Lubuntu 16.04 Remix (updated)

[rladeira]

Hello, everybody!

I have a 1.5GHz G4 powerbook - 2005 - 1.5GB and a 1.42GHz Macmini - 1GB. I installed lubuntu-12.04-remix-v3 on Macmini, but I can't do the same with the powerbook. I don't know why, but at installation, I got an error after the user was created (already in the HD installation phase) when the installation program tries to import something from Mozilla Firefox. In fact, even the original lubuntu-12.04 (from the ubuntu site) has the same error. At Macmini, that didn't happen.

I can install the original lubuntu-12.10 and 14.10 on the powerbook. The first one works, with some problems with the video. Nothing really serious - the colors are a little strange. Lubuntu-14.10 works, but freezes several times, especially when trying to update apt-get. The 16.10 original and remix have the same behavior as 14.10.

I really liked the lubuntu 12.04-remix. If I install 12.10 (powerbook) and copy from these mini folders - / usr / lib / var / bin / boot / sbin and / var - over lubuntu-12.10 on my powerbook, will it work as a remix?

Thank you guys.

 

[wicknix]

You will also need /etc/. It's hackish, but it may just work. You got nothing to lose, so I say give it a shot and see what happens.

Cheers

 

[rladeira]

You will also need /etc/. It's hackish, but it may just work. You got nothing to lose, so I say give it a shot and see what happens.

Cheers

Hello!

@wicknix Thanks. It worked very well. First, I deleted the contents of all folders (PB-G4) and copied the files from Macmini. I kept only the contents of the / boot folder. After, I copied all folders (/ usr / lib / var / bin / boot / sbin and / var) + /etc - from Macmini. . I needed to keep the old files from the installed version in PB (12.10) mtab, fstab and yaboot.conf (although this was not necessary, I decided to keep it).

Thanks, one more time.

Ricardo

 

[wicknix]

Awesome. Glad it worked out. My only concern was /boot and yaboot.conf, but you got that sorted out. My guess is that 12.10 used a different kernel that played nicer with your machine. Anyway, enjoy, and dont forget to use a hosts file to block ads, or get an addon for the browsers. It makes browsing so much nicer/faster.

Cheers

 

[wicknix]

Since my PowerMac G5's don't seem to like the prebuilt 5.x kernels i decided to try building the latest 4.19.x branch from kernel.org on Ubuntu 12 remix. Works great, AND glxgears shows a significant boost. I use to get roughly 59FPS, now i'm over DOUBLE that, and 720p videos play flawlessly at 30% cpu. All in all, a few hours well spent.

Cheers

 

[sparty411]

Since my PowerMac G5's don't seem to like the prebuilt 5.x kernels i decided to try building the latest 4.19.x branch from kernel.org on Ubuntu 12 remix. Works great, AND glxgears shows a significant boost. I use to get roughly 59FPS, now i'm over DOUBLE that, and 720p videos play flawlessly at 30% cpu. All in all, a few hours well spent.

View attachment 902892

Cheers

So changing out the kernel improved GPU performance? Are the Radeon kernel modules different or something? This is interesting. I'm typing this from my 800 MHz iBook G3, running the Ubuntu 12 Remix. It works great, and even has 3D HW accel, after downgrading Mesa.

I have a question for you as well. When you dd your .iso images to a flash drive, are you creating a big FAT partition, or are you skipping adding a partition altogether, and just formatting it,then dd'ing the image?

 

[wicknix]

Are the Radeon kernel modules different or something?

That's a good question, but yes, glxgears output is much higher than with the stock kernel. My videos also don't struggle anymore at 720p or higher.
As for the flash drives, i generally format as FAT first. However that's probably overkill as dd doesn't care and just writes the .iso to the drive regardeless of filesystem type. I just do it to ensure the drive is free of possible leftovers.

Edit: Which mesa did you downgrade too? I might want to give that a test. Also, glad 12 remix is working well for you. I love it on my dual G5. It absolutely flies.

Cheers

 

[sparty411]

That's a good question, but yes, glxgears output is much higher than with the stock kernel. My videos also don't struggle anymore at 720p or higher.
As for the flash drives, i generally format as FAT first. However that's probably overkill as dd doesn't care and just writes the .iso to the drive regardeless of filesystem type. I just do it to ensure the drive is free of possible leftovers.

Edit: Which mesa did you downgrade too? I might want to give that a test. Also, glad 12 remix is working well for you. I love it on my dual G5. It absolutely flies.

Cheers

Not sure what version it is, but I just followed what @juancarlosonetti wrote here. I don't think it will work with your newer kernel, because disabling modesetting was only supported up to 4.4, to my knowledge.

 

[wicknix]

Well... just like every other 5.x kernel... after 9 hours of compiling... 5.5.13 locks up the machine also.
The good news is 4.19.x has long term support, and works just fine. So i have no problem sticking with that.

