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

Ubuntu MATE

ubuntu mate is pretty much the go to linux distro everyone here uses if they are playing with linux.

I have installed it on many PowerPC macs :)
 
Installed on my iMac G4 20" as secondary system, but 32 bit support is running out in around 2019. Gentoo 32bit support has not ended. For future support it is better to use Gentoo at the moment.
 
It can be a bit finicky to install, but yeah, if I need Linux on a PowerpC Mac, this is my to-go distro as well. It was also just the most handy for me, since @LightBulbFun uses it too and I could replicate his QEMU KVM setup pretty easily to run some OS X VMs myself as well. It's just fun to mess around with multiple operating systems on a single PowerPC Mac, especially when you virtualize OS X versions not natively supported on a G5, and Ubuntu MATE allowed that for me :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
Daniël Oosterhuis said:
It can be a bit finicky to install, but yeah, if I need Linux on a PowerpC Mac, this is my to-go distro as well. It was also just the most handy for me, since @LightBulbFun uses it too and I could replicate his QEMU KVM setup pretty easily to run some OS X VMs myself as well. It's just fun to mess around with multiple operating systems on a single PowerPC Mac, especially when you virtualize OS X versions not natively supported on a G5, and Ubuntu MATE allowed that for me :)
Click to expand...

Just confirming from my own experience; Mate 16.04 is the best bet for a modern Linux system on PowerPC (G4 and G5). Be sure to read the PowerPC FAQ at the Ubuntu wiki. Specifically, the information about how to disable acceleration/AGP mode on Radeon and Nvidia cards. This is necessary during installation, but once it is installed you'll want to update and then try without the boot commands to get full acceleration. The more recent kernel changes seem to have improved support for various cards. Although I was never able to get NV45 acceleration working on my Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT DDL (AGP), whereas an FX 5200 (64MB) stock card will work perfectly with (limited) 3D, compositor and video acceleration.
 
  • Like
Reactions: G4fanboy and LightBulbFun
Started having a play with Mate 1604 last night on the DLSD. I'm unfamilar with ubuntu distros, most of my experience is on CentOS.

How is best to update it? Tried the Software Updater from the desktop and it promptly fell over and pegged out the CPU...
 
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
I've seen the Software Updater fall over on my PowerBook like that.

It appears to get stuck (at full CPU load) at the end of the progress bar. I found that switching workspaces and back at this stage allows it to pass the finish line.

Also, to manually apply Kernel updates:

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
 
  • Like
Reactions: G4fanboy and LightBulbFun
Fantastic, thanks a lot! Doing that now!

Final thing, I believe would be getting the Radeon here working, even with just the Marco GPU compositor. Don't necessarily need Compiz working, but that'd be nice. Have to boot each time manually (for the moment) with Linux radeon.agpmode=-1 until I get this handled. Might have to make it permanent sure, but until I'm certain....:D
 
SevenCities-PPK said:
Fantastic, thanks a lot! Doing that now!

Final thing, I believe would be getting the Radeon here working, even with just the Marco GPU compositor. Don't necessarily need Compiz working, but that'd be nice. Have to boot each time manually (for the moment) with Linux radeon.agpmode=-1 until I get this handled. Might have to make it permanent sure, but until I'm certain....:D
Click to expand...

Cool. Add the agpmode line to your yaboot.conf to make it persist.
 
Would anyone know (or could guess) if Mate would run reasonably on a G4 PowerBook3,5 1.0 GHz with 1Gb memory?
Mine (currently loaded with Leopard) which doesn't see a lot of use these days, could be an interesting PBook to try.
I have very limited experience with Linux distros; bought a 1.25Ghz G4 iMac with Lubunto 12.04 pre-installed by a 'Linux specialist', and it ran like molasses. Changed it to Leopard which positively transformed the iMac!
I also installed Ubunto Mint on an Intel 2008 white MacBook and quite enjoyed that experience, hence my interest to attempt again on a PPC. Unfortunately I'm not very adventurous when it comes to command-line usage, so if anyone could point me in the direction of a very good tutorial, that would be appreciated.
 
CooperBox said:
Would anyone know (or could guess) if Mate would run reasonably on a G4 PowerBook3,5 1.0 GHz with 1Gb memory?
Click to expand...

This is guess work but it should run ok - probably be better off with older distros though and the 1Mb L3 cache should be a benefit. Try a live disk first before you install.
I don't think the issue is will it run but will you find any benefit? It's fun to try Linux on PPC but I almost guarantee you'll be reinstalling OSX not long after ;)

I find this guide the best:

http://ppcluddite.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/installing-debian-linux-on-ppc-part-i.html

Although the author is installing Debian on a G3 iBook, a lot of the info applies to the easy install distros.

Apart from performance, PPC Linux can take ages to set up correctly - a far cry from X86 installs which are painless.
I bought a no brand laptop for £5 at a sale last week, turned out to be a fairly well specced AMD Athlon from 2002 with a newish battery.
I popped a Crunchbang disk in it (Debian Wheezy based) and it was installed in 5 minutes - all drivers etc functional, no extra messing or hunting down issues. Of all the thousands of laptops made since 2002, Linux still just works on a machine like that - however PPC Linux, made for a small number of Apple machines with known hardware and still you might have to separately fix/enable graphics, sound, wireless, power management, trackpad, mouse buttons, hot keys, right click etc etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CooperBox
Dronecatcher said:
It's fun to try Linux on PPC but I almost guarantee you'll be reinstalling OSX not long after ;)
Click to expand...

It's funny. Had my blasted machine worked with Ubuntu, I would have kicked Leopard to the curb. (dual-boot) Sure, it's more familiar and easier to use, but Ubuntu just offers so much more. At least on a PowerPC, from my experience.

To be honest, if Apple continues down the path they're taking OS X, with this desktop iOS stuff, and everything just becoming an extension of the iPhone, I might switch to Ubuntu on any new computers. At least Canonical and the like have better messages going on than modern Apple, with their politically correct -censoredbecausethisisn'tthepoliticalforum- cra- stuff.

Trying not to get in trouble here...

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way anti-Apple. I just don't like post-2014 Apple. Many people don't.
 
Last edited:
Dronecatcher said:
What are you getting then in way of benefits?
Click to expand...

I'm not claiming to know more than I do, but I'll just list out my current understanding of it. Linux doesn't abandon older computers as quickly, for starters. And it doesn't require one processor type. It's open source, so anyone can change the OS and its apps to their liking, you can make the layout in MATE appear to be more like OS X, Windows, Unity, or other distributions. That, and because it has a much smaller base than Windows, there are far fewer viruses written for it. And like they advertised, it seems to be "free in every sense of the word". I like that.

I'm not preaching, but I can really appreciate what they're trying to do.

Carry on.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: CooperBox
Thanks for your replies. I'll be trying this, and will report back on results. Currently busy having decided to totally refurbish my 17" 2006 MBPro2,2, just pulled the logic board to refresh the thermal paste and found an interesting feature. Will post in a new thread asap.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AphoticD
Dronecatcher said:
I agree with the principle but I still find Linux on PPC lacking, well at least on the portables, other than testing I've never used it G5s.
Click to expand...

You should. There's less problems on PPC desktops, and it would do more for it than Leopard.

If I had likable hard drives, I would be writing this from Linux...
 
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