The PowerPC Debian Wiki

[matO_opp_ITA]

On my (little) experience I can say that Ubuntu 14.04 is the best version to install, because the repositories of port.ubuntu.com aren’t corrupted, but still is listed into the “InRelease” file at trusty-updates/security/backports/proposed

(Sorry for my broken English)

 

[pc297]

Looks like the Debian folks are treating the ppc crowd for the new year already - with Debian 12 - happy new year! No iso yet BUT as of yesterday installing the latest Debian ppc64 image (20220328) with the latest sources (using mate so far in my hands) not now only results in kernel version 6 being installed but Debian 12 altogether

I don't know if gnome for Debian 12 is ready though and it does look like it's still work in progress though, e.g. several deps seem to be broken e.g. libstdc++6 v12 is not detected as >=11 by many older deps so I would advise backing up any debian 11 installation and proceed with caution, unless someone else has upgraded without any trouble already?

Cheers,

 

[pc297]

It does however have some binary compatibility with Darwin for command-line tools and X11 stuff (but not Aqua)

As for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, not trying to be the devil's advocate here but it's one of the few binary distros that correctly supports older GPUs under Gnome/Wayland, e.g. GF 7800 GTX. It's kept up to date AND they did fix the ARGB bug in ff78... I have to compile hardinfo (there are only intel binary packages afaik) but here are some screenshots with the GF 7800 GTX under Gnome/Wayland

Btw I could finally get hardinfo installed on Tumbleweed, by converting it and the required deps (missing from Tumbleweed ppc64) to rpm via alien

Cheers,

 

[peter.parsons]

I'm posting this just for the morale / encouragement of anyone with an iBook G4 (1.5G RAM, 128GB hard disk, previously had Debian 8) that wants return it to usefulness. You can do it with this thread, but it does take perseverance. There are little pieces of the puzzle all over this thread that never made it back to the first post. When I started, I didn't even realize the first post had a bunch of collapsible sections.

I was actually getting ready to toss in the garbage, but figure I'd give it a try and I am glad I did. It is a nice laptop - a USD$1000 graduation gift to a kid that abandoned it a decade ago. Surprisingly, the batteries were still good. It had Debian 8, so I change to repositories to sid and updated everything. That broke it completely.

I started with the powerpc debian image but the installer failed at installing grub. There are probably better install images to start with to avoid problems. The solution was not on the first post, further down where someone opened a shell and manually mounted /boot. Then I was able to return to the installer and everything continued, resulting in a bootable machine.

The next issue was that almost no software was installed, probably because of the repository key problem. Rather than fight immediately with gpg keys, I added deb [trusted=yes] in the sources.list and updated the repository.

I started by adding myself to the sudoers list so that I could do sudo apt install ...

From there, it was a few days getting things installed, and I added a powerpc port snapshot image (from last December 25) to the sources.list . Some things I had given up on, like arctic fox, but then after other things were installed, suddenly it worked. A lot of things are unfortunately in a state of chaos.

I managed to get spider web working by running it from the command line and watching the error message. I had to make a link from an older library (missing) to a newer version of the same library.

Bottom line:

Debian SID (shows a Debian 12)

Boots into xfce4

Spider Web and Arctic Fox work. These were separately download deb files, not from the repositories.

Spreadsheet / word processors are available

Wireless networking using built in NIC, auto connects to home network OK

Bluetooth can connect to external speakers OK

Battery voltage/status displays on desktop OK

Performance indicators (tasks, CPU, Memory, Network) display OK

Various players can play video and mp3 files OK

Trackpad works with some lags, but I find a small external mouse is better

Libre Office installs (as of Feb 18, 2023)

Still to fix
1) I had to disable sleep mode since if activated, when it comes back there is no working keyboard to log back on. This happens on other obscure machines too (like AMD threadripper) and there are workarounds to rerun the required daemons. It should be fixable.

