reinstalling 10.1. I now have a G4 with nine separate bootable partitions: OS 9, every OS X from 10.0 to 10.5, MorphOS, AND the 12.04 Remix. It's turning out to be a fun system to tinker with and push to its limits.

Speaking of pushing, I'm currently upgrading 12.04 to 14.04, as the Update Manager offered it as an upgrade option. Will this significantly slow down the system, or even break it? I'm not overly concerned as I can always reinstall if it was a bad idea, but I thought I'd at least try it.
 
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Cool. Sounds like a nice tinker machine. As for updating to 14.04... I wouldn't. It'll be slower as 14 introduced systemd. It may even break as my remix wasn't really designed for that. A lot of what I had updated was manually installed. 14 will overwrite a lot of my updates and revert them to older versions. So if it's already in progress, see what happens, but id recommend leaving 12.04 as is. Run the updates after install, but ignore the 14.04 upgrade.

Cheers
 
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wicknix said:
Cool. Sounds like a nice tinker machine. As for updating to 14.04... I wouldn't. It'll be slower as 14 introduced systemd. It may even break as my remix wasn't really designed for that. A lot of what I had updated was manually installed. 14 will overwrite a lot of my updates and revert them to older versions. So if it's already in progress, see what happens, but id recommend leaving 12.04 as is. Run the updates after install, but ignore the 14.04 upgrade.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yup, broke it. The screen is all sorts of glitchy and every dialog box that pops up is missing its contents. I should've known not to mess with something that was working well. :)

Time to reinstall 12.04.
 
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I've just installed Macbuntu on my PowerBook 1.67, having completely borked the old remix 12.4 v1 install.

Excellent ! and both Interweb and Spiderweb render my Smugmug page properly, which Arcticfox cannot do, and Tenfourfox cannot manage in Leopard ;)

Thanks for all the great work :)

Cheers :)

Hugh
 
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With a few minor tweaks yes. Check the link in the post right above yours. There is a how to and video in that thread.

Cheers
 
Thank you for this tremendous work; I am having a problem getting this to boot off the DVD.

Specs:

  • PowerPC G5 DP 2.0GHz (Late 2005)
  • 2.5GB RAM
  • Nvidia 6600LE 128MB GPU
  • Dual 17" Apple Studio Display LCDs both with ADC adapters
  • 256GB SSD (Currently has 10.5.8)
  • 1TB 7200 RPM HDD
I am trying to install the Macbuntu 12.04 linked from page/post 1. I believe it's the ADC display adapters that are causing a problem.

I've tried every combination I could think of:

Kernels:
live-nosplash-powerpc64; live-powerpc64; & live​

Options:
video=TV-1:d (also, TV-2:d)
video=DVI-I-1:e (d,D) (DVI-I-2, all the same)
video=nvidiafb:1024x768/1280x1024-16/24/32 (and '@60')
video=TV-1:d (also, 'TV-2:d') video=offb:eek:ff nosplash
video=ofonly
​
I tried every combination I could think of from above and only got to a black or white screen. I've read every post I could find about DVI/ADC adapters and Linux. Unfortunately, I cannot buy a new monitor; in OS X 10.5.8, these things are pretty.

Has anybody had any luck on getting an ADC adapter working or, do you have any ideas?

I've tried Ubuntu forums and their PowerPC FAQ. I've found a Debian email thread that worked on a G4 ACD adapter with CRTs.

I've searched and tried for days, but have not had any luck.
 
Hi, the Ubuntu 16.04 Remix live image works fine on my G5, installing is also possible with no problems, but the first boot ends up with an Kernel Panic:
"Kernel Panic - Not Syncing: VFS: Unable to Mount Root FS on Unknown-Block(0,0)"
I think the intiramfs file was not found, but I have no idea how to fix it..

thanks!
n
 
I have 2 suggestions that may or may not work. First, make sure your linux hard drive is in the upper bay of your G5. It wont boot from the lower bay (even though it'll install fine). Second, stay offline during the install. Run the updates after the system is installed.

Cheers
 
wicknix said:
First, make sure your linux hard drive is in the upper bay of your G5. It wont boot from the lower bay (even though it'll install fine). Second, stay offline during the install.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid not, the same error :-(
 

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Bummer. There was this glitch on the official 16.04 desktop iso that affected a few select machines. Since i based remix off of that it inherited that bug. You can always try the 12 remix, which doesn't have this quirk. I've mildly updated it with some newer software, and it runs faster than 16.04. Otherwise give mintppc, adelie or void-ppc a spin.

