Adelie Linux on Power Mac G4

[PowerPCFan]

I have a Power Mac G4 MDD and I want to install Adelie Linux on a 14gb partition. My favorite youtuber Sean from Action Retro did this amazing video on installing Adelie Linux on PowerPC. I wasn't able to get it to work. I did everything he said and I even did some extra steps, but wasn't able to get it to work. Not sure if I have to make a bigger partition or I'm doing something wrong, but it kept stopping and failing at the last step. I used Ethernet, purchased pricey adapters, but couldn't get it to work! Any help would be great! I'm a Linux newbie😀

 

[PowerPCFan]

I might do Ubuntu or Debian, but I think Adelie runs good on PPC.

 

[cellularmitosis]

Can you post a photo of the error you were getting?

 

[PowerPCFan]

Sure. The WiFi router is very far from my computers, and I can't move the computers, so I'll have to come up with a solution. I'm looking into 200ft Cat5 cables, but they're expensive. It's basically just saying Adelie Linux Installation failed. I looked at the log and towards the end, it said Clock is wrong. I bought PRAM batteries and that fixed that issue. Now towards the end of the log, it just says The HorizonScript failed to execute. (2 errors) that's all.

Here's the Action Retro video

 

[MacMaverick855]

Update on trying to get Adelie installed on a G4 Quicksilver with an Nvidia GeForce4 MX (NV17) GPU and a G5 Cheesegrater with a Radeon 9600 XT GPU: No joy on the G4, I believe all the issues are with getting the OS to deal with the GPU.

G4 attempts include trying to enter commands at boot that include "nouveau.modeset=0" and "video=offbff". I have to hit ctrl-F7 to get to the main screen which only displays a flashing white cursor in the upper right hand corner. I have removed the Apple Cinema Display and attached a DVI monitor with no change in results.

G5 stopped at launching the live desktop because it can't find a root file system in "/run/initramfs/live//ppc64". It's now generating a verbose error report and drops to a dracut debug shell. (Note: I had the exact same problem, dropping to a debug shell, trying to load the x86 version onto a Dell Latitude.)

So basically, it's as if every download is bad. Will try a few more tricks to see If I can get something to work.

Also getting blk_update_request: IO error , device sr0 then gives a sector #. I know all of the CD/DVD machines are working in all of my devices, so I suspect a problem with the media.

 

[PowerPCFan]

Update on trying to get Adelie installed on a G4 Quicksilver with an Nvidia GeForce4 MX (NV17) GPU and a G5 Cheesegrater with a Radeon 9600 XT GPU: No joy on the G4, I believe all the issues are with getting the OS to deal with the GPU.

G4 attempts include trying to enter commands at boot that include "nouveau.modeset=0" and "video=offbff". I have to hit ctrl-F7 to get to the main screen which only displays a flashing white cursor in the upper right hand corner. I have removed the Apple Cinema Display and attached a DVI monitor with no change in results.

G5 stopped at launching the live desktop because it can't find a root file system in "/run/initramfs/live//ppc64". It's now generating a verbose error report and drops to a dracut debug shell. (Note: I had the exact same problem, dropping to a debug shell, trying to load the x86 version onto a Dell Latitude.)

So basically, it's as if every download is bad. Will try a few more tricks to see If I can get something to work.

Also getting blk_update_request: IO error , device sr0 then gives a sector #. I know all of the CD/DVD machines are working in all of my devices, so I suspect a problem with the media.

I got Lubuntu Remix running on my MDD but the installation somehow deleted itself when I brought the Mac to my VCF East 2024 exhibit... (HDD didn't die, I had another OS on there as well which still boots)

I'll eventually reinstall it when I get a chance.

Links if you're interested
----------------------------------

Link to Lubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (it's an unsecured, unofficial mirror download but I scanned the website and all the files for viruses and it's 100% safe):

Lubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (Xenial Xerus)

mirror.datto.com

Link to Lubuntu Remix, made by @wicknix - this one is better:

Lubuntu 16.04 Remix (updated)

2023 update For anybody still using this (16.04 v2) i created a tutorial with some extra files to extend the life of it. Basically we change the sources.list to Debians (since Ubuntu's repo is dead) and make a few changes to allow packages to be updated and installable again. Download it here...

forums.macrumors.com

(apparently, Wicknix released an update so you can make it work better in 2024, but I never tried it... I think it fixes some missing packages)

 

[MacMaverick855]

Appreciate the feedback. I wouldn’t be messing with Adelie if someone named “midnightcheese” hadn’t gushed about the ppc and ppc64 .iso worked for him. I can boot the G4 from a usb but the G5 refuses to do so and I’m out of DVDs. May be time to go buy some more!

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

out of DVDs

DVD-RAM are best!

 

[MacMaverick855]

Still no luck getting Adelie work on my Quicksilver G4 or the Cheesegrater G5. The live desktop won’t load and the inability for the system to find a root file system in /run/initramfs/live///ppc64 etc continues to occur. The final line on the boot up is “dracut refuses to continue”.

 

[MacMaverick855]

I am (continuing?) to try to get Adelie loaded on both a G4 Quicksilver and G5 cheese grater. I can get to the point with the live .ISO where I can log in as root or enter live. I only get to a command line “adelie-live”. I’ve tried entering sddm to get to a graphical log in screen but nothing happens, I don’t even get a command line back, just a flashing cursor. I have to hit Control-c to get the command line back. I would like to think I could either get a GUI or start and install from there. Suggestions?

 

[PowerPCFan]

I am (continuing?) to try to get Adelie loaded on both a G4 Quicksilver and G5 cheese grater. I can get to the point with the live .ISO where I can log in as root or enter live. I only get to a command line “adelie-live”. I’ve tried entering sddm to get to a graphical log in screen but nothing happens, I don’t even get a command line back, just a flashing cursor. I have to hit Control-c to get the command line back. I would like to think I could either get a GUI or start and install from there. Suggestions?

I don't have any suggestions since I SUCK at anything related to Linux - that's why I made this post over 2 years ago!

Time flies lol, that feels like a few months ago that I posted this

 

[AdamBuker]

So having flashed the install media to a usb drive and also having found the usb device id in open firmware, what path should I specify to get it to boot from open firmware?

 

[MacMaverick855]

So, and I don’t recall where from, I downloaded an Adelie-BETA. Using @ActionRetro steps and loading Adelie in the upper slot HD of the G5 (thanks @wicknix ), I was able to boot to a KDE Plasma desktop. However, I can only use a monitor hooked to the DVI port of the Radeon 9600XT GPU. Adelie boots to a black (dead) screen If the Apple Display is connected. Tried numerous GRUB command line mods to see if it would help but nothing did. The color is also off on the DVI monitor. I’ll need to research what needs to be done to fix that issue. But it’s progress!

 

[smnbldwn]

I have just started trying to install Adelie on my PowerBook G4. The live CD booted fine and the installer (Horizon) ran pretty much to the end (according to the logs) but it failed at the final step, installing Grub. Grub was already on the machine as it previously ran Void PPC and I just formatted the Void partition and chose this as the as the place to install Adelie. Mac OSX still runs fine but Adelie won't boot at all. When I used the ALT key to get the boot menu, there was still a GNU option but now it boots into grub-rescue with an error message about an unrecognised file system. If this was an x86 machine, I would just try booting from a boot-repair live CD. What do I need to do to get Adelie booting? The live disk worked pretty well.

 

[saxfun]

i solved it with some grub cmds.