Dapper on a PowerBook G3?

[Harold Johnson]

Well, perhaps I "wrapped this one up" too soon; apparently my installation
of Ubuntu Server didn't find my Ethernet connection, so I haven't been able
to jump on the Internet yet.  This was the only other part of the
installation that presented a hiccup -- I noticed it but continued with the
installation process, hoping that things would work themselves out somehow.
Funny thing is, I don't recall early versions of Ubuntu (Hoary, Warty,
Breezy) ever failing to notice my Ethernet...

Anyway, I've just tested it with Ubuntu Alternative, and the same thing
happens.  Aargh...

I'll let you all know the outcome.  Looks like it's back to Ubuntu Server,
which at least fits on my 2GB hard drive (whereas Ubuntu Server does not, so
I'm fairly certain Ubuntu Desktop will not, either).

Harold

On 6/4/06, Harold Johnson <harold.johnson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I think I just figured it out!  On a hunch, I entered the string "
> root=/dev/hda9" in BootX (in the "More Kernel Arguments:" field).  /dev/hda9
> is the location and name of where my Ubuntu installation resides; you can
> find this information through the console with the command "df" (or "df -h",
> which prints a more human-readable readout).
>
> So it's looks like Ubuntu is ready and rearin' to go on this ol'
> Wallstreet again.  Now if only I can remember how to compile madwifi so that
> I can get that D-Link wifi card going again...
>
> So to wrap it up for posterity (for anyone looking for this information in
> the future):
>
> This series of posts documents my efforts at getting Ubuntu (Dapper)
> installed on my PowerBook G3 (Wallstreet 2), an "OldWorld" Macintosh.  I
> chose to install Ubuntu Server PPC Dapper on my machine since I only have a
> 2 gig hard drive on this baby.  The information I gathered reside on this
> webpage:
>
> http://www.flexion.org/site/index.php?gadget=StaticPage&action=Page&id=60
>
> but anyone following those instructions may also want to read through my
> posts in this thread, since I ran into a couple of problems the solution of
> which weren't detailed in the set of instructions on the site linked above.
>
> Good luck and have fun,
>
>
> Harold J. Johnson
> http://somethingthathappened.com
>
> On 6/4/06, Harold Johnson <harold.johnson at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Well, after reformatting my hard drive, making my Mac partition HFS and
> > then running through my Dapper installation again, I was able to get past
> > the stage I had been stuck on before -- I was able to mount my Mac OS
> > partition and then copy vmlinux and initrd.gz to it.  Continuing with my
> > installation, my PowerBook was reboot and BootX (the boot loader required
> > for these OldWorld Macs) kicked into the installer again...
> >
> > ...or tried to, I should say, since the installer never got past the
> > following line:
> >
> > "Begin. Waiting for root file system... ...
> > Done.
> > ALERT! does not exist. Dropping to a shell!"
> >
> > Then it dropped to the BusyBox shell and now I don't know what to do
> > next.
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Harold
> >
> > On 6/4/06, Harold Johnson < harold.johnson at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Delving into the Ubuntu forums, I've already come across some
> > > information that may be helpful for me in resolving my own installation
> > > issue.  I had formatted my Mac partition as HFS Extended -- isn't that also
> > > known as "HFS+"?  If so, I believe I may have mounted it as an HFS when
> > > trying to copy to it, and I believe I should have mounted it as HFS+.
> > > There's some way of doing this but I don't recall how at the moment...
> > >
> > > Harold
> > >
> > > On 6/4/06, Harold Johnson <harold.johnson at gmail.com > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >  Has anyone here made an installation of Dapper on a PowerBook G3
> > > > yet?  I'm in the process of installing Dapper on my Wallstreet (that's the
> > > > model of PowerBook G3); I've had Hoary, Warty, and Breezy previously
> > > > installed on this system.
> > > >
> > > > I ran into a bit of trouble earlier today, but it looks to be
> > > > minor.  Anyway, I'll try again later and see how well I manage to get over
> > > > this hurdle.  Installing Ubuntu (or any flavor of Linux) on a Wallstreet
> > > > requires some amount of trickery, perhaps more than your usual
> > > > installation.  For one thing, you need to partition your drive to allow your
> > > > PowerBook to boot into the Mac OS, where it finds the Linux kernel and then
> > > > proceeds to boot into Ubuntu.  The trick is getting your Linux kernel copied
> > > > onto your Mac partition during your installation; there are various ways of
> > > > doing this, but the method I tried this morning didn't work.  (I tried
> > > > following some instructions I found on a website regarding installing Breezy
> > > > on a Wallstreet, but the process of mounting the Mac partition from the
> > > > command-line and copying the Linux kernel to it failed.)
> > > >
> > > > I'm looking forward to hearing any success stories; I will gladly
> > > > post details once I find my own (success)!
> > > >
> > > > Sincerely,
> > > > Harold J. Johnson
> > > > http://somethingthathappened.com
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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