Suggestions for Linux & on which PPC

[CooperBox]

Even after reading through the PowerPC Linux Wiki I'm still a little confused. I've been tempted to perform a clean install of a Linux distro, but so far put off by many of the problems encountered & the multitude of questions, plus up until now I've tended to shy away from use of the terminal.
My question is simple and two-fold:
i) Which would be the easiest Linux to install? Debian Sid, Void, Mint or Lubunto 16.04. From the comments by wicknix so far I'm tempted by the latter.
ii) Which PPC machine would be the most compatible regarding the graphics card, I have several to choose from: Cube 450MHz (ATI Rage 128 Pro)
G4 15" iMac (NVIDIA GeForce2 MX)
iMac 17" (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX)
iMac 17 or 20" (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra)
PowerBook Ti (ATI Mobility Radeon)
PBook Ti (ATI Mobility Radeon 9000)
Or any of the later 12", 15" or 17" PowerBooks?

With your feed-back looking forward to at least trying my luck on at least one PPC machine.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I never went to a full install on my 12" Powerbook (and now I've moved it on) but the Lubuntu 16 live disk from @wicknix was excellent on it - no messing with Terminal unless you wanted to as all the usual post install things are already set.

 

[wicknix]

Radeon video cards are probably the best supported, as is the NvidiaFX5200. So I'd recommend trying on those machines first. The beauty of Lubuntu/Remix is the live cd/dvd. It allows you to test on your hardware before you install. If the live cd/dvd boots to the desktop you are pretty much good to install on that machine. As @Dronecatcher mentioned, my Remix is probably the easiest to test and install, and most all the post install annoyances of other distros are already taken care of.

Cheers

 

[CooperBox]

Many thanks to you both. I'll let you know how things progress.

 

[G4fanboy]

Is the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX a poor choice for a Debian/Ubuntu install?

The Rage128 is a poor performer IIRC

 

[wicknix]

Yeah the rage 128's are frame buffer only, so performance isn't good. I have no experience with the GeForce MX's. Maybe someone with those cards can chime in. Otherwise try any of the Ubuntu (12/14/16/remix) live disks and see what the results are.

 

[z970]

If I remember correctly, the last time I tried Lubuntu 16.04 on my iMac G4's GeForce4 MX, Plymouth's (splash screen) colors were all messed up. Once it actually got into the desktop however, it was fine.

I don't think the terminal sessions had any issues either.

 

[bobesch]

I've tried Lubuntu 16.04 Live-DVD today on my 15" PB-G4-DLSD/Mobility Radeon 9700.
Booting went fine and overall experience was fine too, except of trackpad movements being sometime slightly unsmooth.
Chapeau and thanks to @wicknix !
Shovelled free a small partition on my mSATA for a permanent installation, but got stuck at the step, when it comes to the how-to and where-to for the installation-procedure.
That and the fact, that I was not capable to play even 240p YT-video with the live-session made me cancel further trials for now. I'm really sorry about that ...😢

BTW: Booting the Lubuntu 12.04 live-CD didn't succeed. Do I need a DVD for that purpose?

 

[wicknix]

Youtube won't play well from the live disk. Once installed you can install mozplugger or browser-plugin-vlc and easily get 360p/480p on a powerbook. The installer is pretty straight forward, but it looks like you may have many partitions with other OS's on them. You'd have to figure out which partition it is you made for Linux and tell the installer to install there.

The 12.04.iso was meant for CD (size-wise) and should just boot. Does it boot, then fail to load Linux, or not boot at all?

Cheers

 

[bobesch]

Youtube won't play well from the live disk. Once installed you can install mozplugger or browser-plugin-vlc and easily get 360p/480p on a powerbook. The installer is pretty straight forward, but it looks like you may have many partitions with other OS's on them. You'd have to figure out which partition it is you made for Linux and tell the installer to install there.
The 12.04.iso was meant for CD (size-wise) and should just boot. Does it boot, then fail to load Linux, or not boot at all?
Cheers

Oh, great to hear about prospects on better video-capabilities. That's why and to find out I've planned the permanent installation onto the mSATA.
And yep, there were more (three) partitions (Leopard/Tiger/data) and I've separated another 6GB crump from the Leopard-partition for the permanent Lubuntu-installation.
Came to the step, where I've got the list of all partitions to choose from and gave up without "reading the manual first".

The 12.04.iso CD unfortunately didn't boot ... Choosed it from the PB's boot-menue and after a short sequence of a dark or grey screen I was thrown back to the booting-screen but with slightly distorted&blurred symbols etc.
(edit: booting was fine on the late 12" 1.5GHz PB)

Previous to the PB-G4 I tried to boot the 12.04 iso on my Clamshell and ended with a command-line.
Oh, my DOS-times are long ago and my experience with Linux & command-line is only rudimentary and experimental (and mostly in a virtual machine - except from an old eeePC-subnotebook). Maybe the Clamshell's resolution does't fit?