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View Full Version : [SOLVED] iMac g5 Lubuntu 16.04 Cant connect to wifi


wiicart
April 4th, 2020, 10:57 PM
Ive installed lubuntu 16.04 on my iMac g5 but I cant connect to internet, I have a airport extreme card. Ive tried installing drivers but either i've installed them wrong or they just arent working
jeremy31
April 4th, 2020, 11:13 PM
Moved to Apple
gsahli
April 5th, 2020, 04:14 AM
I don't have one of those...
If I understand correctly, your A/Extreme card is either Atheros or Broadcom. If it is Broadcom, you should follow the instructions here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#Will_my_wireless_work.3F

This command (terminal) may help you figure out which card you have:
sudo lshw -C network
mörgæs
April 5th, 2020, 06:36 AM
Lubuntu 16.04 is out of support. Better to begin with a clean install of 19.10.
guiverc
April 5th, 2020, 07:10 AM
Lubuntu 16.04 LTS being a flavor of Ubuntu had only 3 years of supported life (https://lubuntu.me/xenial-5-released/ http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2019/03/01/ubuntu-16-04-6-lts-released/) which ended 2019-April. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server (no desktop) or Desktop (Unity 7) have 5 years of supported life and are still supported. Refer release notes, or use `ubuntu-support-status` or your own system to confirm this is the case.

The powerpc (`ppc`) architecture was supported by main Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and by some flavors for 16.04, however both are now EOL (end-of-life) and only `ppc64el` is still supported for power pc, however ppc64el won't run on mac hardware (mac switched to intel instead and never produced 64 bit powerpc devices)
mörgæs
April 5th, 2020, 07:29 AM
Sorry, I forgot about the PowerPC problem.
Please ignore my post.
wiicart
April 5th, 2020, 04:54 PM
I tried the wiki.ubuntu.com solution but that didn't work, I looked at this https://askubuntu.com/questions/470153/no-wireless-when-install-14-04-on-macbook-pro and on the first answer it said to dosudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43sudo cp Desktop/b43/* /lib/firmware/b43
sudo modprobe -rv b43
sudo modprobe -v b43
This did get wireless working but it stops working after restarts and you have to run those commands again
gsahli
April 5th, 2020, 09:41 PM
Good progress. Some background: the Broadcom chipset requires that the firmware part of the driver be re-installed onto the chip at each restart. The permanent module is supposed to do this.
Review this for permanently loading modules
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Loadable_Modules

PS: I haven't had to do this since around 2005 - so I'm just giving hints!
wiicart
April 6th, 2020, 07:16 PM
Good progress. Some background: the Broadcom chipset requires that the firmware part of the driver be re-installed onto the chip at each restart. The permanent module is supposed to do this.
Review this for permanently loading modules
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Loadable_Modules

PS: I haven't had to do this since around 2005 - so I'm just giving hints!

This helped a lot! Thank you
ernsteiswuerfel
June 21st, 2020, 10:08 AM
If you want a much more painfree experience with Linux on G3/G4/G5 hardware just skip this outdated distro and use another one. Also G3/G4/G5 PPC is no longer supported by Ubuntu.

These are (better) alternatives with bootable isos, current software (working browser, etc.) and current kernels:
https://voidlinux-ppc.org/
https://www.adelielinux.org/
https://fienixppc.blogspot.com/p/download.html (64bit only, USB boot image)

Also no need to fiddle around with yaboot any longer. Void and Adelie use grub just like you know it from Linux on regular x64_64 hardware.