PowerPCFAQ

Revision 4 as of 2007-03-14 14:56:19

Clear message

This is work in progress see http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=377978

Many more general questions have answers at ["CommonQuestions"]

General Questions

Which Macs are compatible with Ubuntu?

All newworld Macs should work. This means iMacs, iBooks, blue & white G3s, Lombard G3 PowerBooks and newer. The minimum system requirements are 256 MB or RAM and 3 GB of hard disk.

Is Ubuntu supported on PowerPC

Ubuntu 6.10 was the last official supported PowerPC version of Ubuntu. Future version will be community supported. This was [https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2007-February/000098.html announced] on the mailing list.

Is Ubuntu still available on PowerPC

Yes, although it is not official supported. Future versions may not be on all mirrors. Alpha versions of Feisty can be found at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/ .

Installation

How do I get a Mac to boot from CD?

The simplest method is to hold down the 'C' key (for x86 Macs use the 'D' key) as you turn the power on. Once you hear the CD drive reading the disk you can release the key.

Multimedia

Drivers

Troubleshooting

After logging in I get a blank brown screen

This could be caused by a number of problems.

  • Clock set before 1970. See ["UbuntuDateBug"]

  • Sound problems
    • Press CTRL+ALT+F1. Log in at the text terminal, if needed. Type

      • killall esd

      and press enter. Press CTRL+ALT+F7 to return to the desktop.

How do I get Ubuntu working on an iMac G3?

Do you get a blank screen after booting? The problem is that xorg.conf is not set up properly for the iMac G3.

Follow these steps to fix xorg.conf:

After booting is complete:

  1. Type: ctrl-option-F1 (should give you a command prompt, may take a couple of tries)

  2. Type: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf (return)

  3. In the Monitors section, change "HorizSync" to 58-62 and "VertRefresh" to 75-117.

  4. Disable DRI. In the the Modules section, put a hash mark (#) at the beginning of the line containing "load dri".

  5. Type: ctrl-O (return) to write edited file

  6. Type: ctrl-X to exit nano back to command line

  7. Type: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart (return) to restart Gnome. (In Dapper and Edgy, the restart command is broken. Use sudo killall -HUP gdm instead.)