How to install power pc Lubuntu 11.04 with Firefox 5

[OriOs]

I made this Live CD a few weeks ago when I stumbled upon a Powerbook with a malfunctionning hard drive. I'll try to implement your tutorial (at least the lubuntu core) to make a Lubuntu live for PPC, I think a few people might be interested

nb: this iso as no installer and starts in a spartan terminal. No fancy, no candy. However you can

startx

which will start flwm (fast light window manager)

To configure network

sudo wicd-curses

[rsavage]

A lubuntu live CD would be great! I think the lack of natty live cds generally has been a big loss to ppc ubuntu. Hopefully they will return in 11.10.

I like the vertical title bars in flwm. Very cool.

I am also envious of your linux skills. How did you make the iso? Also, do you know how to backport/compile firefox 6 into ppc lucid/maverick? I think this could really help people, but I don't know how to do it properly myself. EDIT: maybe a way of apt-pinning would be better so that fierfox security updates are installed automatically? Again, I've never done this, but I'd like to get some instructions on the forum for people who are reluctant to continually update their version of ubuntu.

EDIT2: I've now compiled firefox using the instructions in the 'workarounds' section (pretty easy). I'll probably write something about it later.

[B_Free]

I have asked this question before but did not get a satisfactory answer. rsavage, what would happen, after all your work, if your hard drive died? Did you back up the drive? I am amazed at yourself, oswaldo, and linuxopjemac. I've been trying Linux, different versions on the old PPC machines. Not that happy. I am used to a Mac OS install, and works every time, perfect!
These are my 2 questions
Not really sure which machine you are installing lubuntu, but once it is installed, and perfect, can you make a back up that would install on any machine that is the same as the one you are installing lubuntu? They are not making any new hardware for those machines.
Can a person disassemble an iso file? Delete what is not necessary, update the files you need for a particular machine, use the installer, .....? You are the smart guys, I'm the dummy!

[OriOs]

@rsavage

How to make a Live-CD...
Well, at the time I wanted one I was already scooping around at the LFS project (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org).
then wandered around to gather specific informations for the PPC architecture so I've been mixing a lot of things.
As of now it will take me way more time to explain the process than to make it. I'll try to write a descent tutorial when I can. But seeing a bit of the work you produced, I think you have more than the skills necessary for this.



@B_Free

Not sur to understand what your asking. If your questions did not find answers yet, could you be a bit more specific... in general
What kind of computer do you have? What type of linux distros did you try? What went wrong with each one of them (I doubt it was the exact same probleme).
There are many tools to backup your hard drive on Unix like system (whether Mac or Linux)
You've got the "cp", "dd" and "rsync" command to begin with, but I'm sure you can find some GUI Time Machine equivalent. A quick search gave me this http://code.google.com/p/flyback/ but I have no idea what it worth. But if you want a lossless carbon copy of any drive, I don't think you can find anything better than the "dd" command.
Why would you disassemble an iso. I can't see your point. I feel like what you would need in this example is the mini.iso (and perhaps a thumb drive).

[rsavage]

OriOs, thanks for the link. That could be just what I'm after. I'm thinking of buying myself a FriendlyArm board off ebay and making myself an internet radio! First I need to seriously improve my basic linux knowledge as currently embedded linux looks like gobbledegook!

Incidentally, if anybody wants any info on how to listen to flash radio streams on PPC then give us a shout. The flash BBC streams are better quality than the non-flash BBC streams.

B_Free, I don't backup my hard drive I'm afraid. This thread is sort of my backup. I'm sure there must be backup/restore software available for linux if that is what you are after.

As OriOs mentioned the dd command is pretty useful and powerful. Once I had done the base install I cloned my partition using dd so I could install lubuntu, xubuntu etc without having to start from scratch everytime. If anybody wants to do this then I could probably dig out the exact commands I used. When you copy a partition the UUID also gets copied so you have to generate a new random UUID and assign it to the new partition. Otherwise the computer gets confused! Then all you do is update the yaboot.conf so you can boot from the new partition. Going a little off track there....

So you could use the dd command to copy a partition to an iso file. That would then be pretty easy to roll out to many computers I should think (as long as they are exactly the same). You need to be sure what you are doing as dd can also mess up your computer if you get it wrong!

I did try briefly editing an iso file but I kept being told it was read only. Am sure it is possible though, I just haven't properly looked into it.

I think the alternate install cds are meant to be useful if you are installing on lots of computers.