2) Speaker sound defaults to zero. You have to run alsamixer from the command line and get to the PCM volume and increase it from zero. Not sure why it is zero after boot.

3) Some webpages don't work. ArcticFox works on youtube, but not on everything. Spiderweb won't load Youtube, but does work on most pages. However, I se the same thing on Android phones. Some sites will detect opera browser for example, and refuse to load, or refuse to load it their ads don't display.

4) No disk temperature or Fan control yet. It works fine now, but I might add a mSATA drive later and temp/fan could be an issue. I must have upgraded the original 30G disk years ago when I updated the Apple OS.

5) No luck with VLC (video player) but other video players work.

Be prepared to poke at it a few hours a day for a week or more. About the only downside is that the CPU isn't fast, however, it is fast enough. Memory usage is quite low so 1.5G is more than adequate. There was one expansion slot -- and this has a 1G memory card.

It is quite feasible that someone could update these fixes on an install disk that could be a simple 'it just works' installer for some of Apples more popular old machines.


sources.list

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 11.0.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST with firmware 20220328-11:55]/ sid main non-free
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 11.0.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST with firmware 20220328-11:55]/ sid main non-free

# powerpc port
deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unstable main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ experimental main non-free non-free-firmware


# latest snapshot of powerpc port (Dec 25, 2022)
deb [trusted=yes check-valid-until=no] https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20221225T084846Z/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb [trusted=yes check-valid-until=no] https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20221225T084846Z/ unreleased main contrib non-free
deb [trusted=yes check-valid-until=no] https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20221225T084846Z/ experimental main contrib non-free

# This directory provides access to uploads immediately after they are accepted into the archive.
deb [trusted=yes] http://incoming.ports.debian.org/buildd/ unstable main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb [trusted=yes] http://incoming.ports.debian.org/buildd/ experimental main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

# currently no powerpc entries, just ppc64
# deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable non-free-firmware contrib

create a preferences file for apt and set the priority of experimental to low otherwise you will always get the buggier stuff since it is newest.

# cat /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 1

Miscellaneous items

This allowed me to see file shares on other home computers
sudo apt install gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse

Overkill, but I didn't want to fight firmware problems. Extra firmware is small and it won't load unless the hardware is actually installed. I did the same thing with fonts.
sudo dpkg -i firmware*.deb

This allowed spiderweb to work. It was claiming .6 did not exist, but .7 was available
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libffi.so.7 /usr/lib/libffi.so.6

This was to get rid of some pgp complaints
sudo apt install debian-ports-archive-keyring

I wasn't a member of suoders, so I looked on as root and:
last line of /etc/sudoers
peter ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

usermod -aG sudo peter

To install arctic-fox see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/arctic-fox.2371598/

I used http://www.xenosoft.de/arcticfox-40.1.linux-powerpc.tar.bz2

then
tar -xvf arcticfox-40.1.linux-powerpc.tar.bz2
cd arcticfox
try running the arctic fox binary

 

[matO_opp_ITA]

I'm posting this just for the morale / encouragement of anyone with an iBook G4 (1.5G RAM, 128GB hard disk, previously had Debian 8) that wants return it to usefulness. You can do it with this thread, but it does take perseverance. There are little pieces of the puzzle all over this thread that never made it back to the first post. When I started, I didn't even realize the first post had a bunch of collapsible sections.

I was actually getting ready to toss in the garbage, but figure I'd give it a try and I am glad I did. It is a nice laptop - a USD$1000 graduation gift to a kid that abandoned it a decade ago. Surprisingly, the batteries were still good. It had Debian 8, so I change to repositories to sid and updated everything. That broke it completely.

I started with the powerpc debian image but the installer failed at installing grub. There are probably better install images to start with to avoid problems. The solution was not on the first post, further down where someone opened a shell and manually mounted /boot. Then I was able to return to the installer and everything continued, resulting in a bootable machine.