If anyone wants it, here is 4.19.113-powerpc64 for G5's. You'll have to manually copy the /boot files and /lib/modules/4.19.113 folder. I couldn't figure out how to make the proper kernel/modules .debs. I suggest becoming root and using midnight commander (sudo mc) for this task. Use mc and navigate to where your downloaded the kernel archive. Highlight the kernel-4.19.113-powerpc64.tar.bz2 and hit enter. Wait a minute or 2 for it to uncompress to ram, then copy (F5) the files/folders to their respective directories. After that sudo nano /etc/modules and add windfarm_pm72. Save and reboot. With any luck you'll be using the new kernel.

I'm guessing, but it should also work with ubuntu16 and debian10/sid. I built and tested on ubuntu12. Back up your /boot directory, just in case. You can boot your old kernel, or use a live.iso to replace your old kernel if something should go wrong.

matt@powermac:~$ uname -a
Linux powermac 4.19.113 #1 SMP Wed Apr 1 02:22:15 CDT 2020 ppc64 ppc64 ppc64 GNU/Linux

Cheers

 

[sparty411]

Hey @wicknix, I updated my Latitude D610 with Mobility Radeon x300 graphics running Debian 10 32bit to unstable today, and the latest kernel renders the system unusable. 4.19, however, works just fine. I wonder if the latest Radeon kernel modules are borked for older GPU's in general... This might not be a PPC32 specific problem.

 

[wicknix]

Interesting. That's entirely possible. Thanks for the info. Thankfully the 4.4/4.19 kernels get another 15 or so years of support yet.

 

[z970]

@wicknix Question. How difficult do you think it would be to get LibreOffice 5 or 6 running on 12.04? What about VLC 3?

 

[wicknix]

I thought about vlc 3 and mpv. They are on my "try to build" list for updating 12's software even more. Most things i've updated built out of the box. Libre might be a bit tougher, as it's kinda huge, but i can look in to it.

Cheers

 

[z970]

If LibreOffice doesn't end up being achievable, AbiWord 3.0.4 and Gnumeric 1.12.46 would work great.

As I understand it, you're building from source?

 

[wicknix]

Yep. Source builds. Then I just manually copy them over the installed originals. Otherwise apt seems to think the new version is older due to ubuntu/debian oddball version naming of their .debs and wants to "update" the new version to the old version.

Cheers

 

[z970]

Here's another one; I flashed 12.04 v3 to USB four times (two on different sticks), and in all four tries Open Firmware complained the specified FDisk partition can't be found. This is on my 11,2 G5.

It does NOT like Lubuntu.

 

[wicknix]

Dead cd/dvd rom drive? Usb boot on these is archaic and not very reliable imo.

Cheers

 

[z970]

I prefer not to burn disc after disc if I can help it.

It's a strange situation, because booting from USB used to work fine most of the time with most distributions.

 

[sparty411]

I prefer not to burn disc after disc if I can help it.

It's a strange situation, because booting from USB used to work fine most of the time with most distributions.

I've tested USB booting somewhat extensively over the last several days, on quite a few different models of Powerbook's, and iBooks. What I've found is that some Powerbook G4's, and iBook G4's can't boot from USB, period. Ironically, Every iBook G3 model I've tested USB booting on has worked flawlessly. I can confirm that iBook models M6497, A1007, A1005, A1134, and A1133 will all boot from USB, and Powerbook models A1138, and A1104 will, as well.

 

[z970]

Here's another one; I flashed 12.04 v3 to USB four times (two on different sticks), and in all four tries Open Firmware complained the specified FDisk partition can't be found. This is on my 11,2 G5.

It does NOT like Lubuntu.

Sorry... my fault. Turns out I was flashing the image wrong. Images boot great now.

Reminder: When flashing a USB stick, do not specify a partition number...

 

[este.el.paz]

I've tested USB booting somewhat extensively over the last several days, on quite a few different models of Powerbook's, and iBooks. What I've found is that some Powerbook G4's, and iBook G4's can't boot from USB, period. Ironically, Every iBook G3 model I've tested USB booting on has worked flawlessly. I can confirm that iBook models M6497, A1007, A1005, A1134, and A1133 will all boot from USB, and Powerbook models A1138, and A1104 will, as well.

I can so far confirm that my G4 933 MHz iBook is not booting Wicknix 16.04 respin via USB drive, tried a couple of different "burns" . . . OSX boot manager alt/option key is not recognizing it, although in both my OSX 10.4 && olde Lu 16.04 installs will mount the USB drive and I could read the "read me.txt" files . . . .

And, as posted above, the need for CDs . . . possibly three CDs?? to burn the iso to . . . seems cumbersome . . . . I can't remember if this computer will "boot" DVDs . . . but it won't burn them . . . possibly burning to DVD is the next thing to try??? Problem is the HDD on this and my other three PPC units are . . . dying . . . but I'd like to try to get the Wicknix respin . . . spinning . . . . The present Lubuntu install isn't super quick, and backports for many upgrades are busted up . . . .

