Linux and iBook G4

C

ClariorHincHonos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
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Trying to get linux onto an iBook a buddy had laying around. OSX is gone and the machine might have some issues. So far I've tried Arch, Ubuntu, and Fedora. The SuperDrive (haha, yeah right...) seems to have issues with DVDs.

Arch-doesn't find the CD once you go to choose packages-netinstall won't install grub from some reason.

Ubuntu-starts to boot, but no video output after the initial boot steps.

Fedora-Netinstall has some repository issues, wouldn't install due to those.

So-does any of this sound familiar and does anyone have some tips/advice on how to get this working?
 
do you have another mac handy or maybe a firewire cd or dvd drive?
 
I have no idea if this idea would work...
1. Setting the G4 laptop into target disk mode (holding down 't' at bootup)
2. Reading the laptop as a drive by using firewire and macdrive software (to read hfs/hfs+)
3. making two partitions, one for the install media 1-2GB, and another large portion as the free space on the HDD, and then erase the install media once you're done
4. put install media in the small partition and then install
 
Wanted to pass on that I was able to get OSX to load with a FW drive, but none of the Linux discs I had would boot. Once I get some extra money I'll buy a FW drive of my own, but for now it's a standard Mac once again. :(
 
Try Debian. It worked by far the best of the distros I tried on my iBook G3. I was able to get Ubuntu working, but it took some hacking, was quite unstable, and it's not a supported arch for Ubuntu since quite a few versions ago. I use Xfce and it performs fairly well considering how ancient and slow it is. Install was pretty straightforward from the Debian CD.
 
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