The next issue was that almost no software was installed, probably because of the repository key problem. Rather than fight immediately with gpg keys, I added deb [trusted=yes] in the sources.list and updated the repository.

I started by adding myself to the sudoers list so that I could do sudo apt install ...

From there, it was a few days getting things installed, and I added a powerpc port snapshot image (from last December 25) to the sources.list . Some things I had given up on, like arctic fox, but then after other things were installed, suddenly it worked. A lot of things are unfortunately in a state of chaos.

I managed to get spider web working by running it from the command line and watching the error message. I had to make a link from an older library (missing) to a newer version of the same library.

Bottom line:

Debian SID (shows a Debian 12)

Boots into xfce4

Spider Web and Arctic Fox work. These were separately download deb files, not from the repositories.

Spreadsheet / word processors are available -- but LibreOffice is still broken with a conflict been its own core and the rest of it

Wireless networking using built in NIC, auto connects to home network OK

Bluetooth can connect to external speakers OK

Battery voltage/status displays on desktop OK

Performance indicators (tasks, CPU, Memory, Network) display OK

Various players can play video and mp3 files OK

Trackpad works with some lags, but I find a small external mouse is better

Still to fix
1) I had to disable sleep mode since if activated, when it comes back there is no working keyboard to log back on. This happens on other obscure machines too (like AMD threadripper) and there are workarounds to rerun the required daemons. It should be fixable.

2) I would like to be able to install LibreOffice, but I expect someone will eventually fix it so I will wait for now

3) Speaker sound defaults to zero. You have to run alsamixer from the command line and get to the PCM volume and increase it from zero. Not sure why it is zero after boot.

4) Some webpages don't work. ArcticFox works on youtube, but not on everything. Spiderweb won't load Youtube, but does work on most pages. However, I se the same thing on Android phones. Some sites will detect opera browser for example, and refuse to load, or refuse to load it their ads don't display.

5) No disk temperature or Fan control yet. It works fine now, but I might add a mSATA drive later and temp/fan could be an issue. I must have upgraded the original 30G disk years ago when I updated the Apple OS.

6) No luck with VLC (video player) but other video players work.

Be prepared to poke at it a few hours a day for a week or more. About the only downside is that the CPU isn't fast, however, it is fast enough. Memory usage is quite low so 1.5G is more than adequate. There was one expansion slot -- and this has a 1G memory card.

It is quite feasible that someone could update these fixes on an install disk that could be a simple 'it just works' installer for some of Apples more popular old machines.

Thanks for sharing, I’ve thought it was impossible to overstate that problem. I’ll try to install Debian on my iBook G4 using your comment as reference

 

[peter.parsons]

Cannot write to /boot/grub

After a crash, the apple boot partition was improperly closed, so it would open read only. I was looking at some web site with length java scripts that killed arctic fox and eventually had to reset using a long press on the power button.

This was fine until a sudo apt upgrade which offered to install a new kernel and couldn't write the grub config.

This broke apt install because it would fail trying to clean up the failed install, and nothing else could be installed either. You could have also tried to remove an old kernel to save space and discovered the read-only partition / apt fail .

To clean the apple file system, you need hfsprogs which has fsck.hfs. Unfortunately, the apt regular install was now useless to install hfsprogs.

This will download the hfsprogs package into the current directory

apt download hfsprogs (no sudo used)

Install the package using dpkg

sudo dpkg -i hfsprogs*
You should get a message like this
Setting up hfsprogs (540.1.linux3-5+ports)

To fix the partition, run

sudo fsck.hfs /dev/sda2

In my case, sda2 was what /boot/grub was mounted on

There will hopefully be a message saying nothing wrong, but partition now marked fixed/ok

Remount the read only partition to read write

sudo mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda2 /boot/grub

sudo apt install / upgrade etc will now complete


Note: It is worth installing hfsprogs before this happens. It wasn't installed by default.

