Hello, I'm already lost here.

[mkfgaudry]

I'm an old UNIX user but I'm trying to make old PC's and an iMac G3 Slot Loader (400) live longer by changing them to a simple version of Linux. I have had pretty good success with the intel chips, but the power mac G3 chip is being a royal pain. I can't even get the thing to boot from the Xubuntu cd I cut. Do I have to burn it on another Mac or do I have to be using a cd or DVD burner in order to make it boot on this platform. I haven't had that problem on the Intel chips, but I noticed someone was intimating it on the Suse feed. I was hoping that Xubuntu was better than that.

I should be able to follow directions, so lay on your techie savy and lay it on thick. I'm getting frustrated like I can't believe. (By the way, I had no trouble booting from the original OS9 disk. Why should I have trouble booting from a Linux live release disk? I am running OS 9.22 because I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of OS X 10.3.? (I forget the last officially supportable release number). I also only have 128 mb ram and am going to upgrade to the full Gig as soon as I can. For right now, is there anything I still need to know to get going?)

Oh, I get no message, it rejects the disk, pauses, and boots up in 9.22. If I push the disk back in after it is ejected, it still boots to OS 9.22.


A very mature pear feeling like a tiny green apple. (Will I grow into a Macintosh in this new OS life or become a Penguin?)

[jayd512]

Welcome to the forums!

I have very limited experience on Linux on a MAC, but I gotta ask if you're downloading the version of Xubuntu that's setup for PPC architecture.

*EDITI

I don't think that there is a PPC version of Xubuntu, but there is one for Kubuntu.

[HROAdmin26]

I don't think there is an "iMac G3"...

If your Mac is older, it is probably a PowerPC chip - NOT an Intel chip.

Mac G3

Checking Xubuntu's site, I don't see any download for PowerPC (PPC) architecture.

Are you trying to run an OS compiled for X86 on PPC hardware?

Edit: And Mac OS 9 is a PPC OS - pre-Darwin/BSD. OS X is the only X86-compatible Mac OS.

[mkfgaudry]

I thank you for pointing out that I did not post all the needed facts.

1. This is a G3 iMac. It is a slotdrive dv (special edition with a 400 mghz processor, 12 Gig hard drive and 128 megabytes ram. It has a dvd player but no burner of any type. It was first issued in 1999 but I suspect this is a later version as it had 9.04 on it when I started upgrading the OS. I took it all the way to 9.22 including the firmware upgrade using mactracker. Then I stopped, because I am having fun locating a copy of OS X 10.3.?. That is the max I can officially upgrade to and few have it in stock any more. The ones who do make it sound incredibly hard to know whether I would be getting the right version or not. It is also incredibly expensive and I was hoping to just use it to make upgrading to LINUX easier. I want to keep Classic Mac around to be able to use the efficient versions of Mac Office already on this thing. I hope to pass it to my Mom who had her Intel (Windows - not 2000 and not Vista - between those two) burn itself up. She is used to the Microsoft Office stuff and at almost 80 it won't be easy for her to switch - even open office is just as good if not better.

2. I did get the PPC version of Xubuntu 6.06.?? that I saw listed as best bet to work on a forum somewhere - it even think it was on the Xubuntu web site.


Now what?

[HROAdmin26]

OK, I was looking at the newer 8.04 Xubuntu...

It sounds like you have the right ISO for your hardware. So if it's not booting, the CD reader (being older) may have issues reading the CD you burned. This could be related to the blank used or the burner used to burn it.

It is obviously possible, as a quick Google turns up this and this.

[mkfgaudry]

Your links were marvelous. I'll get some more memory, get a larger harddrive and figure a way to partition it, copy the current setup to it, and then load the latest version of Ubuntu for the G3 or PPC. I think it will give me what I want.

One last question: Do you think it would be possible to put a pair of external harddrives on this thing and just keep my current setup, put OS X 10.3 on one disk formatted for it and Ubuntu on the other external disk formatted just for it? I've often wondered about the same approach for dual booting my PC's, but I could actually use internal drives (I've got boxes of salvaged drives) in them if they will allow me to dual boot from separate drives.

[HROAdmin26]

One last question: Do you think it would be possible to put a pair of external harddrives on this thing and just keep my current setup, put OS X 10.3 on one disk formatted for it and Ubuntu on the other external disk formatted just for it?

I don't know enough about the PowerPC boot loader process (dual boot) and/or whether or not it can boot/load an OS from an external drive, so I can't answer that.