iMac G4 - Need advice

[BakaOsaka]

Hi everyone, I have an iMac G4 20" and need some advice.

The disk drive doesn't work - Can I boot from USB easily? If not, is there another method?
Can I dual-boot Ubuntu and OS X without losing my data?
Finally, if I install Ubuntu completely over the HDD can I reinstall OS X?

Thanks a lot!

[llamabr]

The disk drive doesn't work - Can I boot from USB easily? If not, is there another method?

Yes, it's pretty easy:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In.../FromUSBStick/


Can I dual-boot Ubuntu and OS X without losing my data?

You always risk losing data. But if you do a backup first, you minimize this risk.

Finally, if I install Ubuntu completely over the HDD can I reinstall OS X?

Yes, if you still have your osx disks.

BTW, ubuntu no longer supports your machine. You may prefer running debian on an older ppc machine like that.

[rsavage]

BTW, ubuntu no longer supports your machine. You may prefer running debian on an older ppc machine like that.

PowerPC is community supported - just like Lubuntu, Xubuntu (and now Kubuntu?). Do you tell the users of these to go use Debian too?

USB instructions for PowerPC are here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#H...a_USB_drive.3F .

The PowerPC instruction for Debian are here ..... oh sorry. That's right, they don't have any.

[llamabr]

PowerPC is community supported - just like Lubuntu, Xubuntu (and now Kubuntu?). Do you tell the users of these to go use Debian too?

Community supported is hardly the same thing. Your machine is no longer officially supported by ubuntu, and hasn't been since 2007.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ry/000098.html

Yes, I advise those considering lubuntu, xubunt, and kubuntu to consider debian, which still supports the architecture that runs their machines.

[rsavage]

You don't know what you are talking about.

Lubuntu and Xubuntu (for any architecture) are community supported.

PowerPC is community supported.

The PowerPC kernel is maintained by the Ubuntu kernel team just like any other architecture.

So PowerPC Lubuntu/Xubuntu has exactly the same level of support as any other architecture.

PowerPC Ubuntu/Lubuntu/Kubuntu goes through exactly the same testing procedure as any other architecture. ISOs will only be released if they pass.

Ubuntu PowerPC specific bugs are still solved by Ubuntu and the wider community, but they will not delay a release. For 12.04 there were no outstanding PowerPC bugs that were known about at the time of release.

[llamabr]

You don't know what you are talking about.

Yes I do.

[2blue]

I like lubuntu thought, and I know there are a lot of consumer powerpcs still around. Is latest debian any more likely to work with the issues that are common for powerpc; Gnash, gnome mplayer - gecko mediaplayer set up in browser? The rest seems to be working fine.

[llamabr]

It's been years since I've tried gnash. I remember it was horrible when it first started loading with ubuntu. I'll give it a try again.

My machine is so old that I don't use it for flash videos like youtube, but now with html5, maybe that will change, as well. However, my mplayer still works fine. You have trouble with mplayer on ubuntu?

[2blue]

Mplayer and it`s forks works fine on its` own (default in lubuntu is gnome mplayer, with mplayer2 and gecko mediaplayer browser setup). Problem is all browser plugin packages are broken for powerpc; gecko package and gnash browser plugin package for firefox and related browsers do not work. They really should. Exception is Midori, where gnash streams fairly well (not mozilla related I suppose). Html5 might get better in the future, but as the situation is now it plays, halts, starts, stops (sound is fairly smooth running), at least in youtube.

I have checked with others using debianppc and mintppc, situation is no better. Last night someone told be to try Fedora, the build team there appearantly has a few ppc users.

[llamabr]

Right. I wouldn't know, since I don't run ubuntu on my ibook, and wouldn't, since the hardware inside is no longer supported by ubuntu. Instead, I run debian, because it is. Also, I'm rather sick of the ubuntu team telling me what is the "default" on my machine.

I don't run gnash, since last time I tried (years ago, to be fair), it was the suck. I don't play youtube -- the machine is too old, and flash is wobbly, and gnash doesn't work. But otherwise, I experience none of the issues you describe.