If you have a failed kernel install or removal, it is worth fixing if you can before rebooting just in case you wreck it all.

Sometimes after a hard reset, I see fsck running automatically during the next boot, checking file systems that were not closed down properly. I suspect that since the hfs file systems is Apple owned/licensed, fsck.hfs is not included by default, and therefore no automatic recovery is available for hfs file systems (boot in this case)

 

[pc297]

So for those still interested in Ubuntu ppc, I can unfortunately confirm that even on 20.04 (ppc64le) both the radeon and nouveau drivers are still broken as under 16.04, the last big-endian ppc version :/ (tested with both a Radeon HD 4650 that works under Debian ppc64 - the screen goes off after Gnome initialises and a GF GT 640 which results in a nouveau probing error). So very likely no fix in the forseeable future (i.e. a working 16.04 backport of those drivers).

Which means gnome-classic only with the onboard GPU (Tyan Power8 tn71-bp012) as under our G5 boxes (except if you do compile it along with the kernel as reported by @luigiburdo, as even putting together a working xorg.conf file does not fix it). I will try the ppc64el version of Debian on it along with a radeon card (which will likely work since it does with the ppc64 version), but radeon that is as afaik the nouveau driver is broken under Debian (at least it clearly doesn't support the GF 7800 GT/GTX, which OpenSUSE Tumbleweed does albeit with a bit of screen lag)

Still, Ubuntu with Gnome Classic is not too shabby on Power8, the great-great grandson of our G5s ! Out of curiosity I'll try booting a Leo/SL partition (GPT-partitioned drive) and see how far Darwin goes before KPing or it complaining that the platform is unknown 🤣

Otherwise qemu is the obvious answer but ideally with GPU passthrough (and I'm not sure the ppc version of qemu supports this)

 

[peter.parsons]

LibreOffice now installs (Feb 18, 2023)

There was a bug related to epoc that caused libreoffice core to be incompatible with itself. This was recently fixed and is now available in the debian repository. apt install libreoffice should now work.

 

[j005]

OS for Mac Mini G4

I'm looking for Operating System to breathe some air into a G4 Mac Mini 1.42 with 1GB ram.

The goal is to build an inexpensive box that can run a somewhat modern browser, and specially run a Logitec Squezebox player (for synchronous a multi-room audio).

YouTube and Netflix would be a bonus!

I really enjoy the audio quality that comes out of the G4 and want to put it to use building a home-wide sound system.

I've Installed Debian SID - I was able to install and run it, but SID is not stable and too confusing for me to try to maintain.

Also installed OpenBSD 7.2 in the box but I'm unable to get XFCE to start, and finding tutorials on OpenBSD is a challenge.

NetBSD is documented, but too deep of dive for me at the moment.

T2 is also promising but I'm not interested in compiling from source.

Void Linux looked promising but the Dev is abandoning the project.

OS X would be ideal but it has not been updated since 2005, even TenForFox has been abandoned.

I'm quite familiar with mainstream Linux Distros on x86 and x64 (Ubuntu and Red Hat families).

I'm not interested on Tier 2 or 3.

Its nice to have so many OS options, but I do not have the time to learn and test so many.

Is 32 bit Debian 11_PPC stable or is it SID?

This is an interesting list of OS options for the PowerPC..

http://oscomp.hu/bgafc/oses4ppc.php?ft[3][1]=on&ft[5][0]=on&ft[7][0]=on&ft[9][1]=on&ft[10][1]=on&

.. but I'm kind of hesitant to run an OS that has not been listed and tested by distrowatch.com

Such as:

HelenOS
MorphOS
CruxPPC
Yocto

Fienix and Adelie have been listed on distrowatch, but not reviewed yet.

I'm looking for an OS that is maintained (tier 1 is OK), runs any GUI and has drivers for audio and the Radeon 9200 GPU.

