Help installing Ubuntu on eMac.

[apa240]

I've burned the iso and started up the computer from the cd fine. It gets through the startup screen, with the bar sliding back and forth, but then just goes to a blank screen from there. Any ideas?

[tiresia]

Try to type at yaboot prompt

video=ofonly

[apa240]

I typed that in and got a response of:
video=ofonly:2,/vmlinux: Unable to open file, Invalid device

I've also tried booting up with "live video=ofonly" and have gotten nowhere with that.

[tiresia]

Where did you download the CD, and how did you burn it? Please, give us more informations about your computer

[apa240]

I got it from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/hardy/release/ and burned it using Disk Utility. (I realize that's 8.04, but I did it earlier this week.)

eMac
1.42 GHz PPC G4
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600
Combo Drive

I don't know what else you need.

[tiresia]

If you downloaded a LiveCD, at the yaboot-prompt type

live-nosplash-powerpc video=ofonly

Burn the CD very slowly
You will get help from other people who know better the eMac
You may find more in this forum. A similar problem:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...highlight=emac

[crapple]

Try this.

1) Download alternative install cd. Live ones don't do to well on ppc. Get it form here

2) Install

3) If it works great! If you get a screen that flickers and then goes black try this.

4) Switch to terminal based interface(alt+F1 might take a few times.)

5)Run

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-video-ati/xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.6.3-2_powerpc.deb

You must have a weird internet connection.
6)Run

sudo dpkg -i --force all xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.6.3-2_powerpc.deb

7)Run

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

(8)Then if needed press alt+F7 to get to graphical interface. This should make it run in low graphics.
9)Then open terminal (Applications-accessories-terminal)and run

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

10)Select everything then paste this in

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# See the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)

# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "XFree86 Configured"
        Screen          0 "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice     "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice     "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "OffTime" "10"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)

       RgbPath		"/usr/share/X11/rgb.txt"
      #FontPath		"/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
      #FontPath		"/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1/"
      #FontPath		"/usr/share/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
      #FontPath		"/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
      #FontPath		"/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load            "dbe"
        Load            "extmod"
        Load            "fbdevhw"
        Load            "freetype"
        Load            "type1"
        #Load           "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Keyboard0"
        Driver          "kbd"
# Change "XkbModel" to "macintosh_old" if you are using
# the deprecated adb keycodes.
        Option          "XkbModel"      "macintosh"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
        Option          "XkbOptions"    "grp:caps_toggle"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Mouse0"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"  "4 5"
        Option          "Protocol"      "IMPS/2"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Monitor0"
        ModelName       "Monitor Model"
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       30-82
        VertRefresh     50-60
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Card0"
        #Option         "ShadowFB"      "true"
        #Option         "fbdev"         "/dev/fb0"
        Driver          "fbdev"
        #BusID          "PCI:0:16:0"
        Option          "UseFBDev"      "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Screen0"
        Device          "Card0"
        Monitor         "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   24
                Modes   "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   16
                Modes   "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   15
                Modes   "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   8
                Modes   "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Group           0
        Mode            0666
EndSection

I got this for my emac from paul_mcl.

Then run update manger from system-administration.

This worked for me on my Radeon 7500 emac g4.

Good Luck!

[apa240]

I got it to work. I typed in the code for the xorg.conf that crapple said and got it to load with the live cd.

Thanks for your help tiresia and crapple.

[kububa]

Wonderful!!!!! Thank you for solution!!!
I was struggling with this problem for quite a long time and I could only install on my 1.2 GHz eMac with ati card Ubuntu 6.06, all newer versions failed - black screen.

So now I have Ubuntu 8.04.1 on my eMac, but I've noticed my soundcard is not working. Is it working on your eMacs, guys?

[stream303]

If you call up alsamixer in a terminal, are any of your outputs muted, or sitting at very low levels? (left-right keys to navigate, M to toggle muting, B to balance, up-down to change levels..)

PulseAudio might be suspect too, but I'd check alsamixer first...

Typically I've found PCM to be blasting on ppc installs, but perhaps not on your emac....