install help on PowerPC G5

[gsahli]

I don't have a G5, but I'll try to help. Your Mac has its own bootloader, which you activate by holding Option/Alt key immediately after the restart gong sound. Hold it until you see the menu of booting options appear. If everything is installed in the right place, linux will show up there as an icon along with MacOS. Click on linux and then the right arrow.
If this doesn't work tell us what happens.
It is possible you'll have to run "ybin -v" to get all boot choices registered in yaboot - the ppc bootloader.
Here's more help:
https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc...to/ch9.en.html
https://www.osxbook.com/book/bonus/a...arch_boot.html

[este.el.paz]

Sorry, I didn't get any notifications on the recent posts until today . . . as "gsahli" suggests . . . you should be able to use the "alt/option" key to get the OSX bootmanager window to open and then select the OS of your choice . . . 10.5 or 16.04 . . . . I don't know why having one plugged in or both drives, shouldn't be a problem.

But, because there are so many potential places where problems could crop up it might be "difficult" to troubleshoot your issues . . . as several have mentioned "PPC is unsupported by ubuntu." Also as I believe I mentioned before, the first level is to boot the live iso and try to run the system as "live." If you can't do that then the level of difficulty goes higher; if you can boot and run the live system, then the install should go well, etc.

Since you have a 64 bit machine, there are other distros that offer support for 64 bit PPC . . . I believe opensuse has one option, there might be a few others?? Try them, because they would be "supported" vs "unsupported" . . . if you can see the distinction.

OR, if you must run ubuntu based system I found a thread here in the last few months that had a mention or link to "Wicknix" respins of 16.04 PPC & 12.04 PPC. I got the iso's and burned them to dvd and booted them up . . . did not install on my G4 machines . . . . He is offering new browser and other newer stuff stacked on the 16.04 base system . . . there are some "rules" that have to be followed, so if you go that route, read his instructions to be sure you aren't going off track . . . but . . . I think his distros are 32 bit?????? I don't know, point is they work on my G4s . . . with the proper boot parameters . . . .

If I had a 64 bit G5 I would look for a "supported" distro . . . burn it to dvd or flash drive and try to boot it "live" for the first test question.

[tony359]

Hi - thanks for your help.

Please see my previous post:

Lubuntu loads ok when it's the only drive in the system. I have added a second drive on which I have installed OSX 10.5. OSX works no worries on its own or even when the Lubuntu drive is connected. Lubuntu, however, refuses to boot when the OSX drive is connected.

It goes past the first screen and then I get

Welcome to Yaboot version 1.3.16
Enter "help" to get some basic usage information
boot: Linux
Please wait, loading kernel...

but nothing happens. Again, if I remove the OSX drive it loads fine.

So Lubuntu works but only when one disk is connected.

Indeed looking for a more supported OS could be a better solution. I'll look into that, thanks!

[gsahli]

You haven't told us if you tried the Alt/Option key method.
You haven't mentioned Open Firmware, or ybin -v.
We want to help troubleshoot, but you're keeping us in the dark.
On my G4, to get triple boot (10.4, 10.5, and Ubuntu 16.04), I had to use Open Firmware to discover the paths to the bootable drives.

[tony359]

Gsahli,

I appreciate your - and everyone's - help on this. Last thing I want is that you feel that I am just expecting the community to guess my issue and solve it for me. Apologies if this is what's transpired from my message.

I've been doing some tests and it looks like the behaviour is a bit erratic.

First I just booted up (first time since March) and it just booted into Linux just fine without me doing anything.
Then I rebooted, hold ALT to get into the boot manager. Selected OSX and it booted just fine.
Then, I power cycled and tested it again with no intervention: it attempted to boot into Linux but it got stuck on "Loading Kernel" as mentioned before.

So I followed your advice. Power cycled and got into the boot manager; selected Linux and it booted fine.

At this point I rebooted and tried again: held ALT, got into boot manager, selected Linux. This time I went into "Please Wait, loading kernel... Elf64 kernel loaded... Loading Ramdisk..." and then it got stuck.

I am wondering whether it's just a bad disk? I'm not sure why it should work intermittently like that.

Anyways, I went ahead and followed your recommendations.
I reset the NVRAM, after doing that the system wouldn't boot up anymore in Linux, showing the attached error message. If I hold ALT and get into the boot manager, I get the same error.

IMG_0345.jpg

I went into OF and I can see the below

IMG_0346.jpgIMG_0347.jpg

I can go into yaboot by typing boot hd:2,yaboot. I am then prompted with the boot: prompt but then I am a bit lost as I can't seem to be able to go any further.

I suppose I need to find out the path of Linux and just add it to the configuration file?

Thanks!
Tony

[gsahli]

Thanks for more info.
I agree that it seems like a drive problem.
When at the boot prompt, I just type Linux.
But there are some "parameters/arguments" that can be added after that, like Linux video=ofonly
Video configuration probs can cause linux to appear to just stop.
I'm sure you've read the ppc FAQ:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ

[ernsteiswuerfel]

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.