Any suggestions for this Mac will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Doq]

ew... that font does not look good on InterWebPPC

You're in a position where there are not many options that meet your specific requirements. However, there are a small few:

- MorphOS: You said that you're hesitant because it's not listed on DistroWatch. That's because MorphOS isn't a Linux or BSD-- it's a branch of AmigaOS instead. This is also probably the best option for the best compatibility with your hardware and also having reasonable maintainability. It is paid software, though, so keep that in mind.

- Debian/Ubuntu kinda: Ready-made images use very old packages because newer versions are funny on the ol' PowerPC. You can get something reasonably up-to-date with a hacked up package repository but that's definitely outside of any support beyond community forums such as this one.

- Gentoo: You could go this route-- a lot of things are surprisingly functional with Gentoo, but be prepared to read lots of documentation and several cups of coffee (or your preferred drink) waiting for compiles to finish.

- Bite the cost bullet and get an Early Intel Mac mini instead. Linux distribution support is far, far better on Intel and there are many more options.

 

[dextructor]

somewhat modern browser... YouTube and Netflix would be a bonus!

MorphOS probably has the most modern web-browser to date on PPC machines. But I didn´t like the OS so much, and they never discussed openly the future roadmap about if/when they would move from PPC hardware to X86_64 machines.

The browser in my opinion lacks customization/extensions. In my home network I have a Pi-hole to block all crap (ads and other threats) of my network, but having access to other tools on the browser it's interesting.The lack of diversity on the software side to me isn't worth, but if works for you, go for it!

Regarding Netflix, forget about it! Google has ported the DRM to ChromeOS to add some value/utility to their Chromebooks, but porting it to anything that isn´t X86? Not gonna happen.


If you are basing your choices on DistroWatch I'm sorry for you, but the world of OS's are much more bigger than that.

Void it's a shame that aren't more updated since 01/2023, but works great since the developer use daily modern PPC machines so keeping an eye on the code was more frequently.

BSD's on the other hand it's a thing on it's own.

But when it comes to web-browser your options are what wicknix has ported to us or MorphOS, anything else it's hard to recommend it.

 

[peter.parsons]

VLC is in the repository but will not install because the current matching version of vlc-data is not there.

System: iBook G4
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD RV360/M12 [Mobility Radeon 9550] driver: radeon v: kernel
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting dri: r300 gpu: radeon resolution: 1024x768~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 2.1 Mesa 22.3.3 renderer: ATI RV350



You can download vlc-data of the matching version from ubuntu, then install VLC on the powerpc

https://www.ucbuntuupdates.org/package/core/kinetic/universe/base/vlc-data

Manually install vlc-data
sudo dpkg -i vlc-data_*.deb

VLC should then install properly
sudo install vlc

Audio will work, but video may be missing, despite VLC decoding the frames

(VLC menu) tools->preferences->video->display->output X11 video output (XCB)

It seems that OpenGL is the problem. Video worked with the X11 setting.

You can also try this, but it wasn't necessary in my case
(VLC menu) tools->preferences->input/codecs->Hardware-accelerating decoding disable

 

[Doq]

Okay this is irritating me to no end, and Google-fu + searching this forum came up empty.

Which module do I have to disable to disable the ambient light sensor? I just finally got Debian running on THE KING but it's gone to 0% brightness just about every time it starts up and sometimes I can recover it but most times I have to reboot and start over.

update: my google-fu needs to be updated. the module I was looking for is i2c_dev. it also kills keyboard backlighting but it's a worthy sacrifice.

update update: no, this actually did nothing. I am now back to square one.

update update update: I figured a workaround for this problem. It'll probably get its own thread for visibility maybe not, but the gist is to create a late-start systemd service that sets the brightness of the display directly after i2c_dev and the corresponding backlight service loads.

