I decided to try and change the OS on my daughters old Apple Mac G4 Cube (yes its old!) But it does well enough for what my daughter needs which is mainly a bit of web surfing and watching DVD’s.
The main reason for my decision then to change the OS is that although it works well, I had previously updated the OS to OS X Tiger, which although apparently is compatible, has been slow at times. I thought that maybe a Linux alternative would work better, here is my big mistake!
My first job was to find a Linux distro that would be compatible with Power PC architecture. After some searching, the overall winner was Yellow Dog Linux, or LDY as it’s also known. I downloaded version 6.2 and proceeded to burn the ISO to a DVD.
I booted the Mac from the DVD drive (for those who don’t know how to do that, insert the DVD when the computer is on and running, then reboot while holding the ‘C’ key and it will boot from the DVD drive) The installation process started and all was going well, it then told me that the computer didnt have enough RAM to load the GIU so it would run the setup in text mode. I imagine that this should have raised alarm bells at first. The G4 Cube, as I have it, only has a small amount of RAM, but I thought that this was enough for OS X so should be good enough and make it a bit faster rather than having to buy more RAM for an aging computer.
The OS continued to install with no problems, and after about 30 minutes, it rebooted. This is where I spent the next 3-4 hours trying to load the GIU.
The initial screen I got was a LocalHost Login screen, this was asking for a username and password. I had only specified a password for the root so I wasn’t sure If there was a problem. I did a search and found that I needed to set up a user account, but first I needed to log in as root, to do this, you enter ‘root’ as the username and then the password you set up in the installation.
I found this guide on a website called ps3badego:
The text mode installer does not create a regular user account -- just "root" -- and it is not good practice to log in as the root user. So use this command to create a regular user account now:
useradd yourusername
(replace "yourusername" with your desired login name)
Create a password for the account:
passwd yourusername
(replace "yourusername" with the one you used)
That's it -- you're done!
reboot
This worked like a charm to set up my user account, but I was still in text mode, again Google was my friend, and I found this to alter the code and change the settings. Apparently, if you have to use text mode in the setup, it keeps this as the default so you may need to change it to see the GIU. I got this from Yellow Dog Linux:
Switching to Graphical Mode after Text based Install
At the "localhost login" prompt, enter "root". Press [ENTER]
At the root password (this was set during installation) and press [ENTER]
Type Xautoconfig and press [ENTER]. It will create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and set it up with the parameters necessary to run a graphical system.
Edit the file /etc/inittab. Look for the line that reads:
id:3:initdefault:
.. and change it to:
id:5:initdefault:
Edit the file /etc/yaboot.conf and change the line that reads:
append="rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/1"
... to ...
append="video=ps3fb:mode:{YOUR VIDEO MODE} rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/1"
Refer to various video modes for more information on how to get particular videos and which you should use.
Reboot your system:
reboot [ENTER]
Your system will now start by default into a low resolutions graphical mode.
My system did reboot....but it said that the GUI couldn't be loaded, it did try bless it, to reconfigure but with no luck.
I tried several other tips that I picked up including altering the yaboot.conf file but changing the default display driver to versa.
Nothing worked, I was ashamed to say that I had to reload the OS X.
Since this though I have come across another tip that may help those who are trying the same thing, this is from LinuxQuestions.org
The configuration of the X server is stored in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You can verify this position by checking the log file mentioned above. Near the beginning of the file you find
If a Live CD does recognize a card, it creates the config file and then starts the X(org) server.
If a particular config file does work on the Live CD, chances are high that it also works with the normal installation.
So, save the config file from the Live CD, e.g to a floppy disk, USB drive. Then start the normal installation, rename the old config file (the one that did not work) and copy the config file from the floppy disk to its place. Then restart the system.
This should result in some kind of graphical display. It might not be the perfect one - but you can at least start firefox and try to get more help.
This is using a Live version of the Linux distro you want to use, I may not have succeeded buy hopefully you will!