[B_Free]

I've read the whole discussion here.
I have an Imac G3, 4 PPC G4, and a G5. All displayed different problems no matter what distribution I installed.
Have you ever installed a Mac OS on these machines? There is no extra frameworks, etc., except maybe printer drivers. The Mac software is made specifically for that Mac. There are no fixes you must perform after installation.
As the dummy in this conversation, I am looking for simplicity. If you have an Imac G3 266, all hardware is exactly the same, computer to computer. The video cards are the same, the type of ram, etc. If you install 10.04 on one Imac G3 266, it should be the same on all Imac G3 266 machines.
Most all Mac computers have not been altered since it was purchased. At least PPC computers. If you install any version of Linux on these machines, if there was a back up for your machine, it should work on any machine of the same type. So, if rsavage installed the latest version on his say, Dual 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5, it should work on all of those machines.
Let me digress. Back when there were floppy drives, you could make your own floppy to restart your computer in case you had a problem. You would put a copy of the Mac OS ROM, utilities, etc. on the floppy, so you could start the computer to troubleshoot. This was a barebones start up.
What makes up a Linux OS, without Gimp, OpenOffice, etc.? rsavage says you don't need a piece of software, should substitute this for that, workarounds, .If you have gone through all this trouble, make it easy on everyone else, come up with an install version that would work (on the same machine) that you made this perfect installation. I hope I explained myself properly.
Remember, I am the lazy dummy!

[OriOs]

Just a quick reminder:

You do realize that, as of now, ubuntu ppc is supported by the community (i.e you, me, and everyone else), and that the main maintainers may not have the time nor the proper machine to test on, right? Apple pays people to make it right, here we volunteer to make it work (by the way, if you donate one of your G3, I'll surely (try) to make ubuntu conveniently work on them


Honestly I think there are no dumb questions, only dumb ways of asking them (i.e the "my PC broke, HELP MEEE RIGHT FREAKING NOW" type).

I've been able to boot the same ubuntu install on a Dell and a Mac-intel. As for PPC, the basic iso I made (ubuntu-minimal and X) worked on a powerbook G4, an ibook G4, and apparently rsavage could make it work too (by the way, could you tell us on what kind of computer?)
Since I'm sill not sure if I understood what you asked, my answer may not be fully satisfactory.

Anyway the fact that that you tried outside Mac and spinned different distros prove that you're not that lazy after all.

Firefox back-porting and apt-pinning

For those who don't know, apt-pinning is basically being able to install software from a more recent release than the one your working on. In our example: having firefox 6 on lucid (I can't see firefox 5 in the repo).

This howto looks more than handy for this purpose.

Beware that doing that might break some depandencies especially if you are building some software from source (for example, gphoto2 is pretty touchy with those, building it from source (it was required, on an ARM9 board) can be a real hassle)

[B_Free]

I've been trying Ubuntu for over 2 years now. I try to help when I know something for certain. I thought I explained I have multiple machines (Imac G3, 4 G4's, and a G5). So, I guess I'm not going to get an answer. I thought I went overboard on my explanation but I guess not. I'll leave you to your discussion.

Honestly I think there are no dumb answers, only dumb ways of explaining them (i.e the "my PC broke, HELP MEEE RIGHT FREAKING LATER" type).

[rsavage]

B_Free, I've read your post a few times to try and understand what you want. Am I right in thinking that you want an iso producing for every apple model computer?

I've never used a Mac OS, but I should jolly well hope it installs flawlessly. Apple have it easy in many regards because they have a very limited range of hardware. (Yet they have still dropped PowerPC.) Compare that with the vast number of computers ubuntu or windows potentially can be installed upon. The PowerPC architecture is not alone in requiring tweaks. For example, my Toshiba laptop needs some adjustments with ubuntu otherwise it melts from the fan not working.

It simply is not practicable for ubuntu or anyone else to make iso install images for every model of computer. The generic install disks do a pretty good job anyway. This thread was intended to sweep up any problems that the generic install does not fix. I'd be disappointed if you were still having problems after reading it. From reading the forum it seems the main issues are wifi and xorg.conf problems. I hope I have covered both these things satisfactorily. If you think there are more problems that should be included then please let me know.

As OriOs says ubuntu PPC is community supported. I'm not really sure what that means, who compiles it (is it still canonical?) or finds the fixes, but we should be thankfull that somebody is doing so! I do know it is down to everybody to keep the documentation/fixes up to date and this thread is my little attempt. I don't consider myself a guru and so I've chickened out of updating the FAQ page!

My iBook G4 is in bits at the moment, suffering from a broken frame, a hard disk that is making worrying noises and some bodged soldering. So I'm without PPC at the moment, sorry OriOs I haven't tried your iso yet.... I'm waiting for a suitable eBay purchase......

The only stupid question is the question you didn't ask.

[rsavage]

OriOs, thanks for the link on apt-pinning. I think I'm starting to get my head around it. There is some more useful information on the page about backporting https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports .

Interesting on the link you gave that they don't recommend apt-pinning for ubuntu and say firefox won't work!!

Well I've just tried it by installing Firefox 7 from Oneiric into Natty and have had no problems. They seem to be concerned about different versions of libc6 which I don't understand. Firefox 7 only depends on libc6 >= 2.11 so even Lucid satisfies this. The only package that had to be updated was libstdc++6.

I know there are a lot of doom and gloom merchants out there who don't recommend you mix ubuntu versions, but I honestly don't get what the worry is. Can anybody explain? It seems it should be really easy to get the latest Firefox into power pc lucid? I can't believe nobody has tried it/is doing it?