Live CD Won't Install Completely

**Javelin Dan** · March 7th, 2012

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to install a live CD of the Lubuntu 12.04 Ppc daily build (various dates) on an old G4 “Graphics” model. Originally, I was going to participate in the pre-release testing, but could never get the desktop to come up. It initially boots OK, (I get the Lubuntu splash screen) then the monitor clicks off and on again (normal) and I get a black screen with a cursor that I can move with the mouse (also normal), but the desktop just never comes up. If I insert the same CD in my wife’s G4 eMac, it will boot up completely. I had the same experience trying to install Linux Mint (9) Ppc on this machine. For the record, this is a particularly cranky machine that I have only been able to boot a small handful of distros on. I’m assuming I have some sort of graphics issue, but don’t have a clue what to do next. Everything I know about this machine is listed below. Any suggestions appreciated

Serial # XA00701SHSF, 450MZ / 1M cache, 128MB, SDRAM 20GB, HD/DVD ROM, zip / 56K, modem / KB.

Intro. Date: August 31, 1999* Disc. Date: July 19, 2000* Order No: M7232LL/A* Model No: M5183 (EMC 1843) Subfamily: Power Mac G4 - AGP Model ID: PowerMac3,1 Std. RAM: 128 MB, 256 MB* Std. VRAM: 16 MB Std. HD: 20, 27 GB (7200 RPM) Std. Optical: 5X DVD-ROM, RAM Complete Power Macintosh G4 450 (AGP) Specs

Hardware Info:

Host bridge – Apple Computer Inc. Uninorth International PCI

PCI bridge – Digital Equipment Corp. DECchip 21154 (Rev 05) (prog-if 00 {Normal decode})

USB Controller(s) – Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo USB (prog-if 10 {OHCI})
Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo USB (prog-if 10 {OHCI})

Storage

Primary Master /dev/hda disk
Model IBM-DPTA-372050
Capacity 20 GB
Cache 1.961 MB

Primary Slave /dev/hdb disk
Model Maxtor 54089U8
Capacity 40 GB
Cache 2.048 MB

Secondary Master /dev/hdc cdrom
Model MATSHITADVD-ROM SR-8585
Capacity No Media
Secondary Slave /dev/hdd Floppy
Model 10 MEGA Zip 100 ATAPI

**MisterGaribaldi** · March 7th, 2012

Hmm...

Usually, if everything else installed correctly and you can't get into X.org's GUI environment, that's probably a result of insufficient RAM.

You appear to just have grabbed generic specs information on your Mac and pasted it here. We need to know how much RAM you actually have, and what graphics card you actually have.

Most Macs of that vintage can be upgraded to at least 512MB, if not 1GB of RAM. If you really want to use the thing as a desktop system with Linux, I'd highly recommend you ensure you've got as much RAM in it as you can get.

Also, since you're getting raster (that is to say, you're not just getting a "out of scan-range" or "unsupported resolution" type of error from your monitor) it's not that your graphics card isn't supported. However, it is possible that your card itself may not have enough VRAM on it to fully support a graphical environment. Again, post your specs so we have something to work with.

**Javelin Dan** · March 8th, 2012

I will be more than happy to oblige if you'll just tell me where to get it.

**Javelin Dan** · March 8th, 2012

I should also tell you that I've had Ubuntu 10.10 installed on this machine and it runs very well if not a little slow. Ditto for Debian 6, and an old distro of Xubuntu 6.06 I had laying around. I've also successfully run a live CD of Kubuntu 10.10. All of these (but only these) have run without any graphics issues. I bought this machine used at a garage sale for $20 (US) with no book so I know little about it, but remember seeing somewhere that it now has 506 MB of ram installed. Not stellar, but still should run a basic OS even if a little slow, don't you think?

Another thing comes to mind which may mean something. On several attempts with different daily builds of Lubuntu, if I tried to boot 3 or 4 times, I would eventually get a desktop and all the graphics seemed to run fine until I would reboot and have the same problem over again. Mean anything to you?

**westie457** · March 8th, 2012

Hi get one of the LiveCDs that you know works. Boot into 'Try' mode and open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run

Code:

lshw

Post the entire output here between [code] tags by clicking on the # symbol and pasting in the brackets.

I might be able to help however someone else will.

Thank you.

**marinara** · March 8th, 2012

good luck, i have the black screen thing on one of my pcs. luckily it has enough ram to run 10.04

**Javelin Dan** · March 8th, 2012

Thanks westie457 - I have a meeting tonight that will get me home late. If I have time I'll post tonight, but if not, tomorrow. Please stay tuned everyone...

marinara - Yeah, that's what I don't get. Why enough RAM to run one OS easily but not another? I do get that the "bleeding edge" distros are focusing on newer equipment using newer kernels not necessarily compatible with older stuff, but in the case of Lubuntu, I thought it was supposed to be geared toward older equipment and be "easy" on resources. In my struggles, I've been focussing mainly on distros that are supposed to embrace my older junk. If someone could just explain what's going on, I would be grateful.

