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Ubuntu is one of the best GNU/Linux distributions for the desktop because of its easy installation/administration. Yet, the installation can be painful especially if you are not on an x86 platform (Intel/AMD).
My desktop is an eMac (powerpc platform) and hence I’m mostly on my own meaning, my platform is supported by most open source software including Firefox, Thunderbird, or anything. I don’t regret this, but consider this as an opportunity to study these software in detail by building them by hand, often editing files to build the software.
Last week I got my Ubuntu CDs shipped from Canonical (free of charge :D) and wanted to give it a try (even though I was happily running my favourite distribution–Gentoo). I popped in the live CD and rebooted my system. Unfortunately for the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS live CD, it did not detect my display properly, so I had to edit xorg.conf to get the GUI (GNOME) running.
As instructed on the CD, I started the installation program (by double-clicking the “Install” desktop icon). I have to tell here, even though the partioning software in Ubuntu is GUI, it had one of the very confusing interfaces I have ever used. But, I was able to select the partitions for root, swap and Apple bootstrap. The installation started, but to my surprise the installer complained that it could not find the Apple bootstrap partition for installing the boot loader. I tried multiple times repartitioning without success. Later, when I checked this issue on the web, I found it to be a bug in the installer software and the advice was to skip and go ahead (I would admit myself to be an expert, so I thought I could boot to the openfirmware prompt and boot GNU/Linux if the boot loader fails). But the worst thing happened. Before the installation could complete detecting and configuring the hardware, it crashed. I tried many a times, without success, but was firm in getting Ubuntu on my computer. It did not work.
In the release notes, it was mentioned that this problem is only with the live CD and not with the alternate CD. So, I decided to give a try, and I downloaded the alternate CD. I popped in the CD and without hesitation I booted the system to “expert” mode. To my surprise, it gave me a familiar installation screen (yes the Debian-like console installer).
The installation was successful, also, the installer did detect my hardware correctly.
technorati tags: ubuntu, dapper drake, linux, ppc, powerpc
March 24th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Hello I have been trying, with out luck, to install any kind of linux flavor onto my Ibook G3. I have come accross many install help forums and none have helped. I was wondering if you think this solution will affect my situation at all. I have tried both the Ubuntu 6.06 &6.10, Neither the primary or alternate CDs would work. They both came up with a bad partition error or a “cannot use/ load kernell”. Any advice?
March 25th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Are you sure the CD is not corrupt? Can you try verifying the ISO image before burning it to a CD, and by running the CD through a disk scanner after burning?
Are you trying to load any alternate kernel or the default one?