Cheers
 
@netzwichtel You will need to manually partition the disk before installing the system. The guide available within The PowerPC Debian Wiki should give you a couple pointers, but just make sure to select "Something else" when partitioning the disk in the installer to start.
 
@z970mp
@wicknix
Thank you both for your help.
I've tried out void-ppc after I have no success with 12/16 remix and after some effort it work's for me (except some minor things ;-)). Only my Cinema Display 30" will don't work in Dual-Link-DVI mode (only with half resolution 1280x800 on the DVI port without Dual-Link on my Radeon 9650). When it is connected to the DL-port, the display turns off when void began booting. I think I need some boot params ...

thanks!
n
 
@wicknix
I have tried everything to make the Lubuntu 12.04 remix works for my iMac G3 700MHz ATI 128 16MB. It wont install.
With yaboot parameter video=offb:eek:ff will stay white forever with video=ofonly it shows the lubuntu loading animation and then fail to load the DE, goes back to terminal mode (lightdm terminated with status 1).

Is there a way to skip the live and perform the alternate installation? I know iMac g3 usually install with the alternate text mode and always fails with live. With the alternate installation method you can create a xorg.conf edit it and make it to work. I manage to install debian 8.11 that way.

Otherwise I'm pretty stuck. Thank you for your help.
 
@wicknix
I will try tomorrow with the "live video=aty128fb:1024x768-16 single" usually I do this to force the system with iMac G3. In this way I should be able to root, configure X, edit it and start lightdm.
But is too late now in Italy ;). I will give you some more info later on. If it works you should probably add it to your instructions. I sincerely doubt anyone can run your distro on iMac G3 otherwise.

Keep in touch on this.
 
wicknix said:
Let us know how it goes. The rage128 cards are known to be finicky with Linux. Here are a few links that might help.
December 3, 2019 at 11:40 PM

Ubuntu Forums

A help and support forum for Ubuntu Linux.
ubuntuforums.org

Cheers
Click to expand...
Very much so ;)
I am struggling to get a G4 Pismo to the desktop.
Firstly I discovered that it will not boot any DVD distro, but 12.04 v2 on CD boots fine in OF.
Next, all of the parameters eg 'live video=aty128fb:1024x768-16 video=offb:eek:ff nosplash' and variations
I've tried at the yaboot prompt result in a failure to start lightdm :(
PRAM / NVRAM have been reset in OF.
I've even considered putting the old G3 cpu card back in just to see if it makes a difference.

What next?

Cheers :)

Hugh
 
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wicknix said:
Let us know how it goes. The rage128 cards are known to be finicky with Linux.
Click to expand...

It was a hell of a job but as I was thinking yesterday, I managed to force the start up of X/lightDM :).
If you have an iMac G3 (slot loading version) follow this procedure just for the installation via live CD.

Boot the live CD/USB in recovery mode with yaboot parameters:

Code: 
live video=aty128fb:1024x768-16 single

wait for the system to start up
look at both terminal 1 and 7 (CTRL+ALT+F1, CTRL+ALT+F7) to check where it places the terminal with root access
create the configuration files for Xorg, copy it in the X11 startup folder, and edit the file using following commands:

Code: 
X -configure
cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
nano /etx/X11/xorg.conf

then for the iMac G3 CRT screen you need to add the following lines in the Monitor section:

Code: 
HorizSync 58-62
VertRefresh 75-117

then, for avoiding the hang up with the ATI Rage 128 I just modified the driver in the Device section:

Code: 
Driver "fbdev"

save and exit. Type in the terminal:

Code: 
start lightdm

Screen goes black for a while, while loading from the slow USB 1 bus.
Finally the system start and you install Lubuntu Remix 12.04 on an iMac G3.

IMG_20201222_103912.jpg


When you reboot you may still need to help with "Linux video=ofonly" yaboot code and "start lightdm" from terminal.

This was just the basics to install it using generic graphics drivers. Of course system shows graphic glitches and some apps are unstable. What I will try today is to make it work with the "r128" drivers to get at least GLX to work ;).

Cheers
Francesco
 
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Fantastic! Glad you figured it out. I'll link to your post when I get home for the rage128 section.
Everything should stabilize once its installed and the updates are installed.

Cheers.
 
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