**Javelin Dan** · March 9th, 2012

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to post the way you asked, but here is the info anyway:

ubuntu
description: Computer
product: PowerMac G4 AGP Graphics
vendor: Copyright 1983-1999 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved
serial: HSFM7628LL/AXA007015
width: 32 bits
*-core
description: Motherboard
physical id: 0
clock: 99MHz
capabilities: powermac3_1 macrisc power_macintosh
*-firmware
product: OpenFirmware 3
physical id: 0
logical name: /proc/device-tree
capabilities: bootinfo
*-memory
description: System memory
physical id: 1
size: 512MiB
*-bank:0
description: SDRAM
product: PC100-322S
physical id: 0
version: 3043,01 00,01
serial: M3 66S1623CT0-C1L
slot: DIMM0/J21
size: 128MiB
*-bank:1
description: SDRAM
product: PC100-322S
physical id: 1
version: 0000,0A 62,52
serial: GMM26416233CMTG-7J
slot: DIMM1/J22
size: 128MiB
*-bank:2
description: SDRAM
product: PC100-322S
physical id: 2
version: 0000,0A 62,52
serial: GMM26416233CMTG-7J
slot: DIMM2/J23
size: 128MiB
*-bank:3
description: SDRAM
product: PC100-322S
physical id: 3
version: 0000,0A 62,52
serial: GMM26416233CMTG-7J
slot: DIMM3/J24
size: 128MiB
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: 7400, altivec supported
physical id: 2
bus info: cpu@0
version: 2.8 (pvr 000c 0208)
size: 450MHz
clock: 99MHz
capabilities: altivec performance-monitor
*-cache:0
description: L1 Cache
physical id: 0
size: 32KiB
*-cache:1
description: L2 Cache (unified)
physical id: 1
size: 1MiB
clock: 225MHz (4.4ns)
*-pci:0
description: Host bridge
product: UniNorth AGP
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:0b.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-uninorth latency=16
resources: irq:0
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Radeon RV250 If [Radeon 9000]
vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
physical id: 10
bus info: pci@0000:00:10.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=radeonfb latency=255 mingnt=8
resources: irq:48 memory:98000000-9fffffff ioport:400(size=256) memory:90000000-9000ffff memory:90020000-9003ffff
*-pci:1
description: Host bridge
product: UniNorth PCI
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: 101
bus info: pci@0001:10:0b.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
configuration: latency=16
*-pci
description: PCI bridge
product: DECchip 21154
vendor: Digital Equipment Corporation
physical id: d
bus info: pci@0001:10:0d.0
version: 05
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: memory:80000000-800fffff
*-generic
description: Unassigned class
product: KeyLargo Mac I/O
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: 7
bus info: pci@0001:11:07.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=macio latency=16
resources: irq:0 memory:80000000-8007ffff
*-ide:0
description: IDE Channel 0
physical id: 0
bus info: ide@0
logical name: ide0
clock: 33MHz
*-disk:0
product: IBM-DPTA-372050
vendor: IBM
physical id: 0
bus info: ide@0.0
logical name: /dev/hda
capacity: 19GiB (20GB)
*-disk:1
product: Maxtor 54098U8
vendor: Maxtor
physical id: 1
bus info: ide@0.1
logical name: /dev/hdb
capacity: 38GiB (40GB)
*-ide:1
description: IDE Channel 0
physical id: 1
bus info: ide@1
logical name: ide1
clock: 33MHz
*-cdrom
product: MATSHITADVD-ROM SR-8585
physical id: 0
bus info: ide@1.0
logical name: /dev/hdc
logical name: /cdrom
capacity: 709MiB (744MB)
capabilities: packet
configuration: mount.fstype=iso9660 mount.options=ro,noatime state=mounted
*-floppy
product: IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI
physical id: 1
bus info: ide@1.1
logical name: /dev/hdd
*-ide:2
description: IDE Channel 0
physical id: 2
bus info: ide@2
logical name: ide2
clock: 33MHz
*-usb:0
description: USB Controller
product: KeyLargo USB
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0001:11:08.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master
configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=16 maxlatency=86 mingnt=3
resources: irq:27 memory:80082000-80082fff
*-usb:1
description: USB Controller
product: KeyLargo USB
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0001:11:09.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master
configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=16 maxlatency=86 mingnt=3
resources: irq:28 memory:80081000-80081fff
*-firewire
description: FireWire (IEEE 1394)
product: TSB12LV23 IEEE-1394 Controller
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0001:11:0a.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=firewire_ohci latency=16 maxlatency=4 mingnt=2
resources: irq:63 memory:80080000-800807ff memory:80084000-80087fff
*-pci:2
description: Host bridge
product: UniNorth Internal PCI
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: 102
bus info: pci@0002:21:0b.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
configuration: latency=16
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: UniNorth GMAC (Sun GEM)
vendor: Apple Computer Inc.
physical id: f
bus info: pci@0002:21:0f.0
logical name: eth0
version: 00
serial: 00:30:65:55:a8:ca
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: bus_master rom ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=sungem driverversion=0.98 ip=192.168.2.100 latency=16 maxlatency=64 mingnt=64 multicast=yes
resources: irq:41 memory:f5200000-f53fffff memory:f5000000-f50fffff
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ root
No command 'root' found, did you mean:
Command 'rbot' from package 'rbot' (universe)
root: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

**marinara** · March 10th, 2012

you need 400 mb of ram to run the live cd.
if you download the alternate installer, you can install and run lubuntu on 128mb of ram

**Javelin Dan** · June 6th, 2012

Just ran across this and thought I'd update it several months later. It was the RAM. I installed a 512 MB card for a total of 890 MB and everything booted and ran, although a little slower than I would like. I just added more memory and brought the total up to 1152 MB of RAM and it runs much better. I would just like to figure out why this box needs so much RAM to run normally...