 

[peter.parsons]

I decided to upgrade the iBook G4 hard drive to mSATA before doing more debian work. It turned out to be complicated. I'll post more details when I get time, but the basics are points are these:

1) The mSATA speeds up loading things significantly. OpenOffice Writer went from 99 seconds to 30. Data transfer rates are double, access times are like 30x faster. Some say upgrading an ATA100 interface is useless -- that isn't true.

2) A Kingston 256GB mSATA stick works well.

3) The IDE to mSATA cards on Aliexpress do not boot on the iBook. You need the red one (Ablecon) on Amazon.

4) If you have access to another linux machine, you can connect your old drive to an IDE/USB adapter and use dd to make an image.

For example, if the old and new drives turn up as sdh, then

sudo dd if=/dev/sdh of=/media/somewhere/sdh.img bs=1k conv=noerror

sudo dd if=/media/somewhere/sdh.img of=/dev/sdh bs=1k conv=noerror

5) You can write this image back to your new mSATA, even using the adapter from Aliexpress. However, only the Ablecon adapter will boot on an iBook G4.

6) Make sure it boots before putting back the laptop top because you absolutely want to minimize removing J1 power connector. It can pull right off the logic board. To test the boot, just use a small screw driver to short the pins on J1. If you separate the female connector from the logic board, you will need a microscope and very small soldering tip and very steady hand to reconnect it. Apple gets the blame for this one.

Currently I am running Debian 12 with latest builds

Linux debian 6.1.0-7-powerpc #1 Debian 6.1.20-1 (2023-03-19) ppc GNU/Linux

cat /proc/cpuinfo
cpu : 7447A, altivec supported
clock : 1333.333000MHz
revision : 1.5 (pvr 8003 0105)
pmac-generation : NewWorld
Memory : 1536 MB


There should be two images on this post. One is the old IDE drive, the other is the Ablecon / Kingston 256GB mSATA.

 

[Amethyst1]

Some say upgrading an ATA100 interface is useless […]

Those who say that have no clue.

There should be two images on this post. One is the old IDE drive, […]

The Samsung HM160HC (2010) is one of the fastest 2.5” IDE drives… but it doesn’t hold a candle to a modern SSD.

 

[peter.parsons]

Just in case anyone tries opening a iBook G4 case using one of the on-line tutorials, here is a photo of J1 with the connector removed. This goes to the round power on/off button on the iBook G4.

It is mostly held down by the two legs to the left of the plastic socket. The connector is so tight that unless you use a small screw driver to hold the female part down while you pull, you can yank it off the board.

To re-solder, you need fantastic eyesight or a microscope. You also need very tiny solder and a very fine tip on the soldering station.

Worst case, I recommend you use this potential disaster as an excuse to get some toys. Olympus Stereo zoom microscopes have nice optics (ebay, surplus from universities) and you can add a camera (Aliexpress) to one of the eye pieces and hook it up to a HDTV. Weller makes good soldering stations and very tiny tips are available. Aliexpress is great for hot air stations.

Another great use is for straightening out pins in sockets. I saw that two of the iBook G4 speaker pins (4 pin connector) were bent over. Under a scope, you can prod the pins and get the to stand up straight without breaking them. Without a scope, you'd be like a bull in a china shop.

Finally, it is great for family splinters - I've taken out quite a few microscopic glass and metal splinters using a scope.

 

[Lilendianppcnes]

After hours of troubleshooting and perusing this thread and several others across the web, I finally got Debian 12 Bookworm with non-free firmware to boot on a PowerBook G4 A1010 867 MHz (no other operating systems installed at the moment). I still have to configure the video, but I'll get to that eventually. Here's a brief guide:

