Pismo -won't boot to cd

[wanthh]

The Mac pismo took the alternate install. of Ubuntu 8.04. All ok until final second stage. Removed cd and booted but screen went scattered then faded- no graphical interface. I did want Xubuntu because of 400 MHz processor and 380MB Ram. Xubuntu said to be better on this old machine. I could not find Mac powerpc download for it so I tried Ubuntu 8.04 as suggested. I'm about to go back to OS 9 unless someone knows if Xubuntu (any) will work on the Pismo (firewire) and where to download the image. LiveCD + trial preferred, alternate if not. Thanks if anyone can answer.

[stream303]

Don't run away just yet - you are close.

Once we get Ubuntu running, if you still want Xubuntu, you can always install it manually by running

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

and switching to it at your next login session by specifying xubuntu at the gdm login screen, usually at the lower left. I don't know why Xubuntu isn't providing a specific Hardy iso, and hope that they aren't going to stop updates for it - this is the kind of stuff xubuntu is made for.

Tip: You may not even need/want a full Xubuntu - from Ubuntu, you could just install the main component, XFCE4, and switch to that at the next login....

Here's a good link on where to download the PPC images:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads

Back to the main problem though. It appears you might have to manually edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to accomodate the pismo. I'd have to look back in the archive PPC threads - I'm sure I've seen a few.

That fact that you are seeing dmesg lines scrolling by when you do video=ofonly is a good sign, but it appears that once it reaches the gui desktop, X is misconfigured. When the screen goes black, can you get to a virtual terminal via CTRL-ALT-F1 ?

As a diagnostic, you could try installing the older Feisty 7.04 and see how that goes, especially when it comes to the /etc/X11/xorg configuration.

[wanthh]

Best results yet were with Ubuntu 7.04 FF Live CD. Using "live video=ofonly" will go all the way to a blue screen with message:" Failed to start the x server (your graphical interface). It is likely that it is not set up correctly. Would you like to view the x server output to diagnose the problem? ". I think it has something to do with the video card but I don't know which it has or how to find out. It does seem as if its close to working but I've reached the limit of my abilities. I can follow directions well but just don't know coding. If anyone can get me past this; please write.

Latest: Tried to reinstall OS 9 but unable since Ubuntu alternate setup method wiped HD. OS 9 is now asking for mounted volumn, needs HD to be destination. I ran the Apple Hardware Test CD - all passed and learned this; The Mac Pismo memory is S0Dimm0/J2 = 64MB and S0Dimm1/J1 = 256MB. Video graphics is an ATI Rage M3pA res. 1024x768. I now just want to get the machine running; prefer xubuntu or ubuntu and then OS9. I don't know how to make the HD the destination for OS9- no choices.