Ubuntu/Kubuntu on Mac G5.

[Brian Durant]

On 20. jan 2006, at 2.57, Larry Grover wrote:

>>> You will need a newworld bootblock partition for the bootloader   
>>> (yaboot).  Mine is 1 MB (I've read recommendations for 800 KB to  
>>> 1  MB).
>> Can I create these partitions by booting from the live-CD? I know   
>> Gparted is there, but I am wondering if it is safe doing it from  
>> a  live-CD?
>
> I think this should be safe.  Of course, if you have important data  
> on sdb, you should make (and verify!) a backup first.  Also be  
> careful you don't accidentally partion sda by mistake!
>
>>>
>>> Here are a couple of pages which may help you with  
>>> partitioning.   They are for installing debian on an iBook, but  
>>> the information on  partitioning should apply:
>>>
>>> http://www.hispalinux.es/~data/ibook/x139.html
>>> http://www.miketec.org/ibook/
>> Thanks. What I was thinking of was how you would propose that I   
>> divvied up 80 GB on an extra internal HD, where around 10-20  
>> should  be used for sharing between the booting systems?
>
> On my iBook, with a 30 GB disk, I currently have:
>
> 7.0 GB HFS+ partition for OSX
> 6.5 GB for / partition (ext3)
> 14 GB for /home partition (ext3)
>
> the rest of the disk is used up by swap and about 10 small  
> partitions that OSX created (driver partitions?)
>
> My / partition is only about 77% filled, so you probably don't need  
> much more than that for /.  Since I tend to collect some pretty  
> large data files in my home directory, I like to allocate as much  
> room for /home as I can.  10-20 GB should be plenty for sharing  
> between OSX and linux, but it will really depend on what you want  
> to share.  For music, that might be enough, but if you want to  
> share lots of large files (videos, etc), this might be too small.
>
> I'd suggest something like:
> 1 MB for the bootstrap partition
> 6-8 GB for /
> 10-20 GB for your FAT32 "sharing" partition
> and the rest of the space for /home

OK, the first problem I ran into is that the Gparted program on the  
Dapper flight 3 PPC live-CD does not seem to be able to create a boot  
or a root partition. I couldn't find any other programs on the disk  
that could be used as an alternative either :-( I also have the  
Kubuntu live-CD, but when I can't even get the drives to show up  
properly (as per an earlier e-mail) that doesn't seem to be a viable  
way to go either. Normally, I would then try a Breezy CD, to get more  
stability, but as I stated earlier, nothing before Dapper will even  
boot on my PowerMac G5.

One thing that has struck me so far on this list, is that there  
doesn't seem to be any of the developers of the PPC version of Ubuntu  
lurking on the list, nor do there seem to be very many Mac users. On  
the YDL list (which is of course Mac centric), they have asked me to  
clarify that I have a PowerMac G5 and not an iMac G5, they have also  
asked me to check my firmware version, which I believe is listed as:  
" Boot ROM Version:	5.2.2f2", etc. Not even a response on this list  
when I quoted the Debian lists response to my problem, stating that  
there was no longer any contact between the two kernel groups (?!?).

Personally, I really like Ubuntu/Kubuntu and I would prefer to have  
that installed on my PowerMac G5, but at this point, it isn't looking  
too good. I hope this doesn't sound like I am ungrateful for the help  
I have received so far, because I am very grateful. I am just  
frustrated about hitting what looks like a brick wall at this point.

I have had a look at https://launchpad.net/malone but can't figure  
out how to file a bug. I have searched and found that the bug doesn't  
seem to be listed. BTW, the link doesn't seem to work properly in  
Safari. I get the following prompt: Safari wants permission to sign  
using key "-" in your keychain. Do you want to allow this? (Deny,  
Allow Once, Always Allow)"

Cheers,

Brian