1. Download this ISO and burn it to a CD-R: debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso
2. Connect ethernet cable, power on, insert install CD-R.
3. Choose default install. The process is pretty straightforward, but here are a few tips if you're new to Debian:
   • For partitioning, select “Guided - use entire disk” then “All files in one partition”
   • When prompted to select a mirror, choose “ignore”. None of them work.
   • Install standard system utilities when prompted.
4. When GRUB fails to install, hit Return twice to return to the installer main menu. Select “Continue without bootloader” then finish the install. When you’re prompted to reboot, DO NOT REBOOT. Instead, press Alt/Option + F2 to load a shell, then run the following commands in order:
   1. chroot /target
   2. mount -t sysfs none /sys
   3. nano /etc/apt/sources.list
      
      1. Delete any lines/entries beginning with cdrom:
      2. Add the following entries:
         
         • deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unstable main
         • deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main
         • deb [trusted=yes] http://incoming.ports.debian.org/buildd/ unstable main
         • deb [trusted=yes arch=all] http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
      3. Save and exit
   4. apt install debian-ports-archive-keyring
   5. apt update && apt upgrade
   6. apt install [package_names_below]
      
      1. lightdm
      2. inxi
      3. [preferred_desktop_environment]
      4. grub2
      5. mac-fdisk
      6. yaboot
   7. mount /dev/sda2 /boot/grub
   8. grub-install
   9. yabootconfig -b /dev/sda2
   10. ybin -v
   11. exit
   12. sudo reboot
   13. If screen is blank after restarting, connect to an external display.

That's where I'm currently stuck. Trying to figure out the graphics/display drivers. I'll update this post after that's done.

UPDATE MARCH 30 2023: Just tried reinstalling again to make sure it wasn't a fluke the first time around, and now it's stuck at yaboot again. I'm done trying to install Debian on this PowerBook lol.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

@Lilendianppcnes
Can it handle GPT-partitioned drives? If yes - it is possible to install Debian with GRUB2.

 

[matO_opp_ITA]

hello, I tried to use InterWeb & SpiderWeb on Ubuntu 12.04, but they don’t seem to work. They just crash. Do I need fo install something to get them to work?

 

[wicknix]

They won't run on vanilla 12.04. You'd need to use my modified Lubuntu 12.04 remix do to me updating the system internally. They both come preinstalled in that remix as well.

Cheers

 

[matO_opp_ITA]

Alright, thanks.
Can I install Unity afterwards? (I mean the desktop environment)

 

[wicknix]

In theory maybe, but 12.04's repos got messed up when they moved it to old-releases. A lot of packages no longer exist sadly.

 

[iModFrenzy]

I have a PowerBook G4 15” A1138 and any distribution I’ve booted up seems to have an issue post install with the ATI driver. I’ve tried Ubuntu Mate 16.04, using Radeon.agpmode=-1, installed fine however post install my boot screen flickers then crashes? Caps-lock stops working, fans rev up a bit and no life.

I’ve tried Radeon.agpmode=-1, radeon.modeset=1 video=radeonfb:off video=offb:off flags but none seemed to make a difference. Only time I could get it to boot was with nomodeset.

I’ve tried Debian 8.11 and had the same issue. Not sure if it’s just a ATI Radeon 9700 issue or something I glossed over. I’ve read through this guide a few times and saw no mention.

Thanks if anyone has any advice

 

[wicknix]

Try my old lubuntu 16 remix. It comes with fan modules, wifi, etc installed by default. Also after install you have to issue those kernel parameters (that you used for the live disk) every boot to avoid the lockups. You can permanently fix that after install with a few extra commands.

Edit /etc/yaboot.conf and add the kernel params to the "append" line of both kernels. Then run: sudo ybin -v to make the changes persist.

Cheers

 

[sailorMH]

John Paul Adrian Glaubitz made new Debian Sid installer snapshot. It works OOTB without any additional workarounds.
Only thing you have to install manually is firmware-amd-graphics ( becouse it is non-free ).

I tested ppc64 version on Powermac Quad.
Only thig I have to mention is, if you make manual disk partitioning, grub partition ( HFS, /boot/grub ) should have at least 256 MB size. For Debian 9 was 128 MB enough, today not. To be sure I have 1 GB now.