If I can't get Wicknix going then might be my next step is wipe the drive and just go 10.5 in the entire 40GB dying drive . . . . : - ((((

 

[z970]

I can so far confirm that my G4 933 MHz iBook is not booting Wicknix 16.04 respin via USB drive, tried a couple of different "burns" . . . OSX boot manager alt/option key is not recognizing it, although in both my OSX 10.4 && olde Lu 16.04 installs will mount the USB drive and I could read the "read me.txt" files . . . .

And, as posted above, the need for CDs . . . possibly three CDs?? to burn the iso to . . . seems cumbersome . . . . I can't remember if this computer will "boot" DVDs . . . but it won't burn them . . . possibly burning to DVD is the next thing to try??? Problem is the HDD on this and my other three PPC units are . . . dying . . . but I'd like to try to get the Wicknix respin . . . spinning . . . . The present Lubuntu install isn't super quick, and backports for many upgrades are busted up . . . .

If I can't get Wicknix going then might be my next step is wipe the drive and just go 10.5 in the entire 40GB dying drive . . . . : - ((((

Lubuntu 12.04 Remix v3 would be a better fit for your 933 MHz G4, for multiple reasons.

Restart the iBook with your USB stick inserted. At the chime, hold Command + Option + O + F. When you see a prompt, enter boot ud:,\\yaboot. If you then make it into the bootloader, press Enter, and the OS should proceed to boot.

 

[este.el.paz]

Lubuntu 12.04 Remix v3 would be a better fit for your 933 MHz G4, for multiple reasons.

Restart the iBook with your USB stick inserted. At the chime, hold Command + Option + O + F. When you see a prompt, enter boot ud:,\\yaboot. If you then make it into the bootloader, press Enter, and the OS should proceed to boot.

@z970mp :

Thanks for the reply, I did have Xubuntu 12.04 running on all of my PPC machines at one point, and overall it might be "the best" distro for PPC, but, then everything gets old . . . . Lu 16.04 runs well enough on the iBook . . . and I'll give your suggestions a try. I have spent many many hours over the years trying to get PPC linux running on various machines . . . it's a hobby of a type.

After I posted above I just tried to boot the flash drive from my PowerMac 3,1 and I used the "radeon.agpmode=-1 radeon.modeset=1 nosplash . . . and it did boot into a clean GUI!!!! I then tried to adjust Date & Time . . . but the mouse became "crashy" . . . this was a "traditional PPC problem" over the years . . . mouse was herky-jerky . . . then . . . became comatose . . . cursor was on the screen, but unresponsive to mouse movements, etc . . . . I shut the machine down. This machine has aftermarket cpu set to 1.1 Ghz, and upgraded to 2GB RAM . . . and upgraded video card . . . but power supply is dying in that one so I get 30 mins of up time before the display goes black.

I'll post back in a few on the Open Firmware approach . . . .

[edit: Ran the OF method, that did get me to Yaboot, but both hitting L and entering "live xxx" as well as just pressing enter, both brought "file or directory not found" . . . or went to my already installed Lu 16 system . . . .]

 

[este.el.paz]

Just to update, burned the iso to a DVD and going that way did get me into a clean display in the iBook G4 933 . . . and nothing is happening too fast in that computer, it has a number of I/O errors and "Boot ROM" errors, but it does boot up . . . no crashy mouse cursor stuff . . . but caveat is the fan is blowing quite loudly as I was trying to get FF Sync in operation . . . 15 minutes later we still didn't have the Themes loaded . . . and nobody was "supporting" the version of FF that comes with the iso . . . etc.

Kicker was I booted HTOP and it was showing 93 - 96.8% cpu usage . . . so it's firing on 7.99 of the cylinders . . . so, I might take the advice to check out the 12.04 Respin . . . see how that goes . . . on the PM 3,1 & the IBK 933 . . . might be some time before I get back to it. But, point of the post, yes, USB does not boot in iBook G4, but DVD does in "Combo Drive" units . . . and perhaps 16.04 is now too much for it, or the machine isn't in good hardware condition to run anything . . . ????? Might have a 10.5 clone around that I might try to boot up . . . see if it runs silently . . . .

 

[z970]

@este.el.paz I've had bad luck with 16.04 on my iBook G4 - it would freeze before I ever got a chance to install it.

I've successfully booted my iBook G4 from a USB stick many times in the past. If the same does not go for you, I would suggest referring to The PowerPC Linux Wiki's Booting From USB Guide. If you are still unable to boot from your USB stick, either the image was flashed incorrectly, or that stick is incompatible with Open Firmware. Both of which we've seen many times before.

Speaking of, how did you flash the image to your USB disk? Rufus on Windows is known to produce Open Firmware-incompatible boot disks, for example.