Help with 14.04 on 2009 Mac Mini

[Scott Ehrlich]

Mac OS X Yosemite was slowing my Mac Mini down enough (pinwheel) that
I elected to install Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit desktop version in place of
Yosemite and it works a lot better now.

I also have an iPhone 4 and a reburbished older 30-pin iPad.   I am
able to charge the iPhone fine via USB, but the iPad requires more
current, thus I get the notorious note on the iPad that it is not
charging.

I learn about, downloaded, and compiled ipad-charge application, but I
soon remembered I had Ubuntu, not running on a conventional PC, but on
a Mac.

Google searching mostly points to this app, and other posts don't seem
to address, from what I have seen, fixing how to send enough current
to the USB port of a 2009 Mac Mini running Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit to
charge an iPad.

What do I need to know to make this happen?  What am I missing?

Running ipad-charge app directly in a terminal shell simply reports it
cannot find any devices.   lspci reports Apple devices but it does not
know what they are.

Insights and help are appreciated.

Thanks.

Scott - srehrlich at gmail.com