8.04.1 iMac G3 (Slot-loading) 500Mhz

[IQRules]

I had OSX Tiger and OS 9 installed on one 120G hard drive. And like to some fun with Ubuntu OS. Tried couple things last night.

1. 8.10 failed to boot at all.
2. using alternate Kubuntu DVD, got boot prompt, tiny fonts though.
3. Wiped out all Mac extened partitons (8-9 partitions) and added /, swap, /home etc.
4. saved the partition layout, it failed on some sort partition errors. The error could be mis-leading, is it related old or new world boot issue?

Should I run zero out the data in the HD first?

Thanks

[stream303]

1. 8.10 failed to boot at all.

Were you able to boot with Intrepid 8.10, but did it just fail at detecting the cdrom during install?

Do you have a hard drive that is larger than 128gb, or is it oem? Most of the G3/500 slot-loaders have a 128gb firmware limitation for the root partition which the installers have no way of knowing about - thus you have to partition manually to keep root at or under 125gb or so, and use the rest of the disk for /home etc.

And did you just wipe out Tiger doing this? If you want to dual boot, you may want to reinstall Tiger to only half the drive, and leave the rest as free space for Ubuntu...

[transmition]

Do you have rEFIt installed? I believe that it contains a tool to re-synch your partition tables. When I first installed ubuntu on my macbook, I needed to do this in order to get it to even enter the OS.

[stream303]

He's got a PowerPC machine, so rEFIT for intel won't apply here.

[Coreigh]

I believe the G3 is the Old IBM PPC style chipset. Does that not require the PPC version of Ubuntu? Or do you have that already and I just didn't understand that part? Or are the newer versions of Ubuntu compatible with x86 and PPC? I know x64 requires a different version.

[IQRules]

Were you able to boot with Intrepid 8.10, but did it just fail at detecting the cdrom during install?

Do you have a hard drive that is larger than 128gb, or is it oem? Most of the G3/500 slot-loaders have a 128gb firmware limitation for the root partition which the installers have no way of knowing about - thus you have to partition manually to keep root at or under 125gb or so, and use the rest of the disk for /home etc.

And did you just wipe out Tiger doing this? If you want to dual boot, you may want to reinstall Tiger to only half the drive, and leave the rest as free space for Ubuntu...
For 8.10 Kubuntu download (not alternate), I got the boot prompt, hit tab to get several options.
None of them get very far. Could be another "The Bootup Splash" issue.

8.04.1 at lease I got partition tool up. Yes I replaced with 120G Maxtor drive.

Do I need OS 9 here and should I clean up (zero out) the HFS+ partitons?

[stream303]

I believe the G3 is the Old IBM PPC style chipset. Does that not require the PPC version of Ubuntu?

Sure does. It looks like the op already has the ppc versions. Anyone interested can download them here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads

Since the PPC port is community-supported, the downloads don't appear on the commercial Canonical downloads page. Ya' gotta come here for support. :)

[stream303]

8.04.1 at lease I got partition tool up. Yes I replaced with 120G Maxtor drive.

I'm still not sure if you are using the live-cd or the "alternate", but either way you should be ok if you can get to the partitioner. No problems with the 120gb drive - it doesn't exceed the firmware limitation for that machine.

Do I need OS 9 here and should I clean up (zero out) the HFS+ partitons?

OS9 not really needed unless you want to do a firmware update. Here's the Zen part. :) When you reach guided partitioning, you have the option to "use the whole disk". It will dutifully wipe out all the existing partitions for you and install Kubuntu. You can kiss your OSX install goodbye. Sooo, if you want to keep OSX, you'll have to somehow shrink your OSX partitions to make room for Kubuntu, or alternately reinstall OSX, but use OSX's disk-utility to repartition the drive - say split it in half and leave half of it as free-space for Kubuntu, and reinstall OSX. And then Kubuntu.

If you choose "use the whole disk", what will happen is that 4 partitions will be automatically created; two special small apple-specific partitions, and then root and swap for you.

Thing is, after installation, you'll most likely need to manually edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with values that the installer doesn't know about. Typically you get to a virtual terminal via CTRL-ALT-F2, login, and edit the file:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(CTRL-O to save edits, CTRL-X to exit nano)


(It is wise to make a backup first:)
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.original

Now, you can use the following xorg.conf as a reference to put in your video driver (most likely "r128") and horizontal and vertical video freqs:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=978303

To get these values, see the two faqs for details:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCKnownIssues#Blank%20screen%20on%20iMac%20G3
and
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#3D%20video%20drivers,%20Beryl,%20Compiz

And, as you've seen, you need to boot with Linux nosplash. To make that permanent, that needs to go into your /etc/yaboot.conf file, but first things first.

The key is to be patient, although it can exceed the definition of "fun". :) In the end, are you willing to brick it? It doesn't always happen, but you never know.

Also, how much memory do you have? If it is only 128mb or so, don't expect a very fast system, although there are ways you can trim the fat....