See you soon,
INE
 |
| A classic |
The main reason for my decision then to change the OS is that although it works well, I had previously updated the OS to OS X Tiger, which although apparently is compatible, has been slow at times. I thought that maybe a Linux alternative would work better, here is my big mistake!
My first job was to find a Linux distro that would be compatible with Power PC architecture. After some searching, the overall winner was Yellow Dog Linux, or LDY as it’s also known. I downloaded version 6.2 and proceeded to burn the ISO to a DVD.
I booted the Mac from the DVD drive (for those who don’t know how to do that, insert the DVD when the computer is on and running, then reboot while holding the ‘C’ key and it will boot from the DVD drive) The installation process started and all was going well, it then told me that the computer didnt have enough RAM to load the GIU so it would run the setup in text mode. I imagine that this should have raised alarm bells at first. The G4 Cube, as I have it, only has a small amount of RAM, but I thought that this was enough for OS X so should be good enough and make it a bit faster rather than having to buy more RAM for an aging computer.
 |
| Bit of a blurred picture, this is the text installer. |
The OS continued to install with no problems, and after about 30 minutes, it rebooted. This is where I spent the next 3-4 hours trying to load the GIU.
The initial screen I got was a LocalHost Login screen, this was asking for a username and password. I had only specified a password for the root so I wasn’t sure If there was a problem. I did a search and found that I needed to set up a user account, but first I needed to log in as root, to do this, you enter ‘root’ as the username and then the password you set up in the installation.
I found this guide on a website called ps3badego:
The text mode installer does not create a regular user account -- just "root" -- and it is not good practice to log in as the root user. So use this command to create a regular user account now:
useradd yourusername
(replace "yourusername" with your desired login name)
Create a password for the account:
passwd yourusername
(replace "yourusername" with the one you used)
That's it -- you're done!
reboot
This worked like a charm to set up my user account, but I was still in text mode, again Google was my friend, and I found this to alter the code and change the settings. Apparently, if you have to use text mode in the setup, it keeps this as the default so you may need to change it to see the GIU. I got this from Yellow Dog Linux:
Switching to Graphical Mode after Text based Install
At the "localhost login" prompt, enter "root". Press [ENTER]
At the root password (this was set during installation) and press [ENTER]
Type Xautoconfig and press [ENTER]. It will create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and set it up with the parameters necessary to run a graphical system.
Edit the file /etc/inittab. Look for the line that reads:
id:3:initdefault:
.. and change it to:
id:5:initdefault:
Edit the file /etc/yaboot.conf and change the line that reads:
append="rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/1"
... to ...
append="video=ps3fb:mode:{YOUR VIDEO MODE} rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/1"
Refer to various video modes for more information on how to get particular videos and which you should use.
Reboot your system:
reboot [ENTER]
Your system will now start by default into a low resolutions graphical mode.
My system did reboot....but it said that the GUI couldn't be loaded, it did try bless it, to reconfigure but with no luck.
I tried several other tips that I picked up including altering the yaboot.conf file but changing the default display driver to versa.
Nothing worked, I was ashamed to say that I had to reload the OS X.
Since this though I have come across another tip that may help those who are trying the same thing, this is from LinuxQuestions.org
The configuration of the X server is stored in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You can verify this position by checking the log file mentioned above. Near the beginning of the file you find
Quote:
(==) Using config file "....." |
If a Live CD does recognize a card, it creates the config file and then starts the X(org) server.
If a particular config file does work on the Live CD, chances are high that it also works with the normal installation.
So, save the config file from the Live CD, e.g to a floppy disk, USB drive. Then start the normal installation, rename the old config file (the one that did not work) and copy the config file from the floppy disk to its place. Then restart the system.
This should result in some kind of graphical display. It might not be the perfect one - but you can at least start firefox and try to get more help.
This is using a Live version of the Linux distro you want to use, I may not have succeeded buy hopefully you will!
See you soon,
INE
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