Trying to install on a powerbook G4

[str8bs]

zmatt-
Saw your post on another forum as well. Are you still stuck with video issues?

That first picture looks similar to an issue I've seen in other desktops. It looks almost there but maybe EXA or composite issues. (workarounds to those in FAQ/Known Issues)
The second "psychedelic" is expected with modeset 0.

Did you try ruling out acceleration?

boot: live nouveau.noaccel=1

If you can CTL-ALT-F1 or CTL-ALT-T to a prompt and get a copy of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and post it, others might be able to help more.

Also, IMHO, it is good practice to look up and post your video card model when discussing graphics issues so readers know exactly what hardware is being discussed. I'm assuming yours has Nvidia Go5200. everymac.com is a good source to look up.

[peezee13]

Same problem here (cf my thread) with a Powerbook Alu G4 1.33GHz and GeForce FX Go5200 graphics, same solution (noaccel) and the only one that works (also get the blank screen or psychedelic colours, depending on what other boot commands I use).

Just wanted to check whether or not any progress had been made on this issue.

Other pbm is that playing MPEG video eats up almost 100% of CPU, Ok when playing the video in its native size, but when I set it to full screen the video slows down to like half normal speed, though audio continues to play at normal speed and therefore quickly gets out of sync. (but the video plays until the end, while all controls in the player's GUI (gnome-mplayer is the only one I got working) behave normally.

Not sure the issues are related, although obviously both have to do with limited support for NVidia graphics chipset on PPC based Mac's.

[asifnaz]

I think you should try a lighter version (Lubuntu or xbuntu )

[zenfunk]

I recently installed Lubuntu on an iBook G4. At first I had no hardware graphic acceleration also and the only Player that gave me aceptable video playback performance was VLC. All others where just too slow. After a downgrade of the Mesa drivers I got 3d acceleration and now its buisness as usual with mplayer. totem etc. also.
So if you can't get hardware acceleration to work, try VLC. Better still, try hard to get your graphics card working correctly, so this is easier said than done.
Good luck, Christian